Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Duluth, Minnesota

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELE'SE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND EVERY RECORDS SERVICE REMARKS OF -THE PRESIDENT AT THE ARMORY, DULUTH, MINNESOTA, October 13, 1948 - 3:15 P.M., C.S.T. Thank you, thank you very much. I appreciate most highly the cordial reception which you are giving to the President of the United States and his family here today, and I am also exceedingly happy to be in such good company. I want to congratulate this District on its Congressman,- John Blatnik -- a Démocrat in the midst of a sea of Republicans; but he does his duty and he does it well. And now I want you to add a little to that. I want you to send Mayor Humphrey to Washington as your United States Senator -- and then your President will have some real cooperation. I am very much interested and I want to congratulate you on the nearly unbelievable job that here during World War IT. It was my privilege to make some investigations up in this part of the world while that War Was on, in my capacity as Chairman of the Investigating Conmittee of the Senate which was looking after those things. And I want to say that everyone went into the mines up North and sent out unheard- of amounts of ore. The whole world is grateful for the fine efforts -- not only of the miners, the railroadmen, and the Great Lakes seamen who moved that are -- but also to the lumbermen, the paper-mill workers, and to. the farmers. Here in Northern Minnesota are some of our country's richest untapped resources. The Democratic Party wants to continue and expand its program for the development of these resources. We want to develop them because we want the American people to have the utmost security and prosperous living donditions. We want to develop them because that will contribute to our efforts to make the whole world a better and a more peaceful place in which to live. Here is an example of how the Democrats worked to develop this area: Back in 1941 it was your Democratic Farmer-Labor State Legislators who got the taconite bill through the State Legislature. Three of the `men who fought for this came up with me on the train today -- John Blatnik, Senator Vukelich, and State Representative Fred Cine. That bill he made possible the 2 million dollar taconite plant near Aurora, Now, I understand, there is being proposed A 77 million dollar development at Pever Bay up here a your famous North Shore, and at Babbitt. Almost half the peat deposits of the whole United States lies to the north of here, in Minnesota. This is a potential fuel for vast amounts of low-cost electric power needed for the ultimate realization of your taconite industry and other industrial developments. We have always been for those forward-looking things, and you will find that where those developments take place the Democrats have been responsible for them, not the Republicans. There is one great measure for the development of this area which the Democrats have not yet succeeded in getting through the Congress. That's the St. Lawrence Seaway. Building the Seaway would give you a deep-water channel to the Atlantic. The twin cities of Duluth and Superior would become one of the greatest ports of the entire world. Throughout my administration I have urged the Congress to provide for the full development of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project. But the railroad lobby and the power lobby control too many Congressmen, and the Congress refused to approve the measures I requested. Apparently there are some people who don't want to see this great center of industrial and agriculturel production turn into a tremendous center of world-wide trade. I can assure you that I do want to see you grow into just exactly that sort of a port. (CVER)