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Far Releare 10.00AM SPEECH OF HONORABLE HARRY S. TRUMAN ON LABOR Sept DAY 4 1944 Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: For many years the first Monday in September has been set aside and dedicated to labor. This is altogether fitting for modern civilization was created and can continue to exist only because we have learned to work together for our mutual advantage. The United States has been fortunate to possess a vast wealth of natural resources. But without labor, those resources would have been sterile and unproductive. Through labor they have been made the foundation for the greatest civilization and the highest standard of living ever enjoyed by any nation in the world's history. This is an election year, and labor, like all other groups, in our country, is entitled to know what kind of treat- ment it may expect to receive from the hands of those who seek high office. No candidate is ever foolish enough to declare himself to be an en emy of labor. Everyone in politics talks of and sometimes shouts his friendship for labor. Even those who act against you, assure you that whatever they do is for your own good. You all know that the greatest advances ever made in the history of labor have been made under the administration of the greatest friend labor ever had -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States. Through experience, sometimes bitter experience, labor has learned to judge a candidate or a party by accomplished fact rather than by talk and campaign speeches. You know what you want, and you have learned that you seldom get it by voting for those who promise much but who have no record of ever doing anything for labor. What you want today, what all American labor wants, is peacetime security, steady work, the knowledge that you will have a job after this war is over. 2,000 NARA