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    "label": "Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Sparta, Wisconsin",
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    "title": "Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Sparta, Wisconsin",
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    "ocrText": "TABMAN\nBARRY ARCHIVES AND RECORDS AMERICA\nIMMEDIATE RELEASE\nB.S.\nSERVICE\nIMMEDIATE RELEASE\nGOVERN\nREAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT\nAT SPARTA, WISCONSIN, OCTOBER 14, 1948\nat 1:03 p. m., C. S. T.\nThank you very much. I certainly do appreciate this reception.\nYou know, in every State people have turned out just like this because\nI think they are interested in the welfare of the Country, and they want\nto know what the President looks like, and what he thinks. And I want\nto say to you I have been very frank in telling them just what I think --\nand you have to make up your mind as to what I look like.\nI have enjoyed very much coming through Wisconsin this morning\nfrom Winona, Minnesota. We have come through some most beautiful country.\nAnd I was most happy to make the acquaintance of your candidate for\nGovernor, Carl Thompson, and your candidate for Congress in this District,\nFrank Antoine. I hope you'll elect them both and I believe you will.\nAll your farms seem to be prosperous and from the crowd here\ntoday, I'd take it that this town is doing a pretty good business, too.\nYou know, in years gone by, when I was a kid -- 21 or 22 years\nold -- the National Guard used to come to Sparta, Wisconsin. I belonged\nto a battery over in Missouri. We used to come up here to do some shoot-\ning with old three-inch guns that the artillery was then equipped wi th;\nand I had many a good time in this town in those days.\nThe fact is. that af ter sixteen years of Democratic Government,\nthis whole Country is prosperous, and I want to keep it that way. We\ncan keep this country prosperous if we continue and extend the Democratic\nprograms started under the Eministration of President Roosevelt.\nOne of these programs that the people of Wisconsin know a great\ndeal about is soil conservation. I am very proud of the Democratic record\nfor the past sixteen years with regard to the conservation of natural re-\nsources.\nYou all know what conservation has meant to the American farmer.\nBy 1932, America had lost one-third of her rich top soil, and there was\nreal danger that our farms would lose their productivity. You know,\nWisconsin and Minnesota and Iowa and Missouri and Illinois were letting\nthe farms wash away and were making counties in Louisiana Well, we have\nstopped that. Now, that danger is nearly passed. The Democratic soil\nconservation program has been extended to nearly three million farms in\nthis country. But we ought not to rest until every acro in the country\nis properly managed. SO that it will retain its fertility permanently.\nNow, you would think every sensible person would favor soil\nconservation. But, believe it or not, some men have been attacking this\nwork for years. They have been the Republican politicians. The majority\nof the Republicans in Congress opposed the original Soil Conservati n Act\nof 1936 and did not want to see it passed, I was in the Senate at that\ntime and the Republicans fought that bill tooth and toenail. The Demo-\ncratic majorities in the House and Senate voted almost solidly for Soil\nConservation, and pushed that law. through the Congress at that time.\nBut in the Republican 80th Congress, the Soil Conservation\nProgram has received a serious set-back. The Republicans cut out the funds\nwhich are used for payments to farmors who follow sound conservation\npolicies. The Democrats tried to restore those funds, and I am proud to\nsay that every Domocrat in the House and overy Democratic Senator voted\nfor that restoration. But, 9 out of ton Republicans voted against soil\nconservation, and the funds were seriously cut. They weren't content\nwith the cut. The Ropublican leaders in the Senate wanted to abandon\nthe present system of soil conservation payments; and I am proud again\nthat every Democrat in the Senate voted against this Republican attack.\n38 of the Republicans voted to abandon the system, but three Republicans\ncame over to the Democratic side and saved the soil conservation program\nfrom destruction. The American farmer was lucky that the Republicans\ndidn have a larger majority in the 80 th Congross than they did. The\nfarmer would certainly have been in a bad fix if that had been the case."
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