Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Ottawa, Ohio

TREMAS IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE 'NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS REAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT SERVICE' AT OTTAWA, OHIO, OCTOBER 11, 1948, 2:40 P. M., E.S.T. Thank you very much. I certainly/appreciate this reception and this lovely -- I judge this is the high school band. Well, it looks all right, beautiful uniforms and everything. I have had receptions like this all the way across the great State of Ohio, beginning this morning in Cincinnati. There is some excellent farming country around your town, so I am told by your next Governor. I grew up on a farm and I a lways like to see good farming country. Judging from the crowd here today, the whole region around this city of Ottawa is sharing in the .country's prosperity. I have covered most of the United States in my crusade to wake the people up in time for the November elections, and I have found prosperity everywhere I have. gone. We can keep that prosperity, and if we keep the Democratic policies that have brought this country the prosperity, the country then can go along just as it has been going along for the last sixteen years -- in the interests of the people. We will lose it if we let the Republicans tear down those policies. There is a great difference between the Democratic and the Repub- lican Parties. One of the most important differences is in farm policies. Under the Republicans, the farmers don't count. The farmers are left to shift for themselves. The Republicans are interested in looking a fter the interests of the big manufacturers of the East. They are not very much in- terested in the welfare of the farmer. The Democratic leaders know that the farmers of this country are the foundation on which the welfare of the country is built, and that they must have fair prices for their products. That is the reason for the farm price support program which was carried forward by this administration. Let me give you some facts and figures to show you the difference between the condition of the Ohio farmers under the Republicans and the prosperity in the Democratic years. In the Republican year of 1932, Ohio farmers got 180 million dollars for their products, according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Now, last year the farmers in Ohio received a billion and fifty-two million dollars for their products in the State of Ohio. And this year the Ohio farmer's income will be well above a billion dollars. Those figures prove that the Democratic farm policies bring bene- fits to farmers all over the country -- and especially to Ohio farmers -- benefits that mean better clothing for Ohio families, more money in the bank and you know, that bank is safe because we haven't had a bank failure in three years under the policies pursued by the Democratic Administration -- ing more school for the children, more tractors in the fields, and more cars on the roads. If you don t want to go backward, if you don't want to slide down hill into bankruptcy and poverty the way you did under the Republican twelve years of rule back there in the 20s, you better get out early on election day and look after your own interests. I want you to remember that Republican leaders are attacking the farm price support program in the cities. They say that is what caused the high cost of living. And they tell the farmers that the good wages that the laboring man is getting causes the high cost of living, Neither one of those statements is true. When labor is prosperous, the farmers are prosperous. They go along together. Good prices for farmers and good wages for labor means that the general prospority of the country goes to everybody and that a fair distribution of the wealth of the country is being made. These Republicans keep on blaming the farmers for high prices, and then they keep on blaming labor -- to the farmers -- for high prices. You know, the working people can't be prosperous unless the farmers can sell their products for enough money to buy the products of the factories. The Democrats are not trying to fool the farmers or the workers. We are telling you the truth and the facts, and I am going into some detail tonight in Akron on the facts and figures that affect this program that we are faced with now. (OVER)