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    "localId": "483030849",
    "label": "Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Oxford, Iowa",
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    "title": "Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Oxford, Iowa",
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            "logicalDate": "1948-09-18",
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    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "Sept. 18, 1948\n\"NATIONAL\nARCHIVES AND\nRECORDS\nENTER\nSERVICE\nBOVERNY\nENT\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\nREAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT OXFORD,\nIONA, 8:50 a. m., C. S. t.\nMr. Chairman, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen: I certainly\nam happy to see this wonderful turnout in Oxford, Iowa. You know,\nyour candidate for Senator, who will be Senator from Iowa after this\nelection is over -- Senator Gillette, told me that Oxford University\nin England was named after this town. It was rather difficult to\nunderstand that, since I understand you just celebrated your 100th\nanniversary last year, but it is interesting anyway.\nI know you live in 8 very wonderful, fertile part of this\ngreat United States, and I heard another remarkable fact about this\ngreat city of Oxford. They tell me in all the hundred years of your\nexistence you never went wrong politically -- you have always been\ndemocratic.\nI don't have to stand here and convince you, then, that the\nDemocratic Party stands for what is best for the farmer. I am going\nto elaborate on that down in Dexter, which I understand is a hot-bed\nof Republicanism. But I know I don't have to convince you about con-\nservation and crop insurance and rural electrification and those\nother things which the Democratic Party instituted and which has\ngiven the farmers the greatest prosperity they have ever had in their\nhistory.\nThere is only one thing I want to caution you about. Pros-\nperity sometimes is a bad thing for some people. It makes them lezy\nand indifferent to the welfare of their country and their neighbors.\nThe farmer now is in 8 prosperous condition, the most prosperous\ncondition he has ever been in in the history of the country, or in\nthe history of the world, for that matter.\nI want to urge you people who live in the great farming\ncommunities to remember that the government of the United States is\na government of the people. It is your government. In fact, you\nare the government. In order to implement that government and make\nit work as it should, you must exercise that greatest of all privi-\nleges, the privilege of voting -- expressing yourself at the polls\nin a free country.\nNow, in 1946, people didn't do that. They didn't exercise\ntheir right on election day, and a very small minority of the voting\npopulation of the country gave us the worst congresswe have had in\nthe history of the country, except one. Only one, I would say, was\nworse than this 80th Congress which has just finished. I will let\nyou look up your history books to see which one that was, and I\nthink you will agree with me when you read about it.\nI\nwant to urge you,\ndon't make that mistake again -- don't make that mistake again.\nTurn out and vote the Democratic ticket on November the second, and\nelect a Democratic Governor from Iowa, a Democratic Senator, and a\nDemocratic Congressmen from this district. It will be 8 lot easier\nfor your President to protect the rights of the people.\nI can't tell you, again, how much I appreciate this privilege\nThey tell me these bands come from all over Iowa that are here this\nmorning. That is a compliment, and I appreciate it. I hope you\nhave a most successful celebration the rest of the day.\nThanks again."
}