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COLTON, CALIFORNIA (Rear platform, 1:56 p.m.)
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Congressman Sheppard and fellow Democrats: I certainly do appreciate this most cordial welcome to Colton. It's wonderful. I don't see where all the people came from. In San Diego this morning at 8:30 by standard time, 9:30 California time, there were 25,000 people out in the ball park and there must have been 50,000 on the street besides that. I never saw anything like that crowd that early in the morning. That's been the sort of reception we have been receiving all over the State, so I know you're interested. I know you're interested in how the President stands and what he stands for, and in words of one syllable, I've been telling the people of California just where I stand, and I think they understand that. The basic issue in this campaign is as simple as can be: it's the special interests against the people; the special interests against the people. And that was conclusively proved by the 80th Republican "do nothing" Congress which we just finished with-thank God. A long time ago, I am told, this town had a fight between the special interests and the people, and they organized a freight train of their own and ran mule teams in competition with the railroad until the freight trains came down to a workable rate. Now, we're up against this same thing all across the board in this campaign. I explained to the farmers in Iowa and to the whole Nation that their interests are being jeopardized by the policies of the Republican Congress, and that's only a sample of what they can expect to get if the Republicans get complete control of the Congress. You know what they did to your irrigation and reclamation and water projects in this great State. They would have sabotaged every single one of them if it hadn't been for such fellows as this and for the President of the United States. I can say that conclusively, and he'll back up every word I say. Republicans are just simply tools of big business. They believe that there is a top strata in the country that ought to run the Government and that ought to profit from the Government. That's not the Democratic belief at all. We believe that there ought to be a fair distribution of the wealth so that the farmer gets a part of the income, the laboringman gets his part, the small businessman gets his part, and then the distribution is as it should be. Now, we had an income last year of $217 billion, the greatest in the history of the world for any country, and that income has been equitably distributed. The farmers got the greatest income they ever had. Labor got the greatest income they ever had, and business has done better than it's ever done in the history of the country. Now, why do you want to throw that out the window? You have a good chance to do it, if you don't go to the polls and vote and let these birds know where you stand. They'll tear you apart. I can prove that they have it in mind to sabotage the farm program. Mr. Stassen gave out an interview in Albany, the capital of New York, and in that interview he made it perfectly plain that they expect to do away with the farm support price, and the Wall Street Journal commented on that interview after our Secretary of Agriculture explained to the people just what Mr. Stassen meant. And here is what the Wall Street Journal said, now-the Wall Street Journal is not a Democratic paper and it's not for any Democrat-in a little column called "Progress of the Week-An Editorial Appraisal." Here is what it said: "Nevertheless the whole import of Mr. Stassen's press conference at Albany was just what Secretary Brannan said it was"-that's the Democratic Secretary of Agriculture" in essence an attack on the price support system. Mr. Stassen is in fact proposing a far-reaching reform of the farm price support policy or he doesn't make sense." Now, it's one or the other: either he's double talking and doesn't make sense or he wants the whole thing revised-and if he does that, where will the farmer be? They compromised the Commodity Credit Corporation so that they can hardly meet the support program when it comes around. They fixed it so that the Commodity Credit Corporation cannot rent storage space and cannot provide storage space. As a joker they slipped it in an appropriation bill. They tried to legislate altogether through appropriation bills. They cut the throat of the whole reclamation project and they sent a Republican to look over the situation, and the folks out here gave him so much hell he went back and put my program in. Now, I want you to use good judgment. I want you to use good judgment, and I'm sure you will. You go to the polls on November 2nd and take no chance. Just vote the Democratic ticket straight, and then you won't have anything to worry about we'll have a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President. And I won't be troubled by this terrible housing shortage, for I can stay in the White House for another 4 years.
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