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    "title": "Reading Copy, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Akron, Ohio",
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    "ocrText": "ARRA & ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND LIMBUR\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nGOVERN MENT\nakron, Ohio\nOct. 11, 1948.\n10-11-48\nAKRON, OHIO\nBARRY G. ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND LIBERTY\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nIntroduction etc\nBOVERNMENT\nBefore I say anything else,\nI should like to thank you people of Akron and all the people\nof Ohio for your tremendous registration in this crucial\nelection. You have given the Nation magnificent proof\nof your good citizenship.\nI want to thank you, not only as the Democratic Party's\ncandidate for President, but also as the President of the\nUnited States. This is your answer to tyranny -\nat home and abroad.\n- 2 -\nBARRY ARCHIVES 5. NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAM AND LIGHT\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nGOVERNMENT\nI want to thank all of you - Democrats and Republicans,\nindustrial workers and farmers, professional people and\nsmall businessmen.\nI want to thank you\nfor your appreciation of the rights, duties and opportunities\nof American citizenship.\nSo long as this election is decided by the votes\nof the people - and not by their failure to vote -\nI have no fears for the future of this country -\nand I have no fears for the outcome of the election on\nNovember second.\nThis campaign is the people's crusade.\nLet no one tell you that the people are not interested.\nThey are interested. They are waking up to what\nthe Republicans propose to do to them.\n- 3 -\nBARRY ARCHIVES S. \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nGOVERNMENT\nI have lived a long time, and I have traveled a lot,\nbut never before have I seen such turnouts as I have seen\nall over the country.\nFrom early in the morning until late at night,\nbeen\nwherever I have traveled, a welcoming crowd has greeted the train.\nThis has been true in the large cities and the industrial areas\nand also in what Senator Taft disdainfully called\n\"the whistle-stops\".\nNow, as I have said time and again,\nthere is one basic issue in this campaign.\nThat is:\nThe Democratic Party and the People against\nthe Special Interests of the Privileged Few.\n- 4 -\nHARRY 8:50 ARCHIVES & \"NATIONAL BOYERNMENT SERVICE\" RECORDS TRUMAN AND LIBRARY\nThe Republicans have the propaganda and the money.\nBut we have the people, and the people have the votes.\nThat's why we're going to win.\nThe Republicans have the money because\nthe big corporations have found out they can get what they want\nfrom the Republican Party.\nWe have the people because the people have found out\nthat they can get what they want from the Democratic Party.\nThe Democratic Party thinks in terms\nof doing things for people - higher minimum wages -\nbroader social security - protection in old age -\nbetter medical care - better schools and better homes -\nand a better life for the men and women who do the world's work.\n- 5 -\nThat is our basic philosophy - service for the people -\nthe greatest good for the greatest number. And upon that\nphilosophy we have erected during the past sixteen years\nANNA & ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND LINEARY\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\na great progressive body of laws.\nWe call those laws -\nGOVERN NENT\nwith pride\nand I say it proudly - we call them the \"New Deal\".\nThe Republican politicans don't like the New Deal.\nThey never have liked the New Deal, and they would like\nto get rid of it, repeal t.put it out\nof existance.\nThis is shown by their words and deeds.\nThey have been talking for years about \"cleaning up\"\nthe New Deal. Then in Nineteen Forty-six, they the Republicans\ngained\nthey got control of the Congress and began to whittle away\nat the New Deal laws.\n- 6 -\nNow, they've tasted blood and they are waiting eagerly\nfor the time when they can go ahead with a Republican Congress\nand a Republican President to do a real hatchet job on the\nNew Deal without any interference.\nBARRY E.S. & ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" GOVERNMENT TRUMAH AND\nLet me remind you of some of the things\nthe Republicans have been saying about the New Deal.\nTheir candidate for President has been the chief prosecutor\nagainst the New Deal. He spoke against it,\nhe campaigned against it. He wrote a book called\n\"The Case Against the New Deal\". And now he wants\nto go to Washington to destroy it.\n- 7 -\nOne of their chief spokesmen, Senator Taft,\nhas said, and I quote:\nMARRY B.S. ARCHIVES 5. 'NATIONAL SERVICE\" RECORDS TRUMAN AND 1\nGOVERN HENT\n\"the Republican program must be designed primarily\nto cleaning away the rubble of the\nNew Deal.\"\nThe Republican leader of the House of Representatives\ntalks of how the years of so-called New Deal Democratic\nmisrule have conspired to strangle industry and farming.\nJust look at the figures.\nThe New Deal strangled industry so much that\ncorporate profits changed from a loss of Four Hundred Million\nDollars in Nineteen Thirty-three to a profit of Seventeen\nBillion Dollars in Nineteen Forty-seven.\n- 8 -\nEARAY ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND\nSERVICE\"\nThe New Deal strangled farming so much\n8.5. GOVERNMENT\nthat farm income increased from Two and One-half Billion\nDollars in Nineteen Thirty-two to Eighteen Billion Dollars\nin Nineteen Forty-seven.\nThat is some job of strangling.\nNow, let's take a look at the way the Republicans\nlaunched their attack on the New Deal as soon as they gained\ncontrol of the Congress.\nFirst, they started out after labor.\nOne of the cornerstones of the New Deal was the Wagner\nLabor Relations Act, which gave national protection to the right\nof collective bargaining. Under its provisions,\nthe labor movement had grown strong and healthy.\n- 9 -\nBARRY ARCHIVES & \"NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" TRUMAN AND LIBERTY\nThe working people of this country were beginning\nB.S. SOVERNMENT\nto have something to say about what went on in the\nUnited States.\nWell, our old mossback reactionary friends\ndidn't like that. They had always thought the people\nwho had the money ought to run everything and they still\nthought so. They think the same way today.\nThey didn't have the courage - or they didn't have the votes -\nto repeal the Wagner Act outright.\nThe fact was\nthey knew they didn't have the votes to pass a straight out\nrepeal bill over my veto.\n- 10 -\nAt any rate, they decided that under the pretense\nof revising the Wagner Act they would load it with provisions\nwhich would undermine the strength of labor unions.\nAnd that's what they did. They passed, over my veto,\none of the most complicated laws that anybody ever saw.\nHARRY ARCHIVES 5. \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND LIBRARY\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nThat was the Taft-Hartley law.\nGOVERNMENT\nThe Taft-Hartley law converts the Wagner Act from\na charter protecting the basic rights of workers into\nan instrument for union busting by anti-labor employers.\nIt outlaws union security provisions which have been\nthe basis for stability and mutually satisfactory relationships\nin many industries for many years.\nIt compels strike breaking by union members -\nsometimes against fellow members of their own local union.\n- 11 -\nIt extends the use of injunctions against labor unions,\nand provides preferential treatment for management\nin connection with such injunctions.\nBARRY 8.3. ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" TRUMAN AND LIBERTY\nIt burdens unions with interminable red tape.\nIt took the Conciliation Service away from the\nDepartment of Labor. This was but another blow in the\nvicious attack by which the Republicans have virtually wrecked\nthe Labor Department.\nHaving done all these things and many more -\nto labor, not for labor - The Taft-Hartley law clearly\ndemonstrates its real purpose by restricting labor's right\nto engage in political activities. They are afraid of your votes.\n- 12 -\nHARRY is ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL BOVERNMENT SERVICE\" RECORDS TRUMAN AND LINEARY\nHaving tightened the screws on the working man,\nthe proponents of this scheme undertook to protect themselves\nfrom reprisal at the place where the workers of America\ncan still make their voices count - the ballot box.\nIn approaching the problems of labor and management,\nwe should move forward, not backward.\nI believe that\nthe collective bargaining process should be used for\nachieving full employment and full production.\nOne of the great accomplishments of the\nDemocratic Administration is The Full Employment Act of\nNineteen Forty-six, which was passed by a Democratic Congress.\nThis Act provides a plan for continuing prosperity.\n- 13 -\nHARRY ARCHIVES S. \"NATIONAL RECORDS TROMAN AND\nThe Republican moss backs fought this bill.\nU.S.\nSERVICE\nSOVERNMENT\nThey called it socialistic and impracticable,\nBut we passed it, and we now have Sixty-one million people\nemployed in this country.\nThe point I want to make is that,\nif we are to have full employment and full production,\nlabor and management must work together.\nThat is the kind of unity the Democratic Party\nbelieves in. The unity that we have sought is a unity\nbased upon the partnership of equals - farmers,\nlabor and industry.\nThis is democracy as we understand it.\nThis is the only way in which we believe our democratic\ninstitutions can be maintained and preserved.\n- 14 -\nAny plan which seeks to weaken one group in order\nto establish the superior power of another is not a\ndemocratic unity and threatens the basis on which our free\n$\n-\ninstitutions rest.\nHARRY B.S. ARCHIVES S. \"NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" GOVERN WENT TRUMAN AND LIGHTER\nThe Taft-Hartley law is not the only attack\nthe Republicans have made against the New Deal.\nAnd it is not the only attack in which they have been successful.\nThey have been hacking away at social security benefits.\nThey passed a law - again over my veto -\ntaking social security insurance benefits away from almost\na million people.\n- 15 -\nURRAN U.S. 5 ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL SERVICE RECORDS TROMAN GOVERN WEIT AND\nThen in the face of that action,\nthey went to Philadelphia and put a plank in their platform\nwhich says - and I quote:\n\"Consistent with the vigorous existence\nof our competitive economy, we urge extension of the\nFederal old-age and survivors insurance program and\nincrease of the benefits to a more realistic level.\"\nExtension, indeed:\nExtension of the very thing\nthey had just finished cutting down'.\nThey talked about increasing benefits, too;\nso I promptly gave them a chance to do something about that,\nby calling a special session. And we quickly found out\nthat we couldn't take that part of their platform promise\nseriously, either.\n- 16 -\nNow, let me say something about what\n5.\nTRUNSH\nthey are proposing to do to the New Deal when and if\nBARRY E.S. ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL GOVERNMENT SERVICE\" RECORDS AND LIBRARY\nthey get a Republican President to go along with a\nRepublican Congress.\nTheir attitude has been made clear by the record,\nand their plans are made clear by their spokesmen.\nOne of them, a Republican Congressman Donders\nfrom Michigan, wrote an article telling about how they plan\nto wreck our policy concerning electric power.\nI told the people about that in El Paso, Texas a couple\nof weeks ago. Aud Dondero has been\nMean what he said but\nsereaming since he didn't\nnod his actiole in the Paren\nTrust Magazine\n- 17 -\nUNITED U.S. ARCHIVES SERVICE \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND\nGOVERNMENT\nNow, another one of their Congressmen\nhas been doing some writing, and I want to tell you about that.\nThis time it is your old friend Congressman Hartley,\nof the Taft-Hartley team. Congressman Hartley\nis one of the main architects of the Republican labor policy.\nMH\nHe has written a book.\nAnd just to show that the team is still working together\nin unity, Senator Taft wrote the foreword for it.\nIn the foreword, Senator Taft said, and I quote:\n\"this book of Mr. Hartley's and the great work which he did\nduring his years in Congress will always be of the greatest\nassistance and furnish sound guidance.\"\n- 18 -\nThe title of this book is \"Our New National\nLabor Policy, The Taft-Hartley Act and the Next Steps.\"\nBARRA ARCHIVES s. \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND LIVELY\nU.S.\nSERVICE\nGet that: \"The Next Steps.\"\nGOVERN MENT\nThey aren't satisfied to stop with the Taft-Hartley Act.\nThey are going even further.\nLet me read to you some of the things this book says.\nOn page One Hundred and Ninety appears the following,\nand I quote:\n\"The Wagner Act weakened the productive potential\nof this nation.\nI am hopeful the Taft-Hartley Act\nwill begin to restore the productive system on a sounder basis.\"\nImagine that'.\nThe Act under which labor produced\nso magnificently during the war is described as\n\"weakening our productive potential.\"\n- 19 -\nHere is another statement on page\nBARRY ARCHIVES S. \"NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" TRUMAN AND LIBRARY\nOne Hundred and Ninety-four, and I quote:\n\"To my mind, the Taft-Hartley Act represents\nthe greatest single contribution made by any political party\nfor the past two decades. It corrects in a single piece of\nlegislation the outstanding mistakes of the New Deal.\nAt the same time, it points the way toward a method\nto be utilized in correcting other errors of government\ninitiated during the Nineteen Thirties.\"\nDo you get that ?\nThe Republicans pass a law\nto break the bargaining power of the working man,\nand they call it correcting the mistakes of the New Deal.\n- 20 -\n\"I am well aware, \"says Mr. Hartley on page\nOne Hundred and Ninety-three, \"of the political difficulties\nof eliminating the New Deal social legislation.\nIt cannot be repealed at a single stroke.\"\nBARRY 5. ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND\n8.5.\nSERVICE\"\nWell, I certainly hope not. I hope and pray\nthat it can't be repealed at all.\nNow, listen to this, and I quote:\n\"All legislation of this type requires interim treatment.\"\nInterim treatment. Do you know what that is ?\nThat is the Taft-Hartley law.\nThey call the Taft-Hartley law interim treatment.\n- 21 -\nBARRY ARCHIVES S. \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND LEBRANY\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nGOVERNMENT\nAfter that, they take the gloves off and give you\nthe bare knuckles.\nIn addition to the Wagner Act, there are other New Deal\nlaws benefitting labor that we Democrats are especially\nproud of.\nOne of these is the Fair Labor Standards Act which,\nfor the first time in our history, set a floor under wages\nin the form of a minimum wage.\nIt is very interesting to note what Mr. Hartley\nhas to say about this law.\nI quote from page One Hundred and\nNinety-two:\n- 22 -\n\"The Fair Labor Standards Act is typical\nof the New Deal legislation enacted to combat the depression.\nSuch legislation failed to affect the depression one way or\nanother and it has definitely outlived the usefulness\nit was supposed to have had.\"\nIsn't that a revelation?\nHASPY 8.5. 5. ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE BOYERKMENT TRUMAN AND\nI asked the Republican Congress to increase\nthe minimum wage from forty cents to seventy-five cents.\nThey refused.\nNow we find that they not only refuse to increase it,\nbut they don't even want to keep the present pitiful\nforty cent minimum.\n- 23 -\nBut, on Page One Hundred and Seventy-one,\nHARRY B.S. ARCHIVES 3. \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND\nSERVICE\nGOVERNMENT\nappears the frankest confession in the book.\nI want you to listen carefully to this, and I quote:\n\"No sooner had the Taft-Hartley law been enacted\nover the Truman veto than the Republican leaders of both\nthe House and Senate decided that no more legislation\nto which organized labor could object would be passed\nuntil after the presidential election of Nineteen Forty-eight.\nWhat could be clearer than that ?\nThe \"Republican leaders of both the House and Senate\"\ndecided they wouldn't hit labor another blow until after\nthe coming election.\nThis gives you an idea of what to expect if\nthe Republicans get control of the Presidency.\n- 24 -\nBARRY ARCHIVES 5. \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nGOVERNMENT\nThe time has come for the working people\nof this nation to realize the grave danger that confronts them.\nYou will have to act - and act quickly if you want to save\nthe benefits of the New Deal.\nFor myself, and for the Democratic Party,\nI completely reject the idea that we should \"eliminate\"\nthe New Deal,\nInstead, we should build upon it\nas\nan always better way of life. Let me be specific.\nI believe that we should repeal the Taft-Hartley Act.\nI believe that we should increase the minimum wage\nfrom forty cents an hour to at least seventy-five cents an hour.\n- 25 -\nHARRY U.S. ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL SERVICE\" RECORDS TRUNAH AND LIBRARY\nGOVERNMENT\nI believe social security insurance should be\nextended to the large groups of people not now protected.\nI believe that the insurance benefits should be increased\nby approximately fifty per cent.\nI believe that we should expand our facilities\nfor looking after the Nation's health.\nI believe that the Federal Government should provide\naid to the States in meeting the educational needs of our\nchildren.\nI believe the Congress should provide aid for\nslum clearance and low-rent housing.\nI believe we should do something, at once,\nabout high prices.\n- 26 -\nAll of these things are on the record.\nI have made my position clear repeatedly and in detail\nSARITY U.S. ARCHIVES Eg. \"NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" BOYERN WEAT TRUMAN AND LICENSE\nto the American people.\nThese are things you can expect from the Democratic Party.\nAnd only from the Democratic Party.\nOur program is for the people.\nAnd that's why we're going to win."
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