Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Lower the microphones. I cant. I have to have them up where i can see. Im sorry that the microphones are in your way but they have to be where they are because i have to be able to see what im doing, as im always able to see what im doing. [ applause ] i cant tell you how very much i appreciate the honor which youve just conferred upon me. I shall continue to try to deserve it. [ applause ] i accept the nomination. I want to thank this convention for its unanimous nomination of my good friend and colleague senator barkley of kentucky. Hes a great man and a great public servant. Senator barkley and i will win this election and make these republicans like it. Dont you forget that. Well do that because they are wrong and were right, and ill prove it to you in just a few minutes. This convention met to express the will and reaffirm the beliefs of the Democratic Party. There have been differences of opinion, and thats the democratic way. Those differences have been settled by a majority vote as they should be. Now its time for us to get together and beat the common enemy. Thats up to you s well be working together for victory in a great cause. Victory has become a habit of our party. Its been elected four times in succession, and im convinced it will be elected a fifth time next november. The reason is that the people know the Democratic Party is a Peoples Party and the Republican Party is the party of special interest and it always has been and always will be. The record of the Democratic Party is written in the accomplishments of the last 16 years. I dont need to repeat them. They have been very ably placed by this convention by the keynote speaker, the candidate for Vice President and by the permanent chairman. Confidence and security have been brought to the American People by the Democratic Party. Farm income has increased from less than 2. 5 billion in 1933 to more than 18 billion in 1947. Never in the world were the farmers of any republic or any kingdom or any other country as prosperous as the farmers of the United States. And if they dont do their duty by the Democratic Party, they are the most ungrateful people in the world. s wages and salaries in this country have increased from 29 billion in 1933 to more than 128 billion in 1947. Thats labor. Labor never had but one friend in politics and that was the Democratic Party and franklin d. Roosevelt. I said to labor what i said to farmers. They are the most ungrateful in the world if they pass the Democratic Party by this year. The total National Income increased to less than 40 in 1933 to 203 billion in 1947, the greatest in all the history of the world. These benefits have been spread to all the people because its the business of the Democratic Party to see people get the fair share of things. This last congress proved just the opposite for the rpms. The record on Foreign Policy of the Democratic Party is that the United States has been turned away permanently from isolationism and weve converted the greatest and best of the republicans to our viewpoint on that subject. The United States has to expect its full responsibility for leadership in international affairs. We have been the backers and the people who organize and started the United Nations, first started under that great democratic president Woodrow Wilson the league of nations. The league was sabotaged by the republicans in 1920. We must see that the United Nations continues a strong and growing body so we can have ever lasting peace in the world. Weve removed the trade barriers in the world, which is the best asset we can have for peace. Those trade failures must not be put back into operation again. We have started a foreign aid program, which means the recovery of europe and china and the far east. We instituted the program for greece and turkey and ill say to you that all these things were done in a cooperative bipartisan manner. The Foreign Relations committees of the senate and the house were taken into the full confidence of the president in every one of these moves and dont let anybody tell you anything else. As i said time and time again, Foreign Policy should be the policy of the whole nation and not a policy of one party or the other. Partisanship should stop at the waters edge, and i have continue to preach that through this whole campaign. Id like to say a word or two now about what i think the republican philosophy is. Ill speak from actions and history and from experience. The situation in 1932 was due to the policies of the Republican Party control of the government of the United States. The Republican Party, as i said a while ago, favors the privileged few and not the common every day man. Every since its inception, that party has been under the control of special prove and they completely proved it in the 80th congress. They proved it by the things they did to people not for them. They proved it by the things they failed to do. Lets look at some of them, just a few. Time and time again i recommended the extension of price control before it expired on june 30th, 1946. I asked for that extension in 1945, in november 1945. In a message on the state of the union in 1946, that price control legislation didnt come to my death until june 30th, 1946, on the day in which it was supposed to expire. It was such a rotten bill that i couldnt sign it. 30 days after that they sent me one that was just as bad that i had to sign it because they quit and went home. Said when it died the price would adjust themselves for the benefit of the country. They have adjusted themselves, all right, all the way off the chart adjusting themselves at the expense of the consumer and for the benefit of people who hold the goods. I called a special session of congress november 1947, november 17th, 1947. I set out a tenpoint program for the welfare and benefit of this country. Among other things stand by price control. I got nothing. Congress has still done nothing. Way back 4 1 2 years ago while i was in the senate. We passed the housing bill in the senate. Known as the wagner taft bill. It was a bill to clear the slums in the big cities and to help erect low rent housing. That bill, as i said, passed the senate four years ago. It died in the house. That bill was reintroduced in the 80th congress as the taft wagner bill. The name changed. It passed the senate. It was allowed to die in the house of representatives. The banking and Currency Committee sat on that bill. It was forced out of the committee. The Ruling Committee took charge and its still in the committee. In philadelphia, the convention that met three weeks ago couldnt get that housing bill passed. They passed a bill called the housing bill that isnt worth the paper its written on. The field of labor, we needed moderate legislation to promote Labor Management harmony but Congress Instead passed that socalled tafthartley act, which has disrupted Labor Management relations and will cause strife and bitterness for years to come if its not repealed and the democratic platform says it ought to be repealed. I tried to strengthen the Labor Department. The republican platform of 1944 said if they were in power they would build up a strong Labor Department. You know what they have done to the Labor Department . They have simply torn it up. Theres only one bureau left thats functioning and they cut the appropriation on that so it cant hardly function. I recommended an increase in the minimum wage. What did i get . Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I suggested that the schools in this country are crowded, teachers underpaid, that there are a shortage of teachers. One of the greatest national needs, more and better schools. I urge the congress to provide 300 million to aid the states in meeting the present educational crisis. Congress did nothing about it. Time and again i recommended improvements in Social Security law including extending protection to those not now covered, increase the amount of the benefits, reduce the eligibility age of women from 65 to 60 years. Congress studied the matter for two years but couldnt find time to extend increased benefits but did find time to take Social Security benefits away from 750,000 people. They passed that over my veto. I repeatedly asked the congress to pass a health program. The nation suffers from lack of medical care. That situation can be remedied any time the Congress Wants to act upon it. Everybody knows i recommended to the congresss civil rights program. I did so because i believe it to be my duty under the constitution. Some of the members of my own party disagree with me violently on this matter but they stand up and do it openly. People can tell where they stand but the republicans all profess to be for these measures but the 80th congress didnt fail to act and they had enough men to do that. They had cloture. They didnt have to have a filibuster. There was enough in congress that would vote for cloture. Everybody would like to have low taxes but we must reduce the National Date in times of prosperity. When tax relief can be given, it ought to go to those who need it most and not go to those who need it least as this republican rich mans tax bill did when they passed it over my veto on the third try. The first one of these tax bills they sent me was so rotten they couldnt stomach it themselves. They finally did send me one that was somewhat improved but it still helps the rich and sticks the knife into the back of the poor. A lot of republicans came here a few weeks ago and they wrote up a platform. I hope youve all read that platform. They adopted a platform, and that platform had a lot of promises and statements of what the Republican Party is for and what they would do if they were in power. They promised to do in that platform a lot of the things ive been asking them to do and that they have refused to do when they had the power. The republican platform cries about cruelly high prices. I have been trying to get them to do something about high prices every since they met the first time. Now, listen to this one. This one is equally as bad and cynical. The republican platform comes out for slum clearance and low rental housing. Ive been trying to get them to pass that housing bill every since they met the first time, and its still resting the rules committee, that bill is. Republican platform favors equality of Educational Opportunity and promotion of education. Ive been trying to get the congress to do something about that every since they came there. And that bill is at risk in the house of representatives. Republican platform urges extending and increasing Social Security benefits. Think of that, increasing Social Security benefits. And yet when they had the opportunity they took 750,000 people off the Social Security ro roll. I wonder if they think they can fool the people of the United States with such poppycock as that. Theres a long list of problems in the republican platform. If it werent so late, id tell you about all of them. Ive discussed a number of these failures of the republican 80th congress, and every one of them is important. Two of them are a major concern to nearly every american family. The failure to do anything about high prices and the failure to do anything about housing. My duty as president requires that i use every means within my power to get the laws the people need on matters of such importance and urgency. I am therefore calling this congress back into session on the 26th of july. [ cheers and applause ] on the 26th day of july, which out in missouri we call turnip day, im going to call that congress back and im going to ask them to pass laws halting rising prices and to meet the housing crisis, which they say they are for in their platform. At the same time i shall ask them to act upon other needed measures, which is education, which they say they are for. A National Health program, civil rights legislation, which they say they are for. And increase in the minimum wage, which i doubt very much they are for. An extension of Social Security coverage and increased benefits, which they say they are for. Funds for projects needed in our program to provide public power and cheap electricity. By indirection th80th congress s tried to sabotage the power and policy the United States has pursued for 14 years. That power lobby is just as bad as the real estate lobby, which is sitting on the housing bill. I shall ask for decent and adequate laws for persons in place of this antisemitic, anticatholic law this 80th congress passed. My friends, if theres any reality behind the republican platform, we ought to get some action out of the short session of the 80th congress. They could do this job in 80 days 23 if they had time to do it and they could still go out and run for office. They are going to try to dodge their responsibility. They are going to drag all the red herrings they can across this campaign, but im here to say to you that senator barkley and i are not going to let them get away with it. Now, what that 80th congress does in session will be the test. The American People will not decide by listening to mere words or reading a mere platform, they will decide on the record, the record as it has been written. And in the record is the stark truth the battle lines of 1948 are the same as they were back in 1932 when the nation laid helpless as a result of republican misrule and inaction. In 1932, we were attacking the citadel of special privilege and greed. We were fighting to drive the money changers from the temple. Today in 1948 we are now the defenders of the stronghold democracy and of equal opportunity. The haven of the ordinary people of this land and not of the favored classes of the powerful few. The battle cry is just the same now as it was in 1932 and i paraphrased the words of franklin d. Roosevelt as he issued the challenge in accepting his nomination in chicago. This is more than a political call to arms. Give me your help not to win votes alone but to win in this new crusade and keep america secure and safe for its own people. Now, my friends, with the help of god and a wholehearted push which you can put behind this campaign, we can save this country from a continuation of the 80th congress and from misrule from now on. I must have your help. You must get in and push and win this election. The country cant afford youre watching American History tv. Cspan3. Created by america Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Governor dewey, making a plea for world peace and striking communist elements in government, the gop leader draws big
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