October 2, 1952
[1.] EPHRATA, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 8:06 a.m.)
I can't tell you how very much I appreciate that welcome you have given me on my return trip to this great country. You see, I have been out here before on several occasions. I was here particularly one time on a nonpolitical trip to inspect Grand Coulee. But I am frank to tell you this time I am here on a strictly political mission. I am campaigning for the Democratic ticket. You see, as President of the United States I am the head of the Democratic Party and I am anxious to see the good works of the Democratic Party carried on.
There are some very fine candidates on this train today. Your own candidates here in Washington. They are just about the best team of good men you could ever hope to find. You have a candidate for auditor named Cliff Yelle. And that's a familiar name back in Missouri and north Arkansas. They are all good people, and if he is as good as those back in that part of the country, you can't do any better than to elect him.
And I understand that you have a man running for Congress here in Washington by the name of William Bryan. Well now, one of the greatest orators that ever lived was William J. Bryan, and I was a great admirer of his. I heard him making a speech one time down not far from Independence, and in those days when the candidate made a speech out in the country he had to have a voice--he didn't have these things [microphones].
And they made him a platform and he would get above the crowd and then everybody around could hear him. They didn't have any platform, so they wheeled out a manure spreader. And Bryan got up on the manure spreader and said that's the first time I ever made a speech from the Republican platform.
You have a candidate for Congressman at Large in this State by the name of Don Magnuson. Well, that seems to be a pretty good name here in the great State of Washington. If he is as good as the Magnuson that I am well acquainted with, you will have excellent representation in the House of Representatives if you send Don Magnuson there.
I have known Hugh Mitchell a long time. He was in Congress, and he was in the Senate, and he was associated with my good friend Mon Wallgren. And he is a candidate for Governor in this State, and I hope you will elect him. I believe you will. You should, anyway.
Then there is Henry Jackson. I didn't know until this morning that his name was Henry. I always called him "Scoop." He has made a good public servant, and if you send him to the Senate the great State of Washington will have wonderful representation in that body. It is necessary that you should have forward-looking men to represent you in the House and the Senate.
The reason that you have these wonderful projects here in this community is because you have forward-looking men in the House and the Senate to help bring them about. And I want to say to you we didn't have much help from the Republicans when we were trying to bring them about, either.
Now we have got a national ticket which in my opinion is the best any party has ever offered the voters. Adlai Stevenson is a remarkable new leader. Like Roosevelt, he has had good experience in government, and he has proved himself a real friend of the everyday man. He understands your problems--he showed that when he spoke out here in Seattle.
And John Sparkman's the same sort of man. For 15 years in Congress he has been working and voting for things that benefit all the people. And that is what you want to make yourselves familiar with--the record. Don't let anybody come out here and tell you what he has done--make him prove it. I am drawing you the record on these birds, and when the record is shown to you, you can't possibly do anything else but elect the Democrats.
You know, I am very much interested in the names of the towns I visit. The name of Ephrata reminds me of the old Bible town in Palestine which was part of the great fertile Crescent that stretched all the way from the Nile to the Valley of the Tigris and Euphrates.
In the old days that was the cradle of civilization, because there was an ideal combination of land and water. Now much of that country has become a desert.
It is just the opposite here. This countryside was pretty barren, for lack of water. Now we are bringing Columbia River water to this land. This area will blossom and become a great center just like the old Tigris-Euphrates Valley of ancient times.
The population of this area has almost doubled in 10 years' time. And I am told that this town is about five times as big as it was 10 years ago. That is just the beginning. When this whole Columbia basin project is fully underway, there will be a million acres of new land under cultivation, and the acreage will support a population four times what it is today.
And you know what the Republicans said about the construction of that great project? They said there would be nothing but coyotes and prairie dogs in this part of the world, and that if the dam was built it would be in a desert and the desert would stay that way. That is how forward-looking they were. I want you to remember those things when you go to the polls this November.
This wonderful development is the kind of thing that should be done over in that old Euphrates region. It can be made into a fertile country once again. And that would help bring peace and prosperity in the whole Middle East.
That is what we are trying to get started through our point 4 program--helping people to help themselves to do what you are doing here with this great self-liquidating project. It is long and slow, but it is the best way to fight communism. Stomach communism, I call it. When people are hungry, why they will take anything to get something to eat. I call this communism, where the people are poor and have nothing to eat and nothing to wear--that is stomach communism. And to bring real peace in the world, that must be overcome. We must clothe them and feed them and get them in the frame of mind where they can do it themselves. And that is what I am trying to do.
Now, all this work for progress here, and for peaceful development abroad, has come about because you have had a government that cares about the people, and helps them do the things they can't do by themselves-and a government that wants to have peace in the world. That is how the Democratic administration has tried to run your Government these last 20 years. That is what really marks the difference between our political parties.
The Republican Party doesn't care about the people because it is controlled by big lobbies--the banks, the power companies, the real estate lobby, and all the rest. The main thing they want the Government to do is to help them make a profit for themselves. And you, the people, have to foot the bill.
Remember, it's the Republicans who opposed Grand Coulee from the start--and Bonneville and Hungry Horse. It's the Republicans who are against Hells Canyon and Ice Harbor, now. They are fighting it tooth and toenail.
In 1947 and 1948 the Republicans in both Houses voted overwhelmingly, four separate times, to slash the funds for REA and your REA cooperatives. In 1949 a majority of House Republicans voted against even starting the rural telephone system. In 1950 the Republicans in the Senate voted two to one to slash all flood control work in half.
In 1951 the majority of Republicans in Congress voted to scrap our national power policy so the power companies could get a on the transmission of public power.
And so it goes, year after year, not just on these things but on housing, social security, farm programs, and all the rest.
And now I am reading you the record. You can read it for yourselves, if you get the Congressional Record and take the time to do it. The Congressional Record is printed in a most unreasonable form. It is full of speeches by Congressmen and Senators, but every once in a while you will run across the place where the vote is set down and the record is made on what these people thought about what was before the Congress. And when you read that vote you will find that the Republicans as a whole, in a majority of the cases, always voted against the people.
That is what I want you to get into your heads. And if you do that, no amount of hooey that these birds put out will fool you when the election is over.
I don't think you want to put a party in control of the Government that has the kind of record the Republicans have. You people are the Government. You can vote for your own interests and get the kind of government that you want. And when you don't go to the polls and vote, and when you vote wrong at the polls, you get just what you deserve: you get bad government.
And I am asking you to go to the polls, after you have studied those records--get that fine print and read it--and you will find out that your interest has been in the hands of the party that is now in power.
I want to tell you that when that good-for-nothing Both Congress was in control-when I made that campaign in 1948--if you hadn't had a Democratic President in the White House, you would have been ruined by now. You never would have gotten these developments and things done that I am telling you about.
And you want to go to the polls on the 4th day of November, and remember that you are the Government, that your interest is at stake, the interests of the whole Nation, the peace of the world--they are at stake. If you take all those things into consideration, you will go there and you will vote the straight Democratic ticket and the country will be safe for another 4 years.
Thank you a lot.
[2.] WENATCHEE, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 10:25 a.m.)
My goodness alive, is anybody left at home in the great State of Washington? It looks like they are all here.
I am more than glad to be with you this morning. When I was here 4 years ago you just had had a bad flood. I am glad things look so good around here now, including your famous apple trees.
You may have heard a rumor about why I am here. Well, I will tell you the facts so it won't be a rumor. I am out here campaigning for the Democratic ticket. That is one of my jobs. I have five altogether, any one of which is enough for one man to do, so I have to work about 17 to 18 hours a day, and therefore I am working in sections. Now I am working at the job as the head of the Democratic Party, trying to tell you what the Democratic Party stands for, what it has done for the country. And Governor Stevenson will tell you what it proposes to do for the country. And between us, I think we are going to convince you that it will be right to vote the ticket.
I don't believe you could do better with the Democratic ticket than the slate of candidates which you have now up for election in the great State of Washington. I have been riding with them most of the morning, and I am personally acquainted with a great many of them. I don't think you could do better than to have Mr. lack Taylor for land commissioner, Phil Gallager for the treasurer, Bob Dellwo for Congressman, and Don Magnuson for Congressman at Large, Hugh Mitchell for Governor, and Scoop Jackson for United States Senator.
You know, I have been handicapped to some extent during my term as President of the United States because the Members of Congress--a great many of them--are against the things that the Democratic Party stands for. But in spite of all that, we have been able to get things through that have been for the welfare of the world and the benefit of the country and for the benefit of the individual in the United States.
I want that to continue and I think you do--and in order to do that I want you to see that our national ticket is elected this time, just as you saw to it in 1948.
Adlai Stevenson is a very fine man. He is a great Governor, and he will make a great President. He is a man you all can trust to work for you. He understands the problems of the West, and the problems of the plain people everywhere.
That is true of John Sparkman. No man in the Senate has done more for small business, for the farm program, and for power development than has John Sparkman.
I can't come to Wenatchee without thinking about Rufus Woods. That man had a great understanding, a great vision of the whole Northwest, and what a wonderful region this would come to be. He dreamed that dream long before anybody started out to put it into effect. We have started to work now on the things he dreamed about. We are on the way, and we owe a lot of it to Woods' hard work.
This country is growing mightily--your agriculture is doing fine. And look at your new industry--the Alcoa aluminum plant you have here, and this was made possible because your own public utility district added 200 percent to the power output of Rock Island Dam. This is a symbol of the new Northwest that Rufus Woods was working for.
You people know what is making Washington State develop, you know what is needed to keep it growing--bringing more industry and more trade. And that requires more electric power. More power is the crying need, and water on the barren lands is a crying need. If you get the right amounts of power and water at the right price--particularly at the right price--the whole area will boom beyond anything you can imagine.
And if you don't get these things, your growth will be stunted. They tell me that both here and in Spokane these days, men have been laid off the job in the aluminum industry for lack of power. That is what this whole region faces, if you don't move forward--and move forward fast.
Now, that is a common need for the whole Northwest, from the Rockies to the coast. And the only way to meet that need is through a common program, an integrated program, to make the best use of your sources of power and of water, and harness the rivers of this region so they will work for you.
Behind Bonneville we needed Grand Coulee. Behind Grand Coulee we needed Hungry Horse. And we still must have Hells Canyon and Ice Harbor and Libby-and all the other dams and power generators and irrigation works. These must all tie together in a great power network--transmission lines that will bring the power from these dams to your homes, and farms, and cities, and factories, where it is needed and when it is needed, in the right amounts and at the right price. Let me emphasize that right price.
Now it stands to reason that you people, as individuals, can't get these things done by yourselves. And your city government and your State can't give you all the help you need--their jurisdiction and resources are too small--the problem is too big. It is a regional problem, and the regional power pool in this section of the world has made more contribution to its prosperity than any other one thing, including the discovery of gold and silver west of the Rocky Mountains. And it's the development of these great power resources that has made this part of the country prosperous--and the TVA and all the rest of the country. And I have been trying to get those power pools established all over the country. And in every instance have been fought to a standstill by the Republicans in the Congress of the United States.
And that is why you look to the Federal Government for help. It is your Government, and that is its job--to help you do the things you can't do all by yourselves. We have been giving you help--the New Deal and the fair Deal have been helping you for 20 years--and you have helped the country in aluminum and plutonium for national defense. You have helped the prosperity of the whole Nation. I am tremendously proud of the whole business. And that's the reason I am out here going from one end of the country to the other working with every bit of energy I have to see that the Democrats continue in power. And I think they will.
We have worked with you, and we have helped to meet your basic needs for power and for water. And we have helped this region in many other ways--our farm program, our housing program, social security, and minimum wages, and all the rest.
These things are helping to balance out your whole economy up here, to put a floor under your prosperity, and to make life easier and better for the everyday citizen of the whole country.
Now you and I know that there is a lot left to do. There are lots of dams and powerlines yet to be built. We have only begun this development. There are new factories and businesses to be helped into production, schools and hospitals and homes to take care of the people who will work in them.
Your farmers need protection against the great ups and downs in the prices for their produce. That is why we have been trying to work out some method for supporting perishables. And school kids all over the country need more of those fine apples you grow up here.
These are the things for you to do, and for your Government to help you do, where the help is needed.
That brings me to one of the big questions at issue in this election. Will we go on with the kind of government which gives that help, or will we get the kind which turns its back upon the people? I tell you this, every bit of progress you have made will be in danger, if the Republicans take over the country once again. And your hopes for the future might as well be laid aside. You can't trust the Republicans. They will not help you. They will not help you. They never have helped you. They only help themselves and the special privilege boys, they've done it every time.
I say this because I know it is true, because I have read the Republican record in the Congress--where it counts. And I know how they act and what they do. And I have been spelling out that story every chance I get. And I am going to keep on doing it until I run them into the brush.
There is something else I want to say. A political party that cannot be trusted to work for prosperity at home cannot be trusted to work for peace abroad. Those who do not care about the people's welfare are not safe custodians of the Nation's welfare.
Think that over. Go home and think it over very carefully. Think of where your interests lie. Think of your families and your children. Give some thought to what the Republicans are offering this year. Think of those Old Guard faces surrounding the five-star candidate they have got. They have got him surrounded so he couldn't do a thing he wanted to if he tried. If he goes back there with a Republican Congress, just as sure as you are standing here, they will try their best to turn the clock back to 1896. And we can't afford to have that done.
Now, when you have thought this all over, vote the Republican ticket if you want to go backwards. If you want to go forward you had better go along with me and help the country go where it ought to.
Now I see a kid back there who has been paid to carry that "I Like Ike" sign. Well, I like Ike--I like Ike so well that I would send him back to the Army, if I had the chance. And that is what I am trying to do.
If you want the welfare of this country to go forward, if you want your own interests properly taken care of, go to the polls on the 4th of November and vote for Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman and the country will be safe for another 4 years.
[3.] SKYKOMISH, WASHINGTON (Rear plat form, 1 :40 p.m.)
I am certainly glad to be here again. I remember 4 years ago when the train rolled into town I was sound asleep and my good friend, Mon Wallgren, had to wake me up. But I made it. And I told you then that I would be back and discuss the issues with you at greater length.
Traveling through the State of Washington today has been a wonderful experience. From the fine reception I am getting, you would think I was running for office again. But the purpose of my trip is to campaign for the Democratic ticket.
I am working hard in this campaign because I know in my heart that the welfare of this great Republic, and the peace of the world, depends on electing the Democratic ticket.
I have had a chance to meet some of your fine candidates today, and I am sure you will be voting for your own interests when you vote for Don Magnuson for Congressman at Large, for John J. O'Connell for the House of Representatives in the 6th District, for Hugh Mitchell for Governor, and for Henry M. Jackson for United States Senator.
I understand that you have a wonderful man running for insurance commissioner by the name of William Sullivan.
When you go to the polls on November the 4th, just remember these two signs down here on the President's train, and cast your votes for the two finest candidates who have ever run for President and Vice President-Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman.
My friends, this Nation of ours is the greatest Republic on the face of the earth. As President of the United States I have worked night and day to bring peace and prosperity to this country. I know you people want to move forward to bring more prosperity to this great Northwest. You can't do that if you turn the country over to the Republicans who are against everything we have tried to do to develop the rivers and resources of the Northwest.
You can't do it if you turn the Government over to a five-star general who doesn't understand the workings of government, or the policies which have helped the Northwest. The Republican candidate for President has a military mind which simply does not understand these things.
He is a good soldier, and I appointed him to some of the most important posts as a soldier. But when he gets into the field of politics and civilian control of the Government, he's just a babe in the woods. In fact, he's a babe in the hands of Robert Taft. I like him very much, and he is a very able military man, so I hope you will send him back to the Army, and send Adlai Stevenson to the White House.
The best thing for you to do in your own interest is to vote the straight Democratic ticket on the 4th day of November, and then you will get what you need and have what you want.
Thank you very much.
[4.] SNOHOMISH, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 3:15 p.m.)
Thank you very much for that nice welcome. Thank you. I understand you raise a lot of good things here--good milk cows, and good baseball teams, and good basketball players. I wish I could stop and see them all in operation.
I expect some of you may have guessed why I am here. I am out campaigning for a Democratic victory in November. I must say it is a privilege and a pleasure to be doing that in the great State of Washington, for you have the finest team of Democratic candidates anyone could hope for.
For Senator, your Henry Jackson-- "Scoop," I call him--could not be improved upon. If you send him to the Senate you will have two very able and distinguished Senators in Warren Magnuson and Scoop Jackson. Hugh Mitchell for Governor is a man of experience. He has been in the Congress and the Senate, and I know that he will make you a good Governor. For your Congressman at Large Don Magnuson impresses me as a man of ability--and he has a good name, anyway. Now, for the Congressman in this district who has just introduced Harry Henson--he will make a wonderful successor to Henry Jackson, and I hope you will send him to the Congress because we need men like that in the House and the Senate, too.
Now I want to tell you about the national ticket, Adlai Stevenson for President and John Sparkman for Vice President. Adlai Stevenson has been out in this State--some of you may have seen him. I hope all of you read his fine speech at Seattle. He is talking sense to the American people, and he is making sense, too--a lot more sense than his opponent.
John Sparkman has been one of our most progressive Senators. lust ask Senator Magnuson about him, he can give you a good reference. These are good men, solid citizens, and men you can trust to work for you, for all the plain people, every day in the week.
I have got something here I think will interest you. It's a copy of a very nice slick Republican magazine called The farm Journal. Some of you may read it. This is the issue for September 20, 1952.
Now, right at the front of this issue there is an editorial. It is a Republican editorial, and it covers the situation in a way that is very, very surprising. It follows the party line of the Republican campaign. It says things are just terrible in this country, the country is going to the dogs, all because of the present administration. "A change is needed," it says, "to rescue the Nation....from an administration....helplessly lost,"....."groggy," full of "intrenched ineptitude"--and so forth and so on--just the usual thing you hear a Republican orator say.
This is very interesting. But a little later on, in this same issue, you will get a good illustration of what this "helpless, groggy, inept" administration of mine has done for this country.
On page 46 there is an article and its title reads: "What To Do With Surplus Money." It starts off by saying, "for farmers as for many others, the question of what to do with surplus cash is often a problem."
Now that certainly sounds like we have got the country in a terrible fix. We have created a new problem for the farmer: what to do with his surplus money.
Then this magazine goes on to say: "Every farmer has plenty of uses for cash. He may buy additional land, if this seems necessary for more efficient operation, or for an investment. Debts can be reduced or paid off. Life insurance must be maintained, and a reasonable working cash balance kept on hand. His home should be well equipped and comfortable. But after these essentials have been taken care of, the working farmer often has cash remaining that should be earning something."
Yes, sir! It sure is a tough life for the farmer after 20 years of helpless Democratic ineptitude!
I heard a story over in Montana, told to me by the Governor. He said the farmers over there were in somewhat of a fix. He said he had met one farmer who was in such a bad fix that he had to wash his own Cadillac!
Now I don't know whether any of the farmers around here have a problem about what to do with their surplus money or not. But if you do, I can tell you how to solve it. Just elect a Republican President and a Republican Congress. They will take care of that problem for you. The first thing you know, you won't have any money at all-surplus or any other kind. All you have to do then is to worry about how you are going to pay the mortgage off before some banker takes the farm away from you.
They tell me that the Republican candidate for President has a sign on the back of his train that says, "Look ahead, neighbor." I will tell you what I have been telling people: that sign ought to say, "Look out, neighbor." Because if that Republican candidate is elected, you had better look out for that surplus cash, because as I said awhile ago, you won't have it very long when the Republicans get things going like they want.
The best way to take care of that situation, and to keep yourselves in a good fix financially and otherwise, is to look out for your own interests, and look out for the welfare of this great Nation of ours. The proper way to do that is to exercise your prerogative as a voter. The power in this Government of ours is in the voters. It is centered in the voters. And when they exercise their privileges as they should, they can have good government.
Well now, you have had good government for 20 years that has been in your interest and your welfare. The best thing for you to do is to continue that situation. And the best way to do it is to go to the polls on the 4th of November and vote the straight Democratic ticket, and then you will have 4 more years of good government and prosperity and peace.
Thank you very much.
[5.] EVERETT, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 3:45 p.m.)
I certainly appreciate that welcome. Mighty fine. I remember the time I stopped here in 1948, and before that when Mon Wallgren and I used to run an investigating committee in Washington and I was in the Senate. I always enjoyed myself immensely in this wonderful town. I still have the fishing rod and reel you gave me in 1948. Next year, you know, I am going to have time to use it.
I am here today in my political capacity-if you don't understand what I am doing. I am campaigning for the Democratic ticket. The President has got five jobs, and one of them is as head of the Democratic Party.
It is a special pleasure to me to be here in Everett, the hometown of Scoop Jackson-for Scoop will be one of the best Senators this State ever had--or any other State ever had.
Now I want to say to you that Washington has had some mighty fine Senators. There's Hugh Mitchell for Governor, just as great a man as it is possible to have for that position, and I know you are going to elect him.
And there is Don Magnuson and Harry Henson for Congress, Smith Troy for attorney general, and Vic Meyers for lieutenant governor. That is a fine ticket. You know, when I read it--Magnuson, Wallgren, Magnuson, and Henson--it sounds like a Swedish law firm. I want you to vote for them and for the whole Democratic State ticket.
And don't feel that when you are doing that you have done your full duty. You must vote for the national ticket, Adlai Stevenson-as you did for me 4 years ago--for President. He has made a fine record as the Governor of Illinois, and that is the best training there is for a President of the United States.
John Sparkman is a fine man, too. Both these men are people you can trust. They will always work for the plain everyday citizen.
There is one thing above all else that I want you to do--that I want you to understand--while I am on this trip. That is to make sure that you people aren't fooled by all the false stories the Republicans are spreading around this country. I have been talking about a number of those phony stories since I have been on this trip. And there is one of them that seems to worry people very much. That's the one about how there's bound to be another depression after our defense job tapers off.
The Republicans are trying to make people believe the only thing that holds up our economy is the defense effort. They say we wouldn't have prosperity today if it were not for military spending.
That is a terrible idea. And it is terrible that there are politicians who would try to frighten and upset people with a thing like that.
Let me tell you something. That whole business is just a plain political falsehood. Back in Missouri I would call it a little stronger term.
The truth is that the prosperity this country is now enjoying is very sound indeed-there is nothing artificial about it.
Right now we have a total national production of over $340 billion--this year. The defense effort is taking something less than one-sixth of our total output.
Now get this straight. If it weren't for the defense effort we would be even more prosperous than we are, not less prosperous. The defense effort is making us postpone and put off a great many things we need--things that would make our country even greater than now.
Let me give you some examples. Here in the Northwest, especially, we need more power. That calls for a lot more dams like Grand Coulee--and more transmission lines. As fast as we can get those things there will be room for more industry up here. We need more and better roads all over the country, from superhighways down to timber access trails. We need new schools and hospitals in nearly every city and town and hamlet in the country.
We are going to need better and cheaper houses for our growing population, and more consumer goods of every kind. Look at television, for example; it has hardly started, yet thousands of businesses are ready right now to bring their factories up-to-date and expand them to meet these new demands.
And think of Alaska. We have scarcely begun to develop its great resources. There are all kinds of projects up there that should be undertaken. And those projects will not only help Alaska, they will add to the prosperity of this area here and will strengthen the whole United States. One thing I am sorry this last Congress did not do was to give Alaska statehood.
As soon as we can ease off on defense, all this civilian work will be there for us to do. We all hope defense can be cut, some day, to a lot less than now, but there are plenty of demands--civilian demands--to more than take its place. That means there need be no depression in this country. And there won't be, if you have a government in Washington that understands these things, and will help you start on new production when the right time comes.
The Democratic Party can give you that kind of government. That has been proved. We got out of the great depression 20 years ago. And we kept you out of a depression after World War II. That is the first time in history this country has avoided a depression after a war.
And I might remind you that Korea had nothing to do with it. The danger period for a depression came first in 1946. And then again in 1949. We got past both of those with flying colors, and we were back in boom times well before 1950.
But the Republicans are quite right to tell you that there could be a depression. There could be. Perhaps there will be, if they get control of the country. They just don't believe in doing things that must be done to keep this country growing. They got us into the last depression 20 years ago, and there's no sign they wouldn't do it again. They just don't seem to have any concept of progress and growth. They voted repeatedly against power projects, against reclamation, against housing, and most of the other things that help to make us prosperous.
And I have got the record on that, and I can cite chapter and verse if you want to read the fine print in the Congressional Record.
Now unfortunately you can't count on the candidate for President to make them any better. He is a general. He has been in the Army 40 years, and that is not very good training for President. That is not a place where you learn much about how our civilian government is run. I know a lot of generals, and most of them are mighty fine men, and so is the head of the Republican ticket. But they know a lot more about spending money than they do about making it and increasing the prosperity of this country. Anyway, the Republican candidate seems to have given up to the Republican reactionaries already, without even a fight. He is in Taft's pocket, and Taft is telling him what to do.
Now I like Ike, but I like him in the Army, and that is where he ought to be.
My friends, if you want this country to go forward, that is just where you send him next November. That is the way to protect yourselves--to protect your own interests.
You are the Government. It is up to you to make the Government work. The power in this Republic of ours is centered in the people, the people I am looking at right now; and when you exercise that power as you should, you have good government. And the best way to get good government, to keep your own interests going, to keep this State prosperous, and to keep the Nation prosperous, and to help me to get world peace, is to go to the polls on the 4th of November, look the ticket over and take a Democratic ballot and put your "X" up there in that ring at the top of it, and put it in the box, and the country will be safe for another 4 years.
[6.] SEATTLE, WASHINGTON (Address at the Eagles Auditorium, 5:35 p.m., see Item 275)
[7.] KENT, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 7:07 p.m.)
It is easy to see that the Green River Valley is a great place to live. Maybe I'll come back and settle when they throw me out of office. After the warm welcome people have given me all across the great State of Washington, I almost feel like moving out here. I think maybe I could run for Governor and have some success--if Hugh Mitchell wasn't running.
I have met your Democratic candidates-and I know all of them, most of them personally--for the House and the Senate and the Governorship, and I am sure they can do the job themselves and take care of the Republicans in November. And that is what I want done. I want the Republicans taken care of in the right way.
You have some great people on the Democratic ticket. The gentleman who just introduced me, John O'Connell--and Don Magnuson, Henry M. Jackson--I call him Scoop--Hugh Mitchell.
I know you people here are concerned about the preventing of floods so you can get new industries here and do the kind of work that is done at the Boeing plant over at Renton. If you elect people like Hugh Mitchell, Scoop Jackson, Don Magnuson, John O'Connell to office, they will help you look after these things, and help you to expand-as the Democratic Party always does. The Republicans want to pull things together and quit.
I am proud to be campaigning for these candidates for office, and I hope I helped them with this trip today. My only object in getting into this campaign is my sincere desire to serve the welfare of this great Nation.
Now, my friends, you are the Government. The Constitution says that the powers of government shall rest in the people. It is you that says who shall be President, who shall be Vice President, who shall be Governor, who shall be Senator, who shall be Congressman, and who shall fill the other offices that are vacant in this great State this election year.
If you don't use your judgment and exercise your privilege and prerogative, you have nobody to blame but yourself, if you don't have good government. If you do not do your duty as a voter, if you do not inform yourselves on the situation as it exists, and you get bad government, you get just what you deserve.
I have been in politics a long time, and the people who do the most quarreling about government are those who take the least interest in seeing that they get the right sort of government. In 1948 only 51 percent of the people exercised their right to vote--and I'll bet the other 49 percent have been the ones that have been doing all the kicking about the Government.
I am going to spend the rest of my life, after I get out of this job of mine, trying to impress upon the young people of this country the fact that they have the greatest government in the history of the world--and that is just as true as it can be. They have the greatest country under which the sun has ever shone. And it is up to them to continue that government in the manner in which it has come down to us. We are the leader of the free nations of the world, whether we like it or not--we are the most powerful free nation in the history of the world. There has never been one like it. And I hope every one of you young people who are here tonight will start in right now studying the governments that have existed before this time, and you won't find any single one of them that compares with our own.
As the leader of the world, we must accept the responsibility of leadership. We sometimes think that it would be fine if we could build a fence around ourselves and not accept this responsibility. We tried to do that once, back in 1920, and it didn't work. And we can't do it now.
These are critical times you are going through, because the danger of Communist aggression threatens us with another world war. It will take all our wisdom, all our courage, all our patience, and a lot of hard work to avoid an all-out war.
Now, to meet that responsibility, we must have a man for President of the United States who understands just exactly what that means. And that man is Adlai Stevenson. He has had experience. He has been the Governor of one of the greatest States in the Union. He has been a successful Governor, and he has had experience in foreign policy. He has had experience in government in every phase, and I am sure that he will carry on the policies which have made the country great in the last 20 years.
We have, on the other side of the picture, a general who has been nominated by the Republicans to run for President. I am very fond of this general--just a minute now-I want to tell you what I think about the General--I like him very much. I am very fond of the General; but his whole life has been spent as a military man. He has a military mind, which is a very peculiar one, the military mind is. And I have had a great deal to do with the military mind, ever since I went to Washington, and I think I understand it pretty well. I ran a committee in the Senate and had some very, very strange experiences with the military mind. And that is no reflection on our generals. They are great men in their line--most of our generals are fine men; but their training doesn't fit them for civil government.
Moreover, the Republican candidate has fallen in with a pretty bad crowd--the reactionary Old Guard seems to have taken him into camp. Some of the advice he has been getting lately, I am afraid he will wreck our whole foreign policy, and the peace of the world. And we don't want that to happen. We want to continue the prosperity of this great country of ours, and that prosperity must be continued. And we certainly don't want to get into a third world war by wrecking the economy of the United States here at home. I am afraid of the Republicans--we have had experience with them. I don't want to have them in control of the Government under the present circumstance.
I think in your own interest--your interest-you, as the Government, must look at this thing carefully. You must vote for the welfare of your own State, your own self. You must also have in mind the welfare of this great Nation--as I said awhile ago, the greatest in the history of the world. And you must also have in mind the ability of this great Nation of ours to keep the peace of the world. And if you have that in mind, there is only one thing you can do in November, on the 4th day of that month: that is to vote the Democratic ticket and vote for every man on it, and the country will be safe for another 4 years.
NOTE: In the course of his remarks on October 2 the President referred to, among others, Cliff Yellc, Democratic candidate for State Auditor, William Bryan and Don Magnuson, Democratic candidates for Representative, Senator Warren G. Magnuson, Representative Hugh B. Mitchell, Democratic candidate for Governor, Mon C. Wallgren, former Governor of Washington, Representative Henry M. (Scoop) Jackson, Democratic candidate for Senator, Jack Taylor, Democratic candidate for State Land Commissioner, Phil Gallager, Democratic candidate for State Treasurer, Robert Dellwo and John J, O'Conncll, Democratic candidates for Representative, William Sullivan, Democratic candidate for State Insurance Commissioner, Harry F. Henson, Democratic candidate for Representative, Smith Troy, Democratic candidate for State Attorney General, and Lieutenant Governor Victor A. Meyers, all of Washington. In Wenatchee, the President referred to Rufus Woods, editor and publisher of the Wenatchee Daily World and an active participant in conservation projects until his death in 1950.
[1.] EPHRATA, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 8:06 a.m.)
I can't tell you how very much I appreciate that welcome you have given me on my return trip to this great country. You see, I have been out here before on several occasions. I was here particularly one time on a nonpolitical trip to inspect Grand Coulee. But I am frank to tell you this time I am here on a strictly political mission. I am campaigning for the Democratic ticket. You see, as President of the United States I am the head of the Democratic Party and I am anxious to see the good works of the Democratic Party carried on.
There are some very fine candidates on this train today. Your own candidates here in Washington. They are just about the best team of good men you could ever hope to find. You have a candidate for auditor named Cliff Yelle. And that's a familiar name back in Missouri and north Arkansas. They are all good people, and if he is as good as those back in that part of the country, you can't do any better than to elect him.
And I understand that you have a man running for Congress here in Washington by the name of William Bryan. Well now, one of the greatest orators that ever lived was William J. Bryan, and I was a great admirer of his. I heard him making a speech one time down not far from Independence, and in those days when the candidate made a speech out in the country he had to have a voice--he didn't have these things [microphones].
And they made him a platform and he would get above the crowd and then everybody around could hear him. They didn't have any platform, so they wheeled out a manure spreader. And Bryan got up on the manure spreader and said that's the first time I ever made a speech from the Republican platform.
You have a candidate for Congressman at Large in this State by the name of Don Magnuson. Well, that seems to be a pretty good name here in the great State of Washington. If he is as good as the Magnuson that I am well acquainted with, you will have excellent representation in the House of Representatives if you send Don Magnuson there.
I have known Hugh Mitchell a long time. He was in Congress, and he was in the Senate, and he was associated with my good friend Mon Wallgren. And he is a candidate for Governor in this State, and I hope you will elect him. I believe you will. You should, anyway.
Then there is Henry Jackson. I didn't know until this morning that his name was Henry. I always called him "Scoop." He has made a good public servant, and if you send him to the Senate the great State of Washington will have wonderful representation in that body. It is necessary that you should have forward-looking men to represent you in the House and the Senate.
The reason that you have these wonderful projects here in this community is because you have forward-looking men in the House and the Senate to help bring them about. And I want to say to you we didn't have much help from the Republicans when we were trying to bring them about, either.
Now we have got a national ticket which in my opinion is the best any party has ever offered the voters. Adlai Stevenson is a remarkable new leader. Like Roosevelt, he has had good experience in government, and he has proved himself a real friend of the everyday man. He understands your problems--he showed that when he spoke out here in Seattle.
And John Sparkman's the same sort of man. For 15 years in Congress he has been working and voting for things that benefit all the people. And that is what you want to make yourselves familiar with--the record. Don't let anybody come out here and tell you what he has done--make him prove it. I am drawing you the record on these birds, and when the record is shown to you, you can't possibly do anything else but elect the Democrats.
You know, I am very much interested in the names of the towns I visit. The name of Ephrata reminds me of the old Bible town in Palestine which was part of the great fertile Crescent that stretched all the way from the Nile to the Valley of the Tigris and Euphrates.
In the old days that was the cradle of civilization, because there was an ideal combination of land and water. Now much of that country has become a desert.
It is just the opposite here. This countryside was pretty barren, for lack of water. Now we are bringing Columbia River water to this land. This area will blossom and become a great center just like the old Tigris-Euphrates Valley of ancient times.
The population of this area has almost doubled in 10 years' time. And I am told that this town is about five times as big as it was 10 years ago. That is just the beginning. When this whole Columbia basin project is fully underway, there will be a million acres of new land under cultivation, and the acreage will support a population four times what it is today.
And you know what the Republicans said about the construction of that great project? They said there would be nothing but coyotes and prairie dogs in this part of the world, and that if the dam was built it would be in a desert and the desert would stay that way. That is how forward-looking they were. I want you to remember those things when you go to the polls this November.
This wonderful development is the kind of thing that should be done over in that old Euphrates region. It can be made into a fertile country once again. And that would help bring peace and prosperity in the whole Middle East.
That is what we are trying to get started through our point 4 program--helping people to help themselves to do what you are doing here with this great self-liquidating project. It is long and slow, but it is the best way to fight communism. Stomach communism, I call it. When people are hungry, why they will take anything to get something to eat. I call this communism, where the people are poor and have nothing to eat and nothing to wear--that is stomach communism. And to bring real peace in the world, that must be overcome. We must clothe them and feed them and get them in the frame of mind where they can do it themselves. And that is what I am trying to do.
Now, all this work for progress here, and for peaceful development abroad, has come about because you have had a government that cares about the people, and helps them do the things they can't do by themselves-and a government that wants to have peace in the world. That is how the Democratic administration has tried to run your Government these last 20 years. That is what really marks the difference between our political parties.
The Republican Party doesn't care about the people because it is controlled by big lobbies--the banks, the power companies, the real estate lobby, and all the rest. The main thing they want the Government to do is to help them make a profit for themselves. And you, the people, have to foot the bill.
Remember, it's the Republicans who opposed Grand Coulee from the start--and Bonneville and Hungry Horse. It's the Republicans who are against Hells Canyon and Ice Harbor, now. They are fighting it tooth and toenail.
In 1947 and 1948 the Republicans in both Houses voted overwhelmingly, four separate times, to slash the funds for REA and your REA cooperatives. In 1949 a majority of House Republicans voted against even starting the rural telephone system. In 1950 the Republicans in the Senate voted two to one to slash all flood control work in half.
In 1951 the majority of Republicans in Congress voted to scrap our national power policy so the power companies could get a on the transmission of public power.
And so it goes, year after year, not just on these things but on housing, social security, farm programs, and all the rest.
And now I am reading you the record. You can read it for yourselves, if you get the Congressional Record and take the time to do it. The Congressional Record is printed in a most unreasonable form. It is full of speeches by Congressmen and Senators, but every once in a while you will run across the place where the vote is set down and the record is made on what these people thought about what was before the Congress. And when you read that vote you will find that the Republicans as a whole, in a majority of the cases, always voted against the people.
That is what I want you to get into your heads. And if you do that, no amount of hooey that these birds put out will fool you when the election is over.
I don't think you want to put a party in control of the Government that has the kind of record the Republicans have. You people are the Government. You can vote for your own interests and get the kind of government that you want. And when you don't go to the polls and vote, and when you vote wrong at the polls, you get just what you deserve: you get bad government.
And I am asking you to go to the polls, after you have studied those records--get that fine print and read it--and you will find out that your interest has been in the hands of the party that is now in power.
I want to tell you that when that good-for-nothing Both Congress was in control-when I made that campaign in 1948--if you hadn't had a Democratic President in the White House, you would have been ruined by now. You never would have gotten these developments and things done that I am telling you about.
And you want to go to the polls on the 4th day of November, and remember that you are the Government, that your interest is at stake, the interests of the whole Nation, the peace of the world--they are at stake. If you take all those things into consideration, you will go there and you will vote the straight Democratic ticket and the country will be safe for another 4 years.
Thank you a lot.
[2.] WENATCHEE, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 10:25 a.m.)
My goodness alive, is anybody left at home in the great State of Washington? It looks like they are all here.
I am more than glad to be with you this morning. When I was here 4 years ago you just had had a bad flood. I am glad things look so good around here now, including your famous apple trees.
You may have heard a rumor about why I am here. Well, I will tell you the facts so it won't be a rumor. I am out here campaigning for the Democratic ticket. That is one of my jobs. I have five altogether, any one of which is enough for one man to do, so I have to work about 17 to 18 hours a day, and therefore I am working in sections. Now I am working at the job as the head of the Democratic Party, trying to tell you what the Democratic Party stands for, what it has done for the country. And Governor Stevenson will tell you what it proposes to do for the country. And between us, I think we are going to convince you that it will be right to vote the ticket.
I don't believe you could do better with the Democratic ticket than the slate of candidates which you have now up for election in the great State of Washington. I have been riding with them most of the morning, and I am personally acquainted with a great many of them. I don't think you could do better than to have Mr. lack Taylor for land commissioner, Phil Gallager for the treasurer, Bob Dellwo for Congressman, and Don Magnuson for Congressman at Large, Hugh Mitchell for Governor, and Scoop Jackson for United States Senator.
You know, I have been handicapped to some extent during my term as President of the United States because the Members of Congress--a great many of them--are against the things that the Democratic Party stands for. But in spite of all that, we have been able to get things through that have been for the welfare of the world and the benefit of the country and for the benefit of the individual in the United States.
I want that to continue and I think you do--and in order to do that I want you to see that our national ticket is elected this time, just as you saw to it in 1948.
Adlai Stevenson is a very fine man. He is a great Governor, and he will make a great President. He is a man you all can trust to work for you. He understands the problems of the West, and the problems of the plain people everywhere.
That is true of John Sparkman. No man in the Senate has done more for small business, for the farm program, and for power development than has John Sparkman.
I can't come to Wenatchee without thinking about Rufus Woods. That man had a great understanding, a great vision of the whole Northwest, and what a wonderful region this would come to be. He dreamed that dream long before anybody started out to put it into effect. We have started to work now on the things he dreamed about. We are on the way, and we owe a lot of it to Woods' hard work.
This country is growing mightily--your agriculture is doing fine. And look at your new industry--the Alcoa aluminum plant you have here, and this was made possible because your own public utility district added 200 percent to the power output of Rock Island Dam. This is a symbol of the new Northwest that Rufus Woods was working for.
You people know what is making Washington State develop, you know what is needed to keep it growing--bringing more industry and more trade. And that requires more electric power. More power is the crying need, and water on the barren lands is a crying need. If you get the right amounts of power and water at the right price--particularly at the right price--the whole area will boom beyond anything you can imagine.
And if you don't get these things, your growth will be stunted. They tell me that both here and in Spokane these days, men have been laid off the job in the aluminum industry for lack of power. That is what this whole region faces, if you don't move forward--and move forward fast.
Now, that is a common need for the whole Northwest, from the Rockies to the coast. And the only way to meet that need is through a common program, an integrated program, to make the best use of your sources of power and of water, and harness the rivers of this region so they will work for you.
Behind Bonneville we needed Grand Coulee. Behind Grand Coulee we needed Hungry Horse. And we still must have Hells Canyon and Ice Harbor and Libby-and all the other dams and power generators and irrigation works. These must all tie together in a great power network--transmission lines that will bring the power from these dams to your homes, and farms, and cities, and factories, where it is needed and when it is needed, in the right amounts and at the right price. Let me emphasize that right price.
Now it stands to reason that you people, as individuals, can't get these things done by yourselves. And your city government and your State can't give you all the help you need--their jurisdiction and resources are too small--the problem is too big. It is a regional problem, and the regional power pool in this section of the world has made more contribution to its prosperity than any other one thing, including the discovery of gold and silver west of the Rocky Mountains. And it's the development of these great power resources that has made this part of the country prosperous--and the TVA and all the rest of the country. And I have been trying to get those power pools established all over the country. And in every instance have been fought to a standstill by the Republicans in the Congress of the United States.
And that is why you look to the Federal Government for help. It is your Government, and that is its job--to help you do the things you can't do all by yourselves. We have been giving you help--the New Deal and the fair Deal have been helping you for 20 years--and you have helped the country in aluminum and plutonium for national defense. You have helped the prosperity of the whole Nation. I am tremendously proud of the whole business. And that's the reason I am out here going from one end of the country to the other working with every bit of energy I have to see that the Democrats continue in power. And I think they will.
We have worked with you, and we have helped to meet your basic needs for power and for water. And we have helped this region in many other ways--our farm program, our housing program, social security, and minimum wages, and all the rest.
These things are helping to balance out your whole economy up here, to put a floor under your prosperity, and to make life easier and better for the everyday citizen of the whole country.
Now you and I know that there is a lot left to do. There are lots of dams and powerlines yet to be built. We have only begun this development. There are new factories and businesses to be helped into production, schools and hospitals and homes to take care of the people who will work in them.
Your farmers need protection against the great ups and downs in the prices for their produce. That is why we have been trying to work out some method for supporting perishables. And school kids all over the country need more of those fine apples you grow up here.
These are the things for you to do, and for your Government to help you do, where the help is needed.
That brings me to one of the big questions at issue in this election. Will we go on with the kind of government which gives that help, or will we get the kind which turns its back upon the people? I tell you this, every bit of progress you have made will be in danger, if the Republicans take over the country once again. And your hopes for the future might as well be laid aside. You can't trust the Republicans. They will not help you. They will not help you. They never have helped you. They only help themselves and the special privilege boys, they've done it every time.
I say this because I know it is true, because I have read the Republican record in the Congress--where it counts. And I know how they act and what they do. And I have been spelling out that story every chance I get. And I am going to keep on doing it until I run them into the brush.
There is something else I want to say. A political party that cannot be trusted to work for prosperity at home cannot be trusted to work for peace abroad. Those who do not care about the people's welfare are not safe custodians of the Nation's welfare.
Think that over. Go home and think it over very carefully. Think of where your interests lie. Think of your families and your children. Give some thought to what the Republicans are offering this year. Think of those Old Guard faces surrounding the five-star candidate they have got. They have got him surrounded so he couldn't do a thing he wanted to if he tried. If he goes back there with a Republican Congress, just as sure as you are standing here, they will try their best to turn the clock back to 1896. And we can't afford to have that done.
Now, when you have thought this all over, vote the Republican ticket if you want to go backwards. If you want to go forward you had better go along with me and help the country go where it ought to.
Now I see a kid back there who has been paid to carry that "I Like Ike" sign. Well, I like Ike--I like Ike so well that I would send him back to the Army, if I had the chance. And that is what I am trying to do.
If you want the welfare of this country to go forward, if you want your own interests properly taken care of, go to the polls on the 4th of November and vote for Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman and the country will be safe for another 4 years.
[3.] SKYKOMISH, WASHINGTON (Rear plat form, 1 :40 p.m.)
I am certainly glad to be here again. I remember 4 years ago when the train rolled into town I was sound asleep and my good friend, Mon Wallgren, had to wake me up. But I made it. And I told you then that I would be back and discuss the issues with you at greater length.
Traveling through the State of Washington today has been a wonderful experience. From the fine reception I am getting, you would think I was running for office again. But the purpose of my trip is to campaign for the Democratic ticket.
I am working hard in this campaign because I know in my heart that the welfare of this great Republic, and the peace of the world, depends on electing the Democratic ticket.
I have had a chance to meet some of your fine candidates today, and I am sure you will be voting for your own interests when you vote for Don Magnuson for Congressman at Large, for John J. O'Connell for the House of Representatives in the 6th District, for Hugh Mitchell for Governor, and for Henry M. Jackson for United States Senator.
I understand that you have a wonderful man running for insurance commissioner by the name of William Sullivan.
When you go to the polls on November the 4th, just remember these two signs down here on the President's train, and cast your votes for the two finest candidates who have ever run for President and Vice President-Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman.
My friends, this Nation of ours is the greatest Republic on the face of the earth. As President of the United States I have worked night and day to bring peace and prosperity to this country. I know you people want to move forward to bring more prosperity to this great Northwest. You can't do that if you turn the country over to the Republicans who are against everything we have tried to do to develop the rivers and resources of the Northwest.
You can't do it if you turn the Government over to a five-star general who doesn't understand the workings of government, or the policies which have helped the Northwest. The Republican candidate for President has a military mind which simply does not understand these things.
He is a good soldier, and I appointed him to some of the most important posts as a soldier. But when he gets into the field of politics and civilian control of the Government, he's just a babe in the woods. In fact, he's a babe in the hands of Robert Taft. I like him very much, and he is a very able military man, so I hope you will send him back to the Army, and send Adlai Stevenson to the White House.
The best thing for you to do in your own interest is to vote the straight Democratic ticket on the 4th day of November, and then you will get what you need and have what you want.
Thank you very much.
[4.] SNOHOMISH, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 3:15 p.m.)
Thank you very much for that nice welcome. Thank you. I understand you raise a lot of good things here--good milk cows, and good baseball teams, and good basketball players. I wish I could stop and see them all in operation.
I expect some of you may have guessed why I am here. I am out campaigning for a Democratic victory in November. I must say it is a privilege and a pleasure to be doing that in the great State of Washington, for you have the finest team of Democratic candidates anyone could hope for.
For Senator, your Henry Jackson-- "Scoop," I call him--could not be improved upon. If you send him to the Senate you will have two very able and distinguished Senators in Warren Magnuson and Scoop Jackson. Hugh Mitchell for Governor is a man of experience. He has been in the Congress and the Senate, and I know that he will make you a good Governor. For your Congressman at Large Don Magnuson impresses me as a man of ability--and he has a good name, anyway. Now, for the Congressman in this district who has just introduced Harry Henson--he will make a wonderful successor to Henry Jackson, and I hope you will send him to the Congress because we need men like that in the House and the Senate, too.
Now I want to tell you about the national ticket, Adlai Stevenson for President and John Sparkman for Vice President. Adlai Stevenson has been out in this State--some of you may have seen him. I hope all of you read his fine speech at Seattle. He is talking sense to the American people, and he is making sense, too--a lot more sense than his opponent.
John Sparkman has been one of our most progressive Senators. lust ask Senator Magnuson about him, he can give you a good reference. These are good men, solid citizens, and men you can trust to work for you, for all the plain people, every day in the week.
I have got something here I think will interest you. It's a copy of a very nice slick Republican magazine called The farm Journal. Some of you may read it. This is the issue for September 20, 1952.
Now, right at the front of this issue there is an editorial. It is a Republican editorial, and it covers the situation in a way that is very, very surprising. It follows the party line of the Republican campaign. It says things are just terrible in this country, the country is going to the dogs, all because of the present administration. "A change is needed," it says, "to rescue the Nation....from an administration....helplessly lost,"....."groggy," full of "intrenched ineptitude"--and so forth and so on--just the usual thing you hear a Republican orator say.
This is very interesting. But a little later on, in this same issue, you will get a good illustration of what this "helpless, groggy, inept" administration of mine has done for this country.
On page 46 there is an article and its title reads: "What To Do With Surplus Money." It starts off by saying, "for farmers as for many others, the question of what to do with surplus cash is often a problem."
Now that certainly sounds like we have got the country in a terrible fix. We have created a new problem for the farmer: what to do with his surplus money.
Then this magazine goes on to say: "Every farmer has plenty of uses for cash. He may buy additional land, if this seems necessary for more efficient operation, or for an investment. Debts can be reduced or paid off. Life insurance must be maintained, and a reasonable working cash balance kept on hand. His home should be well equipped and comfortable. But after these essentials have been taken care of, the working farmer often has cash remaining that should be earning something."
Yes, sir! It sure is a tough life for the farmer after 20 years of helpless Democratic ineptitude!
I heard a story over in Montana, told to me by the Governor. He said the farmers over there were in somewhat of a fix. He said he had met one farmer who was in such a bad fix that he had to wash his own Cadillac!
Now I don't know whether any of the farmers around here have a problem about what to do with their surplus money or not. But if you do, I can tell you how to solve it. Just elect a Republican President and a Republican Congress. They will take care of that problem for you. The first thing you know, you won't have any money at all-surplus or any other kind. All you have to do then is to worry about how you are going to pay the mortgage off before some banker takes the farm away from you.
They tell me that the Republican candidate for President has a sign on the back of his train that says, "Look ahead, neighbor." I will tell you what I have been telling people: that sign ought to say, "Look out, neighbor." Because if that Republican candidate is elected, you had better look out for that surplus cash, because as I said awhile ago, you won't have it very long when the Republicans get things going like they want.
The best way to take care of that situation, and to keep yourselves in a good fix financially and otherwise, is to look out for your own interests, and look out for the welfare of this great Nation of ours. The proper way to do that is to exercise your prerogative as a voter. The power in this Government of ours is in the voters. It is centered in the voters. And when they exercise their privileges as they should, they can have good government.
Well now, you have had good government for 20 years that has been in your interest and your welfare. The best thing for you to do is to continue that situation. And the best way to do it is to go to the polls on the 4th of November and vote the straight Democratic ticket, and then you will have 4 more years of good government and prosperity and peace.
Thank you very much.
[5.] EVERETT, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 3:45 p.m.)
I certainly appreciate that welcome. Mighty fine. I remember the time I stopped here in 1948, and before that when Mon Wallgren and I used to run an investigating committee in Washington and I was in the Senate. I always enjoyed myself immensely in this wonderful town. I still have the fishing rod and reel you gave me in 1948. Next year, you know, I am going to have time to use it.
I am here today in my political capacity-if you don't understand what I am doing. I am campaigning for the Democratic ticket. The President has got five jobs, and one of them is as head of the Democratic Party.
It is a special pleasure to me to be here in Everett, the hometown of Scoop Jackson-for Scoop will be one of the best Senators this State ever had--or any other State ever had.
Now I want to say to you that Washington has had some mighty fine Senators. There's Hugh Mitchell for Governor, just as great a man as it is possible to have for that position, and I know you are going to elect him.
And there is Don Magnuson and Harry Henson for Congress, Smith Troy for attorney general, and Vic Meyers for lieutenant governor. That is a fine ticket. You know, when I read it--Magnuson, Wallgren, Magnuson, and Henson--it sounds like a Swedish law firm. I want you to vote for them and for the whole Democratic State ticket.
And don't feel that when you are doing that you have done your full duty. You must vote for the national ticket, Adlai Stevenson-as you did for me 4 years ago--for President. He has made a fine record as the Governor of Illinois, and that is the best training there is for a President of the United States.
John Sparkman is a fine man, too. Both these men are people you can trust. They will always work for the plain everyday citizen.
There is one thing above all else that I want you to do--that I want you to understand--while I am on this trip. That is to make sure that you people aren't fooled by all the false stories the Republicans are spreading around this country. I have been talking about a number of those phony stories since I have been on this trip. And there is one of them that seems to worry people very much. That's the one about how there's bound to be another depression after our defense job tapers off.
The Republicans are trying to make people believe the only thing that holds up our economy is the defense effort. They say we wouldn't have prosperity today if it were not for military spending.
That is a terrible idea. And it is terrible that there are politicians who would try to frighten and upset people with a thing like that.
Let me tell you something. That whole business is just a plain political falsehood. Back in Missouri I would call it a little stronger term.
The truth is that the prosperity this country is now enjoying is very sound indeed-there is nothing artificial about it.
Right now we have a total national production of over $340 billion--this year. The defense effort is taking something less than one-sixth of our total output.
Now get this straight. If it weren't for the defense effort we would be even more prosperous than we are, not less prosperous. The defense effort is making us postpone and put off a great many things we need--things that would make our country even greater than now.
Let me give you some examples. Here in the Northwest, especially, we need more power. That calls for a lot more dams like Grand Coulee--and more transmission lines. As fast as we can get those things there will be room for more industry up here. We need more and better roads all over the country, from superhighways down to timber access trails. We need new schools and hospitals in nearly every city and town and hamlet in the country.
We are going to need better and cheaper houses for our growing population, and more consumer goods of every kind. Look at television, for example; it has hardly started, yet thousands of businesses are ready right now to bring their factories up-to-date and expand them to meet these new demands.
And think of Alaska. We have scarcely begun to develop its great resources. There are all kinds of projects up there that should be undertaken. And those projects will not only help Alaska, they will add to the prosperity of this area here and will strengthen the whole United States. One thing I am sorry this last Congress did not do was to give Alaska statehood.
As soon as we can ease off on defense, all this civilian work will be there for us to do. We all hope defense can be cut, some day, to a lot less than now, but there are plenty of demands--civilian demands--to more than take its place. That means there need be no depression in this country. And there won't be, if you have a government in Washington that understands these things, and will help you start on new production when the right time comes.
The Democratic Party can give you that kind of government. That has been proved. We got out of the great depression 20 years ago. And we kept you out of a depression after World War II. That is the first time in history this country has avoided a depression after a war.
And I might remind you that Korea had nothing to do with it. The danger period for a depression came first in 1946. And then again in 1949. We got past both of those with flying colors, and we were back in boom times well before 1950.
But the Republicans are quite right to tell you that there could be a depression. There could be. Perhaps there will be, if they get control of the country. They just don't believe in doing things that must be done to keep this country growing. They got us into the last depression 20 years ago, and there's no sign they wouldn't do it again. They just don't seem to have any concept of progress and growth. They voted repeatedly against power projects, against reclamation, against housing, and most of the other things that help to make us prosperous.
And I have got the record on that, and I can cite chapter and verse if you want to read the fine print in the Congressional Record.
Now unfortunately you can't count on the candidate for President to make them any better. He is a general. He has been in the Army 40 years, and that is not very good training for President. That is not a place where you learn much about how our civilian government is run. I know a lot of generals, and most of them are mighty fine men, and so is the head of the Republican ticket. But they know a lot more about spending money than they do about making it and increasing the prosperity of this country. Anyway, the Republican candidate seems to have given up to the Republican reactionaries already, without even a fight. He is in Taft's pocket, and Taft is telling him what to do.
Now I like Ike, but I like him in the Army, and that is where he ought to be.
My friends, if you want this country to go forward, that is just where you send him next November. That is the way to protect yourselves--to protect your own interests.
You are the Government. It is up to you to make the Government work. The power in this Republic of ours is centered in the people, the people I am looking at right now; and when you exercise that power as you should, you have good government. And the best way to get good government, to keep your own interests going, to keep this State prosperous, and to keep the Nation prosperous, and to help me to get world peace, is to go to the polls on the 4th of November, look the ticket over and take a Democratic ballot and put your "X" up there in that ring at the top of it, and put it in the box, and the country will be safe for another 4 years.
[6.] SEATTLE, WASHINGTON (Address at the Eagles Auditorium, 5:35 p.m., see Item 275)
[7.] KENT, WASHINGTON (Rear platform, 7:07 p.m.)
It is easy to see that the Green River Valley is a great place to live. Maybe I'll come back and settle when they throw me out of office. After the warm welcome people have given me all across the great State of Washington, I almost feel like moving out here. I think maybe I could run for Governor and have some success--if Hugh Mitchell wasn't running.
I have met your Democratic candidates-and I know all of them, most of them personally--for the House and the Senate and the Governorship, and I am sure they can do the job themselves and take care of the Republicans in November. And that is what I want done. I want the Republicans taken care of in the right way.
You have some great people on the Democratic ticket. The gentleman who just introduced me, John O'Connell--and Don Magnuson, Henry M. Jackson--I call him Scoop--Hugh Mitchell.
I know you people here are concerned about the preventing of floods so you can get new industries here and do the kind of work that is done at the Boeing plant over at Renton. If you elect people like Hugh Mitchell, Scoop Jackson, Don Magnuson, John O'Connell to office, they will help you look after these things, and help you to expand-as the Democratic Party always does. The Republicans want to pull things together and quit.
I am proud to be campaigning for these candidates for office, and I hope I helped them with this trip today. My only object in getting into this campaign is my sincere desire to serve the welfare of this great Nation.
Now, my friends, you are the Government. The Constitution says that the powers of government shall rest in the people. It is you that says who shall be President, who shall be Vice President, who shall be Governor, who shall be Senator, who shall be Congressman, and who shall fill the other offices that are vacant in this great State this election year.
If you don't use your judgment and exercise your privilege and prerogative, you have nobody to blame but yourself, if you don't have good government. If you do not do your duty as a voter, if you do not inform yourselves on the situation as it exists, and you get bad government, you get just what you deserve.
I have been in politics a long time, and the people who do the most quarreling about government are those who take the least interest in seeing that they get the right sort of government. In 1948 only 51 percent of the people exercised their right to vote--and I'll bet the other 49 percent have been the ones that have been doing all the kicking about the Government.
I am going to spend the rest of my life, after I get out of this job of mine, trying to impress upon the young people of this country the fact that they have the greatest government in the history of the world--and that is just as true as it can be. They have the greatest country under which the sun has ever shone. And it is up to them to continue that government in the manner in which it has come down to us. We are the leader of the free nations of the world, whether we like it or not--we are the most powerful free nation in the history of the world. There has never been one like it. And I hope every one of you young people who are here tonight will start in right now studying the governments that have existed before this time, and you won't find any single one of them that compares with our own.
As the leader of the world, we must accept the responsibility of leadership. We sometimes think that it would be fine if we could build a fence around ourselves and not accept this responsibility. We tried to do that once, back in 1920, and it didn't work. And we can't do it now.
These are critical times you are going through, because the danger of Communist aggression threatens us with another world war. It will take all our wisdom, all our courage, all our patience, and a lot of hard work to avoid an all-out war.
Now, to meet that responsibility, we must have a man for President of the United States who understands just exactly what that means. And that man is Adlai Stevenson. He has had experience. He has been the Governor of one of the greatest States in the Union. He has been a successful Governor, and he has had experience in foreign policy. He has had experience in government in every phase, and I am sure that he will carry on the policies which have made the country great in the last 20 years.
We have, on the other side of the picture, a general who has been nominated by the Republicans to run for President. I am very fond of this general--just a minute now-I want to tell you what I think about the General--I like him very much. I am very fond of the General; but his whole life has been spent as a military man. He has a military mind, which is a very peculiar one, the military mind is. And I have had a great deal to do with the military mind, ever since I went to Washington, and I think I understand it pretty well. I ran a committee in the Senate and had some very, very strange experiences with the military mind. And that is no reflection on our generals. They are great men in their line--most of our generals are fine men; but their training doesn't fit them for civil government.
Moreover, the Republican candidate has fallen in with a pretty bad crowd--the reactionary Old Guard seems to have taken him into camp. Some of the advice he has been getting lately, I am afraid he will wreck our whole foreign policy, and the peace of the world. And we don't want that to happen. We want to continue the prosperity of this great country of ours, and that prosperity must be continued. And we certainly don't want to get into a third world war by wrecking the economy of the United States here at home. I am afraid of the Republicans--we have had experience with them. I don't want to have them in control of the Government under the present circumstance.
I think in your own interest--your interest-you, as the Government, must look at this thing carefully. You must vote for the welfare of your own State, your own self. You must also have in mind the welfare of this great Nation--as I said awhile ago, the greatest in the history of the world. And you must also have in mind the ability of this great Nation of ours to keep the peace of the world. And if you have that in mind, there is only one thing you can do in November, on the 4th day of that month: that is to vote the Democratic ticket and vote for every man on it, and the country will be safe for another 4 years.
NOTE: In the course of his remarks on October 2 the President referred to, among others, Cliff Yellc, Democratic candidate for State Auditor, William Bryan and Don Magnuson, Democratic candidates for Representative, Senator Warren G. Magnuson, Representative Hugh B. Mitchell, Democratic candidate for Governor, Mon C. Wallgren, former Governor of Washington, Representative Henry M. (Scoop) Jackson, Democratic candidate for Senator, Jack Taylor, Democratic candidate for State Land Commissioner, Phil Gallager, Democratic candidate for State Treasurer, Robert Dellwo and John J, O'Conncll, Democratic candidates for Representative, William Sullivan, Democratic candidate for State Insurance Commissioner, Harry F. Henson, Democratic candidate for Representative, Smith Troy, Democratic candidate for State Attorney General, and Lieutenant Governor Victor A. Meyers, all of Washington. In Wenatchee, the President referred to Rufus Woods, editor and publisher of the Wenatchee Daily World and an active participant in conservation projects until his death in 1950.