Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri

[1.] Rock ISLAND, ILLINOIS (Rear platform, 5:45 a.m.)

I don't think I have ever seen so many farmers in town in all my life. I had no idea that there would be anybody else in a town the size of Rock Island at this time of day.

It is a pleasure for me to be here with you, and I am highly honored to be introduced by the next Senator from Illinois, and I am highly honored to have alongside me the next Senator from Iowa, Guy Gillette. Senator Gillette and I served in the Senate, and Douglas--I never had the pleasure of serving with Senator-to-be Douglas, but I will probably have a chance to associate With him a very great deal the next 4 years.

You know the issues in this campaign are not hard to define. The issue is the people against the special interests, and if you need any proof of that, all you need to do is to review the record of this Republican 80th Congress.

You remember in 1946, when everybody said he wanted a change, that he thought the country had had enough, and they put out such propaganda as that, most of you stayed at home, and by a minority vote of about a third of the voters, you elected a Congress that I think has given you enough!

The object of this 80th Congress, it seemed to me, was to take the bargaining power away from labor and give it back to the special interests. It was also the idea of the lobbies that controlled that 80th Congress to see that prices were not controlled. You know, I think they really like to have a "boom and bust." You know, that Congress had some of the most terrific lobbies that have ever been in Washington in the history of the country. They had the real estate lobby, the one that turned the rent control program loose, and they had the speculators lobby, and they had the National Association of Manufacturers lobby, whose interest is not the public interest it is special interest.

I want to bring it home to you that you must yourselves analyze the condition of the country at the time the 80th Congress took over, and you must also analyze the condition of the country over a 16-year period, 14 years of which were in the hands of a Democratic administration. You must also go back and compare that situation with the one with which we were faced after 12 years of "normalcy," shall we call it?

That is what they want to go back to. We don't want to go back, we want to go forward!

Dozens of times--I won't say that--at least half a dozen times I'll say--I asked the Congress to give us a price control bill that would gradually release those controls as production caught up with consumption and prevent a runaway inflation.

You were informed by the National Association of Manufacturers in 1946 that within 1 year prices would adjust themselves. They have adjusted themselves. They have gone all the way off the chart. It has not been in the interests of the common man either. It has been in the interest of special interests who want to control this country again.

Now you can't afford to let that happen. You must, if you want this country to go forward, you must always be sure that you have people in control of the Government whose interest is yours and not the special interests who want special privilege in everything that takes place.

Now, in order to prevent that, you must elect men like Senator Douglas here in Illinois, and men like Senator Gillette in Iowa. You must elect Congressmen whose interest is the people's interest, and not special privilege interests. I hope you will keep that in mind, and I hope you will do that on November 2d.

In order to get that done, you have got to get on the books and get registered. And you have got to go out and vote on election day. As I told you a while ago, just one third of the people voted--a light vote in 1946, and you see what you got. You got the Republican 80th "do-nothing" Congress.

Now, if you are going to stay at home again--if you are going to shirk your public duty again, that is what you will get again, and that is just exactly what you will deserve.

Thank you very much.

[2.] DAVENPORT, Iowa (Rear platform, 6:10 a.m.)

Good morning! I am not surprised to see you up at this time of day. I was surprised, though, in Illinois to see them get up so early. You know, Iowa is, outside of Missouri, I guess, the greatest farm state.

It is a great pleasure to me to be with you this morning, and it is a very great pleasure to be present with your next Congressman, your next Senator, and your next Governor-all Democrats.

I understand that the people of Iowa have been suffering from the same things that all the rest of the country has been suffering from, and that is the 80th Congress. They were elected in 1946 because people didn't seem to be satisfied with everything in the world they needed. They wanted a change, and they got it.

Now I think they have had enough of that situation and when the votes are counted on election day, you are going to find that Iowa will have a Democratic Governor, and this district will have a Democratic Senator and we will have Guy Gillette back in the Senate.

It is a very great pleasure to me to be able to go across the country in this manner and see you and talk to you and let you know what I am thinking. Today at Dexter, west of Des Moines, I am going to tell you just exactly what my program is on the farm and the farmer, and then you will have a chance to make a choice between Republican reaction and Democratic forward-looking administrations. You have to make up your mind then as to what your best interests are, and on election day it will be your duty, no matter what your politics or what your program is or what you believe in, to go to the polls and exercise that privilege.

You know, in 1946 a little over one-third of the population voted, and look what you got! Now, I am begging you and pleading with you, to be sure that on this November the 2d you vote.

If the people turn out and express their will, then we have the Government which is intended in our Constitution. If you don't do that, you are not only shirking your duty but you are liable to continue something like the Both Congress.

Thank you.

[3.] Iowa CITY, Iowa (Rear platform, 7:25 a.m.)

Senator, ladies and gentlemen:

It certainly is a wonderful welcome from Iowa's university city. I am certainly happy to be here, and I am certainly happy to have these good Iowa Democrats on the train with me--your candidate for Governor, your candidate for Congress and for the United States Senate, and your State Democratic Senator.

You know, one of the first things that those ancestors of ours who settled this part of the world thought of was education. The first thing that they set up was a church. The next thing they set up was a schoolhouse. The University of Iowa is one of the first of the educational institutions set up west of the .Mississippi River and north of the Mississippi line. You know, Missouri and Iowa were from the same territory, first Louisiana, then Missouri territory, then Iowa decided they wanted to become independent and became the great State of Iowa where the tall corn grows. I contend that we grow corn as tall in Missouri, but I have never been able to prove it.

I am also very much interested in education. You know, we have reached a saturation point in our educational institutions because there are so many more people interested in getting an education. Your university, like every other university in this country, is crowded. It is short of housing facilities, it is short of teachers, it is short of all those things that go to make for proper education.

I have been fighting with the Congress of the United States in an effort to get an educational bill through the Congress that would be helpful to all those universities that are overcrowded, both in a housing way and in a teacher's salary way, and in a way to help take care of the crowded conditions in those schools.

There are some people who like to live back in the 1840's, who think that education is not the backbone of this country, and who are not really interested in the educational welfare of the country as a whole.

When our educational program breaks down, then we are fertile field for "isms." Education is the best defense against totalitarianism. It is because we know better that we don't believe in and that we don't have those things.

I hope you will continue with your great educational program here in this great State of Iowa, and that you will give me the support which I need to implement it on a Federal basis by sending to Washington a Democratic United States Senator from Iowa, and a Democratic Congressman from this district.

To help yourselves completely, you ought to elect a Democratic Governor from the great State of Iowa. I am sure that is what you are going to do, because Iowa has gone a time or two with a Democratic Governor.

I want to thank you very much for this privilege, and I would like very much to introduce one of the members of my family who is with me, my daughter Margaret.

[4.] OXFORD, Iowa (Rear platform, 8:50 a.m)

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen:

I certainly am happy to see this wonderful turnout in Oxford, Iowa. You know, your candidate for Senator, who will be Senator from Iowa after this election is over--Senator Gillette, told me that Oxford University in England was named after this town. It was rather difficult to understand that, since I understand you just celebrated your 100th anniversary last year, but it is interesting anyway.

I know you live in a very wonderful, fertile part of this great United States, and I heard another remarkable fact about this great city of Oxford. They tell me in all the hundred years of your existence you never went wrong politically--you have always been Democratic.

I don't have to stand here and convince you, then, that the Democratic Party stands for what is best for the farmer. I am going to elaborate on that down in Dexter, which I understand is a hotbed of Republicanism. But I know I don't have to convince you about conservation and crop insurance and rural electrification and those other things which the Democratic Party instituted and which have given the farmers the greatest prosperity they have ever had in their history.

There is only one thing I want to caution you about. Prosperity sometimes is a bad thing for some people. It makes them lazy and indifferent to the welfare of their country and their neighbors. The farmer now is in a prosperous condition, the most prosperous condition he has ever been in in the history of the country, or in the history of the world, for that matter.

I want to urge you people who live in the great farming communities to remember that the Government of the United States is a Government of the people. It is your Government. In fact, you are the Government. In order to implement that Government and make it work as it should, you must exercise that greatest of all privileges, the privilege of voting--expressing yourself at the polls in a free country.

Now, in 1946 people didn't do that. They didn't exercise their right on election day, and a very small minority of the voting population of the country gave us the worst Congress we have had in the history of the country, except one. Only one, I would say, was worse than this 80th Congress which has just finished. I will let you look up your history books to see which one that was, and I think you will agree with me when you read about it.

I want to urge you, don't make that mistake again--don't make that mistake again. Turn out and vote the Democratic ticket on November the 2d, and elect a Democratic Governor from Iowa, a Democratic Senator, and a Democratic Congressman from this district. It will be a lot easier for your President to protect the rights of the people.

I can't tell you, again, how much I appreciate this privilege. They tell me these bands come from all over Iowa that are here this morning. That is a compliment, and I appreciate it. I hope you have a most successful celebration the rest of the day.

Thanks again.

[5.] GRINNELL, Iowa (Rear platform, 8:55 a.m.)

I appreciate that introduction very highly. Thank you, Doctor. I am a synthetic alumni.

My first honorary degree in my life I received from Grinnell College and I treasure it above all the others I've received since.

I'd like very much to introduce my daughter to you: Miss Margaret.

You know, it's a very great pleasure for us to be in Iowa today on this wonderful sunshiny fall day. You know, I met a fellow a while ago who is one of the most unusual I've ever seen. He told me that he had moved from Miami, Fla., to Iowa 6 years ago; and I also met another remarkable fellow who told me that he moved from California to Iowa. When I'm out in California about half the population out there is made up of Iowans and Missourians, so we've got at least some reverse on the subject.

This country is wonderful. I was raised down here in Jackson County, Mo., which is just like this Iowa country. It has black soil, raises corn and wheat and oats and alfalfa and lespedeza and soybeans and most everything else that you raise around here in this part of the world; and I'm so happy to see the prosperity as I come across this great State.

I never saw such corn crops. They tell me it's the greatest one in the history of the country; and the wheat crop is the second largest that this country has ever raised; and you know, that's necessary, for we have been under these emergency conditions, responsible for keeping millions and millions of people from starving to death, and I think Almighty God gave us that privilege, and I think we ought to make use of it.

Now, down here at Dexter today I'm going to try to outline to you the Democratic farm program. You know what that program is, but I'm going to reiterate it and bring it home to you and try to get you into a frame of mind so that you'll exercise your responsibility this fall when it comes time to vote. Your greatest responsibility is the responsibility of seeing that your Government is the sort of government you want because you are the Government. You are not the Government, though, when you don't exercise your franchise. I'm emphasizing that everywhere I go.

The most patriotic thing you can do under the circumstances today is to be sure and cast your vote on the 2d of November.

Again, I want to thank you for this privilege of stopping here in this wonderful town where this wonderful Grinnell College is, and a part of which I feel I am.

Again, thank you, Dr. Stevens.

[6.] DES MOINES, Iowa (Rear platform upon arriving, 10:20 a.m.)

Governor, Senator Gillette, distinguished members of my party who have been on the train with me across the State of Iowa, including your Democratic candidate for Governor, your Democratic candidate for Congress, and several other of your distinguished candidates, and ladies and gentlemen:

I am delighted to arrive here this morning exactly on time. I'll say this to you, though: that in every city there were immense numbers of people who were anxious to shake hands with me, and if I had delayed the train long enough to do that, I wouldn't have been here till the day after tomorrow.

I always feel like I'm a part of this part of the world because I was raised down in Jackson County, Mo., near a little town called Grandview, and I lived the best part of my life in Independence. Kansas City, you know, is a suburb of Independence, Mo.!

I understand the thinking of the people in this part of the world because I think as you do and you think as I do--I think.

I understand that Des Moines' baseball team won the pennant this year in the Western League. I've been trying to get Kansas City to win the pennant in the American Association ever since I was a kid. They won one when I was a little boy. I had hoped also to see St. Louis and Washington win the championships in the American and National Leagues. So I go for St. Louis one time and Washington the next, but I'm afraid they're both out. I know Washington is out. I think it's struggling to get to the bottom place in the American League.

I can't tell you how pleased I am to see how well the countryside looks out here. I've been vitally interested in the prosperity of the agricultural section of the United States.

The fact that you have been able, during the last 6 or 7 years, to produce bumper crops has been one of the greatest contributions that we have had toward winning World War II and toward keeping the world on a basis of nonstarvation since the war ceased. It's a wonderful thing. I don't think you yourselves appreciate what that contribution means. I don't think you appreciate what wonderful yields there have been in the last few years.

Down home, not long ago, land on which I used to raise 14 and 15 bushels of wheat to the acre is now producing 25 and 30; land on which used to raise 60 bushels of corn an acre is raising 100, and I understand up here you are now raising 165 bushels of corn an acre. That's the most wonderful thing in the world, and I want to see that kept up. I want to see that prosperity continue which has been the result of a Democratic policy so far as the farmer and the workingman and the little businessman is concerned.

I think I can remember a time when a farmer didn't know whether he was going to stay on his farm till the next morning or not, and it hasn't been so very far back. And I think I can remember when there were a great many people who didn't know where the next meal was coming from.

That's not the case in this country today. We have a situation where the distribution of the national income is such that everybody gets a fair share of it. Now, that's not due to accident. That's due to a policy which has been pursued over the last 16 years.

I regret to say that a lot of you stayed at home in 1946 and set the clock back a little bit when you elected that "do-nothing" Republican 80th Congress. That was almost a disaster for the country. And if you stay at home again and let that situation continue you'll deserve just exactly what you get.

Now, when I get out here to Dexter, west of town, I'm going to outline for you the policy of the Democratic Party as it affects the farmer, the laboringman, and the small businessman, and I'm going to explain to you exactly why you should continue that policy in power; and then if you don't take my advice you won't have anybody to blame but yourselves.

I can't tell you how very much I appreciate the cordial welcome which has been extended me across the great State of Iowa this morning. Every place we've stopped at looked as if everybody in the whole surrounding country were there, and I believe they were.

We had quite an experience this morning down at a little town called Oxford. They told me the town had 500 people in it, and there were 2,500 people on the platform. Now, that's a feat that I never have known a big city to do in the history of the country--to get 5 times the number of the people in the town on the platform to welcome the President of the United States. That's been a very great pleasure.

[7.] DEXTER, Iowa (Address at National Plowing Match, 12:30 p.m., see Item 195)

[8.] DEXTER, Iowa (Following main address at the National Plowing Match, Item 195; 2:15 p.m.)

Thank you very much. I have had a most pleasant day, and outside the fact that I have had to make speeches it has been a happy day.

I heard a fellow tell a story about how he felt when he had to make speeches. It's an old, old story. I heard it about 40 years ago. He said when he has to make a speech, he felt like the fellow who was at the funeral of his wife, and the undertaker had asked him if he would ride down to the cemetery in the same car with his mother-in-law. He said, "Well, I can do it, but it's just going to spoil the whole day for me."

I am in sort of that frame of mind, but I have had to make a speech, especially one as important as that one this morning which I made which outlines the Democratic platform on the farm.

I had a most interesting and educational tour around this plowing contest ground today. I met the owners and tenants of these farms and inquired of them if they thought all of this tramping would ruin this good Iowa soil; and they said, "no, one rain would cure it all." That is remarkable. That is entirely remarkable.

I saw this straight line plowing contest as we came in, and was particularly interested in watching to see whether there were jumps and curves in the furrows. I didn't see any places where it could be said there was a crook in the furrow. They were all so straight. I don't see how they could ever check them.

I went over and looked at the contour plowing, and the uses that were being made of the waterholes to stop the wash--most interesting. I was down in the Virgin Islands not long ago and they are starting that contour treatment of the hills and volcanoes down in that part of the world, and they are raising some remarkable crops on those terraces. So you see, we are using our knowledge not only to improve Iowa and Missouri and Illinois, we are using it to improve those peoples who are dependent upon us for a living and for information on how to make a living.

Your friend who introduced me said that he would like to hear some of my experiences as a farmer. It is hardly worth telling at this age.

[At this point Herbert Plambeck, Director of the National Plowing Contest, asked the President to comment on a statement that Mr. Truman could "plow one of the straightest furrows of anyone in your community."]

I will tell you frankly, that statement was made by a very, very prejudiced witness: that statement was made by my mother.

I did have a reputation, though, of being able to sow a 160-acre wheat field without a skip place showing in it. My father used to always raise so much fuss about a skip place on an oat field or a wheat field that I was very careful never to have a skip place. I accomplished it by putting a marker on the drill--it was like planting corn.

I have had some other experiences that are interesting. In those days, we had what we called a gang plow, two 12-inch plows on the same frame with three wheels on it, and the locomotive power was four horses, or four mules, or three mules and a horse, or whatever you could get to pull it. It moved at a rate where it turned over a 2-foot furrow, and you could count the revolutions of the big wheel, from which you could tell how long it would take to plow an acre or to plow a field--3 or 4 days, sometimes longer.

Now you can get on a tractor and plow night and day--you don't have to feed it or water it--you can get off it whenever you please, take a nap, come back and run it again. I didn't live on the farm in this age. I'm sorry I didn't. I don't want to turn the clock back. I don't want to go back to the horse and buggy age, although some of our Republican friends do.

[At this point Mr. Plambeck reminded the President that many of the estimated 100,000 persons present had arrived since his appearance earlier in the day and were seeing him for the first time. He suggested the President might want to tell them how he felt about "coming back to the land of golden corn and green fields." The President then resumed speaking. ]

I will come back any time you ask me, especially if I am met by 10 acres of people. Now you figure out how many that is!

[9.] DES MOINES, Iowa (Rear platform, upon departing, 4:10 p.m.)

I appreciate that introduction from the next Governor of Iowa; and I also had the privilege today of riding with the next Senator from Iowa.

We had a wonderful day. I think I must have seen all of 600,000 people today. They couldn't estimate what the number was out at the National Plowing Contest, but I estimated that there were 10 acres of people, and there are 43,560 square feet in an acre. Now you figure out how many people were there! I judge that there were at least 100,000 out there, and it was a most cordial and pleasant place to be.

I learned a lot about plowing that I thought I already knew, but didn't. I found out that there are a lot of things you can do with a plow and tractor that I couldn't do with four mules. It was an interesting experience.

I do want to express to you my sincere appreciation for the cordiality of your welcome, for the hospitality of the great State of Iowa, and do thank you very much for coming into the Democratic column on the 2d of November.

[10.] MELCHER, Iowa (Rear platform, 5:08 p.m.)

Thank you very much. That was a wonderful introduction and I appreciate it.

They tell me that this great Democratic town has a population of 500. Somebody told me that, and if that's the case I wish I could get New York and Chicago and Kansas City and St. Louis and San Francisco to turn out like this. I did have a turnout like this in Des Moines today and in Dexter. I understand Dexter has only about 1,400 and there were 100,000 people out at that
show.

I appreciate your courtesy and your cordiality. I've had a wonderful time in Iowa today. We started at Davenport and we stopped at nearly all the towns between Davenport and Des Moines, and they turned out just like this to see the President. It's a wonderful tribute to the President of the United States when people want to see and hear what he has to say.

I don't know whether you listened in today at the meeting at Dexter. If you did, you found out exactly what the program of the Democratic Party is with regard to the farmer and labor and the small businessman. If you haven't heard that speech, it's going to be rebroadcast again tonight. You better listen.

I appreciate your being here. I understand that this town has been Democratic ever since it was founded. I found another town like that over here in eastern Iowa, a town that has 500 people and which never has gone Republican. They tell me that's true of this town. That's a wonderful record and I hope you keep it up.

There is another little town named Oxford, and Guy Gillette--Senator Gillette-with whom I served in the Senate and who I think is going back to the Senate in this next election, told me that Oxford University in England was named for that town. I told them that Senator Gillette told me that, and they didn't believe me.

I think there isn't any doubt but what people are beginning to educate themselves in political economy. They have begun to understand that the Government of the United States is their Government and that they themselves are responsible for that Government. I think that lesson was brought home to them in 1946 when one-third of the voters in the United States elected that "donothing" 80th Republican Congress.

You'll have a chance to redeem yourselves on the 2d of November if you go out and vote for' the welfare of the country, and for nothing else. As I said over at Dexter today, vote for yourselves and vote for the welfare of the country; and if you do that I won't have to move out of the White House.

I have had a wonderful time riding around over Ohio today--Iowa; I was in Ohio yesterday; I was in Ohio yesterday--riding around over Iowa today with your Democratic candidate for Governor--Carroll Switzer. He strikes me as a man who would make a good governor of Iowa and I know you are going to put him in that position. I have ridden with your Congressmen and with your local officials, and they all look good to me. I like Democrats anyhow.

So do the right thing here on election day.

[11.] CHARITON, Iowa (Rear platform, 5:36 p.m.)

I appreciate that introduction very much, and I think he is a good prophet.

I have had a wonderful tour today beginning at Rock Island, Ill., and they tell me this is the last town in Iowa I'll stop at, and I'll regret that because at every place I have been the crowds have been just like this, and they've been exceedingly cordial. I feel that Iowa is beginning to wake up to the situation, and on November 2 I won't have to say much more about them voting Democratic.

You know, the reason for that is that the Democratic Party gave the farmers the price support program, soil conservation, rural electrification, crop insurance, and other progressive measures of this kind. They have led to the greatest prosperity for the farmer that the farmer has ever had in the history of the world.

In 1932, 123,000 farmers in the United States had lost their farms. In 1947, less than 800 farms were foreclosed. That's the greatest record in history.

In 1932, the farmers were hopelessly in debt. Their indebtedness has been reduced by more than 50 percent and they have $18 billion in assets. Think of that! Just think of that!

Now, there are 'people in this United States that would like to go back to that condition, when labor was receiving an average of 45 cents an hour and when the farmer was getting 3 cents for hogs and 15 cents for corn and burning the corn because it wasn't worth the price. Those same people now have made an attempt to do away with the price support program which is responsible for this immense production which we have had in the last 7 years and which has kept millions of people in this world alive.

I'm asking you just to read history, to use your own judgment, and to decide whether you want to go forward with the Democratic Party or whether you want to turn the clock back to the horse and buggy days with such people that made up that "do-nothing" 80th Congress.

That Congress tried its level best to take all the rights away from labor. That Congress tried its level best to put the farmer back to 1932. That Congress tried its level best to put small business out of business. For what purpose? To help the big interests which they represented.

Do you know that there were more and bigger lobbies in Washington than at any time in the history of the Congress of the United States ? Some time a little later on I'm going to tell you about those terrible lobbies: The Association of Manufacturers' and the speculators' lobbies and several others that I could name right now; and I've got the facts and figures on them. They spent more money lobbying for special privilege in this "do-nothing" 80th Congress than has been spent in Washington in the whole history of the country.

Now, why did they do that? Because they wanted to take you to town. I'll tell you--you're going to get taken to town if you don't use your privilege on election day.

You stayed at home in 1946 and you got the 80th Congress, and you got just exactly what you deserved. You didn't exercise your God-given right to control this country. Now you're going to have another chance. If you let that chance slip, you won't have my sympathy.

If you don't let that chance slip, you'll do me a very great favor, for I'll live in the White House another 4 years.

It's been a very great pleasure to be in Iowa, and I appreciate it. I have had the privilege of riding with all your public officials today. It's been a very great pleasure to ride with your candidate for Governor, who is a wonderful man, the Democratic candidate for Governor. And I was with Guy Gillette, with whom I served in the Senate, and there never was a better Senator in the Senate than Guy Gillette. I'm extremely fond of him, and I hope, for your own welfare and for the welfare of this great State, that you'll send Guy Gillette back to the Senate, and that you'll elect the Democratic candidate for Governor and all the Democratic Congressmen and public officials you possibly can. I like Democrats no matter what office they're running for.

I hope that everything will go well with you. I can't tell you how I appreciate this wonderful turnout, this wonderful reception. It's been just like this all day long. I have come to the conclusion that the people in Iowa like their President and appreciate what he's trying to do for the common people.

[12.] TRENTON, MISSOURI (Rear platform, 7:10 p.m.)

It certainly is a pleasure. This is the first Missouri town at which we have stopped since we left Washington, and I certainly was highly pleased when the next Governor of Missouri met me in Des Moines this morning and spent the day with me. We went to that great meeting outside of Des Moines, and he has been with me ever since. I told him that at the first stop in Missouri he was going to have to present the President of the United States, although so far as Missouri was concerned, they didn't need such a presentation.

Forrest Smith and I are going to carry this State, and so is every other Democrat on the ticket. I have got a lot of friends here in Trenton. I have been here many a time. When I was a kid, I had a job in the National Bank of Commerce in Kansas City, and I was getting $35 a month, and I had an old lady who ran a boarding house out on 1314 Troost, and she let me live there and have two meals a day for $5 a week. Imagine that! And she was a native of Trenton, Mo. That has been so long ago, I hate to remember just exactly how long it has been, but because that good old lady was so kind to me, I have always had a warm spot in my heart for this town, even if it does go Republican sometimes.

I don't think you are going to do that next time. How about it?

I am not supposed to address or make a political speech in my home State at this time, but I sincerely hope that all of you will study the issues for what they are worth, and I sincerely hope that on election day you won't hesitate to go to the polls, because this Government of ours is made up of the people. Every one of you has a hand in this Government, and when you don't exercise that great privilege which our forefathers sought to give you, you are shirking your duty, and then if the Government goes wrong, there is nobody to blame but you.

You know, in 1946 two-thirds of you stayed at home and you have got the 80th Congress--I say, next to one, the worst Congress the country has ever had for the welfare of the public.

If you will study the record, I am sure you will come to the same conclusion that I have, although you are not as close to those things as I am. But your interests are involved in the results of this--the action and nonaction of the 80th Congress.

All of you in this good town depend either on some job or on the soil, and if you do your interests have been vitally affected by the actions of this "do-nothing" 80th Republican Congress.

Now you are going to have a chance to remedy that on November 2d. You are going to have a chance to make Forrest Smith Governor of Missouri, and you are going to have a very, very great chance of keeping a Missourian in the White House for another 4 years.

There is one thing I want to bring home to you. I am on a crusade for the welfare of the everyday man in the United States. I am not working for special privilege. I am not working for the speculators' lobby. I am not working for the real estate lobby. I am not working for any special interests in the United States but the interests of the everyday man whose interest is my interest--and that interest is your interest.

You know, Lincoln said that the Lord certainly loved the common people or he wouldn't have made so many of them. I think that is just as true as it can be.

Now I want you, as citizens of the great State of mine, of which I am prouder than anything else, because I think it is the greatest State in the Union, and I can't say that in California or New York or Pennsylvania, but I say it here. It's the only State in the Union around which you can put a fence and it will survive. It has got everything it needs. There is no other State in the Union that has that.

I want every citizen of this great State to help me in that crusade, to keep the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And if you will do that, this country will continue for another thousand years as the greatest country in the world.

[13.] POLO, MISSOURI (Rear platform, 8:10

It's certainly been a pleasure to have been able to stop for you tonight. I didn't think I was going to be able to do it but the railroad finally consented to stop.

I have had a great day today over the whole State of Iowa. Yesterday, I was over Ohio and Illinois.

The first meeting I had this morning was at a quarter of 6 at Rock Island, Ill., and I've had a meeting nearly every hour since then.

When I got to Des Moines, the next Governor of Missouri met me there--Forrest Smith-- and we have been traveling together ever since.

If you are sure to elect Forrest Smith Governor, of course there will be no difficulty about the President carrying the State. I'm sure you will.

I can't tell you how very much I appreciate the cordiality of the receptions I have received today and yesterday on this crusade I am starting, to keep the Government in the hands of the people. That's what it amounts to, and nothing else.

I think the last Congress conclusively proved that the Republicans are entirely for special privilege, and you can't afford to have that sort of an administration in the Government. I sincerely hope that every one of you will turn out on election day and make Forrest Smith the Governor of Missouri, and fix it so that your native son can carry the State for the Presidency.