President Harry S. Truman

Whistle Stop Campaign Speeches

October 11, 1948

CINCINNATI, OHIO (Breakfast in the Netherlands-Plaza Hotel, 8:35 a.m.)


I appreciate that most highly, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate that reception more than I can tell you, and I would, of course, like to have it continued, but you know this radio time is paid for--we want the full benefit from our investment.

I cannot come anywhere near expressing my appreciation for the cordiality of the welcome I have received in Cincinnati this morning. I have had that sort of welcome all over the United States. I was most agreeably surprised, last Friday, when we landed in Albany, N.Y., and it was raining just as it is here this morning. It rained from one end of New York to the other all the way to Buffalo, yet people turned out in immense numbers and stood in the rain. That makes me believe that people are really interested in this campaign with which we are faced. I think people are interested in knowing what the facts are.

In staid, old Philadelphia, that town turned out to see us and there were 800,000 people on the streets. There were 16,000 came to the Convention Hall where I was nominated for President, to hear the issues, and there were radio stations and television setups. So you know people must be interested in the issues when they will do that.

You have a great city here on the banks of this Ohio River, and one of the reasons why I think so is that you now have a Democratic Mayor. He tells me he is the first Democrat that has been Mayor of Cincinnati for 35 years. That is certainly something to be proud of, and I think it shows what the people are thinking and the way the trends are going. I think the whole country knows how you organized the city charter movement here in Cincinnati in the early 1920's, when local Republican leaders had just about wrecked the city. A short time after that, I think it was in 1930, I paid a visit to Hamilton County, Ohio, because you had an assessment system here that seemed to me to be a just one. I tried to get that system implemented in Jackson County, Mo., when I was head of the government there in Jackson, but I didn't have any luck; but I still think you have a great assessment system. I didn't know whether it is still in effect or not, but it seemed to be the most just one in the country.

Now, some Republican leaders in the 80th Congress, which I call the notorious, "donothing" Republican Congress, almost wrecked our chances for keeping prosperity. They did wreck the hopes of the American people for fair labor laws, good housing legislation, and all the other progressive measures which we need so badly now.

We are in the middle of an election campaign right now. The Republican candidate for President has made a good many headlines with clever talk about unity. He claims that if he is elected there will be unity. I don't know what he means by that. I am going to try to analyze it the best I can. Of course, we don't know what he means by unity because he won't tell the country where he stands on any of the issues in which the American people are so deeply interested.

Since he won't tell us, we will have to look at the record of the men who run the party-the men who would be in power if the Republicans are elected.

I think you here in Cincinnati are in a good position to know just what Republican unity would mean. I think, in fact, you know better than people anywhere else in the country.

Now, let's take a look at that record. It shows just what the preachers of unity believe in.

Republicans led the fight to destroy price control in 1946. They have led the fight ever since to prevent the restoration of controls which are so badly needed by the American people to prevent runaway inflation. They took the lead in putting handcuffs on labor. The Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 was a deliberate effort to weaken labor unions for the benefit of employers.

In that Taft-Hartley bill, Senator Taft said about that bill, and I quote him: "This bill is not a milk-toast bill. It covers about three-fourths of the things pressed on us very strenuously by the employers." I don't think labor was very carefully listened to when that bill was passed. I wish everyone of you could read the veto message which I sent to Congress on that bill.

Under Republican leadership, Senators consistently refused to provide Federal funds to help States meet the crisis in education. You know, we have an educational crisis right in this country. There are thousands and thousands of young men and young women who are thirsting for an education, and there are thousands and thousands of children in the grade schools who are not getting the proper education because one teacher cannot do very well when she has 50 or 60 or 70 pupils, as some of them have to do.

We urged a Federal program under the direction of the States which would help meet that situation. The Republicans killed that bill in the House. They are not interested in that phase of the educational situation.

The Republicans supported a measure that took social security away from at least a million people in this country, yet their platform of 1944 made it very plain that they were for an increased base for social security. But their acts in the 80th Congress did not prove that they meant what they said in that platform.

You remember, I called a special session, on the basis of the Republican platform at Philadelphia, which said they were for a lot of things, which they had turned down in the regular session of Congress, and they could turn them down even in the special session.

They have consistently opposed a sound national health program. This is only a part of the recent record of the Republican Party, but it is enough to show us what Republican unity would mean in terms of backward-looking laws, and narrow-minded class legislation.

There are, of course, some rank and file members of the Republican Party who hold liberal views. I am sure that they would like to take some of the Republican campaign oratory at its face value. But the frank statements of my friend Bob Taft ought to dispel any hope they may have that the Republican Party may follow a liberal course if its candidates are elected.

Now, I served in the Senate with Bob, and I like him personally. There is one thing I do like about him: You know where he stands; that is more than you can say of some of the Republican candidates. Bob is frankly--he is frankly conservative. He believes in the welfare of the top ahead of the welfare of the bottom. But he is frank about it, and I can understand that. While he and I are personally on the friendliest of terms, we are as far apart as the poles on what we think is best for the welfare of the people of this country.

When the Republican candidate for Vice President made a campaign speech that contained a few liberal phrases, Bob had this to say, and I quote him, "You know that is contrary to everything I stand for." He was talking about Governor Warren when he said that. Well, there you have it. The Republicans don't even have unity in their campaign oratory. The only kind of unity they would have in office would be the kind we don't want: that oppressive unity forced on us by the big bosses of the Republican Party.

Don't let anybody fool you, if they send a Republican Congress back there it won't be a bit different from the 80th Congress, it will be run by exactly the same men, it will put through exactly the same program--and I don't care what the man in the White House will do about it, he will be just as helpless to do anything about it as I have been in the last 2 years. All I could do was exercise my veto power, but vetoing pays, to a very great extent, against that kind of thing.

All of you probably know that I made a good many critical remarks about this 80th Congress. I think that is putting it rather mildly, but I admit that in one way we are very lucky to have had the 80th Congress. It taught us a lesson. It taught us a lesson before it was too late. The 80th Congress taught us what to expect from the Republican Party. We found out what Republican campaign promises really mean. We find out that they do not mean a thing. They are not worth the paper they are written on.

If you will examine the Republican Party's platform of 1944, and then see the hypocritical document they wrote in Philadelphia this year, you can understand what I mean when I say Republican campaign promises are not worth the paper they are written on.

Now, I stand on the record. You know where I stand. I have taken a stand on every one of the issues that are before the country today. You know what I stand for.

But, just try to find out where the other fellow stands! We would be hopelessly committed to an old-fashioned Republican boom-and-bust cycle if we turn the whole Government over to the Republicans.

This is not the kind of unity I want to see. The kind of unity we need is unity for lower prices, unity for good housing at prices our people can afford, unity for better labor management laws, unity for strengthened and extended social security, unity for a national health program--unity, in other words, for a prosperous and progressive United States.

I don't know whether you have analyzed the situation or not, but there are more than 61 million people at work in this country today; and everybody is prosperous, to some extent--that is, there is a distribution of the national income which was $217 billion last year and it will be greater this year--there has been an evenly fair distribution of that income. The farmer has his fair share, labor has received good wages--three times what it was back in 1932. At that time there were less than 31 million people at work, and there were 12 or 15 million people walking the streets who couldn't find jobs.

Now, I think it is much better to have a government whose interest is the whole people than to have a government whose interest is only for the people at the top of the heap. That is why I am convinced that the 81st Congress will be a Democratic Congress. I am convinced that you are going to elect Edward J. Breen from the First District, and Edward J. Gardner from the Second District. I am convinced that you are going to elect one of the most progressive Governors Ohio ever had--Frank Lausche.

I am going up and down this country, and I think I am on a crusade for the welfare of the people; and I think the people are beginning to find out that their interests are the interests that I am fighting for.

I think that these fellows are going to have the greatest surprise they ever had in their lives on the 3d day of November when the vote is in.

Now, I usually take my greatest assets around the country with me. How would you like to meet my family? I will present Mrs. Truman first--she runs me and the White House. Now I have the privilege of presenting my baby, my daughter Margaret.

Thank you all very much.