Speech of Senator Harry S. Truman at Commonwealth Club, Peoria, Illinois

October 17, 1944 NOTES FOR T CLUB OCTOBER 17, 1944. Mr. Chairmen, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to return to the Commonwealth Club. Lest Marth I was here with five other Senators on an inspection trip of the Truman Committee. The work of that Committee frequently brought us to the Bay Ares and gave us an opportunity to learn the megnificent job that you are doing here. Everyone in the country knows that San Francisco is a great port of embarkation, buldging et the seams with soldiers and sailors and equipment to help them beat the Japs. But not everyone realizes how much of that equipment has been made right here in the Bay Area - - - one of the greatest nüfacturing arens in the country. The investigations mede by the Trumen Committee have been herd work, but they have given me a down to earth prattical knowledge of what American business is doing end where it is doing it. Through the work of the Truman Committee I have met thousands of business men and have talked with them sbout their problems. I have learned a great deal that will be useful to ma. I originally proposed the creation of the Senste Committee to investigete the war program becouse I fought in the last wer and sow the mistakes that were mede then. I did not went to see them mede again. After the lest war, we had more than e hundred investi- gating committees. Nearly every one of them rendered partisen reports, the members of one party condemning everything that had been done, and the membersnof the other party extravagantly praising everything. I wes for preparedness. I was ready to babk our President to the limit to get ready to defend ourselves. But I wanted to see to it that the money was well spent, that we get what we paid for, and that mistakes were corrected before it was too late. The President, too, wanted to get the job done. He was not efreid of constructive criticism. ThebDemocratic Administration