re-post from DU a la 20002
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All Democrats should read this speech by Harry Truman !
It should be read in its entirety. But here is a small flavor:
Especially the parts about the Republican taxcuts. It seems like the times haven't changed one iota since the days of Truman...
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/trumanpapers/pppus/1948/223.htm<snip>
You have a choice between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Within the memory of most of us here, a clear record has been written that shows how much difference that choice can make.
The Republicans wrote part of their record from 1921 to 1933. They led the country to depression, poverty, and despair.
It is easy to forget what the black days of the depression were like. Let us recall a few, just a few of the bitter facts.
In 1932, after 12 years of Republican bungling, more than 12 million men and women were unemployed.
In 1932 the average worker in manufacturing industries was making 45 cents an hour--if he was lucky enough to have a job. In coal mining, the most hazardous of all occupations, miners were making 52 cents an hour--if they were lucky enough to have jobs.
The workingmen and women in this country could not do much to help themselves, because the strength of their unions had been broken by the reactionary labor policies of the Republican administration.
The Republican bubble burst in 1929, and when it burst:
--There was no minimum wage to cushion the blow.
--There was no unemployment compensation to carry the workingman's family along.
--There was no work relief program to help people through the crisis.
--But the party of privilege was ready to carry big business through the crisis. It created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for that purpose. The banks, the railways, the insurance companies--they got relief, but not the American people.
--For the unemployed, it was Hoovervilles and soup kitchens. Veterans were encouraged to go into business for themselves-selling apples.
That is the Republican record. Most of us well remember it. The Democratic part of the record begins in 1933, when the Democratic Party began to build prosperity for business, labor, and agriculture.
We wrote into law the right of the workingmen and women to organize in unions of their own choice, and to bargain collectively.
We put a floor under wages.
We outlawed child labor.
We created a great insurance system to protect workingmen and women against the hazards of unemployment and old age.
We wrote into law a system of price supports for farm products, so that the bottom would not drop from under the farmer's income the way it did in the 1920's.
We put a curb on Wall Street speculation, and stopped the money changers from gambling with people's savings.
With these reforms and many others, the Democratic Party brought the country to the greatest period of prosperity ever known in the history of the world.
Things are far different now from what they were in 1932.
The average farm income of the farmer in 1947 was $725 per person, nearly ten times as great. In 1932 it was $74 per person.
The coal miner who got 52 cents an hour in 1932, gets $1.94 an hour in 1948. He deserves every cent of it, too; and I'm glad to see him get it.
And business hasn't suffered too much under the New Deal! Corporations had a loss of $4 billion in 1932. But in 1947 they had a profit of $17 billion, after taxes.
These same corporations--these same corporations now claim the Democrats are hostile to business. If I were in their shoes, I would want some more of that kind of hostility.
Today, signs of prosperity are all over the country. I have been all over the country, and I know what I am talking about!
Farm production is greater than it ever was. Industrial .production is greater than it every was. Everybody who wants a job can get one.
That's the way America is today. The real question facing us in this election is whether or not we are going to keep it that way.
For all this did not come about by accident. Some people would like to make you think it did. The leaders of the Republican Party would like you to believe that the country just drifted into the great depression, and that it just drifted out again into prosperity. They would like you to believe that the Democratic New Deal had nothing to do with recovery--and that the Republicans had nothing to do with the Hoover panic.
That is not true and the people know it is not true.
The country was driven into depression by the policies of a Republican administration and a Republican Congress that served the selfish interests of the rich and powerful business groups.
The country was brought out of the depression by the intelligent foresight and planning of the Democratic Party--and above all by following the fundamental belief of the Democratic Party that the true road to prosperity begins with looking after the little fellow. The Republicans believe in taking care of big business first and letting the little fellow take care of himself.
The Republicans would like you to forget these fundamental differences between the two parties. But during the past 2 years we have been given a sharp warning that these differences still exist, and these differences are wide and deep. That has been made completely clear by the record of this Republican "do-nothing" 80th Congress.
No matter what the Republicans do or say, the Republicans cannot escape responsibility for that black record.
I know, of course, that there are many fine people throughout the United States, who from habit or choice are members of the Republican Party. To them I say that the national leadership of their party has failed them miserably.
I know, too, that among the Republicans of the 80th Congress there were a few liberal men who joined the battle against special privilege. You can pick these men out by their votes. They voted with the Democrats in the Congress more often than they did with their own Republican leadership. When these men went to their party caucuses they must have felt very lonesome.
The record of the 80th Congress was made by the forces that dominate the Republican Party.
I thank God that the men who held positions of leadership in dealing with foreign affairs were of a character which made it possible for us to work together in carrying out our foreign policy on a bipartisan basis.
But on domestic issues it was a different matter. The Republican leadership started out to follow the same policies that nearly wrecked the country under Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.
Some people have accused me of failing to cooperate with the Republican leadership in carrying out those policies. Now, I must confess to you that I am going to plead guilty to that charge. Of course, I did not cooperate in carrying out policies that I knew would bring disaster on the American people.
But I will tell you how you can get some cooperation in carrying out those policies-if that's what you want. I will tell you how you can achieve unity in a headlong dash toward another depression. Just elect a Republican President to go along with a Republican Congress.
Just elect a man who said--and I quote: "I am proud of the record of my party and of the 80th Congress."
Just elect a man who said: "The 80th Congress delivered as no other Congress ever did for the future of our country."
Apparently he will be glad to help deliver a lot more of the same kind of blows you got from the 80th Congress. But bigger blows-and faster and more of them.
What did this Republican Congress deliver for the future of the country ?
For one thing, it delivered a body blow at labor in the form of the Taft-Hartley Act.
The fundamental purpose of the Taft-Hartley Act is to weaken organized labor. Its supporters want management to have the upper hand in collective bargaining. Do you know why? They want management to have the upper hand so that wages can be driven down.
What else did the Republican Congress deliver for the future of our country?
************
Bertrand Russell:
"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin
-- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary,
destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege,
established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into
the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and
free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."
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