I can't tell you how highly I appreciate this wonderful reception in the great city of Ardmore. They tell me that the population of Ardmore is 20,000 people. It looks to me like it has grown to about 40,000. It has been that way, in the receptions I have received, all the way across the United States. It does my heart good, it makes me feel exceedingly happy, to know that the people are really interested in their Government, that they are really interested in meeting the President of the United States and finding out just what his views are on the issues before the country at this time.

Well, I am perfectly willing to discuss those issues with you and let you know exactly where I stand and what I'm trying to do as President of the United States-and then if you can get the other people to tell you where they stand, you can go to the polls and vote for the country's welfare on the 2nd of November.

I met an old friend on the train this morning at Marietta, Mr. Easley, who runs your newspaper here. I've known him a long, long time. I've known him so long he still calls me Harry. That's not unusual, for all over the country they call me Harry.

When I was down in Mexico City they had tremendous crowds out, and they would stand out on the street and say, " 'Allo 'Arry." I like it. I like it. I believe when you speak to me like that you really do like me-and I want you to like me because I'm trying my best to serve you with everything I have. And if you are pleased with it I am the happiest man in the world.

I hope, some time or other-I say "some time or other" for my time is not my own- to come down here and let that expert fisherman, Easley, take me out to this beautiful Lake Murray and show me how to catch bass. He said he'd put one on the train for me-and I was going to try to eat it all if I could get to it first.

Now, I want to say a few words to you on some of the issues in this campaign.

We can keep our country prosperous, or we can bog down again into the mire of depression, as we did in the 1920's. The threat we face comes from high prices and inflation.

For 2 years now the special interests have had, from their viewpoint, the Congress that is best for them. This Congress has done more for special interests in the year and a half that it has been in Washington than has been done for those special interests since Mellon was in charge of the Treasury in the 1920's.

Now, that's a terrible thing when you contemplate it, and I just wonder what they would have done had they had control of the whole Government. The country would have been in a terrible fix, I think. But I stood there with my right of veto and I vetoed some 61 of their special-privilege hills, and they only passed 4 or 5 of them over my veto. So I was protecting the interests of the people all the time.

Now, these special interest fellows want runaway inflation because they cash in at tremendous profits. They don't care if you people are thrown into a depression.

I say we can control the inflation that threatens us, and we can continue the prosperity which is everywhere evident. Never, in the history of the country, has there been a situation such as we have had for the last 3 years since the war ended-since our enemies surrendered, let us say.

Last year this country had the biggest income it has ever had in its history-some $217 billions-and that income was so distrihuted that the farmer and the worker and the small businessman got his fair share of it. That's the first time in the history of the country that that's ever happened. I want to keep things that way. These fellows don't want them that way.

Let me cite you an example or two.

Every one of you here is concerned with the rural electrification program because it reaches practically every farm in Carter County. Every one of you knows of the Democratic flood control and reclamation and conservation programs because Lake Texoma is right in your backyard, and that's a Democratic project put through by a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President.

You know, to complete the work on the Oklahoma side of the Table Basin Area, we must have appropriations to complete that work.

Rural electrification, flood control, reclamation, conservation, recreation facilities these are important and vital to you and to every one of the States of the United States. The Democratic Party has shown, by action, that it's for them. The Republican 80th Congress has shown that it's not for them and we can only judge the Republican Party by its acts.

It's clear to you who your friends are in Washington when it comes to supporting these programs. Let me tell you a little about rural electrification.

When the question of increasing funds for rural electrification came up before the House of Representatives in 1947, 99 percent of the Democrats voted to increase these funds. Just 12 percent of the Republicans voted to Increase these funds. When the same measure came up before the Congress in 1948, 98 percent of the Democrats voted in your favor, and only 26 percent of the Republicans voted to help the rural electrification program.

Look at what happened in May of this year when the Democrats in the Senate asked for a $75 million increase in funds for the 1949 crop conservation program. One hundred percent, every one of the Democrats in the Senate, voted for this increase. Only 7 percent of the Republicans voted for it. It passed by just a bare majority in the Senate because there were a few forward-looking Republicans who didn't agree with what the leadership in the Senate wanted to do.

I could continue to give you the record of these predatory animals in Washington, and of the fight that we have been carrying on against them, but you're intelligent people. You know the record. Just study the record-that's all I ask you to do. Study my record. Study the record of the 80th Congress, controlled by Republican leadership, and see the difference.

The question is: Are we going to let this crowd take over full control in Washington? Are we going to let that crowd get control of the Government? I don't think you are. I don't think you are.

I know you, here, won't let me down, and that on election day the polling places are going to be packed early in the morning, and they're going to stay that way all day and you're going to vote the Democratic ticket while you're in that booth.

Now, in 1944 you gave President Roosevelt and me a 4-to-1 vote in this county. I want you to give me 6-to-1 this time. If you do that, Oklahoma will have done its duty by the Nation. Oklahoma will have elected a Democrat to Congress from here my friend, Carl Albert, who is an able citizen if there ever was one. Oklahoma will elect Bob Kerr to the Senate, and Oklahoma will elect a whole delegation to the Congress that are looking forward, and not voting to turn the clock back as these Republicans want to do. Keep that in mind. Do your duty on election day and the country will he safe for another 4 years-and I won't have to move out of the White House.