at the 1948 Convention...
I can't tell you how very much I appreciate the honor which you have just conferred upon me. I shall continue to try to deserve
it.
I accept the nomination.
And I want to thank this convention for its unanimous nomination of my good friend and colleague, Senator Barkley of
Kentucky. He is a great man, and a great public servant. Senator Barkley and I will win this election and make these
Republicans like it--don't you forget that!
We will do that because they are wrong and we are right, and I will 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 that is the democratic way. Those differences have been settled by a majority vote, as they should be.
Now it is time for us to get together and beat the common enemy. And that is up to you.
We have been working together for victory in a great cause. Victory has become a habit of our party. It has been elected four
times in succession, and I am convinced it will be elected a fifth time next November.
The reason is that the people know that the Democratic Party is the people's 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 don't need to repeat them. They
have been very ably placed before this convention by the keynote speaker, the candidate for Vice President, and by the
permanent chairman.
Confidence and security have been brought to the people by the Democratic Party. Farm income has increased from less than
$2 ¼ billion in 1932 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 don't do their duty by the Democratic Party,
they are the most ungrateful people in the world!
Wages and salaries in this country have increased from 29 billion in 1933 to more than $128 billion in 1947. That's labor, and
labor never had but one friend in politics, and that is the Democratic Party and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
And I say to labor what I have said to the farmers: they are the most ungrateful people in the world if they pass the Democratic
Party by this year.
The total national income has increased from less than $40 billion 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 it is the business of the Democratic Party to see that
the people get a fair share of these things.
----excerpt-----
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 everyday man. Ever since its inception,
that party has been under the control of special privilege; and they have completely proved it in the 80th Congress. They
proved it by the things they did to the people, and not for them. They proved it by the things they failed to do.
In the field of labor we needed moderate legislation to promote labor-management harmony, but Congress passed instead that
so-called Taft-Hartley Act, which has disrupted labor-management relations and will cause strife and bitterness for years to
come if it is not repealed, as the Democratic platform says it ought to be repealed.
On the Labor Department, the Republican platform of 1944 said, if they were in power, that they would build up a strong
Labor Department. They have simply torn it up. Only one bureau is left that is functioning, and they cut the appropriation of that
so it can 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, and that there is a shortage of teachers. One of
our greatest national needs is more and better schools. I urged the Congress to provide $300 million to aid the States in the
present educational crisis. Congress did nothing about it. Time and again I have recommended improvements in the social
security law, including extending protection to those not now covered, and increasing the amount of benefits, to reduce the
eligibility age of women from 65 to 60 years. Congress studied the matter for 2 years, but couldn't find the time to extend or
increase the benefits. But they did find time to take social security benefits away from 750,000 people, and they passed that
over my veto.
I have 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 that I recommended to the Congress the civil rights program. I did that because I believed 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 professed to be for these measures. But Congress failed
to act. They had enough men to do it, they could have had cloture, they didn't have to have a filibuster. They had enough
people in that Congress that would vote for cloture.
Now everybody likes to have low taxes, but we must reduce the national debt in times of prosperity. And when tax relief can
be given, it ought to go to those who need it most, and not those who need it least, as this Republican rich man's tax bill did
when they passed it over my veto on the third try.
---------------------------------
i suggest reading it in its entirety
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/calendar/viewpapers.php?pid=1060
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