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David Pietrusza's Amsterdam
Author David Pietrusza hails originally from Amsterdam,
New York and presents this webpage in the city's honor.
Author David Pietrusza hails originally from Amsterdam,
New York and presents this webpage in the city's honor.
President Harry S. Truman
Amsterdam, New York
October 8, 1948
On October 8, 1948, President Harry S. Truman, Democratic
candidate for President, campaigned in Amsterdam, New York,
addressing the crowd from the rear platform of his train at 10:30
AM that morning. Here is the text of his remarks:
Ladies and gentlemen:
You know, I certainly do highly appreciate this turnout. I thank
Mayor Carter most sincerely for that fine introduction, and I
hope he is a good prophet, that I will be the next President of
the United States—and I think he is right.
This is a very happy day for me to be in your city of
Amsterdam. During the war, it was my business as chairman of
the special Senate committee investigating the defense program
to become somewhat familiar with your factories here in this
city. You made a great contribution to the war effort. You
turned your factories over from warwork to peace work and you
did it expeditiously. I want to express my appreciation as
President of the United States for the contribution that you
made.
Now, this campaign that I am making up and down the country
is a campaign in the interests of the people. This is a campaign
in which I am trying to explain to you that it is your own
interest that you vote for on November 2d. It is not necessarily
me you are electing President, you are voting for your own
interests—for this campaign is a campaign of the people against
the special interests. The Republican Congress conclusively
proved that, as soon as they got control.
What was the first thing they did when they got control of the
Congress of the United States? They immediately began to tear
up labor's bill of rights. The first thing they did was to try and
amend the Wagner Labor Act so it would no longer work in the
interests of labor, but would work in the interests of special
privilege.
I vetoed that, and I hope every one of you will read that veto
message, because it strikes at the fundamental foundation of
the Democratic plan to make the Government for all the people.
The next thing they did was to try to tear up the farm program.
They tried to leave the farmer out on a limb so he could no
longer have a floor under his prices, and they are trying to tell
the people that that floor under prices to the farmers is causing
the high cost of living. That is not true. You cannot tell how
much the price support program has been worth to this great
country of ours, because the farmer was willing to go out and
raise tremendous crops that have been necessary to feed the
world and to keep enough in this country so that prices would
not go sky high.
If these people had been willing to give me the necessary
controls for allocation of these things, everybody would have
had his fair share, and prices would not have been out of sight.
I want you to weigh these things. I want you to consider very
carefully the record of the Congressman in this district, then I
think you will want to vote for Professor Murphy for
Congressman from this district, who knows what these issues
are and has been trying to tell you what they are.
The best interests are the people's interests-in voting for a
government that is of the people and for the people.
Now, you are the Government. You are yourselves the
Government, when you exercise your rights to vote. When you
do not exercise that right to vote, you are shirking your duty.
In 1946 two-thirds of the people of the United States who were
entitled to vote stayed away from the polls—and look what they
received as a result of that! They got a Congress that
immediately began working for special privilege. There were
more lobbyists and more higher paid lobbyists around this 80th
Congress than ever before in the history of the country. And
those lobbyists got just what they wanted. The real estate lobby
kept the housing bill from going through. The big corporation
lobbyists got the Taft-Hartley bill through. Mr. Taft said that he
wrote that bill for the benefit of employers. I don't think that is
anything to brag about.
I want you to study all the things for special privilege that would
have gone through if I had not been standing there in the
interests of the people with the veto. Why, I vetoed more bills
than any other President since Grover Cleveland, and I am
proud of that record because I was working in the interests of
the everyday man in this country.
Now, let me give you just a good piece of advice. I understand
that today and tomorrow are the last days for registration. I
want to get every voter who is entitled to the privilege on the
books, then I want him on the 2d of November to get up very
early in the morning to go to the polls and vote the Democratic
ticket straight—then the country will be safe for another 4
years and I won't have a housing problem myself.
Amsterdam, New York
October 8, 1948
On October 8, 1948, President Harry S. Truman, Democratic
candidate for President, campaigned in Amsterdam, New York,
addressing the crowd from the rear platform of his train at 10:30
AM that morning. Here is the text of his remarks:
Ladies and gentlemen:
You know, I certainly do highly appreciate this turnout. I thank
Mayor Carter most sincerely for that fine introduction, and I
hope he is a good prophet, that I will be the next President of
the United States—and I think he is right.
This is a very happy day for me to be in your city of
Amsterdam. During the war, it was my business as chairman of
the special Senate committee investigating the defense program
to become somewhat familiar with your factories here in this
city. You made a great contribution to the war effort. You
turned your factories over from warwork to peace work and you
did it expeditiously. I want to express my appreciation as
President of the United States for the contribution that you
made.
Now, this campaign that I am making up and down the country
is a campaign in the interests of the people. This is a campaign
in which I am trying to explain to you that it is your own
interest that you vote for on November 2d. It is not necessarily
me you are electing President, you are voting for your own
interests—for this campaign is a campaign of the people against
the special interests. The Republican Congress conclusively
proved that, as soon as they got control.
What was the first thing they did when they got control of the
Congress of the United States? They immediately began to tear
up labor's bill of rights. The first thing they did was to try and
amend the Wagner Labor Act so it would no longer work in the
interests of labor, but would work in the interests of special
privilege.
I vetoed that, and I hope every one of you will read that veto
message, because it strikes at the fundamental foundation of
the Democratic plan to make the Government for all the people.
The next thing they did was to try to tear up the farm program.
They tried to leave the farmer out on a limb so he could no
longer have a floor under his prices, and they are trying to tell
the people that that floor under prices to the farmers is causing
the high cost of living. That is not true. You cannot tell how
much the price support program has been worth to this great
country of ours, because the farmer was willing to go out and
raise tremendous crops that have been necessary to feed the
world and to keep enough in this country so that prices would
not go sky high.
If these people had been willing to give me the necessary
controls for allocation of these things, everybody would have
had his fair share, and prices would not have been out of sight.
I want you to weigh these things. I want you to consider very
carefully the record of the Congressman in this district, then I
think you will want to vote for Professor Murphy for
Congressman from this district, who knows what these issues
are and has been trying to tell you what they are.
The best interests are the people's interests-in voting for a
government that is of the people and for the people.
Now, you are the Government. You are yourselves the
Government, when you exercise your rights to vote. When you
do not exercise that right to vote, you are shirking your duty.
In 1946 two-thirds of the people of the United States who were
entitled to vote stayed away from the polls—and look what they
received as a result of that! They got a Congress that
immediately began working for special privilege. There were
more lobbyists and more higher paid lobbyists around this 80th
Congress than ever before in the history of the country. And
those lobbyists got just what they wanted. The real estate lobby
kept the housing bill from going through. The big corporation
lobbyists got the Taft-Hartley bill through. Mr. Taft said that he
wrote that bill for the benefit of employers. I don't think that is
anything to brag about.
I want you to study all the things for special privilege that would
have gone through if I had not been standing there in the
interests of the people with the veto. Why, I vetoed more bills
than any other President since Grover Cleveland, and I am
proud of that record because I was working in the interests of
the everyday man in this country.
Now, let me give you just a good piece of advice. I understand
that today and tomorrow are the last days for registration. I
want to get every voter who is entitled to the privilege on the
books, then I want him on the 2d of November to get up very
early in the morning to go to the polls and vote the Democratic
ticket straight—then the country will be safe for another 4
years and I won't have a housing problem myself.
