Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Boston, Massachusetts

THEMEN 'INTIONAL ARBUNDS AND REDORDS SERVICE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE October 26, 1948 CONFIDENTIAL: The following address of the President, to : be delivered in Boston, Massachusetts, tomorrow evening, Wednesday, October 27, 1948, is FOR RELEASE IN ALL REGULAR EDITIONS OF MORNING NEWSPAPERS of Thursday, October 28, 1948. CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President Thank you, my good friends and fellow citizens. Twenty years ago another Democratic candidate for President came to Boston. He was that great, outstanding American, Alfred E. Smith. You gave him a tremendous reception. And when the cheers had sub- sided, he took all of you to his heart with one phrase. He said, "It's good to come home. " I know how Al Smith felt. For Massachusetts is home to every American who loves fr edom and trusts the people. From the first days "of our Nation, the spirit of the men and women of the Bay State has impressed upon American life the love. of freedom and the hatred of tyranny. Even before the end of the American Reyolution, Massachusetts freed her slaves - all of them -- because the people held that liberty was in- divisible. And here in Boston you still stand among the Nation's foremost fighters for freedom and against intolerance. Many of you recall that campaign of 1928, when Al Smith ran for President against that well-known engineer -- Herbert Hoover. He was one enginëer who really did a job of running things backward. The campaign of 1928 was one of the most shameful political campaigns in our history. A vile whispering campaign was spearheaded by the Ku Klux Klan and by Klan-minded people to discredit Al Smith. The Republican appeal was based on religious prejudice because of Al Smith's Catholic faith. The leaders of the Republican Party served notice on America then and there that they would stop at nothing in order to gain power. Don't think that the elephant has changed his habits in the last twenty years. It's not that kind of animal. That Al Smith campaign of 1928 was fought with different argu ents from those we hear today. But fundamentally, the issue was the same — that is, the rights of all the people against special privileges for the few. I have often thought what a different and better world we would have had if Al Smith had been elected President. OVER