Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT I BETHLEHEM, NATIONAL PENNSYIVANIA RAILROAD STATION, OCTOBER ARCHIVES AND RECORDS 7, 1948 at 1:40 p. M. E. S. T. SERVICE" Congressman Walter, and fellow democrats of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: I can't tell you how very much I appreciate this wonderful welcome. I think every time I stop, I've seen the biggest crowd, and they get bigger and bigger and bigger. The people of Pennsylvania apparantly are just as much interested in the issues in this campeign as the people of every other State. I was told, when I started for Pennsylvania, that people would not be interested in seeing and hearing the President. What a mistake that was! Ted Wolter told me what wonderful people he had here in Bethlehem. I can well believe it. If you send him back to the Congress for the 9th term, it will be proof that you're not only fine people, but that you know what's good for you as well. I have seen l'ot of this country in the last three weeks and it looks exceedingly prosperous. More people have jobs than ever before in the history of our country. Over sixty-c million people are working now. Here in eastern Pennsylvania I under- stand there is even a labor shortage. There are more jobs then there are people to fill them. That's a record. Compare that with 1932 when half your population didn't have jobs, and then see whether you went to 30 back to that or not. That's what sixteen years of Democratic Administretions have done for the whole country. It wasn't that way in 1932 after twelve years of Repub- lican rule. And yet there are a few people who seem to want to let the Republicans wreck the country again. Well, two-thirds of you stayed at home -- you didn't, here- but two-thirds of the people of the United States stayed ct home in 1946 and they put in the Republican do-nothing 80th Congress that has already done as much wrecking as it possibly can. Don't let that happen again. I know you' re not going to let it happen because you were not in that two-thirls. You sent Tad Walter back to the Congress -- the right sort of 2 men. High prices are a real threat to every one of us because if they aren't checked, they will lead straight to another bust like we had under Herbert Hosver. But the Republicans absolutely refuse to act. The Democratic program of price control during the war kept a ceiling on prices. Everybody got what he needed at a fair price, and he got his share of what was to be distri- buted. The Renublicans killed price control and they refused to do anything to heln slow down the fontastic increases in the cost of living. I even called two special sessions of that 80th Repub- lican Congress and asked for price control laws. Both times I asked for price control each year in the message on the State of the Union. My great running-mate, Alben Borkley, forced a show down in the special session last July. He put my price control program directly. before the Senate. Ho forced the Republicans to stand up and be named if they were going to vote against this bill to keep prices down. Believe it or not, 98% of the Republicans in ingress stood up and voted against controlling prices. You here will determine on election day what kind of gov- ernment you're going to have during the next four years. If you want to, you can turn your government over to those who like infla- tion and high prices because they are thinking of making more money at your expense. Or, you can send an administration and a Congress to Washington that will extend social security, keep down the cost of living and not kick labor unions in the face, but help them move forward to greater things. OVER