Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Dayton, Ohio

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE "NATIONAL REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT MEMORIAL HALL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS DAYTON, OHIO, OCTOBER 11, 1948 at SERVICE" 11:50 a. m. E.S.T. Mr. Chairman -- and your next Can gressman Ed Breen, who is the chairman: I am simply overcome by the remarks of Governor Cox. I have always been a great admirer of his, and was an ardent supporter of his in 1920. I do ap reciate most highly the unequivocal statement that he believes in what I am trying to do. I know I am right. I came into Ohio this morning and was most cordially welcomed in Cincinnati and in Hamilton, but Dayton capped the climax. I was met at the station in Cincinnsti by your next Governor, Fronk Lausche. I have known him a long time -- I know him when he wes Governor of Ohio before. Ohio never had a better Governor -- excert Governor Cox -- than this one right here. I am acquainted with this great city of yours. Years and years ago, long before we had paved roads in the United States, Dayton was a center of road boosters. Since I was a road booster, and still am, I used to come to Dayton and discuss with the people here in this city the necessity for a trans- continental peved highway from Baltimere to Los Angeles. We have this highway now, and we are going to get a lot of other things too. It was my duty, as Chairman of the Committee in the Senate to investigate the national defense program, to come to Dayton and visit your great air field here on many an occasion. I have been here during that war effort in an endeavor to make a contribution toward the winning of the wor. President Roosevelt said I made such e contribution. The history of the United States would have been very different -- and very much botter -- if the American people in 1920 had elected James M. Cox and Franklin D. Rousevelt to the presidency and vice-presidency of this country. We would not have had those horrible scandals of the 1920s and that boom and bust program that followed the election of a Republican candidate. I know you do not want to stand still with the Repub- lican Party in this election. I believe you are going to live up to your forward-looking traditions and step ahead with the Democrats. In my crusade across the country to make the people realize what this election means to them, I have found that most of us have three big things on our minds: peace -- prices -- and places to live. Since I have been President of the United States, I have been working for three and E. half years to brin; about a lasting peace. We have built up the United Nations. We have helped small nations stay free from Communism, and we are now getting Western Europe back on its feet. This administration has been building a sound and prosperous United States. This administra- tion's post-war economic policies have been sossuccessful that 61 million people now have jobs, and the national income is 217 billion dollars, the highest ever in the history of the world -- and equitably distributed as the Governor stated to you. Now, the one thing absolutely essential is peace in the world. You know, back in 1920 we shirked our duty. We turned what our backs on/God Almighty intended us to do. We tried to live by ourselves, and for ourselves, in a perfectly selfish manner when the world needed us. We paid the penalty. We had to come along and meet that situation once more, which we thought we had met in 1920. OVER