319
Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in Ohio.
October 31, 1952
[1.] TOLEDO, OHIO (Rear platform, 8:15 a.m.)
You know, it has come to the point now where all the mammas in the audience point out to their children, "There’s Margaret Truman’s father." Now Mike has gotten around to introducing me that way. I am happy over it, anyway. She is one of my best assets, I want you to know, and mywife is the other one.
I am very happy to be back in Toledo again. I was here twice during 1948. The first time it was just about midnight, and in spite of the late hour, more than 7,000 of you came down to the station to greet me—and I never did forget that, and I never will. Then I came back just before the end of the campaign, and talked to a great crowd at an afternoon meeting in your civic auditorium. That is when I read old man Hartley’s book to you. You folks helped carry Ohio for the Democratic Party. I appreciate that very highly—and I always will.
When I was here in 1948, I was introduced down at the auditorium by a wonderful public servant, who was then the mayor of Toledo, and his name is Mike DiSalle. Since then the whole country has come to know and love Mike. The only people who don’t like him are the Republican politicians. They have good reason not to like him, because I don’t know anybody who can do a better job of deflating a pompous Republican politician than can Mike DiSalle. You just turn him loose in the Senate next year, and see what he will do to some of those old Republican windbags.
I gave Mike DiSalle one of the toughest jobs in Washington, outside my own, when I made him head of price control. He was really on the hot seat. His job was to try to protect your pocketbook. To do that, he had to stand up against every selfish special interest in the country, and against almost all of the Republicans in Congress. And that is just exactly what he did. And that is why all the special interests are fighting him now, and supporting the Republicans. That is also why every one of you ought to be for him. And of course I know you are.
I hope you will send Tom Burke to Congress with Mike, and that you will continue your good government in Ohio with frank Lausche for your Governor.
The principal reason I am out on this tour—and I have been 18,000 miles, and I expect I have talked to 15 or 20 million people—is because I want you to put a man in the White House who will continue the policies of the Democratic Party. Now, send Adlai Stevenson to Washington as President of the United States, and John Sparkman as Vice President—and you can’t make a mistake on that.
You know, we Democrats have a big advantage in this campaign. We have made a record that we are proud to talk about. We have learned how to get and keep prosperity and full employment in this country—and we have done it throughout this difficult period after World War II.
And on the international scene, we have taken the lead in forging an alliance of free countries so strong that the advance of communism has been checked and thrown back all over the globe—including Korea, where our boys are fighting so gallantly right now.
The Republican Party can’t run a campaign on the record. They are ashamed of their record—and they ought to be. So they are playing a game with the American people called "cover up the record."
The first thing they did to cover up their miserable record was to find a candidate for President who had nothing whatever to do with making that record. They nominated a man who had made a great reputation as a war commander, and whose further reputation after the war was built in carrying out the foreign policy of the Democratic administration.
They figured if they had a man to lead their ticket who was part of the Democratic record, and one with all kinds of glamour besides, people wouldn’t think of him as a Republican, so they might not vote against him the way they would against any other Republican.
Now I don’t blame the Republicans for wanting to hide their record, but I don’t think we ought to let them get away with it. That’s the reason I have been going around the country showing the people what it is. And my—how they like it! And how the Republicans hate it!
So I thought I could help best in this campaign by just going around and telling folks about the Republican record. I guess I have read more notes and more votes out of the Congressional Record than anybody ever read before. You know, the Congressional Record is the driest document in the world. I used to help to make it—and I know.
Now in each talk I can only read a small part of the record. Since this is Mike DiSalle’s hometown, I will pick out the Republican record on price control—and it’s a honey!
You may have heard the Republican candidate talk about the high cost of living. He blames it on the Democratic administration. Have you ever heard him boast about his party’s votes in Congress on price control? No, indeed. He never mentions them. That’s part of the terrible Republican record he is trying to cover up. That record starts back in 1946. After the war, it was perfectly obvious that we needed to keep price controls for the time being, until our civilian production could get back to normal. But the lobbies and the speculators, and their Republican friends in Congress, saw a chance to capitalize on the unrest that followed the war.
They set up a great clamor to do away with controls immediately. They told you that price controls were keeping prices up. The National Association of Manufacturers ran full page ads promising that if controls were killed, prices would come tumbling right down.
So the Republicans in Congress set out to kill controls. They finally succeeded, and the cost of living went up 15 percent in 6 months. I am sure you all remember that period, the worst inflationary rise in the history of the country.
Do you ever hear the Republican candidate say: Now I am standing on my party’s record. We have killed controls, and we are proud of it. He doesn’t say that. He is afraid to. You hear him, instead, deliver ringing speeches about how the dollar is now worth less than it used to be worth. He talks loud—and covers up the record.
The dollar may be worth 57 cents, as they say, but you have got 10 times as many of them as you had before.
In 1947 and 1948 I tried to get standby price control authority back on the statute books, but the Republicans were in control of Congress, and that "good-for-nothing, do-nothing" 80th Congress laughed at my efforts.
Then the Korean emergency came along, and by the time we got a controls bill passed and the stabilization agencies established, the cost of living had gone up almost 8 percent in 6 months.
Early in 1951, after Mike DiSalle became Price Administrator, we put a general freeze on prices. But what did the Republicans do? They began a vicious attack on the basic price control legislation. Last year the Republicans voted 7 to 1 to curtail price rollbacks, and 12 to 1 to prevent effective control of black marketing in meat. And they put across that terrible Capehart amendment, which has already cost the American people a billion dollars in unnecessary price increases. That is your neighboring Senator over here in Indiana—I hope you won’t send anybody else back there like him.
This year the Republican Congressmen voted 4 to 1 to scuttle all price controls, and 6 to 1 to end all rent controls. Do you hear the Republican candidate boast about that record? The cost of living is higher than it ought to be, because the Republicans in Congress knifed controls. But in spite of high prices, most people are better off than they ever were before. That is because, under Democratic policies, production and income in this country have gone up a lot faster than prices in these past 20 years—twice as fast, in fact.
The dollar is not worth as much as it used to be, as I said awhile ago, but people have a lot more of them than they ever had under any Republican administration.
Now, this business of covering up the record extends to international affairs, too, andhere the Republican candidate has to hide his own record along with his party’s.
I never thought, when this campaign began, that any candidate would try to make a partisan issue out of Korea. When the Communists invaded Korea, we responded to that challenge as a united country. Republicans and Democrats alike knew that the invasion had to be met by force of arms, or we would be starting down that hopeless appeasement road that can only end in a world war, as it did before.
But the Republican candidate thought that if he could divide the country, and turn people against the fight for freedom in Korea, he might pick up a few votes. It was a reckless and cynical act that could only weaken the free world—but he tried to pull it.
However, he forgot about the record. First, he said we never should have pulled our troops out of Korea in 1949. But in the record is a very important document showing that the Republican candidate himself, when he was Chief of Staff of the Army, recommended that procedure to the President of the United States and to the Secretary of State. And I pulled that document on him, and he almost had a fit. He has been trying to squirm out of that one ever since. He even went so far, in his Detroit speech, as to deliberately misquote and falsify the record. That was a cheap trick that he must have learned from his new gutter playmate and political ally, Joe McCarthy.
Then he said we should have built up the strength of the South Koreans. But the record shows his own party in Congress in 1949 and 1950 voted against aid for Korea.
And the record shows we have built up a fine South Korean army, which is now providing more than half of the frontline troops, and is providing a bigger proportion of those troops as rapidly as they can be trained and equipped.
I hope you will look hard at the record of the Republican Party in this campaign. In domestic affairs it is a record of opposition to progress, a record of reaction. In foreign affairs it is a record of isolationism. And the Republican candidate in this campaign has shown that he has no qualms about hiding the record, and even when necessary trying to rewrite it.
He forgot, I guess, that the man who is going around talking to the people knows more about the record and knows more about the things that have happened, and more about the budget, than any other man in the United States. And that is the reason I felt I owed a duty to tell you people what it is.
That is one reason why it is vitally important to every person in this country that we elect a man of honesty and principle for President—Adlai Stevenson.
The other good reason is Adlai Stevenson’s own outstanding ability and great capacity for leadership. Adlai Stevenson is pledged to carry forward the Democratic policies that have brought and maintained prosperity. He is pledged to carry on our struggle for peace. He has the knowledge of civilian government and the experience-which are the essential requirements for both of these jobs.
Now, none of you has any more important duty than to go to the polls next Tuesday and vote for the man who will direct our Government for the next 4 years. It is your business, if you are going to be the Government, as you should be—and you are the Government. Then you exercise your right to vote. And when you don’t exercise it, you are shirking your duty—to the country, and to the world.
I want you to think about these things. I want you to inform yourselves. Find out just exactly what the Republicans did when they had control of the Congress. Find out how they voted since. And then look at the Democratic record, and you will find the Republican record has been entirely for the big interests, and the special interests that’ don’t give a hoot about the man who makes up the country.
The Democratic interest has been for the common people—for the people that make up the country. And the record shows it.
Now go to the polls and send Adlai Stevenson to Washington.
[2.] OTTAWA, OHIO (Rear platform, 9:58 a.m.)
Well, it is wonderful to see you this morning. I appreciate most highly that cordial welcome. I am very glad to be here in Ottawa again. I remember when I was here in Ottawa 4 years ago that your fine band was out to greet me. I understand that you have an even better one now. You know, I like music, and I appreciate any reception that takes music into consideration.
I have been having a most pleasant trip through Ohio. From what I have seen, I think the people of Ohio know and understand what the issues are at stake in this election coming up Tuesday. As you go into that voting booth next Tuesday, I want you to think and remember that this is probably the most important election you will face in your lifetime. This election will probably determine whether we have peace or atomic war in the next few years. It will also determine whether this great Republic will continue to move forward to higher prosperity and a better life for the average
Just the other day, somebody sent me a copy of a newspaper which is published right here in Ottawa, the Putnam County Sentinel. This paper has a fine editorial telling why it is coming out for Governor Stevenson for President.
As you probably know, 90 percent of the press of this country is against Governor Stevenson. The press is opposing Governor Stevenson just like they fought me—just like they fought Franklin Roosevelt—just like they fought Abraham Lincoln, and every other President who did things for the average man in this country.
So it is very refreshing to see and read an independent newspaper like the Putnam County Sentinel. Let me read you a few words from this editorial, dated October the 24th:
"If we were voting for someone to direct our military forces, to lead us to victory on the battlefields, we would not hesitate one moment in endorsing Mr. Eisenhower. However, to lead this Nation politically and economically, our vote will go to Mr. Stevenson who has had administrative experience in dealing with local, State, and national programs; who is not only a specialist in one field, but who has had tried and proven experience in dealing and helping to solve problems of business—industry—laborers-and farmers. As Governor of the great State of Illinois, Mr. Stevenson has had that experience, plus his previous experience in meeting with leaders of the European nations on international affairs through his work with the United Nations .... We believe that he will make a great President."
I hope you will remember these words in that editorial when you go to the polls next Tuesday. I hope you will remember that it is the Democratic Party which brought you good farm prices, rural electrification, social security, and all the other programs for the benefit of the people.
Remember these things, and you will vote next Tuesday to send Dan Batt to the Congress, to reelect Governor Lausche, and to send that fighting liberal to the United States Senate—Mike DiSalle.
And if you want good government for the next 4 years, you will vote to put Adlai Stevenson in the White House.
Thank you very much.
[3.] SIDNEY, OHIO (Rear platform, 11:24
Thank you very much. I hope I can live up to that reputation. I am glad to be back here in Sidney again. When I was here in 1948 I talked about the fine work you did during the war. I understand that you are doing great work here today turning out machine tools. Work like that is very important because it is part of a great effort to bring about world peace.
We are building up our military forcesand our military production so that we can have strong defenses against the threat of Communist aggression. The arms we are making have stopped Communist aggression in Korea. They are helping to hold the line against communism all around the woad. We have been very successful in increasing defense production and maintaining civilian production at the same time. That really is an accomplishment, if you will just think about it.
This has been due to the fact that the people in towns like this all over the country have done such a remarkable job. I am sure that we are going to carry this thing through to a successful conclusion and establish a firm basis for peace all around the world.
Here is something else you should keep in mind. World peace depends on the strength and prosperity of American economy. When I was here in 1948 I gave you some facts about Democratic prosperity and full employment, and the efforts of that "do-nothing" Both Congress to turn the clock back. And then you people in Shelby County went to the polls in 1948 and voted to continue prosperity.
Now the issue is just exactly the same in 1952. Do you want to go back to the days of Republican breadlines, farm foreclosures, $3 hogs, and 15-cent corn? Or do you want to move forward to greater prosperity with the Democratic Party—the party that has always fought for your interests and for the interests of the farmer, the worker, and the small businessman. That is just exactly what the Democratic Party has been doing under the New Deal and the fair Deal for all the everyday, common people.
And if you want to continue these programs for the benefit of all the people, you will go to the polls next Tuesday, and you will vote for Carleton Reiser for Congress, you will send Mike DiSalle to the United States Senate, and reelect Frank Lausche as Governor of Ohio.
And you must do some thinking on the national situation, when you get ready to cast your vote. You see, I have been going up and down this country trying to get people to think. I have been trying to get people to look up the records. The records are the things you ought to vote on. Study the record of the Republicans in the Congress. That will be the policy they will pursue. That is the only thing you have to go by. You know what the record of the Democrats has been in the Congress. They have been for the common everyday man, to let him have his fair share of the national income. We have balanced this situation by giving the farmers prosperity and giving the laboring man a fair deal and the ability to bargain with big business. And the big businessman and the little businessman have profited by it. If you will think of all these things, you can’t help but make one decision, and that is to send Adlai Stevenson to the White House and have 4 more years of continuing good government.
I thank you very much.
[4.] TROY, OHIO (Rear platform, 12:15
I have heard "The Star-Spangled Banner" at least 2,500 times since I started with the Government in 1917, and I have never heard it done any better. Well done!
I certainly appreciate your cordiality and this wonderful welcome you have given me this morning. It has been very good to see so much campaign enthusiasm in the great State of Ohio. I hope you will all go to the polls and vote on election day, because this is one of the most important elections in the history of the country.
I understand that here in Troy you have a company that manufactures dishwashers. Now, believe it or not, dish washing has become an issue in this campaign. The Republican candidate for President made a speech out in Boise, Idaho, in which he accused the Government of lots of terrible things, and here is what he said: "The Government will do this and that, the Government does everything but come in and wash the dishes for the housewife."
After that, I pointed out to the Republican candidate that we Democrats had made a lot of progress on helping housewives to wash dishes. We have made it possible for many housewives to get cheap electricity so they can afford to have electric dishwashers to do the dishes. We have also made it possible for many of them to have electric refrigerators and washing machines to do the clothes.
We have brought electricity to millions of homes that never had it before. Right here in Miami County 98 percent of the farms have electricity today. Only 28 percent of the farms had electricity in Miami County in 1930.
Now I have been reading the record on the Republicans for the past 2 months, and I have criticized them for lots of things. But there is one thing I will never accuse the Republicans of doing. Nobody can accuse the Republican Party of doing anything to help the housewife wash the dishes, because they just don’t believe in that sort of thing.
The Republicans are more interested in the problems of the big corporations than they are in the problems of people who have to wash their own dishes. They are too busy trying to open up loopholes in the tax laws for the special interest lobbies to spend much time trying to make life easier and better for the ordinary citizen. I am afraid that the Republican candidate is going to lose the dishwasher vote. I think he will lose the vote of the KP’s who have had to wash dishes in the Army, too.
You know, the Republicans have all the generals on their side. I want the privates and the corporals on mine. They have General MacArthur and General Wedemeyer and General Motors and General foods—and the only general we have on our side is general welfare, and we work with him all the time.
But the Republicans have all the generals. They can have all the generals, as I said awhile ago, but we will take the corporals and the privates and the KP’s—and the housewives Who wash dishes—and we will win the election.
So I want you to go out to the polls next Tuesday and vote for general welfare-and for the whole Democratic ticket.
Vote to send Carleton Reiser to Congress. Reelect Frank Lausche as Governor. Vote to send to the Senate a really great fighter for the average man—Mike DiSalle. And I know that better than anybody else, for I had him down there fighting for the common, ordinary man, and he did a wonderful job—and he will do a good job for you in the Senate.
To cap it all off, think a little bit about what is going on in the world. That is the only reason I am going up and down this country, explaining the situation to the people. I am trying to get the people to understand exactly what the issues are in this campaign. You can’t find out from the Republican press, and you can’t find out from the Republicans themselves, because they won’t discuss the issues.
But if you look at the thing as you should, and read the record—all you need do is read the record and find out how the Republicans in the Congress voted on those subjects and issues that are vital to you.
Then find out how the Democrats voted. Then find out how you yourselves are situated. Remember that the welfare of the free world is at stake in this election—the welfare of the greatest Republic that the sun has ever shone on is at stake in this election. Your own welfare is at stake.
Examine your own situation, now, and remember what it was when the Republicans had control of the country. And if you do that, you will go to the polls on November the 4th and you will send Adlai Stevenson to the White House, and you will have 4 more years of good government.
[5.] DAYTON, OHIO (Memorial Hall, 1:10
I certainly do appreciate this most cordial welcome. I appreciate the fact that yourgood Mayor and Mrs. Cox came to the station to meet me this morning, and I am sincerely sorry that Governor Cox can’t be here this morning, but he sent me a note and told me that the doctor wouldn’t let him come. I hope he will be in perfectly good shape, and that he will live a long, long time. I think he is one of the great men of this country.
I have come here today with one purpose in view. I have come to ask you to vote for Adlai Stevenson for the President of the United States.
For nearly 6 weeks now I have been campaigning up and down the country, urging the people to make him President of the United States and give him a solid Democratic majority in the Congress—the kind of majority that will help him carry through the pledges in the platform of the Democratic Party.
I have taken an active part in this campaign, not for my own sake but for the sake of the people in this country who have had confidence in me. I am a peculiar kind of Democrat, I think, because I am grateful to the Democratic Party for what it has done for me. I have had every honor that the Democratic Party can give a man, and I am here to tell you that I am not like some of these birds, after they get everything they can out of a party, to ring it out like an old sock and throw it aside, I am going to be a Democrat as long as I live.
My only interest now is to be sure if I can, that I leave behind me in the White House a man who will work constantly for the plain ordinary people of this country as I have tried to do, and as franklin Roosevelt tried to do before me.
We have made great progress in this country in these past 20 years, great gains for the people—for the everyday people. I want to see those gains secured. I want to see still further progress, in the 4 years ahead.
That is why I am campaigning for a Democratic victory on November the 4th. I am doing this for you—because your jobs, your welfare, your very hopes for peace, are all at stake in this election.
Let me explain why this is so.
For 20 years your Government has been working, under Democratic leadership, to secure prosperity and peace in the world.
Much has been accomplished. You can surely see that right here in Dayton.
Twenty years ago the economy of this city was knocked into a cocked hat. When the Republicans left office in 1932, Dayton was chiefly noted for the great number of unemployed and the amounts of money lost in its bank failures.
Today your city is a thriving center of manufacturing and trade, with good jobs at good wages and a most promising economic future.
As for peace, your country is now engaged in a great enterprise, rallying the strength of the whole free world to halt and counter the menace of Communist imperialism—and stop Communist aggression in its tracks.
That is the meaning of Korea. We went into Korea to stop aggression there, before it could spread to some other place, closer to home. Korea is the common fight of all free people against Communist aggressors. Captain Jabara of Wichita, Kansas, put it right and simply when he said: "We are fighting in Korea now, so we won’t have to fight in Wichita." I might say, so we won’t have to fight in Dayton, Ohio.
Now, my friends, the election on November 4th—next Tuesday—is going to decide whether our country, and you people here, shall continue to make progress toward greater prosperity and lasting peace—or whether we shall slide backward toward depression and a world war.
Why do I say this? I say it because I know what the Republicans are really after. I know from experience what they will do, because I have been fighting them ever since I first came to the Senate, 17 years ago. And I know them pretty well.
What they will do is to follow reactionary policies at home, and isolationist policies abroad.
The Republican Party is still the party ofbig business, big lobbies—big banks, great corporations, the oil lobby, the power lobby, the real estate lobby, and all the rest. These are the fellows who pay the party’s bills and lay down the policies for the candidate to follow.
As evidence of this, I offer you the testimony of your own senior Senator, "Mr. Republican" himself. If anybody knows what goes on in his party, Senator Taft is surely the man. The other day the Indianapolis Times printed his own story of how and why the Republican’s candidate came to be nominated for President.
Let me read this to you, I quote from the issue of October 12. It says:
"Senator Robert A. Taft believes he lost the 1952 Republican nomination for President because of ’New York financial interests’ and the fact many newspapers ’turned themselves into propaganda sheets’ for his opponent, General Dwight D. Eisenhower."
Then it goes on to say:
"The cause of defeat, as listed by Senator Taft: ’first it was the power of the New York financial interests and a large number of businesses subject to New York influence, who had selected General Eisenhower as their candidate at least a year ago.’"
That ends the quote from Senator Taft. And that tells the story of who is running the Republican candidate.
And what does that mean to you? Well, remember the record of that Republican Both Congress. In that Congress it meant the Taft-Hartley antilabor law. It meant reduction in social security coverage. It meant tax relief for the rich. It meant the "sliding scale" of price supports for farmers. And remember, the Republican platform this year endorses the 80th Congress and all its acts.
My friends, these people have not changed a bit in the last 4 years. They are still bitterly opposed to almost all the progressive measures that the New Deal and the fair Deal have accomplished for the people.
Think that over, my friends. Your welfare is at stake. When you go to the polls on Tuesday, you’ll be voting for your own paycheck. Remember that.
And remember too, that you’ll be voting for your future and your children’s future. You’ll be voting for your chances for a peaceful world.
The Republican candidate for President has now promised to put tax relief ahead of national security. He has promised huge cuts in Federal expenditures for national defense and aid for our allies.
He has never said specifically, what part of our defenses he would cut. But it is obvious that he would have to make extraordinary slashes in our military establishment. He would have to reduce the number of air groups, cut down the ground forces, eliminate reserve training, lay up warships. He would have to stop procurement of new weapons and supplies, and cancel research projects such as those you are conducting at Wright field right now. He would have to do not one, but many things in order to make good on the savings he has promised so carelessly.
Cuts of the size he has proposed would also have to come out of the aid we give to our allies to held them defend themselves against communism. He has not said how he would handle this—whether he would cut off some countries entirely, or slash them across the board, leaving them all with inadequate assistance. But whichever way it is done, it would be a heavy blow to the morale and the safety of our allies in Europe and in Asia.
This kind of budget cutting means a policy of weak defenses here at home. It means weak defenses for our allies abroad.
This, my friends, is no time for the United States to put into the White House a professional soldier who owes his nomination to the Wall Street bankers. My friends, this is no time to place within one heart beat from the White House a young man of very limited experience, whose expenses are paid by oil men, real estate men, and tax lawyers. And finally, this is no time to put the Congressin the hands of the reactionary, isolationist Old Guard Republicans. That kind of combination cannot be trusted with the welfare of our people, the prosperity of our country, or the peace of the world.
My friends, if you are concerned about these things, you will go to the polls next Tuesday and vote the Democratic ticket.
I urge upon you: Be sure you do vote-and get your friends and neighbors to vote, too. Those who stay at home on election day have only themselves to blame if they are saddled with bad government for 4 long years.
Go to the polls. And vote in your own interests, and your country’s interest. In fact, vote for yourselves.
If you do that, then Mike DiSalle will go to the Senate, to fight for you as hard and faithfully as he did when he was running price controls. Tom Talbot will go to Congress, where he will represent your interests well. Frank Lausche will remain in your State capital, giving good government just as he has been doing.
And the next President of the United States will be a man who’s proved by all he’s done that he is honest enough and courageous enough to face and meet the problems of the next 4 years. That man is the most able, most progressive Governor your neighboring State of Illinois has ever had—Adlai Stevenson.
[6.] HAMILTON, OHIO (Rear platform, 2:23 p.m.)
I thank you most sincerely for this wonderful welcome. I remember the wonderful reception you gave me when I was here 4 years ago. I remember the way you voted on election day—and I appreciate it. I want you to do even better for the man who is heading the Democratic ticket this year-and that is Adlai Stevenson.
I have been delighted with the way people all over the country have been turning out to listen to my speeches on these campaign trips during the past month. It shows that the people are interested in learning about the issues in this election. And I have been doing everything in my power to see that they get the facts. I have been making this special effort because I consider this election about the most important one for the people of this Nation since the Civil War.
Make no mistake about it, the decisions you make next Tuesday will determine whether or not this country will continue on the road to lasting prosperity and world peace. For 20 years now, our people have counted upon the Democratic Party to work for these conditions, and we have not let the people down. We have developed sound policies of social security, and full employment for the workingman. We have developed agricultural programs to assure the farmer a fair share of the national income for his efforts. We have never once lost sight of the special problems of the small businessman and the housewife. As a result, our country enjoys a prosperity it never knew before in its history.
We have developed the foreign policy programs which today unify the free nations of the world in their determined stand against Soviet aggression. The hope of all civilization for world peace rests upon our leadership.
In this election the Republican Party is asking the people of this country to turn over to them the responsibility for leadership in the 4 years ahead of us. By his "me too" statements of the past few days, the Republican candidate for President has been trying to make you believe his party will carry out the Democratic programs that have brought such great returns to this country.
But this year, as always, the Republican campaign and the Republican Party are controlled by the same Old Guard reactionaries who have opposed every program of the New Deal and the fair Deal for the past 20 years.
We will have much to regret if the Republican Party is given the opportunity to undermine the social and economic advanceswe have made since 1932. But it will be an even greater tragedy if they are given a chance to tear apart the work we have done for world peace.
The great threat to the free world today is Soviet expansion. No responsible person denies this. And our international programs have been directed toward meeting that threat without bringing on a third world war. That means we have to build up our military strength and the strength of our allies. That means we must rely on international cooperation so all free nations can stand together in opposing Communist
aggression. But the vast majority of the Republicans in Congress just don’t seem to see things that way. They never learn a lesson. They vote time and again to cripple the very programs that have meant so much to the free world today.
If they had their way, we would be standing alone in our opposition to the Russians. Instead of fighting in Korea, we might be fighting in Ohio. I don’t believe the voters of this country are going to let these reactionary Republicans get a chance to wreck what we have done in the past 20 years. I know they won’t let this happen, if they just inform themselves on the record of the Republican opposition to everything that has been good for all the people of this country.
So, study the record. That is what I am asking you to do. I am asking you to use your head. Do a little thinking, and then vote in your own interests—and be sure that your friends vote in your interests.
If you do that, you will send Tom Talbot to the Congress, Mike DiSalle will be your new Senator from Ohio, Frank Lausche will remain in the Governor’s chair, and we will have 4 years of good government under the leadership of Adlai Stevenson of Illinois.
NOTE: In the course of his remarks on October 31 the President referred to Michael V. DiSalle, former mayor of Toledo, former Director of the Office of Price Stabilization, and Democratic candidate for Senator, Thomas H. Burke, Democratic candidate for Representative, and Governor Frank J. Lausche, all of Ohio, and Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin. The President also referred to Dan Batt and Carleton C. Reiser, Democratic candidates for Representative, Mayor Louis Lohrey of Dayton, former Governor and Mrs. James M. Cox, Senator Robert A. Taft, and Thomas B. Talbot, Democratic candidate for Representative, all of Ohio.
The President’s remarks in Toledo were broadcast over radio and television.