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    "label": "Reading Copy, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Madison Square Garden, New York City",
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    "title": "Reading Copy, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Madison Square Garden, New York City",
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    "ocrText": "SAFETY NATIONAL YOUMAN THE\nR.S. SOVERNMENT\nSEAL ARCHIVES RECORDS\nNew york\nact. 28, 1948\n10-28-48\nNEW YORK\nHARRY B.S. NATIONALD ARCHIVES A TROMAN SERVICE\" BOVERNMENT THE\nIt is good to be here.\nI always like to come to New York,\nwhere I have so many friends.\nBut there are special reasons why I am glad\nto be here tonight.\nNew York is a mighty source of strength\nin the battle we are waging to preserve liberal government\nin the United States.\nIt is the birthplace of many of the liberal\nand progressive programs which have restored the strength\nof the Nation during the last sixteen years.\n- 2 -\nIt is the State of those true democrats\nBRENT NATIONAL ARCHIVES A TRUMAN LIBERTY\nand great Americans -\nE.S.\nAl Smith - Bob Wagner - Herbert Lehman -\nand above all, Franklin Roosevelt.\nIt was here in this State that these men\ndid so much to give new life and new meaning to the principles\nof democracy. Because of their great work, our country -\nand the entire world - is a better place to live in.\nWe have come here tonight to this great gathering,\nunder the banner of the Liberal Party - a Party which\nhas done so much for liberal causes.\nWe have come here tonight with one mind and\none purpose.\n- 3 -\nWe have come to pledge once more our faith\nTRUMAN\nin liberal government, and to place in firm control\nBARNA U.S. 5. ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE\" LIBRANY\nof our national affairs those who believe,\nwith all their hearts, in the principles of Franklin D. Roosevelt.\nNow I have a confession to make.\nFor the last two or three weeks I've had a queer feeling.\nI've had a feeling that someone is following me around.\nThis feeling got so strong today I told Doctor Graham -\nhe's the White House physician, you know -\nI told him that I kept on having this feeling that everywhere I go\nthere is somebody following behind me.\nWell, ladies and gentlemen, you can understand\nmy relief when Doctor Graham told me that it wasn't\nmy imagination. He told me there was somebody trailing me -\nfrom city to city - and he told me who it was.\n- 4 -\nBARNY & ARCHIVES NATIONAL RECORDS TROMAN AND LISTED\n\"Don't worry, Mr. President\", he said;\n5.5. SERVICE\" BOVERNMENT\n\"You keep right on your way. There's one place where\nthis fellow is NOT going to follow you.\nHe is NOT going to follow you into the White House.\"\nThe Doctor's right. I'm going to be there\nworking for the people for four more years.\nAfter what the Doctor told me, I thought maybe\nmy campaign song for this election ought to be,\n\"Me and My Shadow.\"\nThe way this fellow has been following me around,\nreminds me of a favorite childhood verse, which goes\nabout like this:\n- 5 -\nused nextday\nMAINT ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS TROMAN AND 1\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\n\"I have a little shadow that goes in and\nBUYERWMENT\nout with me,\nAnd what can be the use of him is more than\nI can see.\"\nNow there are some other places besides the\nWhite House where he won't follow me.\nHe won't follow me if I go into the record of the\nDemocratic and Republican Parties.\nThe Republican candidate can follow me\nall the way from Los Angeles to Madison Square Garden,\nbut the Republican record makes it certain that\nhe will still be trailing along behind when the votes are counted.\n- 6 -\nHe is doing all that he can to make you forget\nthat record.\nHe doesn't dare talk about it.\nIt is much too bad.\nBARRY U.S. a ARCHIVES NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" BOYERNMENT TRUMAN AND TREATY\nLet's take a look at the record to see why he can't\ntalk about it.\nLet's go back a few years.\nIn Nineteen Twenty-eight, the Republicans elected\na well-known efficiency engineer named Herbert Hoover,\nand they promised us everything except the moon\nThey told us, \"If you want to continue prosperity -\nvote for Hoover. \"\nAnd the people fell for it.\n- 7 -\nBRAVA & ARCHIVES NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND THEAT\nWhat a bitter experience followed.\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nBOVERNENT\nMany of you here tonight remember Nineteen Thirty-two.\nOver in Central Park men and women were living\nin little groups of shacks made of cardboard and old boxes.\nThey were known as Hoovervilles.\nOut here on Eighth Avenue, veterans were selling apples -\nragged individualism - I suppose you would call it.\nFarm foreclosures, home-owners' evictions,\nstarvation wages, labor unions disrupted by company spies\nand thugs - that was the Republican record when\nthey last had control of the government.\nThen, having made a complete and ruinous mess\nof this country, they were turned out.\n- 8 -\nHARRY ARCHIVES NATIONAL SERVICE\" RECORDS TRUMAS AND 1\nThe vigorous action which saved the Nation\nU.S. GOVERNMENT\nand restored our faith came with the Democrats,\nwith the New Deal, and with Franklin Roosevelt.\nWe saved the banks.\nWe saved industry.\nWe saved the insurance companies and the railways.\nAt that point, the Republicans said we had done enough.\nBut we went right on saving America.\nWe saved the people - the farmers, the workers,\nthe unemployed, the old people who had lost their savings,\nand the young people who had never had a chance.\nAnd while we were at it, we saved the United States.\n- 9 -\nWe replanted forests, we began soil conservation,\nwe built great dams, we developed whole river valleys.\nWe built roads and bridges, school houses and\nAMERICA B.S. 5. ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS BOYERNMENT TRUMAN AND 1\ncourt houses,\nWe built sidewalks and sewers, parks and playgrounds,\nand low-rent housing - and quite a few battleships, too.\n-\nAnd all the time, the Republicans kept moaning\nthat we were going too far.\nThey said that we were undermining our own moral fibre -\nThat we were destroying individual initiative -\nThat Roosevelt was a dictator -\nThat we were opposed to free enterprise.\n- 10 -\nAs early as Nineteen Thirty-six they began saying\nthat we were Communistic, Socialistic, red or radical -\nbecause we cared for the people and the people knew it. + liked it\nThey tried to scare labor in Nineteen Thirty-six\nby stuffing pay envelopes with propaganda against\nsocial security.\nTURNAR THEREY ANIMA\nU.S. .\nThat didn't work.\nThey tried a new line of propaganda in Nineteen Forty.\nBut again it didn't work.\nThe people knew better. They broke with tradition\nand chose Roosevelt for a third term.\nWorld War Two had come and the country was in danger.\nBut that meant nothing to the Republican leadership.\n- 11 -\nB.S. ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" GOVERN WENT TRUMAN AND\nThey came within a single vote in Congress of\ndisbanding our Army three months before Pearl Harbor.\nThey hindered and delayed our efforts to\nre-arm the Nation.\nAnd all the time, they kept moaning and groaning\nthat the New Deal had weakened America.\nWeakened America, indeed.\nTojo and Hitler know the answer to that one,\neven if the Republicans don't.\nBut the Republicans kept on trying to stop us,\ntrying to stop the people and trying to kill the New Deal.\n- 12 -\nIn Nineteen Forty-four, the Republicans tried to talk\ntheir way into power again. They nominated a man\n& ARCHIVES AND TROMAR RECORDS VELIUM\nwho was violently opposed to the New Deal.\n5.5. SERVICE\" BOVERN WEAT\nThey nominated the same man they nominated this year.\nAnd what do you think ?\nHe was saying the same things in Nineteen Forty-four\nthat he is saying today He was attacking\nFranklin Roosevelt's administration then,\njust as he is attacking my Administration now.\nTime and again in Nineteen Forty-four,\nhe told the voters that what we need is \"strength and unity.\"\nHe promised to displace - and I quote -\n\"A tired, exhausted, quarreling and bickering administration\nwith a fresh and vigorous administration.\"\"\nDoesn't that sound familiar?\n- 13 -\nAnd he asked, and I quote again - \"Is the New Deal,\nthe tired and quarrelsome New Deal, all America\nhas to offer ?\"\nE.S. So. ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" GOVERNMENT TRUMAN AND YORK\n\"Must we go back\", he asked,\n\"must we go back to leaf-raking and doles ?\"\nWell, you people stuck by the New Deal in\nNineteen Forty-four, and we haven't had to go back to\nleaf-raking and doles yet.\nAnd we haven't had to go back to Hoovervilles\nand bread lines and soup kitchens either.\nI must say though, that the Republican 80th Congress\ndid all it could to start us back down that dismal road.\n- 14 -\n. ARCHIVES NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" TRUMAN AND 1\nOh yes, here's another one, at Baltimore\n8.3.\nGOVERNMENT\njust before the Nineteen Forty-four election,\nthe Republican candidate said:\n\"We must have a President who can and will work\nwith Congress\" and he said he \"would like to start\nthe largest house cleaning Washington ever had.\"\nThat sounds familiar, too, doesn't it ?\nNow he is playing the same old record again and the record\nis stuck in the same old groove.\nHe was speaking of the wartime Administration\nof one of the greatest men in history who was leading a\nunited people to victory in the greatest war of all time.\nRoosevelt believed in the people and the people believed\nin Roosevelt.\n- 15 -\nEven with millions of men overseas or away\nfrom their homes, Roosevelt won again.\nBANKA E.S. S. ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" GOVERNMENT TRUMAN AND\nNo, let me put it differently, the Republicans lost\nand the people won again.\nYou know what happened then.\nWe won the war, in the most complete military victory\never recorded.\nAnd since the war, we have enjoyed the greatest peace-time\nprosperity in our history.\nThat is the record.\nA record of Republican failure and Democratic success.\nThat is why the Republican candidate won't follow me\nwhen I talk about the record.\n.\n- 16 -\nThere's another place, also, where he won't follow me.\nHe won't follow me in discussing the issues of this campaign.\nHe can follow me into Framingham, Massachusetts,\nbut he won't follow me in raising the minimum wage\nHASHY E.S. ARCHIVES & TOUNAN \"NATIONAL RECORDS AND LIMBER\nSERVICE\"\nto at least seventy-five cents an hour.\nBOVERNMENT\nHe can follow me into Cleveland,\nbut he won't follow me and broaden the coverage of our\nsocial security insurance laws and increase their benefits\nby fifty per cent.\nHe can follow me into Chicago, but he won't follow me\nin demanding that Congress pass laws for health insurance\nand medical care.\n- 17 -\nBARRY 8.5. ARCHIVES 5. SERVICE\" \"NATIONAL RECORDS AND\nBOVERN WENT\nHe can follow me into Boston, but he won't follow me\nin calling for Federal aid to education - so that teachers\ncan get a living wage, so that modern schools can be built -\nso that our children can get a decent education.\nHe can follow me to Pittsfield and Providence,\nbut when he gets there they need not expect any help\nfor low-cost housing.\nHe can follow me into New York City -\nand I wouldn't be surprised if he followed me right here\ninto Madison Square Garden, but he won't follow me in\ndemanding the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Law.\nHe can follow me right up here on this platform\nnext Saturday night, but he won't follow me in calling\nfor a law to control high prices.\n- 18 -\nOn all these issues, when it comes to doing\nsomething for the people, the Republican candidate\nwon't follow me.\nBARAT $:5 ARCHIVES S. \"NATIONAL SERVICE\" RECORDS TRUMAS AND\nGOVERNMENT\nSometimes it looks as if he is almost persuaded\nto follow me on some of these questions, but that's\nas far as he goes and that ladies and gentlemen,\nis as far as he's going to go.\nBecause everytime the Republican candidate\nlooks at the program of the Democratic Party, and says,\n\"Me, too,\" his Party's record says, \"Nothing doing.\"\nAnd his Party's record speaks louder than he does.\nHe could follow me all over the country in his\ncampaign special but he couldn't get his Party to follow me\nand support a decent law for displaced persons.\n- 19 -\nHe couldn't even make the elephant behave\njust before election time.\nBASIT 8.3. ARCHIVES & \"NATIONAL SERVICE\" RECORDS TRUNIN AND\nBOYERN WENT\nLet me say in all seriousness that I am glad\nthe Republican candidate has followed me around\nall over the country. Because it has shown the people\nhow little he has to offer them.\nAnd the American people are not going to be fooled.\nThey want to hear something more than platitudes.\nThe Republican candidate can follow me to every city,\ntown and village in the country.\nBut so long as he is\nafraid to tell where he stands on the issues he will lose\nmore votes than he gains.\nA Democratic victory is on the way and he is doing\nall he can to help us win it.\n- 20 -\nI wish to speak now upon a subject that\nSERVICE\" RECORDS AND $. THEMEN\nhas been of great interest to me as your President.\nGOVERNMENT\nIt is the subject of Israel.\nThis is an important subject and must not be resolved\nas a matter of politics during a political campaign.\nI have refused to play politics with it.\nI have refused because:\nFirst; it is my responsibility to see that our policy\nin Israel fits in with our foreign policy throughout\nthe world.\nSecond; it is my desire to help build in Palestine\na strong, prosperous, free and independent democratic State.\n- 21 -\nIt must be large enough, free enough and\nstrong enough to make its people self-supporting\nBARTH 8:5. ARCHIVES the SERVICE\" \"NATIONAL RECORDS THUMAN AND LIBRARY\nand secure.\nGOVERNMENT\nAs President of the United States,\nback in Nineteen Forty-five, I was the first to call\nfor the immediate opening of Palestine to immigration\nto the extent of at least One Hundred Thousand persons.\nThe United States, under my Administration,\nled the way in November Nineteen Forty-seven and\nwas responsible for the resolution of the United Nations\nsetting up Israel, not only as a homeland,\nbut as a free and independent political state.\n- 22 -\nThe United States was the first to give\nfull and complete recognition to the new state of Israel\nin April Nineteen Forty-eight, and recognition\nBARIA : ARCHIVES AND SERVICE\" 5. \"NATIONAL TRUMAN LIMIT\nGOVERNMENT\nto its provisional government.\nI have never changed my position on Palestine\nor Israel.\nAs I have previously announced,\nI have stood, and still stand on the present Democratic\nPlatform. of 1948\nThe people of Israel have proved themselves\nworthy of the best tradition of hardy pioneers.\nThey have created out of the barren desert a modern,\nstate\nefficient democracy, with the highest standards of\nWestern civilization.\nThey have demonstrated that Israel deserves\nto take its place in the family of nations.\n- 23 -\nThat is our objective, and we shall work toward it\nin a sound way, not in a partisan political way.\nBARRY U.S. ARCHIVES ANIVES AN SERVICE\" S. RECORDSAND TRUMAN\nGOVERNMENT\nI am confident that that objective will be reached.\nAnd I know that no American citizen, of whatever\nrace or religion, would want us to deal with the question\nof Palestine on any other basis than the welfare\nof all Americans of every race and faith.\nThat is the spirit in which all liberals face the issues\nof this campaign. We are concerned with justice,\nand we are deeply concerned with human rights -\nhere in America and throughout the world.\n- 24 -\nI am happy to say to you tonight that the spirit\nof liberalism is going to triumph at the polls on\nNovember second.\nBARRY 8.5. ARCHIVES 5. \"NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND LIBRASY\nSERVICE\"\nGOVERNMENT\nThe forces of reaction gained a beachhead in\nNineteen Forty-six when they elected a Republican Congress.\nAnd this year they have redoubled their efforts to take over\ncontrol of your government.\nBut I have never lost faith in the people.\nI knew that when the issues were laid before them,\nthey would arise to preserve their liberties.\nI have not been disappointed. All over the country,\nthe people have become aroused.\nDemocracy is on the march - on the march to victory.\n- 25 -\nI ask all of you to vote.\nFor we Democrats trust the people.\nWe know that if the people vote, this Nation,\nunder God, need not fear for its future.\nU.S. SERVICE\" 8. RECORDAND TRUMAN LIMIT\nGOVERNMENT"
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