Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Raleigh, North Carolina

THOMAN "NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE OCTOBER 18, 1948 CONFIDENTIAL: The following address of the President, to be delivered at the State Fair Grounds in Raleigh, North Carolina, tomorrow, Tuesday, October 19, 1948, MUST BE HELD FOR RELEASE until 3:00 P.M., Eastern Standard Time, October 19, and no portion, synopsis, or intimation may be given out, or broadcast or published until that time. The same release applies to all newspapers, radio announcèrs and news broadcasters. PLEASE USE CARE TO AVOID PREMATURE PUBLICATION OR RADIO announcement. CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President For a long time now, some of my North Carolina friends have been telling me I ought to take a look at this great State Fair of yours. It wasn't necessary to urge me very much. I have always liked to attend fairs. But now I do have one complaint. Now they make me one of the exhibits, and I don't get a chance to look at the others very much. This fall I have visited several State Fairs. I met thousands of prosperous farm folk there, and it made me proud of the grand old Democratic Party to see so many farmers who had been rescued from Republican depression and given the break they deserved. Not long ago I had to roll into the fair at Oklahoma City at a speed of fifty miles an hour. That was because I stopped to talk to so many people along the way that my train was late. But the train crew, being good Democrats, saw to it that I got there on time. I'm surprised the Republican candidate didn't order them shot at sunrise. Out in Dexter, Iowa, I met a great farm gathering for the national plowing contest. And we plowed under some Republicans while we were at it. I also got a chance to look over some of the fine new farm machines they were exhibiting. And. I want to report to you that among all the exhibits I have seen there has been a great omission. Nowhere in the United States this year have I seen a single exhibit of that famous North Carolina farm invention -- that product of ingenuity and hard times, of personal despair and political mockery -- the Hoover cart. You remember the Hoover cart ---, the remains of the old tin lizzie being pulled by a mule because you coulon't afford to buy a new car or gas for the old one. You remember. First you had the Hoovercrats and then you had the Hoover carts. One always. follows the other. By the way, I asked the Department of Agriculture at Washington about this Hoover cart. They said it is the only automobile in the world that eats oats. They don't recommend it. Neither do I. I don't mind being an exhibit here myself. I think I belong right here. I'm a home-grown American farm product. (OVER)