Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Rochester, New York

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IM EDIATE RELEAse REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT ROCHESTER, N. Y. OCTOBER 8,1948 at 6:40 I. m. "NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND E. S. T. RECORDS SERVICE" Thank you very much. I am very glad to be with you this evening. I have been here before. I came here before with Burton K. Wheeler and tried to explain to the Chamber of Commerce of Rochester what the Transportation Act of 1940 stood for. I helped to write thet Act. But I don't think they ever did understand it. I don't know whether that WES my fault or theirs. I wish I could stay here and discuss all the issues of the campaign, but I know that's not possible. I have been travelling all over the country, telling people the truth about this coming election, and the truth needs to be told: You see, there is a great propeganda mechine in this country trying to tell you people something that isn't so about this election. Therefore, your Fresident had to get out and exert himself to see that you do know the issues, and that is what I am doing now. What they are telling you is just as for from the truth as it can be. The men who pretend that there aren't any issues are trying to hide the truth from you. You don't want to let them do that. It is most important that you know the fects in this campaign. The future prosperity of the country is at stake, and your future is at stake. This election will decide whether the Government is going to be run by the people themselves, or whether it is going to be run by the lobbies of the special in- terests, as they ran this good-for-nothing 80th Congress. The whole country is prosperous after 16 years under the Democrats. That's because the Democratic policies have been designed to promote the welfare of a 11 groups of citizens factory workers, farmers, small businessmen, and white-collar workers. Now, everybody has had a fair share of the national income in this country under the Democrats. Last year, we had the greatest income in the history of any Nation in the history of the world -- 217 billion dollars -- and every segment of the population, no matter what class, got his fair share of that in- come. That has never happened before. But there are people who believe that the Government should be run for special interests, and they had control of this 80th Congress I have been talking about. Let MG tell you all about some of the things tuet Congress did. Then I think you will understand what I mean when I talk about the danger to your future if a Republican adminis- tration is elected in this coming November. Then you will un- derstand what I mean when I say that the Republican Party is the Party of special privilege. That Republican Congress refused to take action against high prices because high prices benefited most of their big business lobbies -- and they told them what to do. That Republican Congress refused to pass a health bill to provide for more hospitals, more doctors, more medical search, because there was a lobby there working on those fellows to keep that bill from passing. The Republican Congress buried a bill to provide Federal aid to States in meeting their éducational roblems, because a few narrow-minded lobbies 0 osed that bill. And you know, I've got a notion in the back of my head that education is the most important thing in the life of our citizens. That's the reason I am SO happy that at all these speeches I see college boys and young people out, because they are interested in the welfore of this country. You know, the best insuranceagainst communism in this country is education. The Communists can't stand education. OVER