OXFORD, IOWA (Rear platform, 8:50 a.m.)

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen:

I certainly am happy to see this wonderful turnout in Oxford, Iowa. You know, your candidate for Senator, who will be Senator from Iowa after this election is over-Senator Gillette, told me that Oxford University in England was named after this tow n. It was rather difficult to understand that, since I understand you just celebrated your 100th anniversary last year, but it is interesting anyway.

I know you live in a very wonderful, fertile part of this great United States, and I heard another remarkable fact about this great city of Oxford. They tell me in all the hundred years of your existence you never went wrong politically-you have al ways been Democratic.

I don't have to stand here and convince you, then, that the Democratic Party stands for what is best for the farmer. I am going to elaborate on that down in Dexter, which I understand is a hotbed of Republicanism. But I know I don't have to convinc e you about conservation and crop insurance and rural electrification and those other things which the Democratic Party instituted and which have given the farmers the greatest prosperity they have ever had in their history.

There is only one thing I want to caution you about. Prosperity sometimes is a bad thing for some people. It makes them lazy and indifferent to the welfare of their country and their neighbors. The farmer now is in a prosperous condition, the most prosperous condition he has ever been in in the history of the country, or in the history of the world, for that matter.

I want to urge you people who live in the great farming communities to remember that the Government of the United States is a Government of the people. It is your Government. In fact, you are the Government. In order to implement that Government an d make it work as it should, you must exercise that greatest of all privileges, the privilege of voting-expressing yourself at the polls in a free country.

Now, in 1946 people didn't do that. They didn't exercise their right on election day, and a very small minority of the voting population of the country gave us the worst Congress we have had in the history of the country, except one. Only one, I wo uld say, was worse than this 80th Congress which has just finished. I will let you look up your history books to see which one that was, and I think you will agree with me when you read about it.

I want to urge you, don't make that mistake again-don't make that mistake again. Turn out and vote the Democratic ticket on November the 2nd, and elect a Democratic Governor from Iowa, a Democratic Senator, and a Democratic Congressman from this di strict. It will be a lot easier for your President to protect the rights of the people.

I can't tell you, again, how much I appreciate this privilege. They tell me these bands come from all over Iowa that are here this morning. That is a compliment, and I appreciate it. I hope you have a most successful celebration the rest of the day .

Thanks again.