Harry S. Truman photo

Address at the Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles

September 23, 1948

Mr. Chairman, and ladies and gentlemen:

I have come here tonight to tell you where I stand on the big issues before the country in this campaign.

This is a championship fight. And I am convinced of one thing: the American people are sold on the idea that nobody deserves to win a championship fight by running away. I do not believe that anybody is going to win this fight by running away from the record or ducking the issues.

In our system, the people have a right to know exactly what our two major parties stand for on specific issues. They have a right to know who is for them and who is against them.

The decisive battle has arrived. The people are going to have to choose one side or the other. The Democratic Party and I have nothing to conceal. We are proud of our record. The underlying struggle in this campaign is a struggle between two sets of ideals.

The Democratic ideal of America is summed up in the Four Freedoms: Freedom from Want; Freedom from Fear; Freedom of Worship; and Freedom of Speech.

The Republican ideal, as I have seen it in action, is summed up in one phrase, "Big business first."

Today, I regret to say certain great business interests are trying to corrupt the American idealism. With the Republican Party as their instrument, they are waging a war against the aspirations of our people.

These shrewd men aim to take advantage of the prosperity which you have attained in the last few years with Democratic government. They know that in the throes of prosperity, voters are not easily excited. They hope that this year a large number of voters will not bother to go to the polls. That is their only chance of winning. Some of their franker spokesmen have said in so many words that they are counting on a light vote on election day.

With that in mind, they are trying their best to avoid any suggestion that there is something to fight about in this campaign. They are trying to lull you to sleep with "high-level" platitudes. They are saying in effect: "Everything is all right, everything will go on being all right, if you will just forget about politics and leave things to us."

I wish from the bottom of my heart that that were true. I wish from the heart that it were possible to say to the American people, with sincerity, that it does not make any difference which party they elect this year, that everything will be all right, no matter what happens.

But that is not true. As President of the United States, I know that everything will not be all right, unless the American people exercise care and vigilance to. keep the gains which they have won. These past 2 years have shown us evidence--frightening evidence-that if the country falls into the hands of the leaders of the Republican Party, everything is likely to be all wrong within a very short time.

We in this country know how abruptly conditions can change. Just 20 years ago the Republicans were assuring us that everything was going to be all right. But a few months later everything was all wrong. And everything stayed all wrong, until the American public elected Franklin D. Roosevelt.

No one can deny that this country has benefited from Democratic administrations. It is the Democratic Party that has been working for the people for the past 16 years, and getting results for them. It is the Democratic Party that ended discouragement and fear under the Republicans, and opened the gate to a new era of prosperity in this country.

Farmers, workers, homeowners, small businessmen--every American has reason to remember the constructive work of the Democratic administrations since 1933: social security; the farm program; collective bargaining; the minimum wage law; slum clearance; low-rent housing; TVA; soil conservation; reclamation and irrigation projects; full employment; world leadership; the highest standards of living in the history of the world.

You can sum up in these few words an era of progress with Democratic administrations which believed in the people and worked for the people.

But these are things that happened in the past. And you and I, and all of us, are concerned with what is happening now and what will happen in the days immediately ahead.

I don't expect the American people to vote my way just because the Democratic Party served them well after the Republican Party had let them down. But I do expect the American people to wake up and realize right now, this very instant, their standard of living and their hopes for the future are at stake.

I'm not going to use high-sounding words. I speak plainly and directly. I am going to use hard facts. The people of California and of the entire Nation are entitled to the facts.

We'll start with some hard facts about housing.

This is a great and growing city.

People are pouring into it every day. But the supply of houses is pitifully inadequate. Why? The real estate lobby and the Republican Party in Congress have seen to that.

Eight years ago, only 5 percent of the houses sold in Los Angeles cost under $3,500. Today only 1 out of 30 sells for so little--if you can find it.

Eight years ago, only 5 percent of the houses sold in Los Angeles cost over $10,000. Today, 50 percent cost over $10,000--again, if you have one--if you have the $10,000, and can find the house.

Many people can't find a house at any price. Many are doubling up with other families. Thousands of citizens in this city are forced to live in trailers and unsanitary shacks.

The Democratic administration knows that not all families can afford to buy their own homes at a price that yields a profit to the bankers and builders. We know that many families, particularly young veterans, need low-rent housing, which requires Federal support.

Almost 3 years ago, after long and exhaustive study, the Wagner-Ellender-Taft housing bill was introduced in the Congress. This represented a long-range program to provide the 15 million new homes we shall need. Among other things, it provided for slum clearance, rural housing, and low-rent housing projects.

Time and again I urged the passage of that bill. But it was opposed by a million-dollar real-estate lobby in Washington. It passed the Senate, only to be killed in the House of Representatives.

Last year the same bill was introduced again. Again it passed the Senate. It was murdered by the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, by some of the ugliest trickery in the history of the Congress.

Last July, because the need for housing was so desperate, I called a special session of the 80th Congress. Since the Republican National Convention had specifically endorsed slum-clearance and low-rental housing in its platform, I hoped that we could finally get some action.

But the real-estate lobby was still at work, And again the Republican Congress obeyed the voice of its masters. The House Republicans blocked the bill. The Republican head of a powerful committee in the House used his power to refuse to let the House of Representatives vote on public housing.

The fight went into the Senate. What happened there? Senator Taft of Ohio, who had helped to sponsor the original measure, actually took the lead in fighting his own bill, and voted against it.

By their votes ye shall know them!

These are hard facts. These facts tell you as plain as day what Republican leaders are doing to you right now, and what they will do to you ten times over if they get full control of your Government.

These facts tell you, too, how little faith you can have in Republican platform promises and campaign promises.

Let's look at some more hard facts. Facts about social security, for example. In 1944 the Republican Party spoke out boldly for extending social security. That was a fine platform promise. But what happened ?

The Republican Both Congress actually passed a law, not to extend social security, but to take social security away from hundreds of thousands of American workers. That's the way they kept their promises. I vetoed this measure. Ninety-eight percent of the Republicans in Congress voted to override my veto.

Let's look at the facts about health legislation. You know how hard it is to find a room in a hospital. You know how hard it is to pay the bills, when sickness hits your family.

We worked out a painstaking plan for national medical care. It was designed to meet the medical needs of the American people. It provided for new hospitals, clinics, health centers, research, and a system of national health insurance.

Who opposed it? The well-organized medical lobby. Who killed it? The Republican 80th "do-nothing" Congress.

After the Republicans had killed the bill as a whole, we still tried to pass parts of it. The Republican Party in Congress had become a little uneasy by that time. They were not quite sure how the people would like what they were doing. So they tried to make their record on health legislation look a little better.

They passed a dental research bill. But having done that, they failed to provide any money to carry it out.

Then these Republican so-called "representatives of the people" passed a bill to conduct research in heart disease. That's an important thing for this country, for as you know, heart disease is on the increase. On the basis of the best advice, I recommended nearly $7 million as the minimum requirement. But the Republican Congress cut the appropriation to a mere half-million dollars, only 1/14 of what was needed.

Everywhere you look, it's the same story.

I asked for aid to education for the benefit of the children of this country. No action by the Republican 80th Congress.

I asked for a curb on inflation. No action by the Republican Congress.

The story of the fight on inflation is especially revealing. When I called the Congress into special session this summer, I urged it to deal with the high cost of living. The Republican leadership replied that this was a political maneuver on my part in an election year.

Let's nail that one right now. The Republicans know perfectly well that I had previously called a special session of the Republican Both Congress in November 1947 to deal with inflation and the high cost of living. And 1947 was not an election year.

When I called the special session for the same purpose in 1948, it was because the Congress had failed to act for the preceding year and a half.

The dangers of inflation are continuing to grow. The cost of living is continuing to rise. The Republicans cannot conceal their responsibility by hurling charges of "politics" at me.

There is no great mystery about how to stop the cost of living from going higher and higher. The best way to stop it is with price control. Everybody knows that when we had price control the average family was not gouged by inflated prices.

Everybody knows that rents under price control have not skyrocketed. But meat, and other foods, and automobiles and building materials, without price control have gone up and up and up.

These are the facts. I have been urging price control, because it is a realistic way, a tested way, of holding down the cost of living. A program that does not include price control will not, and cannot, hold down the cost of living. We have learned that from hard experience.

Instead of dealing vigorously with inflation, the Republican leadership preferred to try to make a political issue of it.

They blame Government expenditures for the rising cost of living. The fact is, that the Government expenditures were vastly greater during the war than they are now, and yet we stabilized the cost of living.

They blame the foreign aid program for the rising cost of living. During the war we shipped far more goods and supplies overseas than we are shipping now, and yet we stabilized the cost of living.

These are the hard facts that you voters will want to bear in mind, when you go to the polls on election day. These are the facts that make this election a decisive battle in the life of our country. These are the facts which show that this is a critical struggle between the forward forces of liberalism and the backward forces of reaction.

While I am talking about the forces of progressive liberalism, I want to add a word to all the people of California who believe in liberal ideas.

You, like Americans everywhere today, are disturbed about the threat to peace and the failures of the 80th Congress to deal with basic economic problems here at home.

Most of the people realize that the Democratic administration is doing everything that can be done to preserve the peace. And they realize that the Democratic administration is eager to put an end to the reactionary policies of the 80th Congress.

There are, however, some people with true liberal convictions, whose worry over the state of the world has caused them to lean toward a third party.

To these liberals I would say in all sincerity: Think again.

The fact that the Communists are guiding and using the third party shows that this party does not represent American ideals.

But there is another and very practical reason why it is folly for any liberal to put his hope in this third party.

The third party has no power in the Government and no chance of achieving power. The simple fact is that the third party cannot achieve peace, because it is powerless. It cannot achieve better conditions here at home, because it is powerless.

The Democratic Party is the party which truly expresses the hopes of American liberals, and which has power to fulfill those hopes. We have worked for peace in a difficult international situation, and we shall continue with all our strength to work for peace.

We have worked for the improvement of the conditions here at home--to curb inflation, to provide low-rent housing, give aid to education, extend civil rights, and scores of other ways.

I shall continue to work for these goals with all my strength.

A vote for the third party can only weaken the efforts of the Democratic Party to build a healthy nation and a peaceful world.

A vote for the third party plays into the hands of the Republican forces of reaction, whose aims are directly opposed to the aims of American liberalism.

A vote for the third party will not promote the cause of American liberalism; it will injure it.

I say to those disturbed liberals who have been sitting uncertainly on the outskirts of the third party: Think again. Don't waste your vote.

This is the hour for the liberal forces of America to unite. We have hopes to fulfill and goals to attain. Together we can rout the forces of reaction once again.

We are strong in faith and strong in energy. We must entrust our destiny to those who will safeguard our rights, our freedom, and our national honor.

Note: The President spoke at 9:30 p.m. at the Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles. His opening words "Mr. Chairman" referred to State Senator George Luckey, Vice Chairman of the California State Democratic Committee.

Harry S Truman, Address at the Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232981

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