Rear Platform Remarks in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.

[1.] WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA (Rear platform, 9:35 a.m.)

I appreciate being here, I tell you. You know, Senator Kilgore told me that this is the first time a President of the United States ever paid an official visit to Wheeling, West Virginia. But I want to say to you it is by no means the first time a President has been here. Old Andrew Jackson used to put his state-coach on the boat on the Ohio River at Louisville, and he would always unload it here in Wheeling and drive down the National Road to Washington while he was President, taking exactly 30 days to make that trip.

I have made that trip in 2 hours, so you see how much the country has moved up. And that is what is going on all around the world. That is the reason I am out here trying to tell you the facts.

It's always a pleasure to me to come to West Virginia because this is a real Democratic State. There is no doubt in my mind about the policies and how you feel toward the policies of the New Deal and the Fair Deal. You have always been for them.

The only way the Democratic Party could possibly lose West Virginia would be if you folks did not go to the polls and vote on election day. There is not much time left in this campaign, and I urge you to get together with your friends and neighbors and turn out a big vote so we can preserve the gains we have made in the last 20 years, and go forward to even greater achievements.

I urge you to vote for the men who are going to carry on the gallant traditions of the Democratic Party--John Sparkman and Adlai Stevenson. They stand for continuing the great programs that have brought prosperity and security to our people. They stand for equal rights for all Americans, and for cooperation with other nations.

And I want to say that you voters in West Virginia have a very special responsibility to return Harley Kilgore to the United States Senate. Harley Kilgore stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Franklin Roosevelt. He has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me, in our fight to improve the welfare of the average man. We need more men like Harley Kilgore in the Senate of the United States, and I wish we had more of them. I think very highly of Harley. He is one of the best men that ever I have been associated with in public life, and that's saying everything I can say about him.

I hope you will send Bob Mollohan as part of a solid Democratic delegation to the House of Representatives. And I hope you will elect Bill Marland as Governor of this great State of West Virginia.

In this Ohio Valley, this steel and coal region, labor has made some of the greatest gains in the past 20 years. And it is here that labor has had some of its toughest fights with those who sought to kill the labor movement--those who sought to destroy the organizations that have done so much for the welfare of the workingman.

And so this morning, I want to talk to you briefly about the importance to labor of a Democratic victory on November the 4th.

In my whistlestop speeches on this campaign, I have been pointing out that the Republican candidate's train carries the slogan, "Look ahead, neighbor." I have been saying that the slogan ought to be, "Look out, neighbor." A lot of people did not seem to realize what a return to reactionary Republican rule would mean in this country. They did not seem to realize that it meant the difference between going forward and going backward, that it means the difference between war and peace.

I think people realize these things much better than they did a month ago. They have a better understanding of what is really at stake. That is why a swing to Stevenson has set in all over the country, among voters who have been leaning Republican. And I hope that I have performed some small service in helping to bring that swing about.

Among the people who had better look out, if the Republicans win this election, are the working men and women of America.

It wasn't so long ago that the big industrialists of America had all the power of government on their side in holding down the workingman. The employers could go to the courts and get antilabor injunctions. They could use their labor spies and private armies and strikebreakers to keep the workingman in his place.
The Democratic Party stopped all that.

But all of you should go back, once in a while, and read the reports of the LaFollette Subcommittee of the United States Senate that investigated these crimes against labor.

We have come so far in 20 years in establishing and guaranteeing the rights of labor, we have almost forgotten about the long and bloody battles labor has had in the past.
We can't afford to forget these things.
Many employers have discovered that their labor unions are a good thing, and they will support them wholeheartedly.

But there are still men who hate labor unions and would like to destroy them.

These men still exist, and they exist in great numbers. Now I have no hesitation in telling you where they are politically. They are a powerful group within the Republican Party.

You had a taste of their attitude when the Republicans got control in 1947 of the Congress. That was the first time they had obtained control of the legislative branch of the Government since 1932. And one of their first thoughts was to put--what they called--put labor in its place.

They passed a bitter, vindictive, antilabor act--the Taft-Hartley law--that wiped out much of the gains labor had made under the Wagner Act and stopped the formation of unions in many places.

The Taft-Hartley Act can wreck the American labor movement.

That's not just my statement. That's a statement from Business Week magazine, which I don't think is on my side in this fight.

Here was an employers' magazine explaining to its readers how the Taft-Hartley Act could be used against labor. Let me read you a few paragraphs from the article, and I quote:

"Given a few million unemployed in America"--now they want unemployment-"Given a few million unemployed in America, given an administration in Washington that was not pro-labor--and the Taft- Hartley Act conceivably could wreck the labor movement.

"These are the provisions that could do it:" (I am still reading from this Business Week magazine.)

"(1) picketing can be restrained by injunction;

"(2) employers can petition for a collective bargaining election;

"(3) strikers can be held ineligible to vote--while the strike replacements cast the only ballots; and

"(4) if the outcome of this is a 'no-union' vote, the Government must certify and enforce it.

"Any time there is a surplus labor pool from which an employer can hire at least token strike replacements, these four provisions, linked together, presumably can destroy a union." Now that is the end of the quote from Business Week.

There you have a statement of the way the Taft-Hartley Act can be used to wreck unions. All it takes is a few million unemployed and an administration that is antilabor. And does anybody wonder which party would be for that?

I dread to think what would happen to the labor movement if the Republican Party were returned to power.

Now you had better look out, neighbor! That is what they are trying to do. They are trying to get in position so they can pulverize the labor unions.

Don't think for a minute that the men who wrote the Taft-Hartley Act didn't know what they were doing. That law was the great achievement of the Republican 80th Congress, and Senator Taft, its principal author, would be the most powerful man in another Republican Congress. Don't forget that. He would, in fact, be the chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, and in that role the most powerful man in the country on labor matters.

I say to you again, my friends, you had better look out, neighbor! You had better look out. Something is coming to you, if you are foolish enough to send the Republicans to Washington in charge of the Government.

Now, if you want to know what the Republicans are thinking about the future of labor, you can learn a lot from the Wall Street Journal. On May 26 of this year, it ran a very revealing article. It said, and I quote--now this is from the Wall Street Journal; the Wall Street Journal has never been on the side of the Democrats since it has been running:

"If the Republicans hold their own or gain new strength in the House of Representatives, it's almost certain that there will be a new effort to crack down on the unions. And if the GOP controls Congress by a comfortable margin, the effort will probably succeed." That is the end of the quote from the Wall Street Journal.

One of the things the Republicans are talking about, according to this article, is to ban industry-wide bargaining. That was one of the provisions of the original Hartley bill of 1947. It was dropped out in the final version of the Taft-Hartley law, but it has not been forgotten. That original Hartley bill had a lot of other ingenious antilabor provisions, including additional injunction proceedings against labor, and a prohibition of welfare funds like the one which the coal companies and the United Mine Workers have set up.

Now, I can't understand why anybody would want to destroy a great welfare program like that being carried out in the coal industry. But I can understand why an antilabor union employer would like to prohibit industry-wide bargaining. That would put labor at a big disadvantage in bargaining with powerful employers.

The Congressman who made the concluding argument on the floor of the House of Representatives in favor of the Hartley bill-now, listen to this--in 1947 was a young man who showed real promise as a leader in the battle against labor--his name is Nixon, and he is from California. He lived up to that promise so well that he was promoted this summer to run for Vice President on the Republican ticket.

Now again I say to you, you had better look out, neighbor!

Now, the Republican candidate for President does not have much of a record on labor questions. But he picked one of the most antilabor men in the Congress to be his running mate. And he said that if he had been President this year he would have tried to get an injunction in the steel case. He would have applied this useless and unfair procedure without regard to the merits of the dispute.

Again I say to you, you had better look out, if you get that man in the White House.

You can expect some sweet words about labor from the Republican candidates between now and election day. Every 4 years the Republicans tell you how much they love the American labor movement. They whisper sweet nothings. And that's the right term for it because they have nothing in their record to back up their sweet words.

Now the Democratic Party is the tried and trusted friend of the working men and women of this country. It is the friend of the people who need help to assure them an even break in dealing with the strong and the powerful.

I have been going around this country since September the 27th for the purpose of getting people to think. I am trying to awaken them to their own interests in this campaign. I think this is the most important presidential election since the Civil War, because your interest is at stake. The interest of this great Republic is at stake, and the welfare of the free world is at stake. If you will just read the record and do a little thinking, you can't do but one thing: that is to go to the polls on November the 4th and send Adlai Stevenson to the White House, and you will have 4 more years of good government.

[2.] BRADDOCK, PENNSYLVANIA (Rear platform, 12:08 p.m.)

I believe that you have some notion of why I am here. I am out campaigning for a Democratic victory in November. I was here in 1944 and spoke from a fire truck up the street here. I was running for Vice President at that time, and you accommodated me and made me Vice President-and that got me into a lot of trouble.

You have some wonderful Democratic candidates here in Pennsylvania. You have just met Judge Bard, who is the candidate for the Senate, and Mrs. Buchanan is one of the greatest Congresswomen that has ever been to the Congress in Washington. I want you to be sure to send her back. We need Congresswomen like Mrs. Buchanan.

I hope you will be sure to vote next November because in my opinion this is a very important election, important to you, important to the country, and important to the whole world. I am sure that you will vote for Adlai Stevenson for President and John Sparkman for Vice President. Governor Stevenson is the most outstanding leader to come along since Franklin Roosevelt. He will look out for your interests just as Roosevelt did, and just as I have tried to do.

I have been telling people that there is one big issue in this campaign. The issue is whether you want a government that will work for the welfare of all the plain everyday people of this country, or whether you want a government that will turn the country over to the big financial interests which control the Republican Party.

Think of some of the things that have been done for the ordinary people in the 20 years of Democratic administrations. You have got social security, minimum wage laws, protection of the rights of labor, unemployment compensation, housing programs, and a lot of other things too numerous to mention at this time.
And, then try to think of just one thing the Republican Party has done to advance your interests. I don't think you will find one little thing.

But I believe you know that the Old Guard Republicans have always voted against your interests in Congress just about every time they have had a chance to vote.

The Republicans showed you whom they represented when they gave you that terrible Taft-Hartley law, and they are all set to start to work on you again, if they can just gain control of the White House and the Congress on November the 4th.

Now the Republican candidate for President thinks that Taft-Hartley Act is a good thing. He has been completely taken over by Senator Taft, and the rest of that reactionary crowd who control the Republican Party.

Don't you let them fool you with that five-star front man. The real power in the Republican Party is still where it always has been, and that is in the big business interests that pay the bills and call the tune for the Republican Party.

You have got to do a little thinking for yourselves. The only reason I am going up and down the country explaining what the issues are in this campaign is because you can't find them out, because 90 percent of the press--which represents 81 percent of the reading public--is against the Democratic Party and against your Democratic President. So he has to go out and ride around the country and meet wonderful people like this and try to get them to do a little thinking for themselves.

I wish I had a chance to furnish you with the record of the Republicans in the Congress, and the record of the Democrats in the Congress. I have been telling you various things that they have been for and against as I go around the country.

All you need to do is to think a little. Think--think for the welfare of the free world--think for the welfare of the greatest Republic the sun has ever shone on--and then think of your own interests, which are centered in the policies that are produced in Washington.

If you do those things, I won't have to persuade you, because you will vote for the welfare of yourselves, you will vote the Democratic ticket on the 4th of November, and we will have a Democratic administration for the next 4 years.
Thank you--thank you very much.

[3.] McKEESPORT, PENNSYLVANIA (Rear platform, 12:35 p.m.)

I appreciate very much this cordial welcome. I enjoy meeting people, and the reason I am out this time is to tell the people what they ought to hear, and not what they want to hear.

You have an excellent ticket here in Pennsylvania for the Congress. You have just been listening to Judge Bard. He will make you a great Senator. And I have known Mrs. Buchanan ever since her husband came to Washington as Congressman, and she has made a wonderful public servant, and I want you to send her back to Washington, because we need people like that.

We have also got a national ticket of which we can be proud, in Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. They are two of the best qualified candidates any party ever offered to the country. They really work for your interests. You can trust them all the way. And that is what you need in the White House--and in the man to preside in the Senate.

I am taking part in this campaign because I believe this is one of the most important elections we ever held. The choice you make this year may decide whether we have prosperity or depression--peace or war.

I want to talk to you a little about this matter of prosperity or depression. I think you should look carefully at the record of the Republican Party, and then decide where your best interests lie. If you look at the Republican Party's record, you will see that the last time they were in power, we went into a terrible depression and had about 14 million unemployed. The Republicans sat on their hands in 1930, 1931, and 1932, and they did nothing to get us out of that depression. They didn't even do anything to help relieve the misery of the unemployed.

Then, when the Democratic Party took over in 1933, the Republican Party opposed everything Franklin Roosevelt did to pull us out of the hole they left us in. The Republicans have fought all the New Deal and Fair Deal measures that have helped our people so much over the past 20 years-things like social security, and minimum wages, the Wagner Act, farm price supports, low-cost housing, utility regulation, and all the rest.

And now they are posing behind a front man--their five-star general, who had a wonderful reputation as a general, but he doesn't know any more about politics than a pig does about Sunday.

The Republican Party, you see, is very, very fond of generals. They have a five-star general heading the ticket. They have General Wedemeyer in their corner. They have got General Clay in their corner, and they have a general here running for the Senate in the great State of Pennsylvania. They are mixed up with General Foods--and General Electric--and all the rest of the generals like that. The only general they haven't got in their corner is general welfare--and he belongs to the Democrats.

Now you can't count on a party that has a public record like the Republicans have. You can't trust them to keep up the progress we have made, or bring you security and prosperity in the future.

You can't trust them to keep you out of a depression that can be twice as bad as the one they left with us in 1932. They are progressive on the depression business. In 1921 they had 7 million people out of employment. And in 1932 they had 14 million people out of employment. And if you put them back there for another 4 years, they will probably have 28 million out of employment.

They let you down every time they have control of the Government. They let you down in that terrible Republican 80th Congress, which I had a lot of fun with and put under the sod in 1948. They will let you down again if they win this election. And that goes for all of them, including their five-star candidate for President. He has made his peace with Senator Taft--and I guess you know what that means for you.

Now, there is just one thing for you to do, and that is to do a little thinking on your own hook. I am trying to get the people to study the record, study the issues. The Republicans don't want to talk about issues. They don't dare, because their stand on the issues has been against the people.

But if you do a little thinking for yourselves, you will go home and pray over this situation--because it is the most serious one we have had to meet since the Civil War. And if you do that, you will vote for the welfare of the free world, you will vote for this great Nation, the greatest Republic in the history of the world, and you will vote carefully in your own interests.

And when you do that, we will have Adlai Stevenson in the White House for 4 years--and the country will be safe.

[4.] CONNELLSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA (Rear platform, 1:38 p.m.)

I appreciate very highly this welcome here in Connellsville. I always think of one man when I come to Fayette County--the man who will be the outstanding figure when the history of this period is written, and that is George C. Marshall. He was a native of this county, and went to V.M.I. from here, and he is one of the greatest leaders this country ever produced.

Now I want to tell you why I am here, if you don't know. I am out campaigning for the Democratic victory in November. I am not running for anything myself. I have had every honor a man could want, and now I am just anxious to see this country in good hands for another 4 years.

You know, it is customary when a man has received all the honors he can from a party, to retire as a high-hat and not be willing to do his part to keep that party running. I am not that sort of Democrat. I am grateful for the honors that have been given me. I believe sincerely in the principles of the Democratic Party. I have worked and fought in the Democratic Party for 40 years. And since they have given me the highest honor that can come to a man, I expect to try to repay as far as I can the honor they have done me by helping the party as long as I live. I hope a lot of other people will get religion like that, too, before this is over.

I have been traveling all across this country explaining to the people the basic issues in this campaign. I have been telling them that the Democratic Party is the party of the people. And I believe that. The record proves it. During the last 20 years we have fought the battle of the people against the special interests. The results have been good for this great country, and the country is in better condition today than it ever was before in its history.

I have also been telling the people that the men who control the Republican Party are no friends of the plain everyday man. That is proved by the Republican record in Congress. I have been citing chapter and verse out of that record from one end of the country to the other, and I know what I am talking about--because I have been there for the last 18 years, and I know the record.

The Republican Party is controlled by the big men, the big lobbies, the special interests that pay the party's bills and call the tune for the Republican Party to dance by.

The other day somebody showed me a report which I have right here. It is a most interesting document which tells about a poll ,.among the bank officers on how they are going to vote in the election this year. And how do you think those bankers are going to vote? They are going to vote the Republican ticket 12 to 1. I think that ought to give you a pretty good idea of who the Republicans work for.

Now there is something else in that report I think you should know about. These bankers are all for the Republicans, but a lot of them think the Democrats will win.

One of them explained the reason for that. He said, and I quote what he said--this is what the banker said, and he thinks the Democrats are going to win, in spite of the bankers voting for the Republicans: "Life has been too easy and comfortable for a large segment of the nonthinking electorate, and they do not want a change."

Well, there you are. This banker says life has been too easy for the most of us. And he is upset because the most of us want life to continue easy and comfortable for us. He wishes we were less comfortable and would vote more Republican. But I guess we are going to vote the Democratic ticket just the same. I can see why this would make a banker feel very badly, but he oughtn't to claim that the people who don't want a change are non-thinkers. I believe the Democrats think just as much as the bankers and the Republicans--and I think they think a lot straighter.

After all, it was the thinking of the bankers and their friends that got us into the Great Depression.

I hope you will think it over. Think like those bankers never thought you could, and you will know where your best interests lie. Think of your own interests. Think of what helps you, and what helps the whole country. Think what party has always worked for the welfare of this great country. Study the record of the two parties.

The reason I am going up and down the country as I am is because I want to persuade people to think for themselves. If they do that, I don't have to worry about what the result is going to be. I know how you will decide. You will go to the polls on November the 4th, and you will vote the Democratic ticket, and that is the only sensible thing you can do.

You will vote to send Judge Bard to the Senate, and Tom Morgan back to the House of Representatives. They will represent you and not the bankers and the special interests.

And you will make Adlai Stevenson the next President of the United States, and we will have 4 more years of prosperity and good government.

[5.] ROCKWOOD, PENNSYLVANIA (Rear platform, 2:52 p.m.)

I appreciate very much this wonderful welcome. You know, I have been pleasantly received all the way across this great State. I always think, well maybe the next time there will be nobody there, and when I get there why everybody in the place is there. I understand there are three times as many people here as live in this town. That certainly is-a compliment.

I guess you are acquainted with the fact that I am out doing a little campaigning for the Democratic ticket. I am telling you that now, in case you didn't know it.

You have some fine candidates here in this great State of Pennsylvania. Your candidate for the Senate, Judge Guy Bard, is a wonderful man. He has made a great judge, and he will make you a great Senator, and I am glad to say a good word for him.

I hope you will send Philip Shoemaker to the Congress. I understand he has got the shoestring district in Pennsylvania that is a hundred miles long and a mile wide. I hope you will elect him just on that account.

Our national ticket has two of the finest candidates any party ever offered the people. Governor Stevenson of Illinois has an outstanding record of public service, and I know he will make you a great President. I hope you have been following his speeches because he is telling you just where he stands on all the great issues that are before the country. He doesn't talk one way in Pennsylvania, another way in Michigan, another way in California. He tells you straight out what he believes. And he is a man you can trust.

And Senator Sparkman will be an excellent Vice President. He has been working for years in the interests of the farmer, the small businessman, and the rest of the plain everyday people of the country.

The Republican candidate for President has been a great general, but I think he has made it clear that 40 years in the Army doesn't give the background needed for the Presidency. Two of our former Presidents were professional soldiers and great generals, but they were not able to handle the presidential job. They failed badly, and the whole country suffered as a result.

You know, the office of the President is the greatest office in the history of the world. It is the greatest and most powerful office in the history of the world. And it is a public relations office. The President spends most of his time trying to persuade people to do what they ought to do without being persuaded. Now a military man has been in the habit of saying to the soldiers, "You do this," and if they don't do it they get courtmartialed. Well, the President hasn't got any chance to court-martial anybody, he is trying to make the Government run, and you must bear that in mind when you elect a President.

And the people are at fault when they don't get the right people for the place. It is your business to inform yourselves on what the issues are, and then you can vote intelligently-and you will always get good government.

Now that is what I want to impress upon you, that you yourselves are the Government. And it is your duty to study the issues carefully. Study the record of the two parties. Think which one has done the most to serve your interests, and consider whether you need a professional military man for President, or an able and experienced civilian leader who knows how to make the government machine work in this free Republic of ours.
All I want you to do is just to study the issues. Consider your own interests. Consider the welfare of the greatest Nation in the history of the world. When you do that, you can't do but one thing. You will go to the polls on November the 4th, and you will send Adlai Stevenson to the White House, and we will have 4 more years of good government.

[6.] MYERSDALE, PENNSYLVANIA (Rear platform, 3:20 p.m.)

I have had a most pleasant trip in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and New Jersey, the last 2 or 3 days, and I have been highly pleased at the attention that the people have given to the causes I have been putting up to them. I have been trying to get them to think about what is at stake in this election, and they seem to be highly interested.

And now, before we get into the program, and before I really start, I want to tell you that Margie had to go to New York today and she isn't with me, but she will come back here some day.

I guess you know by this time that I am doing everything I can to help elect the Democratic ticket, nationally and locally. You have some wonderful candidates on the Pennsylvania Democratic ticket. In Judge Bard you have a man who will really make you a Senator. They tell me that Phil Shoemaker will make a wonderful Congressman, and I hope that when you go to the polls you will elect them both.

I have got another interest in this campaign also. I want you to vote for Adlai Stevenson for President, and John Sparkman for Vice President, and the country will be in good shape.

Adlai Stevenson has an outstanding record as Governor of Illinois, and I think that is about the best training a man can get for the Presidency. Governor Stevenson was drafted by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, as you remember, and he doesn't owe anything to anyone. He is a man of great integrity and courage, and I am sure he will make you a great President.

And Senator Sparkman's record is just as good. He has been working for years for the farmer, the small businessman, and all the rest of the everyday people in the country. These are men you can trust.

Now, my friends, this is a most important election, and I believe you should think over very carefully the issues in this campaign. The Republicans don't want to talk about issues. That is one of the reasons I am out. I have been going around the country telling the people just exactly what the issues are, and asking them to do a little thinking on their own account.

You have got to do that because--as I said before, time and again today, and all along since I have been out--I think this is one of the most important campaigns since the Civil War. Everything, nearly, is at stake in this campaign. You must yourselves do a lot of thinking.

I wish you would study the issues. I wish you would study the record of the Republicans in the Congress. That is where you can find out what would happen if they get control of the Government. The record is what counts, not what they tell you in a campaign. The Democratic record should be studied also, and then you ought to make up your mind what you think is best for this great country of ours, what you think is best for the free world.

Then, when you get down to brass tacks, you ought to think about your own interests. And if you do that, you can't do but one thing on November the 4th. You will just have to vote the Democratic ticket and we will have Adlai Stevenson in the White House for 4 years, and we will have 4 years of good government.
Thank you very much.

[7.] CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND (Rear platform, 4:25 p.m.)

I have been through Cumberland many a time on various errands. I was here when I was a candidate for Vice President, and I was here in 1948. Those times I was asking for something for myself. I am back here not running for office this time, but asking you to do something for somebody else.

I'm glad to have this opportunity to say some things which I think will be of special interest to the people of the great State of Maryland.

The Free State of Maryland belongs in the Democratic column in this election, and it's up to you folks to put it there.

The Democratic candidate for President this year is one of the best qualified men ever nominated by either party for that office. I hope that all of you are planning to vote, and to get your friends to vote, for Adlai Stevenson. [At this point someone shouted, "We want Ike!"]

Well, you are welcome to him, but if you get him, you'll be sorry!

When you vote for Governor Stevenson for President you ought to vote to give him a Congress that will support him and work with him. The way to do that is to send George Mahoney to the United States Senate, and Mrs. Stella Werner to the House of Representatives.

You can be sure that they will work for your interest and for your welfare--and not for the special privilege groups that control the Republican Party.

Maryland has a great tradition in tolerance and freedom--freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of elections. All these basic guarantees add up to a free government of free men.

Today, freedom of thought and freedom of speech are under attack in our country. They are being attacked by the planned and deliberate use of lies, slanders, and fear. A little group of people are using these weapons, on a wide scale, in an attempt to attain public office. They want to make it dangerous for anyone to express opinions different from their own. They try to destroy the reputation of any man in public or private life who dares to stand up and oppose them. These methods endanger our freedom and our personal lives as citizens.

You've had a good example right here in your own State of how these political gangsters operate.

In 1950 they tried their methods out in your State.

Today these same methods have been adopted by one of our major political parties as its campaign strategy.

Let us look at what happened here in Maryland just 2 years ago. Some carpetbag politicians, who had nothing but contempt for our democratic traditions, came into this great State.

They were led by elements from the political underworld, including an unscrupulous and power-hungry Chicago newspaper publisher. They had plenty of money from the special interest lobbies.

They violated your State laws. Their deliberate purpose was to pervert your free election by the sheer weight of money and false propaganda. Their tools were misrepresentation, defamation, and just outright fakery.

I know that many thousands of good people in Maryland were shocked and indignant when they learned the full story of that campaign. You convicted one of their members of that conspiracy for violating your State election laws. It's too bad that you weren't able to do anything about some of the others, who operated from Washington and Chicago.

After the 1950 elections the nature of this Republican campaign was thoroughly exposed, and I hope that people everywhere in the country are on their guard now.

Five Members of the United States Senate-three Democrats and two Republicans-conducted a careful and painstaking investigation of the 1950 Republican senatorial campaign in this State.

I'm not going to take time to recount all the details of that investigation and what it revealed about the concealment of funds that came in from outside the State, the use of that fake photograph, and all the rest of the Republican skulduggery. But I do want to remind you that the whole Republican campaign was based on an attempt to smear their opposition with false charges of communism.

And I do want to read to you just a few things from the unanimous report of that committee--and remember that two Republicans joined three Democrats in that report.

They said that there were really two parts to that Republican campaign, and here's how they described them, and I am quoting now from the report:

"One was the dignified 'front street' campaign" conducted by the Republican candidate on his speaking tours.

"The other was the despicable 'back street' type of campaign, which usually, if exposed in time, backfires. The 'back street' campaign conducted by non-Maryland outsiders was of a form and pattern designed to undermine and destroy the public faith and confidence in the basic American loyalty of a well-known figure."

This was the Senate committee talking about the Republican campaign in Maryland in 1950.

The investigating committee of five Senators, including two Republicans, also said that this "back street" campaign involved "publicity efforts aimed at damaging the reputation and at creating and exploiting doubts about the loyalty to his country of the opposing candidate." That is the end of the quotation.
They said the Republican campaign "disregarded simple decency and common honesty."
And then the committee added this: "Such campaign methods and tactics are destroying our system of free elections and undermine the very foundations of our free Government." That is the end of the quotation from the committee.

Now, my friends, that is a bipartisan statement describing what was done in this State in 1950.

The national leadership of the Republican Party never repudiated what was done in that campaign. On the contrary, they adopted it for use on a national scale this year.

But with a difference. This year the "back street" campaign is being put on in the "front street."

Senator McCarthy, who was the ringleader of the dirty "back street" campaign in Maryland in 1950, has been welcomed as a colleague on the campaign train of the Republican candidate for President. He is openly campaigning around the country, on radio and television, for the Republican ticket.

And his special tactics of the big lie and the big doubt are also being used by other and more eminent men.

In speech after speech, the Republican candidate for President has been using a fancy version of the big doubt technique the Republicans used here in Maryland in 1950. And the Republican candidate for Vice President--the second highest office in the land--is engaged in nothing less than a false campaign of personal slander and innuendo against the honored and respected public servant who heads the Democratic ticket.

That's how desperate the Republican Party is, that's how unprincipled its leadership has become from taking its own poison.

Now, I hope and I believe that you people here in Maryland--and the people everywhere in the country--will see what this Republican campaign is, before the election, and not afterwards, when it would be too late.

We are moving into the closing days of the campaign. I don't know what sort of composite pictures or other frauds they're going to try to put off on you this year. But I'm sure they will try something because the same kind of people are helping to run the Republican campaign this year that ran the "back street" campaign in Maryland in 1950. So, look out, and don't be fooled by them.

The decision that the American people have to make when they go to the polls 12 days from now may be the most important decision they will make in their lifetime.

Think carefully about it. The future of your children and the future generations depends on your making a decision that will preserve them and for them the freedoms and liberties that we ourselves have inherited.

Don't you entrust our Bill of Rights to the "back street" campaigners, or to the party that welcomes and solicits that sort of support.

The Republican Party should be so thoroughly repudiated that the un-American tactics they are using this year will never again appear in an election in these free United States of ours.

The way to do that, my friends, is to roll up an overwhelming majority for the Democratic ticket. Vote for the men and women with character and with courage to stand up for your basic liberties.

Governor Stevenson has had a great deal of experience in civilian government. He understands that our Government is not a military organization, but a cooperative effort of free men.

Adlai Stevenson is a man you can trust with the future of America. In this election campaign he has shown his unswerving adherence to principle and his deep devotion to our form of government.

My friends, we need a man in the White House who has courage. We need a man who has principle. We need a man who has the same principles in California that he has in New York, the same principles in Michigan that he has in Louisiana, the same principles in Maryland that he has in Virginia. That is not the case with the Republican candidate. He has had a different set of principles for each State in the Union. He even made a speech in New Jersey in the afternoon and went over into New York and repudiated it that night. Now, a man like that can't run the Government of the United States.

And I haven't anything personally against him. I think he is a great general. I made him Chief of Staff of the United States Army. I put him in command of the Allied military forces in Europe. And I have every confidence in him as a military man. But, my friends, he doesn't know the first principles of politics. Under our system, politics is government. Politics is government. Politics is a public relations program for the welfare and benefit of all the people, and not just a few.

I am out on this campaign for the simple reason that I want you to do some thinking for yourselves. I am anxious that you study the issues that are before the country. The Republicans won't talk to you about issues. I have been talking to the people all over the country about issues, and they have awakened to the fact that there are issues in this campaign, and that the Bill of Rights itself is at stake.

Now, go to the polls on the 4th of November and vote for your own interests, and send Adlai Stevenson there for 4 years.

[8.] HARPERS FERRY, WEST VIRGINIA (Rear platform, 6:32 p.m.)

I appreciate very much your coming out here to see me at this time of night. I have always been interested in Harpers Ferry-one of our famous towns in history. A great many things have happened here. And there is also another thing in connection with it in these modern times it's good Democratic country, and I am always glad to visit with good Democrats.

I have just been doing a little political work through Delaware and New Jersey and Pennsylvania and West Virginia and Maryland. I have met and talked to a lot of people on this trip, and they have been very friendly; and you would be surprised how much interest they display in this campaign. There isn't any doubt in my mind but that we are going to have a Democratic victory, just as we did in 1948.

You are very fortunate in having outstanding candidates on the Democratic ticket in West Virginia. I have known Harley Kilgore ever since he came to the Senate. He is an able, distinguished representative for the great State of West Virginia, and I know you are going to send him back. He is my good friend, and I am very fond of him.

You have Harley Staggers, who is a candidate for Congress. He has been doing a good job for you down in Washington. For Governor you have William Marland, and he is a fine and able young man. He will give your State good government.

These men are all good men. Now I wouldn't be spending all this time and effort traveling around the country if I didn't think a Democratic victory in this election was necessary for the welfare of this great country. The country needs the kind of leadership that it will get from Adlai Stevenson. Governor Stevenson has been talking sense to the American people, just as he promised to do when he was drafted for the nomination last July. He has been telling you frankly and honestly where he stands on every issue. And he has been talking the same way in the North and South, in the East and West. He doesn't have one set of issues for one part of the country, and another set for another part. He is the same all the time. He is for the Democratic platform--which is the best platform that has come out in I don't know when.

Now I know the Republicans have said he is talking over the heads of the people, but that just goes to show you what a low opinion the Republicans have of the everyday man.

Governor Stevenson knows you have heads and can think--and he is giving you something to think about. I hope you are listening to Stevenson's speeches. If not, you had better look up the time in your paper, and sit down and listen every night he is on the air. You will find it's a good way to learn what the issues are in this campaign.

Listen to Governor Stevenson, and then listen to the stream of generalities and wild charges from the Republican candidate. Look up the platforms of the two parties, and read them carefully. You will find the Democratic platform is the best and most specific and most progressive program ever adopted by either party. You will find the Republican platform is the worst collection of double-talk and weasel words that the Republicans have scraped together since 1932.

Now study the records of the two parties in the Congress. Then you can find out what they will do when they are in power. That is what counts.

Look how they vote. You will find a majority of Democrats are always voting in your interests, and most of the Republicans are voting against your interests.

If you will do these things, and inform yourselves, that is all I ask of you. You owe it to yourselves. You are the Government. You should vote for what helps the country and what helps you.

Go home and think about the candidates-think about the issues. Inform yourselves on what the issues are. Then inform yourselves on the records of the Republicans in the Congress, and the Democrats in the Congress.

And then I am sure that when November the 4th rolls around, you will vote for the best interests of the free world, the best interests of the greatest Nation in the history of the world, and your own best interests.

And if you do that, you will send Adlai Stevenson to the White House, and we will have 4 more years of good government.
Thank you very much.

[9.] WASHIHGTON, D.C. (Rear platform, Union Station, 7:55 p.m.)
Mr. Commissioner:

I appreciate this reception very highly. I didn't expect it--until I heard at Harpers Ferry that there was going to be some kind of a shindig down here.

I am always happy to go to a party--particularly when it is for me.

I have been going up and down the country trying to get the people to think a little bit. I have been literally from Maine to California and back, and I find that there is tremendous interest in this campaign. It is necessary that there would be an immense amount of interest in this campaign, because it is a vitally important one--I think the most important one we have had since the Civil War, because it is the division point as to whether we are going to go forward, or whether we are going to let these folks turn the clock back.

Now I have myself stuck to the issues. Once in a while I polished a little brass, but it needed polishing.

This is not anything to be funny about. It is too serious. I hope--I hope every single one of you here in the District of Columbia will inform yourselves completely and thoroughly on what this campaign means, and what it stands for. And then every single one of you see to it that you vote your absentee ballot in the right way, and get word to your home folks that they must themselves go to the polls. It doesn't do any good for a Democrat to be on the record books, or registered, unless he is willing to do his part.

Now I find everywhere in these United States the most intense interest in what is going on. I was met at Grand Central Station in New York by somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 to 40,000 people. I never saw anything like it. I have got a wonderful Secret Service man who said he was raised in New York and he hadn't seen anything until then--and he thought he had.

Every place we have been, in the cities in New Jersey, in the cities in West Virginia, in the cities in California, and North Dakota, and Montana--any State you want to name-even old Missouri--turned out like a house afire when I was there.

They are interested in the campaign. They want to hear what the issues are. And they can't find out what the issues are by reading the present press setup. They are against us 100 percent, and they try to make it appear that everything we do is wrong. It is all right for the other side to call me a liar and a traitor--and there's nothing wrong with that, if you will read the press, but when I nail down a few lies on the other side, why that's something awful.

Well, I have been called everything--I have had as much abuse, I reckon, as any other President; but they haven't hurt me yet, and I'm not through, I want to tell you, until the 4th day of November.