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Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in Texas

September 27, 1948

[1.] SAN MARCOS, TEXAS (Rear platform, 6:40 a.m.)


Mr. Cape, Lyndon:

It certainly is a pleasure to see so many people up so early in San Marcos.

I am reading over there that "World Government Means World Peace." Well, if the United Nations is supported as it should be, that will mean world peace--just as the United States in 1787, when they united, meant peace on the American continent in years to come.

I hope, I sincerely hope, that every one of you will study the issues in this campaign, and I'm sure that--as my friend down here said--99 percent of you will vote the right way.

I can't tell you how very much I appreciate this turnout at this time of day. It's a wonderful thing that you want to meet your president bad enough to get up before breakfast.

I'm sorry that my family, my wife and daughter, do not get up so early. They had a terrific day yesterday and the day before, and the day before that, and so I'm sorry to say I can't introduce them to you because they're not up.

But I do thank you most sincerely for the turnout.

[2.] AUSTIN, TEXAS (Rear platform, 7:35 a.m.)


Governor Jester, Mayor Miller, and fellow Democrats:

It certainly is a pleasure to be here this morning and to see this wonderful turnout in the capital city of the great State of Texas. It's an inspiration to be in this city, which is named after a couple of pioneers from the great State of Missouri.

You know, there's been a great deal of controversy in Washington County, Mo., because you want to erect a monument to one of your heroes and bring his remains back here. I have been trying to help you to do that, but some of my people in Missouri don't want it done. I'm sorry about that because Texas and Missouri have always been partners in nearly every great undertaking that this country has been through. There was only one time when they didn't go along shoulder to shoulder, and Missouri tried hard enough because the Government of Missouri was moved to Texas at that time.

Ever since Texas has been an independent republic the people of Texas have been fortunate in having the leadership of men who have been real statesmen. Your Texas leaders have been as competent to handle national and international problems as they have been in handling the affairs of your own great State. And I made that statement in Texas a long time ago at a banquet that was given in honor of the Speaker of the House at that time.

One of the best characteristics of your statesmen is that they have all been good Democrats. They stood by the Democratic Party and have exercised their influence on the United States and the world through the Democratic Party.

It's hardly necessary for me to remind you of some of the Texas statesmen who have worked with me, since I became President, for prosperity in the United States and for peace in the world. One of them's standing right here.

There's Tom Connally, one of the founders of the United Nations, and one of the architects of the foreign policy of the United States of America. And there's Sam Rayburn, Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, who has led the Democratic Party in the House through thick and thin. Sam's been my friend ever since I've been in Washington, and when Sam's your friend, you're in pretty good shape in Washington--i can tell you that. There's Wright Patman, the friend of small business and of farm cooperatives, which this Republican Congress--this Republican "donothing" 80th Congress--tried to put out of business in this last session. Then there's Tom Clark, the Attorney General of the United States, appointed by me. This Attorney General from Texas I think will go down in history as one of the great of the Attorneys General of the United States. And do you know why? Because he's working all the time for constitutional Government and for the support of the Bill of Rights, in spite of the fact that this Republican Congress is trying to tear up the Bill of Rights.

I could stand here all day and not get through calling the role of great Texans who have made contributions to the welfare of the United States of America.

You know, Texas is in a class by itself. Texas entered the Union by treaty, something that no other State did. Texas, you know, is one of the empires within a great Republic.

I have a lot of relatives in Texas. I've got cousins and uncles and aunts, just like the old story in Pinafore--"his sisters and his cousins and his aunts." Well, I have only one sister and she's in Missouri, but I have got cousins and aunts and everything else in Texas.

I know how Texas can fight for democratic ideals, and so I can understand why the Germans and the laps in this World War II just past thought all the soldiers in the Army came from Texas. I remember that the Texans in the first World War and the Texans under General Hood, if you remember, made a name for themselves as fighters. They have always been fighters and they've always fought on the side of the right. Thank God for that.

The Governor of Texas says that Texans are a race of people. I think that's true-and you got your ancestry and your blood principally from Missouri and Tennessee.

Now, since I've been in the Congress-I went there in 1935--there's been a fight between the special interests and the people, and that's what this fight is. That's the reason I'm out, telling the people just exactly what the issues in this campaign are, for the simple reason that you'll never find out about them if I can't face you and tell you about them, because between 80 and 90 percent of the press is against the Democratic administration because it is for the people. They're for special interests.

Take the Colorado River right here in Austin. The Colorado River, like every other river in the United States, used to cause anywhere from $5 to $10 million damage in floods at least 1 year in 3. What happened to the Colorado River? The Democratic administration harnessed it and controlled it and gave you power at prices which you could pay. No Republican had any hand in that.

This Republican 80th "do-nothing" Congress would like to turn the Colorado River and its power projects over to the public utilities so they could cut your throat with prices if they had a chance. They are trying to do that all over the West, in Texas and everywhere else.

Now, you can't afford, you simply can't afford to renew the 80th Congress.

Now, these gentlemen who head the Republican Party are trying their best to direct your attention away from the issues in this campaign. They want to talk about home and mother and what a beautiful country this is. They don't want you to get interested in the campaign for the simple reason that the Democrats are right and they're wrong, and that's the reason we're going to win.

I have only one request to make of you-and I don't think I have to make that request in this district of Texas. I want you, on election day, to get up as early as you did this morning and go to the polls and vote a straight Democratic ticket--Governor and Senator and President and everything else-and then the empire of Texas and the Great Republic of the United States will be in safe hands for another 4 years, and I won't have to be worried by the housing problem--I'll still live in the White House.

[At this point the President was presented with a set of volumes on the history of Texas. He then resumed speaking.]

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You can be very certain, Mr. Mayor, that I shall spend plenty of time reading and studying these volumes on Texas, for I am just as interested in Texas--almost--as I am in Missouri.

[3.] GEORGETOWN, TEXAS (Rear platform, 8:55 a.m.)


I see the people in Texas get up early, just like I do. Back in the capital of Texas, it looked to me as if the whole town was out at a quarter after seven this morning. That's been the case all around the country, and I think that shows the interest of the people in the issues in this campaign.

You here are in the center of one of the greatest agricultural States in the Union. This is the heart of Texas, where you raise everything that grows on the farm in the temperate zone. Your interest is to see that the interest of the farmer is well protected because that's what you depend on for support here. Therefore, all you need to do is to decide whether you want to go back to the conditions in which the farmer was under 12 years of Republican rule--when 123,000 farmers were moved off their farms because they couldn't pay the interest on their mortgages--or whether you want to continue under an administration that has created the greatest wealth the farmers have ever had in the history of the country. The farmers' income last year was more than $30 billion. It was about 5 1/2 billion under Hoover.

That's what these Republicans are asking you to go back to--and they tried their best to destroy this farm program in this good-for-nothing 80th Congress.

A Congress is known by its leadership. There were a large number of good Democrats, a large number of good Democrats from Texas and all the rest of the country, and there are a few forward-looking Republicans, but they're not in control of the Republican Party, so don't you trust them because the same old gang, if you put in a Republican administration, will have control of the Congress--and they'll continue to sabotage the programs which have made this country great during the last 10-year period. You can't afford to take that chance.

I am asking you only to vote for your own interests. I'm asking you not only to vote for me and for the Senators and Congressmen. I'm asking you to vote for yourselves. Vote for your best interests.

You can't afford to turn the clock back. You've got to go along with a forward-looking administration in the Federal Government. I'm sure you're going to do that. Texas is a forward-looking State, and they're not going to go backward with these old mossbacks who have been running this 80th Congress.

The best thing for you to do, now, on election day is to go to the polls and vote the Democratic ticket straight, which I'm sure you are going to do--and I won't be troubled with the housing shortage next year because I'll still live in the White House.

I've had a most pleasant trip across this great State of Texas. Your Governor met me at El Paso and he's been my host ever since. And I'll tell you, he's a grand host and a great Governor, and I know you're going to put him back in the Chair.

Texas is known for its hospitality.

[4.] TEMPLE, TEXAS (Rear platform, 10 a.m.)

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Congressman, ladies and gentlemen and fellow Democrats:

I can't tell you what a great privilege and a pleasure it is for me to have a chance to meet you this morning, and have a chance to discuss just a few of the issues with you. I have never had such hospitable treatment in my life. The Governor and Mrs. Jester met me at El Paso, and the Congressman from the district rode through his district with me. Then Lyndon johnson met me, and the Congressman from that district rode with me; and now I have the Congressman from this district. Your Governor is staying with me all the way through Oklahoma and beyond, I hope.

Now, I am told that this great city of Temple has a law on the books, which forces the President's train to stop whether he wants to or not. I want to say to you that I didn't know anything about that ordinance until I read a clipping from a Washington paper dated September 21. I was going to stop, anyway, so you didn't need any ordinance to get me to stop. Your Congressman says I promised him to come here just before I took office way back there in January 1945.

But it is most interesting, and I think I ought to read you this piece in this Washington paper: "It is a good thing that President Truman scheduled a campaign stop in Temple, Tex." This is an Associated Press dispatch in the Washington Star. "The Marshal halted one Presidential train that was scheduled to pass through there without stopping. It's the law."

I have heard for a long time about the excellent hospitals you have in this great city. This would be a fine place to recover from any illness. I have visited McCloskey Hospital during the war; it is one of the biggest Army hospitals in the land, and I hope we can continue to make use of it, because it is a fine plant.

About the only thing these hospitals can't cure is a disease that the whole country is suffering from--and that is high prices.

I wish we could take them out to one of your hospitals and amputate them, and that was all there was to it!

I told the Congress time and again that the American people want relief from high prices. I also called that "do-nothing," good-for-nothing Republican 80th Congress back into session twice, to work on prices, and they didn't do a thing about it.

That Congress! When I get wound up about that Congress, there's no stopping me, because there are so many things that they did to you, and so many things that they didn't do for you that I could stand here and talk all day about it and still not tell it all.

You will have to get that indelibly in your own mind. You know you have got a flood control project out here, the Leon flood control project.1 The Republicans are against all such things as that. They don't want reclamation, or flood control, or anything else that doesn't put some money in some big fellow's pocket.

1Belton Reservoir, Leon River, Texas.

Now, if you want to cure that situation, the best way to do it is to be sure that we have a Democratic Congress, with Sam Rayburn as Speaker, and a Democratic Senator in the form of Lyndon Johnson, a Democratic Governor in Texas, and a Democratic Congressman in every district in the great State of Texas, and then we will take them to town sure enough.

[5.] WACO, TEXAS (Rear platform, 11:15

Governor Neff, the Congressman from this district, Governor Jester, ladies and gentlemen-and fellow Democrats:

You know, it is a great privilege to me to come back here to Waco once again. One of the proudest moments of my life was in March 1947, when your great Baylor University conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws on me. So, if you want to, you have a perfect right to address me as Doctor Truman as well as President Truman. It is especially good to see so many of my Texas friends and acquaintances as I go across this great State. Your able and distinguished Governor and Mrs. Jester met us at El Paso, and they have been with us constantly ever since, and we have had some very pleasant times together.

Your State is a wonderful one, and I don't have to tell you that, because you all know it, and you are always talking about it.

But, in every city where we have stopped we have been received just as you have received us this morning. it is almost incredible that this reception could keep up all the way across the country and all the way back; and the enthusiasm be just as great now as it was in the beginning.

Waco is a fine example of the prosperity that comes to an American city when there is full employment in the factories and the shops, and when the farmers in the surrounding countryside are prosperous.

You people here in Waco, and Americans like you in other parts of the country, would be enjoying your prosperity a great deal more if it were not for such high prices.

I suggested back there in Temple a while ago that if we could move these prices into some hospital back there and amputate them, we would be all right; but we can't do it that way.

I have been fighting ever since I took office for a sound and permanent postwar prosperity. That is all in the world my ambition has been--peace in the world, and continued prosperity at home.

The Republicans in Congress have persistently been sabotaging the best interests of the people of this country by refusing to pass laws which benefit all the people. They are a special interest Congress. They have done absolutely nothing for the people of the country since they have been in session, but they have done a lot to them. I have been telling you all about it, and you are beginning to wake up. The farmers and the laboringmen, and the small businessmen are just now beginning to find out what Republican policy really means. It is coming right home to you.

I have called the Republican 80th Congress back into special session twice, and urged them to pass laws to control high prices. Well, they did nothing about it at all. But they are now issuing a lot of false propaganda about the causes of inflation. They tell you all about what causes inflation, but they won't tell you that there would have been no inflation if the Republican 80th Congress had passed the laws I asked them to pass.

You know, all I can do as President of the United States, is to suggest to the Congress certain legislative acts which I think are good for the country and good for the people; and then the Congress goes on and does as it pleases, it either passes these laws and gives me a chance to sign them, or it does nothing, or it sends me a law I cannot sign.

Since I have been President, I have vetoed 61 bills that I thought were not in the public interest.

They are telling the people in the cities that we have high prices because the farmers are getting too much for their crops. They are telling the farmers that we have inflation because the factory workers are getting too much pay.

Well, now, let me tell you something. The farmers under the Democratic administration have had the greatest income they have ever had in the history of the world. They have received better prices for their produce than ever before in the history of the world; and the wage earners have received the best pay they have ever received in the history of this country or any other country. There are 61 million people at work in this country, something unheard of, something that everybody said was impossible.

What I want to do is to keep that balance. When the farmers are prosperous and getting good prices for their produce, and the wage earners are getting good pay for what they do, that means that everybody is getting a fair share of the national income. In 1947 we had the biggest income that the world has ever seen--$217 billion. Nothing like it ever heard of before in the world.

That income was so distributed that nearly everybody got his fair share of it.

Now that is not what the Republicans want. They don't want the workers to have good pay, they don't want the farmers to have good prices for their goods. They are pulling the floor out from under the farmers right now, and if you give them the chance by sending a Republican Congress back there, you will have this same old gang like the 80th Congress, and the farmers won't have anything left, they will be making slaves out of the workers, and we will be
right back where we were in 1932. Is that what you want?

All right then--all right then! My advice to you--my advice to you is to go to the polls on election day and send Lyndon Johnson to the Senate, elect your able Congressman again, and be sure to keep the good Governor in the same place where he is. I know you are going to do that.

[6.] HILLSBORO, TEXAS (Rear platform, 12:25 p.m.)

Mr. Morrow, Senator Martin, Governor Jester, and a lot of other distinguished Texans I have on this train, and ladies and gentlemen of Hillsboro:

It is a very great pleasure to me to have the privilege of stopping here today. I think I owe that stop to Mr. and Mrs. Morrow. They tell me that they are natives of this town, and they wanted me to be sure and stop and see the good people of Hillsboro. I am very happy to do it.

I wish we had time off here so I could discuss the issues of the campaign with you, but it is impossible to make long stops in every city in the great State of Texas. There are just too many of them, and it takes longer to get through Texas than it does to get through half a dozen States that I have been through on this trip. That is, I guess, because of the size of Texas, and because of the enthusiasm of the population for the President of the United States. I appreciate that.

I had to come out and make these trips, because the only way that I can get the matter that is at issue in this campaign before the people is to come out myself and tell you just what that issue is.

You know, 90 percent of the press in the country are against the President of the United States because he believes in the welfare of the people; and 90 percent of the radio commentators are against the President because they know that he believes that the Government of the United States should be a government for the people and not for special interests.

This 80th Congress I call the second worst Congress in the history of the United States. I think old Thaddeus Stevens' was the worst one. This 80th Congress has done everything it possibly can to do things to the people that will hurt you forevermore, if they get a chance to carry out fully what they want to do.

I can only tell the Congress what it ought to do. I cannot force the Congress to do anything. I send them messages informing them what I think is best for the welfare of the people, and they are supposed to pass laws implementing the suggestions that I make as President of the United States.

Instead of doing that, they made so many laws that were against the people of the United States, I had to use the veto power more than 60 times, to keep them from taking the rights of the people away from them.

That is true of the farmers, that is true of the laboringmen, and that has been true all along in the history of that Congress.

I want you to study just exactly what they did to you, and I want you to study the issues, after I have taken them out to the country. Then, when you go to the polls, vote the Democratic ticket straight, and you will be safe from such actions as that. I am sure that is exactly what you are going to do.

[7.] FORT WORTH, TEXAS (Outside the Railroad Station, 2:30 p.m.)

Governor Jester, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Carter, distinguished guests on this platform, and fellow Democrats of Forth Worth, Texas:

I am exceedingly and highly pleased at the turnout here in this great city at this time of day. I can't tell you how very much I appreciate it. I want to say to you that ever since the minute I hit El Paso, Tex., I've been most agreeably surprised every time we've stopped--and at a great many places at which we didn't stop. The station platform has always been full, and the station platform here in Fort Worth is full. It looks to me like about 15 acres of people. It is much better to measure by the acre than it is to measure them individually. You don't miss any when you count by the acre.

I've always been told that Fort Worth is where the West begins. When I was a very young man, 17 or 18 years old, I paid my first visit to Fort Worth. I've been paying regular visits to Fort Worth ever since that time for one reason or another.

I was down here in Fort Worth during the World War. I was down here before the Second World War and during the Second World War. I made some inspections here of bomber plants on several different occasions as Chairman of the Special Committee to Investigate the Defense Program--and much to your credit, I found things in excellent shape, and I found that we were turning out the machines which we needed to win that war.

When I was a kid, my father used to take a daily telegram to Kansas City. It always quoted prices from the five markets, and Fort Worth was then, and still is, one of the five great cattle markets of the world.

Fort Worth depends upon the cattle business and the farming and the oil business of Texas for its being one of the greatest cities in this great State of Texas. Therefore, you are vitally interested in the policy of the Federal Government as it affects these various industries.

I stopped in Des Moines, Iowa, on the way out here, and I explained to the farmers just exactly what would happen to them, and what is happening to them under Republican rule.

This 80th "do-nothing" Republican Congress did its best to cut the ground from under the farmer, and I want to say to you that, if this Republican outfit had control of the Government of the United States, the farmer would have been out the window right now.

They passed a rich man's tax bill, this Republican Congress did, and they took the freedom away from labor. That's exactly what they did. And, they were not satisfied with that. They are getting ready again to do the very same thing. They are not interested in the common, everyday man. They are not interested in the people. They are for the special interests, and I think I represent the people. And you have got one thing to do to make up your mind: decide whether you want the special interests to run this country, or whether you want the people to run this country.

The Democrats have always been for the people. You can't help but be for the Democratic ticket because it is in your interest to be for the Democratic ticket.

I am not asking you to vote just for me. I am asking you to vote for yourselves--vote for your own interests. To do that you can't help but get up early on election day and go down and put in a straight Democratic ticket and you can't possibly go wrong. The country will be safe then, and it will be a lot easier for me for I won't have to be troubled with the housing shortage.

It is to your interest, my good friends, to analyze the issues in this campaign, to listen carefully to what the leaders of the Republican Party have to say. Weigh these things carefully. Then, understand carefully what the Democratic Party stands for.

The Democratic Party is the people's party.

This country now has a national income of $217 billion, and that income is so distributed that the farmer, the workingman, and the businessman get a fair share of the income. That was not the case when we had some 14 million people out of work, when the national income was $39 billion, and when there were people being pushed off the farms as fast as the courts and insurance companies could get around to them.

Why, in 1932, there were 123,000 farmers displaced from their farms! Last year, there were less than 800. That was not an accident. The farmer's income last year was the greatest in the history of farming--the greatest in the history of the world, in fact.

I don't see how the farmer can do anything but vote in his own interest, and if he does that, he has to vote the Democratic ticket. And every city and town in the United States is so dependent upon the land; therefore, every citizen of every city in the United States should go to the polls and vote the Democratic ticket straight on the 2d of November.

[8.] GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS (3:30 p.m.)

It is a very great pleasure to me to have had the privilege of saying "Thank you" and "Howdy" to this wonderful turnout here in Grand Prairie.

I can't tell you how very much I appreciate this welcome to the President of the United States, and I hope I will always deserve a Welcome like that in Texas.

Thank you very much.

[9.] DALLAS, TEXAS (Rebel Stadium, 4:26 p.m.)

Mr. Chairman, Governor Jester, my great and distinguished Attorney General:

Tom, you gave me too much credit. It wasn't Joe Louis I stopped--it was John. I haven't quite that much muscle.

I am happy to be in Dallas, one of the greatest cities in Texas. I began to come into Dallas when I was about 9 years old. I had an uncle who lived down here south of town, in a little town called Wilmer. And I have a great many relatives living in Dallas today, and all over Texas, for that matter.

I came to Texas because I am engaged in one of the toughest political fights with which this country has ever been faced, and I wanted the people of Texas and the people of California and the people of all the States in the Union to understand just exactly what that fight means. And I'm coming to you and telling you what it means to you.

The interests in this campaign go far beyond the election. They go to the very core of American life.

I feel it is my duty, as President, to present to the American people the facts of this vital struggle. Before the election I will have gone to every section of this great country, speaking to the people about specific issues which are involved in this campaign. My purpose is to state as clearly as I can how I stand on the problems of the day and what I propose to do about them in the future.

I sought to emphasize to the people that the basic issue in this contest is whether or not the Government of the United States is to be run in the interests of the people as a whole or in the interests of a small group controlled by big business.

The Democratic Party stands for the people and our attitude towards the issues is controlled by principle. The Republican Party is concerned with the rights of the selfish and wealthy interests, and they demonstrate this by taking the fight of the privileged few against the people every time they get a chance.

Oh, I wish I had time. It would take all night. I wish I had time to read you the record of that good-for-nothing, "donothing" Republican 80th Congress. And when I speak of that Congress that way I'm speaking of the leadership. That Congress had a lot of good men in it, but they had no more to do with the acts of that Congress than I did. Those men were out for special privilege and they were frank about it.

The biggest lobby in the history of the country was at work in Washington the whole time that 80th Congress was in session, and they accomplished their purpose, that lobby did. You can't expect the Republican spokesmen to come out in the open and state clearly who it is the Republican Party is working for. They don't dare do that. You'd take them out and hang them if they did. That would be disastrous.

So in making their speeches they put them on a very high level, so high they are above discussing the specific and serious problems which confront the people.

Recent efforts have been made to throw up a smoke screen which they hope the American people cannot see through. Republican candidates are apparently trying to sing the American voters to sleep with a lullaby about unity in domestic affairs. Let's look at that for just about a minute.

Under the Democratic administration we achieved the greatest unity in foreign policy that this country has ever had before. Personally, I would like nothing better than to see similar unity of purpose and method in domestic affairs. I do not want unity so long as it is benefiting just a few at the expense of most of the people. I'm more interested in millions of people than I am in millions of dollars.

If the Republicans are sincere in their request for unity in domestic affairs, I have a good practical test to put before them.

How about unity on the low-rent housing?

The Democratic Party stands for low-rent housing. The Republican Party, through the Republican 80th Congress, stands against low-rent housing. The people want low-rent housing. In the Senate of the United States they passed the low-rent housing bill known as the Taft-Ellender-Wagner bill, and it went over to the House, and the House killed it. Then they sent a substitute over there, and Senator Taft voted against his own bill with his name on it.

The Democratic Party would be delighted to have the Republican Party unite with it in behalf of the low-rent housing. We would be tickled to death to have unity on that.

How about unity on price control?

Well, for the last 2 years, I have been trying to get the Republican-controlled Congress to curb inflation and high prices. The Democratic Party stands for price control, because it helps the common people. The Republican Party is against price control.

How about some unity on that issue? I think that would be pretty good, myself. I sent a message to Congress in January 1947, and asked the 80th Congress to do something about prices. Then I sent a message to them again, along about April or May. Then I called a special session last fall and put the matter squarely up to them with ten points in a program to prevent inflation. Then I told them again, in January 1948. Then I called a special session at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, and put it up to them again.

They did not do one thing. What about unity on that one issue? The Democratic Party would be delighted to work with the Republican Party to control prices.

How about some unity on Federal aid to education ?

Every American family with children is deeply aware of the need for more educational facilities. Our schools are badly overcrowded, our teachers underpaid. People want Federal aid to education. The Democratic Party is for it. But the Republican Party has shown by the record of the "donothing" 80th Congress, that it is against it.

How about a little unity on this issue? Wouldn't that be nice? We would have this thing done if we could have gotten that. The Democratic Party will be delighted to work with the Republican Party for Federal aid to education. In fact, I have sent message after message on it, because it is the kind of unity that would benefit the entire country. This is not the kind of unity the Republicans want. They want the kind of unity that benefits the National Association of Manufacturers.

The kind of unity they want is shown by the private power lobby. They want to help the power trusts, and they want to help the real estate trusts. The National Association of Real Estate Boards is the lobby that prevented that low-rent housing from going through. And they want to help any other selfish interests in this country that they think will be beneficial to the Republican Party, in more ways than one.

They don't want unity. They want surrender.

And I am here to tell you people that I will not surrender.

And I don't believe the American people are going to force me to surrender.

I believe the American people have the intelligence to see through that Republican smoke screen--and that's all it amounts to.

The Democratic Party will unite the American people, and it will unite them not for the benefit of big business but for the benefit of the ordinary folks in this country who have made the country great.

I want you to show them on November the 2d that the Democratic Party is the party of the people. Get out early and vote, every one of you, on November the 2d.

Thank you.

[10.] GREENVILLE, TEXAS (6:20 p.m.)


Mr. Mayor, Mr. Speaker:

I say that advisedly for Sam Rayburn's going to be the next Speaker of the House.

You know, this is the first town in Texas I ever saw--when I was 9 years old. I had an uncle who lived down here at Lone Oak, and my father and mother and my sister and brother and myself came down to pay him a visit; and the train made the first stop in daylight at Greenville, Tex., and that's the first town in Texas I ever saw. And I'm so glad I got a chance to stop here tonight. And Sam Rayburn tells me that this really is the heart of Texas--because this city happens to be in Sam Rayburn's district.

My uncle told me, when we arrived here, that if I'd stick to Texas when it was dry, Texas would stick to me when it was wet. He also told me that if I went out after a rain I would pick up my tracks and take them with me. I found that to be absolutely true.

You here are vitally interested in the issues in this campaign. You're in one of the richest farming communities in the whole United States. Your whole economy depends on the prosperity of the farmer.

In 1932, if I remember correctly, cotton was selling for about a nickel a pound. You know what it's selling for now.

At that time large numbers of people were walking the streets trying to find jobs, and they couldn't find them.

A policy was started when we elected, in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt to be President of the United States. And he inaugurated a farm policy which has put the farmer on his feet.

The farmer now is more prosperous than he's ever been in the history of the country. And I fear very much that in 1946 the farmer performed just like a lot of other people when they get fat and lazy. He failed to vote in 1946--and look what happened to him. He got that "do-nothing" Republican 80th Congress. And they began immediately to cut the ground from under him. And I want to say to you: If they had had complete control of the Government and you hadn't had somebody in the White House who was looking after your interests, no telling what would have happened to you.

Now, you've got a chance to overcome that situation. If you'll use your own judgment as it should be used and work in your own interests, as you usually do--you won't have any trouble at all deciding how you ought to vote on election day.

Just so you won't forget it, I'm going to remind you to go to the polls on election day and vote for yourselves. That means-of course, Sam Rayburn's as good as elected--but that means that you're going to vote the Democratic ticket straight on election day, from President to constable. And that means you're going to vote for yourselves and your own interests, and that means also that you'll make it very much easier on your President, because he won't be troubled with the housing shortage--I'll still be in the White House.

BELLS, TEXAS (Rear platform, 7:30 p.m.)


I certainly appreciate that wonderful introduction from my good friend Sam Rayburn. Sam is one of my friends who showed me around Washington the first time I ever went there, and I will never forget it. And his advice was, of course, sound and solid. He was always on the right side of the question, and I don't think I know a man in the Government of the United States who has done more for his country than Speaker Rayburn. And he is going to be Speaker Rayburn again next year, if I have anything to do with it.

I am going over to Bonham with Sam. He has always told me that it is the finest town in the United States, and I know I am not going to be disappointed.

I don't feel like it would be fair to Sam, or fair to Bonham, for me to stand here and make the speech I am going to make at Bonham in Bells, so I am going to make a deal with you.

It's only 12 miles--why don't you just get in the car and come on over to Bonham, and I will give the Republicans the gun over there. I think you will like it.

I am going to stop at Sherman in the morning before breakfast for a few minutes. If any of you want to get up in time, I will say "Hello" to you then.

But Texas has given me the heartiest welcome I have received on the trip. There hasn't been a city or a town or a village where everybody for miles around hasn't turned out to see and hear what the President has to say to them. That shows that you are interested in the welfare of this country. And this, my friends, is the most important campaign we have been through for generations, because it establishes the policy: We are either going to have a government that is the government of the people, or we are going to have a government that is the government of big interests.

For that reason you must turn out on election day and be sure that you cast a vote for the straight Democratic ticket from President to constable. If you do that, the country will be safe.

Now I hope to have the opportunity of seeing all of you at Bonham. Thank you very much for your most cordial welcome.

NOTE: In the course of his remarks on September 27 the President referred to Ed M. Cape, Representative Lyndon B. Johnson, Democratic candidate for Senator, Governor Beauford H. Jester, Mayor Tom Miller of Austin, Senator Tom Connally, Representative Sam Rayburn, Representative Wright Patman, Attorney General of the United States Tom C. Clark, former Governor Pat M. Neff, President of Baylor University, Representatives W. R. Poage and Ken Regan, Democratic National Committeeman Wright Morrow, State Senator Crawford Martin, Mayor Edgar Deen of Fort Worth, Amon G. Carter, publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and Mayor Sire Beene of Greenville, all of Texas.