Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Irvington, Kentucky

TRUMIT NATIONAL IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE" REAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT IRVINGTON, KENTUCKY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1948, 6:40 P. M., c.s.t. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I especially like that second remark you made. I was talking to the Governor of Kentucky a while ago, and he looked out the window and he said, "A lot of people must have postponed their milking tonight. I'm glad you did because I wanted to see you, despite helfact that the train was late. That wasn't my fault. I got delayed in the great State of Illinois They sidetracked me and drove me all over Southern Illinois and I was due two hours before while we were doing it, but it was a pleasant trip; and in every town we saw almost as many people as we have here. At every stop there's always a prophesy that there won't be anybody there, and when we get there it looks as if everybody in the county got there. I stopped here in Henderson when we came across the river from Evansville, and I asked the newspaper man there how many people were there. "oh," he said, "fifty thousand." I said, how did he know it. He said, well, there were fifty thousand people in that county and they were all there. I wish'I could spend enough time with you to discuss the issues that are before the country at this time because you are all VAtelly interested in them. But I can't do it because the train is late and I have got a special meeting at Louisville tonight that is over a national radio hook-up -- and you know, people have to be prompt with the radio or they will charge you for the time and you won't get the use of it, and I know you won't have me do that, would you? But there are certain fundamentals that I can mention incidentally --the attitude of the Re ublicans toward the farm program, which was inaugurated by the Democrats in 1933. If you remember, the farmer was about as low as he could possibly get, financially, in 1932. He was being foreclosed. He could get nothing for his produce. If I remember correctly, corn was as low as 15c a bushel, and wheat went to a quarter. Hogs were selling for $3 a hundred, and you couldn't sell a fat steer at all, unless you brought in the skin, and you had to almost give him away. This situation has been almost reversed since 1933. The farmers have been more prosperous than ever before in the history of the country. The National income has been fairly distributed between the farmers, laborers and white collar workers, and that is what the Government is for -- to see that everybody gets a fair deal in the country. That's what we started to give the country, and that's what we did give the country over the last sixteen years. Then along comes the terrible 80th Congress, and they're trying to undo it. They did their level best to undo those things. They cut the ground from under the farmer and the price support program. They tried their best to abolish labor's Bill of Rights by passing that Taft-Hartley Act, and they're working on reclamation and irrigation projects and public power. They would like to abolish TVA. They've cut out the power transmission lines from these great dams which the Government has built and which belong to the public and which are intended to furnish cheap power to the public. They are a special interest Congress, and they are representative of the Renublican Party. Now, I want you to keep that situation in mind, and Iwant you to be sure and send a Democrat, Senator Virgil Chapman, to the Senate this fall, and I want you to send Frank Chelf back to the House -- and then we'll have a start on a Congress that will be in the interest of the people -- and goodness knows we don't want another duplicate of the 80th Congress. And if the Republicans get control that's/exactly what we'll have because the leadership just OVER