Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, St. Paul, Minnesota

HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE October 13, 1948 CONFIDENTIAL: The following address of the President, to be delivered in St. Paul, Minnesota, this evening, October 13, 1948, IS FOR REIEASE IN ALL REGULAR EDITIONS OF MORNING NEWSPAPERS of Thursday, October 14, 1948. Radio release is at 9:30 p.m., Central Standard Time, today; October 13, 1948 -- or upon delivery if earlier. PLEASE USE CARE TO AVOID PREMATURE PUBLICATION OR RADIO ANNOUNCEMENT. 'NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS CHARLES G. RCSS U.S. SERINGE" Secretary to the President BOVERN NENT Tonight, I wish to pay tribute to the liberal spirit of the people of Minnesota - in the cities, on the farms, in the forests, and in the iron country of this great State. In this center of practical liberalism, I am proud to salute a fighting liberal - the next Senator from Minnesota, Mayor Humphrey of Minneapolis. I am glad also to greet the next Governor of Minnesota, Charles Halsted. Through them, I salute the liberal and progressive forces of this whole region - the forces which are once again on the march against special privilege. Before I say anything else, I want to take this opportunity to recognize the splendid record which was established by labor and management in Minnesota throughout the war years. Through those long dark months of the war never once was a blast furnace kept waiting a single minute because of lack of ore. The men who mined the ore and those who manned the trains and the ore boats worked day and night, Sundays and holidays, and there was no work stoppage. This was also true of the thousands of loyal men and women who labored in your mills and on your farms, in your foundries and in the forests, and who played such an important part in winning the war. On behalf of the Nation, I congratulate the working people of Minnesota on their splendid wartime performance. In view of that record, it is all the more strange to me that your senior Senator showed such fanatic zeal in helping to push the shameful Taft- Hartley law through the Congress. I'm afraid the same thing happened to Joe Ball that happens to most Republicans with a streak of liberalism when they get down to Washington. The Republican Party either corrupts its liberals or it expels them. It drove out Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. It drove out fighting Bob LaFollette of Wisconsin in 1924. It was the Democratic Party of Franklin Roosevelt, not the Republica Party, that held out the hand of welcome to Floyd B. Olson, and to that hero of progressive idealism - George Norris of Nebraska. And those liberals who have not been driven out of the Republican Party have been changed, like your wh senior Senator Joe Ball, from fighters on the people's side into champions of reaction. True liberalism is more than a matter of words. It demands more tha sound effects. It cannot hide behind the catch phrases of the Republican can- didate for President - catch phrases like "unity" and "efficiency." Unity fo what cause? Efficiency for what purpose? The American people, in this critical year, are entitled to a full a open discussion of the issues. They are not getting it from the Republican candidate for President. It is no service to the country to refuse, in the name of unity, to discuss the issues. It is no service to democracy to conceal the difference between the major parties.