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    "label": "Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Crawfordsville, Indiana",
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    "title": "Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Crawfordsville, Indiana",
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    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "- 2 -\nCRAWFORDSVILLE\nI would like to tell you all the things that the\nDomocrats have lone to bring about this situation -- what the\nprograms mean to the farmers and the workers and the small\nbusinessmen. They have all gotten their foir share of the\nnational income. Never before in the history of the country\nor the world, for that matter -- has the national incono\nof a great country like curs been more firly distributed\nthan it hrs been under Democratic Administraticns.\nThere isn't time to tell you all about these things,\nbut I will describe just one Democratic program which has\nmeant a lot to you people here in Indiana. That is rurel\nelectrification.\nIn 1933 only one farm in seven in the United States\nhad electric power. Under President Roosevelt's leadership\nthe Democratic Congress enacted the Rural Electrification\nProgram. The benefits from that program are apparent all over\nIndiana, and the rest of the country too. Now more than 60%\nof the Nation's farms have electric power.\nBefore REA began only one form in ten in Indiane hed\nelectricity. Now nine of every ten Inliana farmers have\nelectricity on the farms. 103 thousand Indiana farm homes\nhave REA electricity. Imagine what that means to a hungry\nworld. It means food for people who would otherwise starve\nto death. And yet, the Republican Party is still fighting\nREA at every turn of the road. They are fighting it because\nthe big power companies are opposed to it. TheRepublicon\nParty is tied hand and foot to the big power companies --\nand they lways have been.\nI was on the Senate Conmittee that wrote what they\ncell the death sentence to the utility holding companies,\nand that utility holding company bill WES fought tooth and\ntoe-nail by every Republican in the Senate. But we passed\nit\nanyway and we gave the people back the things that the\npeople are entitled to.\nThat's what the Democrats all stand for. That's why\n73% of the Republicans voted against REA in 1943, and why\nalmost 90% voted against it in 1947, and why three-fourths of\nthem voted against electrification in 1948. It's just a\ncontinuing program of the Republicans to be against the\npeople and for the special interests. Fortunately, REA\nwon out every time because overwhelming majorities of the\nDemocrats in Congress had your interest at heart, and supported\nit with everything they had.\nThere you have one specific issue you have to decide on\nNovember 2nd. Do you want to have a Republican Congress and\na Republic n President in Washington who are working for the\nbig power companies? Do you? All right, then -- all you've\ngot to do is to do your duty on Election Day and vote a\nstraight Democratic ticket, and then you'll be all right.\nExactly the same principle is involved in every issue\nthat the farmer is interested in, not just REA. Exactly the\nsame principle is involved in every issue that the orking\nman is interested in -- fair labor laws, minimum wages, social\nsecurity laws, and so forth. That principle is simply this:\nThe Democratic Party believes that the Government should be run\nfor the benefit of all groups of people. The Republican Party\nis interested only in doing what special privilege and special\ninterest wants -- just like they are strying to do with the\npower companies now in the West.\nI don't think you're going to let them get away with it.\nI am confident that you' going to send Jack ' Grady to the\nCongress from this District, and I am confident that you are\ngoing to elect Schricker Governor of Indiana -- and if you do\nthat you'll certainly send me back to the White House, and\nI won't be troubled with the housing problem."
}