Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in Wisconsin and Minnesota

[1.] ADAMS, WISCONSIN (Rear platform, 7:55 a.m.)

I understand that you came from all over the county very early this morning to come down here and see me. I sincerely hope you are not disappointed.

The country is going to be in your hands in the next generation, and you ought to inform yourselves on all the things that affect your country, and the world, because the United States has assumed the leadership in the world unequaled in the history of the world, and we have got to assume that responsibility.

If you young people familiarize yourselves with things as they go along, when it comes your turn to do my job, then you can do it well. I am glad you are here.

Someone asked me about Democratic literature. That is aside from the point. There is just one issue in this campaign and that is the people against special interests. Wisconsin has never been for special interest. I remember old Bob LaFollette started out first thing to make Wisconsin conscious of the fact that people come first and not the people who have the pull.

You know, he ought to have been a Democrat. He preached Jefferson, Jackson, and Woodrow Wilson right along.

What time do you have to go to school--9 o'clock? You still have an hour, and you can't get any sleep in that time, so maybe it will be helpful and you can do some early morning studying. I hope you young people will take an interest in things as they go along in the country and the world, and if you do that, I am perfectly happy.

[2.] ALTOONA, WISCONSIN (Rear platform, 10:30 a.m.)

Well, it is very, very pleasant to see all of you this morning at this unscheduled stop, and I am certainly happy that all these young people are out to take a look at their President, and to find out what he stands for. You know, that is a good thing for the country. This country is in a position of leadership in the world, and it had to assume that leadership after two trials. These young people are interested in the welfare of the Nation and the welfare of the world, or they wouldn't be out this morning to take a look at the President and try to find out what he is thinking about.

I spend most of my time trying to think of some way to get a permanent peace in the world. That is the principal thing for which we are working all the time. And it is necessary that we attain that peaceful situation in the world because we have progressed to the point where this machine age in which we live has created forces of destruction that can be used to wipe out the human race. Those same forces, however, can be used for peaceful purposes to make the next generation, and the generations to follow, the happiest age in the history of the world. That is all I am interested in, and that is what I am working for.

It is too bad, at this time, that we have to have a political campaign, but our Constitution, our customs, and our laws require it; therefore, we have to go through the Presidential campaign just the same as if grave things were not pending in the world.

We are trying to keep this campaign on a high level, to discuss the issues that affect the United States in the Presidential campaign, and to continue to work always for the support of a bipartisan foreign policy which will eventually, I am sure, attain a peaceful world, so that these young people who are now growing up, when they take over the Government, will have a forward-looking program on which to continue, so that, in my opinion, the next 50 years--the next too years, let us say--will be the greatest age in the history of the world.

I certainly appreciate most highly your coming out. I appreciate the fact that you are interested in the welfare of your country and of the world, or you wouldn't be here.

I am very happy indeed to be in Wisconsin, one of the great progressive States of the Union, and I am sure that Wisconsin is going to maintain that reputation of remaining a great progressive State--and when the votes are counted on November 2d, I expect to find Wisconsin on the right side of the ledger.

Thank you very much.

[3.] SPOONER, WISCONSIN (Rear platform, 12:45 p.m.)

Well, it certainly is a pleasure to be greeted this way in these cities of Wisconsin. I can't tell you how very much I appreciate it. I am particularly happy because the audiences have been made up of young people, young people who are interested in the future of this country, and who are interested in the welfare of this country, or they wouldn't be coming out to see the President and hear what he has to say.

I have had a wonderful tour all over the United States from one end of the country to the other. Now, I am going all over the Middle West--I was in Ohio and Indiana and Illinois, and today in Wisconsin, this evening and tomorrow in Minnesota. Then I am going back to Washington to organize another windup tour to cover more great cities in this country.

I am trying to let the people know just exactly what the issues are in this campaign. There is only one big issue, and that issue is the people against special privilege.

The Democratic Party has always stood for the welfare of the people as a whole. The Republican Party, by its record and the record it made particularly in the 80th Congress, has been for special privilege.

I want you to analyze the situation that you are faced with in this campaign. On November 2d you are going to make the most important decision that has been made in a generation, and that will be made for another generation, as to how this country shah be run--whether it should be run in the interests of all people who, when they exercise their right to vote, are the Government-or whether the country is going to be run in the interests of just a few who want to exploit the rest of the people for their own welfare and gain.

Analyze that situation, and then do your duty on election day. Get up early and go to the polls, and vote for yourselves. If you do that, you can't help but vote the Democratic ticket, and then I won't be troubled with the housing shortage on the 20th of January.

[4.] SUPERIOR, WISCONSIN (Rear platform, 2:40 p.m.)

Thank you--thank you very much. I appreciate very much that introduction of Dan Hoan, and I think he is a good prophet--I am pretty sure he is a good prophet.

You know, I am more than happy to come to Superior today. One of my greatest friends was born and raised here in Superior. He has now passed on, but he was a great public servant, and that was Lew Schwellenbach. He was Secretary of Labor, and he made a great Secretary of Labor. I think of him every time I think of Superior.

This is my first opportunity to congratulate you people personally on the great job you did during the war. The tremendous amount of shipping that you handled here at Superior was one of the big reasons why we won World War Two. The unbroken production record in the mines, on the farms, and in the forests gave us the material we needed to win that great war.

Now you are doing an equally good job in producing for peace. The fine record of cooperation of labor and management here is a record you can all be proud of. Your cooperatives here have brought benefits to the whole area, and this part of the United States is now enjoying greater peacetime prosperity than ever before in its history.

As a matter of fact, after 16 years of Democratic administrations, the whole Nation is Prosperous. I want to see the United States stay prosperous. The Democratic Party is fighting to keep it prosperous.

But the leaders of the Republican Party, who are terribly anxious to get their hands on the Government this election, haven't yet learned one basic lesson. That lesson is simply this:

We can stay prosperous only when all groups of our people--labor, the farmer, the small businessman, the white-collar worker-when all of them get their fair share of the national income.

The Republicans don't see it that way. Their record proves it.

In November 1946, two-thirds of the people stayed at home and didn't vote for the candidates for Congress in that election. We got the Republican controlled "donothing" 80th Congress as a result.

That Congress passed a rich man's tax bill, so the rich could get relief from taxes, at the expense of the workingman. That Republican Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act, to weaken organized labor, so that labor would no longer be in such a good position to bargain for better wages and working conditions.

Now I vetoed that bill, which I ought to have, and I told you exactly what that bill would do to labor, but the Congress passed it over my veto by more than a two-thirds majority; and I have to enforce the laws. So long as they are laws and I am President, I enforce the laws, for I am sworn to do that, and I have to do just that as long as I am the President.

But I want you to do something about this terrible law. I want you to send a Democratic Congress to Washington and repeal it. That is the best thing you can do.

That Congress knocked the props out from under permanent farm prosperity. They tried their best to strangle cooperatives.

I told all about what they did to the farmer in a speech last night in Springfield, Ill.

While the Republican Congress was passing laws like that to help special interests, they weren't doing a thing to help all the rest of us by stopping skyrocketing prices. I asked them to pass price control laws time and again. They refused.

They refused to do anything about the housing shortage.

That is the kind of record the Republicans write when they get into office, and that is the record that the Republican candidate for President says he is proud of. Now he says he is proud of that good-for-nothing 80th Congress. I am glad somebody can be proud of it. I can't.

Now, the Democratic Party has a positive program for places to live, for prosperity, and for peace. We intend to repeal that Taft-Hartley Act, so that labor can resume its progress. We intend to see that the purchasing power of the farmer remains on a parity with the rest of the population.

We intend to pass a comprehensive housing law to clear away slums, provide good rural housing, and provide public low-rent housing in our cities.

We intend to stop the rise in prices.

We intend to go forward with the development of our natural resources, by such means as soil conservation, reforestation, the utilization of our water resources, and the development of great waterways like the St. Lawrence Seaway.

That is the kind of government I am sure you want.

Now, if that is the kind of government you want, get up early on the morning of election day, and go to the polls. Don't hesitate!--just vote the Democratic ticket straight, and then you will have a Congress and a President and a Government that you can depend upon to work for you, and not for the special interests.

And another thing, I won't be troubled with the housing shortage, I can still stay in the White House for another 4 years.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this wonderful turnout. This is the way the people have turned out all over the United States. I know they are interested, and I know they are going to vote the Democratic ticket.

[5.] DULUTH, MINNESOTA (At the Armory, 3:15 p.m.)

Thank you, thank you very much. I appreciate most highly the cordial reception which you are giving to the President of the United States and his family here today, and I am also exceedingly happy to be in such good company. I want to congratulate this district on its Congressman--John Blatnik-a Democrat in the midst of a sea of Republicans; but he does his duty and he does it well. And now I want you to add a little to that. I want you to send Mayor Humphrey to Washington as your United States Senator--and then your President will have some real cooperation.

I am very much interested and I want to congratulate you on the nearly unbelievable job that you did here during World War II. It was my privilege to make some investigations up in this part of the world while that war was on, in my capacity as Chairman of the Investigating Committee of the Senate which was looking after those things. And I want to say that everyone went into the mines up north and sent out unheard-of amounts of ore. The whole world is grateful for the fine efforts--not only of the miners, the railroadmen, and the Great Lakes seamen who moved that ore--but also to the lumbermen, the papermill workers, and to the farmers.

Here in northern Minnesota are some of our country's richest untapped resources. The Democratic Party wants to continue and expand its program for the development of these resources. We want to develop them because we want the American people to have the utmost security and prosperous living conditions. We want to develop them because that will contribute to our efforts to make the whole world a better and a more peaceful place in which to live.

Here is an example of how the Democrats worked to develop this area: Back in 1941 it was your Democratic Farmer-Labor State legislators who got the taconite bill through the State Legislature. Three of the men who fought for this came up with me on the train today--John Blatnik, Senator Vukelich, and State Representative Fred Cina. That bill has made possible the $2 million taconite plant near Aurora. Now, I understand, there is being proposed a $77 million development at Pever Bay up here at your famous North Shore, and at Babbitt.

Almost half the peat deposits of the whole United States lies to the north of here, in Minnesota. This is a potential fuel for vast amounts of low-cost electric power needed for the ultimate realization of your taconite industry and other industrial developments.

We have always been for these forward-looking things, and you will find that where these developments take place the Democrats have been responsible for them, not the Republicans.

There is one great measure for the development of this area which the Democrats have not yet succeeded in getting through the Congress. That's the St. Lawrence Seaway. Building the Seaway would give you a deep-water channel to the Atlantic. The twin cities of Duluth and Superior would become one of the greatest ports of the entire world. Throughout my administration I have urged the Congress to provide for the full development of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project. But the railroad lobby and the power lobby control too many Congressmen, and the Congress refused to approve the measures I requested. Apparently there are some people who don't want to see this great center of industrial and agricultural production turn into a tremendous center of worldwide trade. I can assure you that I do want to see you grow into just exactly that sort of a port.

I pledge to you that as President I shall continue to fight for the development of the resources of this great area and for the full development of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project. I will not compromise with special interests, as some candidates for office are doing by supporting just the electric power development of the St. Lawrence at the expense of the Seaway. Nor will I support the Seaway and abandon the plans for the development of power, power which is so badly needed in many industrial cities.

There are a great many things you will get if you elect a Democratic Congress and a Democratic administration in November. You will get back on the high road to prosperity. You will get rid of these high prices that cause every one of us to suffer. Labor will no longer be the whipping boy of big business. The Taft-Hartley Act will be repealed. I want to say to you that I vetoed that Taft-Hartley Act, and I vetoed it with everything I had. It was passed over my veto and has become the law of the land. And when the laws are on the books the President of the United States is sworn to enforce them, and he does just that. Now, if you don't want that law enforced send enough Democrats to Congress and let's repeal it and get it off the books.

Now, in 1946 about two-thirds of the people in the United States forgot that there was an election taking place, and a third of the people in the country elected that awful Both Congress--and see what you got! Don't do that any more. I am talking to the rest of the people of the United States--I am not talking to Duluth. Duluth didn't do that. You sent John Blatnik back to Washington--and if we had a lot more there like him we wouldn't have any Taft-Hartley law.

I am just as sure as I can be that the people are waiting for November 2d so they can get to the polls and send men to Washington who will be concerned with the welfare of the country and not just concerned with a few special interests.

I am on this crusade across the United States to tell the people the facts and to make sure that every one of you goes to the polls on election day and votes for prosperity in the United States and peace in the world.

I certainly wish I could stay here all afternoon to discuss all the issues with you, but that just isn't possible. I have engagements that I have to keep. I have to hit the highspots as best as I can. I have to bring home to you the things in which you are interested and I have to bring home to you that you are the Government. And I want to urge you with everything I have to exercise that power and be sure to vote on election day.

[6.] ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA (Rear 7:35 p.m.)

[Before speaking, the President was presented with a replica of the God of Peace, the original of which stands in Memorial Hall in the St. Paul Courthouse.]

Thank you very much. That's a very appropriate presentation at this time in world history. There isn't any reason in the world why that statue shouldn't symbolize what will happen in the future.

We can, I know, bring peace by negotiation and without resorting to arms.

For 3 years I have spent my whole time and my whole life in an endeavor to get peace in the world; and I am here to say to you that I would much rather have a final, permanent peace settlement in the world than to be President of the United States.