Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, South Bend, Indiana

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE TRUMAN REAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT State "NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND AT SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, OCTOBER 26, 1948 RECORDS ARRISLI SERVICE" 9:35 A.M., C.S.T. Governor Schricker, and Ladies and Gentlemen -- and Fellow Democrats of this great City of South Bend, Indiana: I am extremely happy to be here this morning, and I wish I could stay longer. This is not my first visit to South Bend, I have been here on several occasions, when I was Chairman of the Committee to investi the National Defense Program in the Senate, I paid two or three visits to this town, and I found that the peoplé of this town and the manufacturers of this town were making a great contribution to the war effort, I nevër found any fault with what they were doing, and that was unusual. I would like also to stay long enough to see the great Notre Dame football team in action. I have seen them in action. But, as you all know, I have a job to do, and I can't stay very long in any one city. That job is to tell the American people just exactly what is at stake in this election. They aren't fínding out from the Republican candidates -- they aren't finding out from the Republican-controlled newspapers, either, But I believe, and I believe that the Democrats believe that the people ought to know the truth. That is why I am here. Now I am going to tell you about one of the differences between the Democratic and Republican Parties that shows which Party really has the interests of the people at heart. South Bend is one of the great melting pots of this country. Families of a great many races and religions work here together side by side as Americans, for the welfare of this great Nation of ours. You know that being an American is more than a matter of where you or your parents came from, It is & belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break. It is a respect for the dignity of men. and women without regard to race, creed or color. That is our creed, That is the creed of the Dempcratic Party. Unfortunately, there are some people in the United States who have not learned that lesson yet, They seem to forget that their own ancestors did not get over here very long ago either, comparatively, when you speak about the age of the world and the age of the countries in the world. All of our ancestors are newcomers, no matter how much we may brag about: them. Some people don't want the victims of World War II to. come to the United States and get a fresh start in life. The Republican 80th Congress has a lot of men who felt this. way, and their record proves it. After Wor War II, when millions of Europeans were drifting around homeless, afraid to returñ to their birthplaces because the Communists had taken over or 1 because their homes were totally destroyed, I urged the Congress to help them. When I;was in Potsdam in 1945, I paid a visit to the displaced persons camps over there, and I found about a million two hundred thousand displaced persons in those camps. They were from all the countries of Europe which had beenioverrun" -- they were Poles, Latwians, Lithuanians, and Romanians -- people from -Austria and France and other countries in those camps, They were so arranged that I suggested that we send a hundred thousand Jews to Pålestine, that we take four hundred thousand people in this country, föur hundred thousand of those people in this country -- send four hundred thousand to South America, and let the British colonies take another four hundred thousand, Now all the other countries felt in with that idea, to some extent, but our own Country failed to act. I asked the Congress to admit. those four hundred thousand displaced persons to the United States, That is our fair share of the displaced persons in Europe, And they were good people, the finest in the world -- I looked them over, Nobody would be ashamed to associate with any of them. And we needed people in industry here so badly we could have done it easily without displacing anybody or losing anybody his job. OVER