Address in Buffalo

Mr. Chairman:

In less than a month, you will have the responsibility of choosing a government for the next 4 years, 1949 to 1953.

These are likely to be critical years in American history, and in world history. They are years which are likely to hold the answer to two great questions in the hearts of most of us today.

These questions I can briefly sum up as: (1) war or peace? (2) hard times or prosperity?

Now, as to the first question, war or peace.

I know that every right-thinking American wants peace.

I believe that our prayers will be answered and that we will have peace. No one wants peace in the world more than I do. I have said time and again that I would rather have peace in the world than to be President of the United States.

Of course, present world conditions are of grave concern to all of us. Because of these conditions, I have found it necessary to cancel visits I had planned to make to a number of cities tomorrow. I must return to Washington to meet with Secretary of State Marshall, who is flying back from Paris to confer with me. I shall discuss with Secretary Marshall means for working out constructive and peaceful solutions to our problems abroad, within the framework of our basic American principles, and within the framework of the United Nations.

I am sorry to disappoint so many of my friends whom I had expected to see tomorrow. But I know that they will forgive me.

Now, tonight I am going to talk to you about the second great question I mentioned-hard times or prosperity. The election in November clearly presents that question to the people of the United States.

Of course, there is no open argument on this question. Nobody wants hard times. Everybody wants prosperity. The Republicans are quite sincere in saying that they want prosperity just as much as the Democrats. I believe they do. Who doesn't?

But the leaders who now control the Republican Party want prosperity for special privilege groups first, and for other people, if they can get it. They want high profits for their campaign contributors, and high prices for special interest lobbies.

In the mad scramble to get that selfish kind of prosperity, they forget about the rest of the country. They forget about the needs of the farmer, and labor, and small business. They forget about housewives struggling with their budgets, and families using up their savings to meet the high cost of living. They forget about the prosperity of the consumers and wage earners of this country.

Then, of course, their own prosperity goes to smash under those circumstances, and they are all in depression together.

Real prosperity is based on justice. Real prosperity depends on fair treatment for all groups of our society. That's a rule as old as the Bible. That's what the Bible means when it says, and I quote: "We are....every one members, one of another." That is the very thing the economists have found out about our economy, after 50 years of studying booms and depressions.

We judge people and parties by what they do, not by what they say. We judge the Democratic Party by its record of achievement over the last 16 years.

We judge the Republican Party by its record of the last 2 years in the Congress where it has had absolute control of the legislative branch of the Government, and complete responsibility for that branch.

If we look at that record, we can see that the Republican leadership has changed very little in its policies since the days of Hoover. And we can see that the Republican Party is following the same fatal course--privileges for the few, neglect of the many--that led us into the disaster of 1929.

I know that this kind of talk is very painful to Republican leaders. I can't help that.

The Republicans say I ought not to talk about the past. They would like us to forget the period from 1929 to 1932.

They would like to forget it themselves, I am sure.

Let me assure you that when I talk about the Republican past, I do so with regret. I wish with all my heart that the Republican Party no longer had anything in common with the party that produced the depression of the 1930's.

But it is important for the people of this country to recognize that time has not changed the fundamental outlook of the Republican Party since it was last in power.

The leopard has not changed his spots; he has merely hired some public relations experts. They have taught him to wear sheep's clothing, and to purr sweet nothings about unity in a soothing voice.

But it's the same old leopard.

The Republican strategy in this campaign is increasingly clear. The Republicans have carefully appraised their assets and liabilities and have reached the conclusion that they have one main liability and one main asset.

The liability is the issues in this campaign.

They have concluded that their record is so bad on the important issues of the day, that they can't even discuss them.

The problems that affect the welfare of every person in this country are completely ignored by the Republican orators.

Now the main asset of the Republicans is the tremendous financial support they are receiving.

Much of it is being utilized to conduct a widespread propaganda campaign designed to fool you into believing that the result of this coming election is a foregone conclusion. How wrong they are!

I believe that the American people will not be fooled by this insidious propaganda.

I believe that the American people--and not the propagandists for special interests-will decide in whose hands their government will be placed.

Now let us look at some of the issues in this campaign.

I do not claim that all Democrats are perfect or that all Democratic Congressmen are wise. But in general, most Democrats vote for the people, and most Republicans vote for special interests.

Just take, as an example, my proposals for the control of high prices. In 1947, in the Senate, 90 percent of the Democrats voted for these proposals, and 10 percent of the Democrats against them; but only 5 percent of the Republicans voted for them, and 95 percent of the Republicans voted against those proposals. In 1948, 81 percent of the Democrats voted for these proposals to hold prices down, and 98 percent of the Republicans voted against them.

I want you to realize that when I speak of the actions of the Republican Both Congress, I am speaking of actions which represent the prevailing views of those who control the Republican Party. That Congress was merely a symbol and instrument of Republican Party policy.

Lately there has been talk by Republicans that while the 80th Congress might have been pretty bad--and I say it is more than pretty bad--that has nothing to do with the Republican leaders. They are attempting to build up the illusion that a Republican Congress and the Republican candidate for President do not stand for the same policies. Can you beat that?

Well, the Republican candidate has now dispelled that illusion. He has indorsed the Both Congress. He said, and I quote: "The 80th Congress delivered as no other Congress ever did for the future of the country." How they delivered !

Make no mistake: When we talk of the failures of the 80th Congress, we are talking of the policies of the Republican candidates, as well as most of the Republican Congressmen and Senators. They are tarred with the same brush--that brush that big business uses to brush off the needs and the claims of the people.

Now the point I want to drive home to you and to all the people of the United States is this: Your prosperity is endangered by the Republican policies.

I want you to look at the facts, think about them, and be guided by them.

And I am not asking you to vote for the Democratic Party, just because during the past 16 years, Democratic policies turned hard times into good times. What I want you to do is to look at the present Democratic policies, as they affect you and your family in the years ahead.

Let's take a specific example.

Let's take the struggle to get sufficient housing in this country.

This year, in the United States of America, 5 million families are living in slums and fire traps. Another 4 million families are living in houses that will soon become slums unless something is done to prevent it. Three million families, including many families of war veterans, are living doubled up with other families.

And things are getting worse. There are twice as many couples getting married each year as there are homes being built.

This housing situation is intolerable and inexcusable. A great, rich country like ours can afford decent homes for its citizens.

We must do three things: We must build more houses, we must build homes that people--particularly young people--can afford, and we must clear out and rebuild the slums.

Houses are being built--by private enterprise, as they should be. But they aren't being built in sufficient numbers, or at low enough prices. And without Government help, they can't be. Without Government help, cities are not financially able to wipe out their slums.

So the Government has a big and important role to play in housing, not in conflict or competition with private enterprise, but supplementing it.

In my postwar message to the Congress, I urged early action by the Congress to enact a real housing program to meet these needs. That was in September 1945--3 years ago. My Message on the State of the Union, September 26, with 21 points in it, had one on housing.

A splendid bill for this purpose was introduced. It was sponsored by two Democratic Senators and one Republican. One of the Democrats was your own fighting, great liberal--Bob Wagner.

The other Democratic Senator was Senator Ellender of Louisiana, and the Republican was Senator Taft of Ohio.

I was hopeful that we could start helping our people with their housing problems. But I did not reckon with the influence of the real estate lobby.

The real estate people have one of the most powerful, best organized, and most brazen lobbies in Washington. And the Republican Party has proved to be its faithful servant.

The Wagner-Ellender-Taft bill passed the Senate in 1946, but was blocked by the Republican members of a House committee in the House of Representatives.

In 1947, we had the Republican 80th Congress--and you got that by staying at home and not doing your duty--and the housing bill was introduced again. The Republican leadership in the Senate stalled for time.

Do you know what they did?

They set up a joint committee to find out if there was a housing shortage.

I sent a message to Congress asking them please to hurry up and do something. Housing conditions were getting worse and worse, and are getting worse and worse.

Thereupon, the Senate passed the bill for a second time and it went to the House. There were enough favorable votes in the House to pass it, if it ever came to a vote. So the Republican leadership decided to keep it from coming to a vote. They pulled every trick in the parliamentary book, and some that had never been heard of before; and they were successful in keeping that housing bill from passing. It was a most shameful performance.

The Democrats tried again and again, in both the Senate and House, to get that bill through.

But they were blocked at every turn by the Republicans. And the sad truth is that the Republican leadership in the Congress murdered that housing bill.

Congress adjourned shortly after that, and the Republicans went to their convention in Philadelphia, and they drafted a platform plank on housing. And what do you think that plank said? Don't be surprised now. It announced the stern determination of the Republican Party to provide Federal housing aid for local slum clearance and low-rent housing programs--the very provisions they have been fighting against so hard for 3 years.

Beat that, if you can! That wasn't all the tommyrot they put in that platform, they put a lot of things in that platform that they had been fighting me on ever since I came to the presidency.

And then I got a glimmer of hope--not much, but a little. I thought they really wouldn't dare go back on their own platform--at least, not until the ink was dry on it--and that they might now pass the legislation they promised to the people. And I called them into special session, you remember, when I made that acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Well, you remember what happened.

I called the Congress back into special session. I pointed out that unless it acted on housing, the next Congress would have to begin all over again, and there would be another year's delay. I asked the Congress again to pass the Taft-Ellender-Wagner bill. You see, they turned it around. In the beginning it was the Wagner-Ellender-Taft bill, and they turned it around and called it the Taft-Ellender-Wagner bill.

Were the Republicans grateful for the chance to prove they meant what they said ? Not a bit! They accused me of playing politics.

Now, we come to the end of this sorry story of Republican trickery.

Senator Taft himself--one of the sponsors of the bill--turned against it, and asked the Senate to kill it--to kill his own bill.

Also very interesting is the fact that one of your Senators from New York--who is, close to the Republican candidate for President--had the chance to take a position or the housing bill.

And Senator Ives voted against the bill. So the Senate killed the Taft-Ellender Wagner bill, and the Congress passed a bill, which does nothing about low-cost public housing, nothing about slum clearance, nothing about rural housing--nothing, in short, that they said they would do for the people in their platform.

One of the aims of my administration has been to give all our people a chance to have decent housing. Our major effort has been to enlarge the effective field of private enterprise and to give public support only to housing for those low-income families that private enterprise cannot serve.

The Republican Congress flatly refused to aid those low-income families.

What was the result of this great Republican runaround ? The real estate lobby won. And the people of the United States lost-lost homes they could have had--lost years of health and happiness in decent surroundings that might have been theirs.

I have gone into this story at length because it shows the way in which the Republican Party has thwarted the will of the people.

Republican policies are depriving millions of families of the housing they need. Republican policies are keeping up prices of much of the food you eat, and the clothing you buy.

And worst of all, these Republican policies, by permitting inflation to continue without proper curbs, are threatening the very foundations of our prosperity. They are not only injuring American living standards by high prices--they are also pushing the country into the terrible risk of another crash and another depression.

That is why I must say to you that a Republican victory in November would be a victory for a policy that makes for hard times.

The Democratic Party is not perfect, but its leadership, its policies, and the great majority of the Democratic Members of Congress stand squarely behind a policy aimed to preserve the prosperity of the people. That, my friends, is the major issue in this campaign.

That is why I feel justified tonight in asking you to cast your votes, on election day, for a Democratic administration that has faith in the people, and that plays fair with the people.

And we shall need a Democratic Congress this time. We need a Democratic Congress to protect your pocketbooks, your homes, your futures, and the happiness of your children.

Ever since I started out in this campaign, I have urged the people to exercise their rights in the Government. The Government is yours, if you are willing to accept the responsibility, and when you accept that responsibility, you will go to the polls on election day and vote your sentiments. I have been urging everybody in these United States to be sure to go to the polls on November 2d, and to vote for themselves, vote for their own interests, vote for the people's interest. And when you do that, you can't do but one thing, and that is to vote the Democratic ticket straight.

A Democratic administration is what this country needs--what we all need. And it's very easy to get.

All we have to do is to go to the polls and get it--if you do your duty.

I am urging you with everything I have now--don't shirk your duty this time, as you did in 1946. You will get something worse than the 80th Congress, if you do!