Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in Washington

[1.] SPOKANE, WASHINGTON (To Communications Workers of America, 8:40 a.m.)

I certainly appreciate all that applause and I appreciate this reception. You know, I am running on a schedule and this is run in on that schedule, and I am AWOL and nobody knows anything about it but you. Therefore, in order to conserve time, I just want to say that at the suggestion of the Governor of Washington, who is my good friend, I came over here to greet you.

I understand that you are not very happy over the Labor Act of 1947 as it is now in effect. But you know the reason for that is that in November 1946, just one third of the population voted. The people were not interested in what might happen to them. We have that law now, and I am the President, and I have to enforce it.

Your only remedy is November 1948. And if you continue that law in effect, that is your fault and not mine, because I didn't want it.

I am very happy to have been here. I appreciate the chance to greet you, and I know you are having a successful meeting, and I know you are going to fix it so I can talk back to Washington.

[2.] SPOKANE, WASHINGTON (Outside the Spokane Club, 9:20 a.m.)

Governor Wallgren, Senator Magnuson, distinguished guests and citizens of the eastern half of the State of Washington:

I know the whole State of Washington must be here from the looks of this crowd. I can't help but be affected by a welcome like that. I am also intrigued with the sunshine that you have here. I understand that you need a little sunshine. You see I have my hat. I rode all day yesterday in this Western sun and got my face fried. I didn't want to get it turned over and done this time.

I am happy to be here because I am interested in the development of this part of the world. I have made many trips here. I was here when the aluminum plant was set up, when a lot of other plants were set up which were top secret, and still are top secret, in this part of the world. At that time I was chairman of an investigating committee in the Senate, of which Senator Wallgren was a member, and we made some very important trips out here for the purpose of helping win the war. And this part of the world--this part of the United States made a magnificent contribution toward winning that war. Had it not been for the immense power plants along the Columbia River, which we had insisted on being built for the benefit of the public, we wouldn't have won that war as quickly nor as thoroughly as we did win it.

Now the thing that is staring us in the face is to make that same contribution to the peace. And I know that is just what you are going to do.

I am going from here to Grand Coulee, and then I am going to go over the flood areas that have been affected by the Columbia River. I know something about floods. The Missouri has a habit of going on a rampage about once every 3 years, washing away all the farmlands in the valley. When we came down the Columbia River this morning on the Northern Pacific Railroad, I could see scenes that reminded me of things exactly as they happened in Missouri time after time. And you know what that does. It has been a long time since you have had a flood like this, and you had forgotten what it means. Now you will be sympathetic when the Missouri and the Connecticut and a lot of other rivers overflow and ruin all the industries along the line. In that way we will get a cure for it. There is a cure for it.

I was told last night in Butte that the Silver Bow Creek which rises in Butte, Mont., is one of the headwaters of the Columbia River in the United States, and I told that audience that if we could control the Silver Bow Creeks that make up the Columbia River, as we should control the little rivers that make up the Missouri, we wouldn't have these floods. We don't have floods on the Tennessee River any more. They know how to control them. These same situations can be developed on the Columbia River, the river that empties more water into the Pacific Ocean than any other river on the western coast of the United States and it empties the second largest amount of water of any river in the United States. And that water ought to be utilized. You need it too badly here in the Northwest to have it go out in the Pacific Ocean and go to waste.

I would like to see that project carried out to its logical conclusion. But you are not going to get those projects as long as you have a Congress that believes in the theory of Daniel Webster: that the West is no good and there is no use wasting money on it. There are still men in the Congress who are following Daniel Webster, and they are chairmen of key committees which make these appropriations.

If you don't do something about that, you don't deserve to have anything, that's all I can say to you.

I used to be a Member of the Congress myself--I was a Member of the Congress myself, but I happened to be a Member of Congress that was in favor of these things. I was a Member of the Congress which started way back there in 1933. I didn't get elected until 1934, so I didn't come to that Congress until 1935, but the vast majority of the development in this part of the world was made under those Congresses when Franklin Roosevelt was President of the United States. I was elected every time Mr. Roosevelt was, and the last time I was elected with him on the same platform, and I helped to write that platform. I am trying to carry out that platform, but I am not getting very much help from this Congress.

That is partly your fault! That is partly your fault. In the election of 1946 you believed all the lies that were published about your President. And two-thirds of you didn't even go out and vote. Look what the other third gave you! You deserved it.

Now, if you let that sort of situation continue-you have got a chance to remedy it this fall--if you let that sort of situation continue, I won't have any sympathy with you. You will get just what you deserve.

I would like to see this Columbia River controlled. I would like to see the Columbia and Central Valley, California and Colorado and the Missouri--all those rivers kept in their banks and the waters put to use so the country can prosper. We need everything that can be produced in the United States now, just as badly as we needed it during the war. And we must get people in charge of the Government who believe that way. And if you don't get them, that is your fault.

I am certainly glad to be here. It makes me happy to see all this sea of faces.

I hope that some time later on I can come back and talk politics to you.

Thank you very much.

[3.] EPHRATA, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 2:45 p.m.)

Thank you, Senator Magnuson; it is certainly a pleasure to see all these red hats, and it certainly is a pleasure to be in this part of the world.

I just had a most interesting and instructive ride this morning through the Grand Coulee Dam. I have been there before. Of course, there was not anything like the volume of water going over the dam that is going over this morning. Mr. Banks told me that a million acre-feet a day was going over that dam. That is almost unbelievable. Turn that into gallons and you get figures that look like light-years from here to the North Star.

It is an education to people who do not know anything about what reclamation means to this part of the world. Reclamation and public power are two things in which I have been vitally interested ever since I have been in public life, and I'll be out here in Seattle tomorrow night, and I am going to make a clear statement of my position on those two principal things in which this Northwest country is interested.

Had it not been for the developments in this part of the world, we would have had much more difficulty in winning the Second World War. You made a great contribution up here, both in food and in power to the winning of that war.

Now we want to use that food and that power to win the peace. And I think that is just exactly what we are going to do. We are trying to find a way to make that fit into the peace pattern just as it fit into the war pattern. And it can be done. I know that can be done. I know that atomic energy can be used in exactly the same way and that is the ambition of me, as President of the United States, to see that that is done.

I am glad to be in the great State of Washington. I hope I will be able to come back here sometime later in the year, and talk politics to you.

Thank you very much.

[4.] WENATCHEE, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 4:10 p.m.)

Governor Wallgren, ladies and gentlemen of Wenatchee:

I regret exceedingly that our speaker system has gone out. It has been on the blink ever since we got to Pocatello. I don't know whether that name had anything to do with it or not, but that is where it went out first, anyway.

I have had a very pleasant day today, in that I have been over to see Grand Coulee Dam again. That is the third time I have been there. And I spent all the time since I returned discussing the Northwest power and flood control situation with Dr. Abet, who knows more about it than anybody in this part of the world, unless it is Mon Wallgren. Mon used to bore me to death telling me about all the things the Northwest needed. He does it yet-- but I like it. That is the reason I came out here at Mon's request to take another look. Of course, I didn't know there was going to be the greatest flood on the Columbia River that had ever happened since 1894, but it did happen before I arrived. And I have had every Government agency on the job that has anything to do with recovery after flood control. I am going to have a special meeting down in Portland, to see what we can do to prevent it from occurring again--and to meet that situation with which we are faced right now.

In times past, it has been customary for the Congress to vote an emergency fund to the President of the United States to meet just such situations as this. This 80th Congress wiped out my emergency fund. They did not trust their Democratic President to take care of just such situations as this.

Maybe we need a Congress next time that will have a little more confidence in the President, and when things like this come up, we can meet them head-on.

I am familiar with your apple situation, and we have been trying to get it worked out. I hope we can meet it. You know, Missouri is an apple State. And I know something about apples, too, as well as other farming matters. I am also familiar with the problems in this corner of the world, and I am going to discuss them in detail in Seattle, Wash., tomorrow at 1 o'clock. And if you are really interested, I would advise you to listen, for I am going to tell you just exactly where I stand on the problems with which you are faced, and I am going to ask the Congress in that speech to quit talking and saying what they are going to do, and do something about it!

Thank you very much.

[5.] SKYOMISH, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 6:45 p.m.)

It is a pleasure to see all of you. I was sound asleep and I got up just to come out and say "Howdy" to you.

I am glad to have as guests on this train today, the Governor and his First Lady. I would be willing to make you a bet that Mrs. Wallgren has not been introduced to you, is that true ? No. I caught him on that a while ago, and I guess he caught up with me.

I have had a very, very fine time in this great State today, seeing a number of things I have always wanted to see. I have had a very pleasant visit with your Governor, and Senator Magnuson, and I think that the welcome I have received in this State has never been exceeded anywhere.

I hope some time, in the not far distant future, I can come back and discuss with you all the issues that face the country; and then I hope that later on I may be able to implement those issues from my viewpoint.

Thank you very much.

[6.] EVERETT, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 7:50 p.m.)

Thank you, Mon. I am not fooled a bit. This crowd turned out for the home town boy who is Governor of Washington. And that is just exactly what they should have done.

Mr. Mayor, I can't tell you how very much I appreciated that cordial welcome. I am overwhelmed at the turnout, even though Mon is on the train. I have been here before on two different occasions. I came here and spent the time with Mon Wallgren at his home, when his father and mother were living here. And I don't know when I have ever met a person I thought more of than I did of Mon's father. His mother is a grand person--she is just like my mother-she raised a good son, and here he is.

You know, a boy or a girl reflects his parents, and I think Mon is a shining example of a good beginning.

I have been in this State all day--started at Spokane--got in a car--went up to the Grand Coulee Dam. I have been there twice before, but I have never seen as much water in my life. And I have seen the Missouri and the Mississippi in flood stage, and I have been to Niagara, and I have been up the Hudson. I have not seen the Yukon, but I have seen every other river in the United States.

The Columbia is really on a rampage, and I am sorry. They tell me there has never been a flood like it since 1894. Well, in 1903 we had a flood on the Missouri River, and they said there never had been another like it since 1844. That's a long time, too. My grandmother saw both floods, and she said the 1903 one was worse than the 1844 flood. There were no houses or buildings there, and that was true here in 1894--there wasn't anything on the Columbia River to wash away so nobody heard about it.

Now that river has been developed-partly, not completely. And I came out here at the suggestion of your Governor to see what could be done to complete the development of the Columbia River from a power, reclamation, irrigation, and flood control standpoint.

You know, the people on the Columbia River will appreciate what flood control means now. Since 1894 they haven't appreciated it because they didn't think it could happen to them. That's the way everybody feels, unless he has the experience.

Now I think the Columbia Basin, and the Missouri Basin, and the Ohio Basin, and the Mississippi Basin can get together and really work for a good control and a proper development program. I hope that is the case. I am going to try to see that it is the case. And I think I know something about the situation here and at home and in the eastern side of the United States.

I brought a lot of reporters with me on this trip, and I venture to say there isn't half of them ever saw anything west of the Appalachian Mountains. Now they are going to find out where the country lies! And where the resources of the country come from. And I hope they will tell their eastern readers and constituents just exactly what they have seen in the last 3 or 4 days. If they do, we will have a united country for the development of our resources, and the things that make us great.

You know, this Northwest section made one of the greatest contributions to the war that was made in the whole setup. We would have had a hard time winning the war if it hadn't been for this Northwest power section.

I had an old man testifying before a committee of which I was chairman, and Senator Wallgren at that time was a member of that committee, and that old man in a high, squeaky voice told us that the Aluminum Company of America was making 300 million pounds of aluminum. At that time that was all the country needed. Well, you know what we are making now--3500 million pounds now, and we are short! If it hadn't been for these power plants, we never could have made aluminum and magnesium and the things that are necessary to win the war.

Now then, let's take that asset that we have and use it to win the peace. I know we can do that. I am sure we can do that. We must do that. Nobody wants another war. Nobody wants to go through what we have gone through in two generations.

I was a captain of field artillery in the other war. Wallgren here was a lieutenant of field artillery. I ranked him.

Governor Wallgren: As he does now.

Mon, I wasn't going to say that.

Because in the great State of Washington-and I am talking protocol to you now-the Governor is the ranking officer in the State. The President is only his guest. Don't let anybody fool you on that.

But we don't want to do that again.

In 1920 we should have assumed the leadership which Almighty God intended us to assume. We have got another chance now. We are rated as the greatest and most powerful nation in the world. We want to use that greatness and that power for the welfare of the world, just as we have used it for the welfare of the 48 States of the Union.

And that can be done, and we must do it!

I can't tell you how very much I appreciate this cordial welcome in the hometown of the Governor of Washington, my friend Senator Wallgren, which his title was then, on the so-called Truman committee when I was in the Senate.

Thank you very much.

[After receiving a rod and reel]

I am more than happy to receive this rod and reel on this bipartisan, nonpolitical trip of mine. Over at Sun Valley, I had a lot of lessons in casting, with a rod not half as good or half as light as this one.

And I will tell you what I am going to do. When things warm up, and we get into politics, I am going to take this rod out and try to catch votes as well as fish with it.

[After receiving a shirt]

Well, it's all right! I will accept it, and I will wear it. It's well made--seems to be out of a good piece of cloth. I will have to examine it with a microscope to be sure-[laughter]--but I know that the citizens of Everett wouldn't give me anything that wasn't all right.

[After receiving a salmon derby entry]

Thank you very much for that. As you remember, when I was out here the last time, Mon and I went fishing, and Mon had a sweater made by the Siwash Indians. When they saw that sweater on me, they made me one. It is much better looking than Mon's. Look what I have here now, from my Fraternal Members of the Order of Eagles! Isn't that something!

Well, I will make use of it. I don't think I will have any chance to use it in the salmon derby, because I don't know what the conditions are, but I want to say to you I am going to do that just like I do everything else, I am going to do my damndest!