WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.800 --> 00:00:13.520 Not only does the Republican administration itself fail and refuse to do anything, but 2 00:00:13.520 --> 00:00:19.640 when the Democratic Congress tries to do something, the administration tries to prevent it. 3 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:32.120 And as to foreign policy, while the administration has proposed some good legislative measures, 4 00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:38.340 with the Democrats' support, it has carried on our relations with our allies as if it were an 5 00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:44.340 overbearing banker with a glass eye, and has wasted its time in letter-writing contests with the 6 00:00:45.340 --> 00:00:53.220 While the Russians are catching up with us in deeds, not words. The Democratic Party is and must remain the party of the people. 7 00:00:53.780 --> 00:00:58.700 Our primary concern is with the vast majority who make the backbone of the nation. 8 00:00:59.160 --> 00:01:05.160 The working men and women, farmers, people on salary, and people of moderate income. 9 00:01:05.380 --> 00:01:11.880 We are of course also concerned with the welfare of the well-to-do, and I've noticed that in the long run, 10 00:01:11.880 --> 00:01:16.460 they too seem to fare better under the Democrats than under the Republicans. 11 00:01:17.080 --> 00:01:23.980 But we should always make sure it can be said of us, the Democratic Party is better for the little fellow. 12 00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:36.420 International cooperation must be not only the watchword of our foreign policy, 13 00:01:36.420 --> 00:01:46.340 it must also be the central theme of our whole national life, shaping our course in everything we do, domestic as well as foreign. 14 00:01:47.160 --> 00:01:52.580 Remember this too, my friends, mere survival is not our only concern. 15 00:01:53.240 --> 00:01:59.740 How we survive is much more important. Whether we survive as free men and a nation unafraid, 16 00:01:59.740 --> 00:02:09.440 or as a cowering, frightened people in retreat, we must do what is necessary to survive as a free people, no matter what the cost. 17 00:02:10.060 --> 00:02:13.140 Remember the last sentence in the Declaration of Independence. 18 00:02:13.940 --> 00:02:19.360 And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on divine providence, 19 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:26.580 we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 20 00:02:31.920 --> 00:02:34.720 Thank you. 21 00:02:34.720 --> 00:02:44.160 The Declaration of Independence 22 00:02:44.160 --> 00:02:56.840 When has the prestige of this country ever been so low throughout the world? 23 00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:00.120 When have we ever lost so many friends? 24 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:07.560 When have we ever come to be looked upon as an enemy to peace and prosperity by so many millions of people? 25 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:17.840 How can we ever regain precious ground that has been so faultlessly and needlessly lost in the struggle for a free and peaceful world? 26 00:03:24.660 --> 00:03:29.240 The people want the truth and the facts. They want action at the top. 27 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:33.240 For the good of the nation and for the welfare and benefit of the ordinary citizen, 28 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:38.840 the present great Republican illusion is coming to an end. 29 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:50.020 All great Republican illusions have ended in disaster, 1873, 1893, 1907, 1929. 30 00:03:50.880 --> 00:03:54.580 These great panics followed Republican control of the White House. 31 00:03:54.580 --> 00:04:02.780 What is the situation today? What has this Republican administration done to and not for the country? 32 00:04:03.480 --> 00:04:08.120 What adversities has it brought upon us? Let's take a look at some of them. 33 00:04:08.900 --> 00:04:12.640 This administration has increased unemployment by more than 100 percent. 34 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:16.460 When I left the White House, there were about two million unemployed. 35 00:04:16.960 --> 00:04:22.080 Today there are over five million and several millions more who are only partially employed. 36 00:04:22.080 --> 00:04:32.980 Men and women are walking the streets looking for work they can't find in Chicago, in Detroit, in New York, and other towns and cities across the country. 37 00:04:33.420 --> 00:04:39.900 This has been going on for months. Unemployment insurance is running out. Some people never had it. 38 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:48.580 This means rent that can't be paid, installment payments that can't be met, and hungry mouths that can't be fed. 39 00:04:54.420 --> 00:04:56.500 I thought it was a good speech. 40 00:04:57.460 --> 00:05:02.880 Mr. President, Hugh Hill from CBS. I wonder if you would comment on the Vice President's trip to North America. 41 00:05:03.520 --> 00:05:06.240 I'm very sorry. The situation of that kind had to develop. 42 00:05:08.060 --> 00:05:18.380 The Vice President of the United States, on these foreign trips, represents the country, and he should be treated with every courtesy in the world when he makes a visit of that kind. 43 00:05:18.380 --> 00:05:24.480 I thought it was a bad thing. I had nothing to do with his going. I had nothing to do with what he did down there. 44 00:05:24.500 --> 00:05:32.840 I'm telling you what I think the thing was. I think it was a very discourteous treatment to the Vice President of the United States who represented the President at that time. 45 00:05:33.020 --> 00:05:36.620 Mr. President, do you think his trip damaged the prestige of the United States? 46 00:05:36.960 --> 00:05:42.040 Well, apparently it did, and I'm sorry because those people there have always been our friends. 47 00:05:42.580 --> 00:05:46.700 Mr. President, if you were President, would you have sent your Vice President down there under the conditions? 48 00:05:46.700 --> 00:05:51.820 I never make hypothetical answers to hypothetical questions. I wasn't the President. 49 00:05:52.140 --> 00:05:54.120 What do you think it was like to send the Marines? 50 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:58.680 That's a matter that we will discuss a little later on in the campaign. 51 00:06:01.640 --> 00:06:02.860 Otherwise, it was a good subject. 52 00:06:03.400 --> 00:06:04.540 It was a very good subject. 53 00:06:05.260 --> 00:06:13.740 Mr. Truman, do you think the United States foreign policy toward France has anything to do with, toward Algeria has anything to do with the crisis in France right now? 54 00:06:13.740 --> 00:06:18.740 I can't answer that question, but if you read this speech very carefully, you'll find a reference to it. 55 00:06:19.860 --> 00:06:37.080 Mr. Truman, about two weeks ago, one of the local newspapers, Not to Chicago America, maybe it was, said that you are making efforts at this early date to block the possibility of Adlai Stevenson getting a nomination in 1960. Is that true? 56 00:06:37.080 --> 00:06:47.040 No, you know it isn't true. No effort would be made by me to block anybody. When the Democratic Convention meets there and nominates somebody, it will be elected and that's all I'm interested in. 57 00:06:47.380 --> 00:06:48.800 Do you have any favorites, Mr. Truman? 58 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:49.680 No, I haven't. 59 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:50.580 No favorites at all. 60 00:06:50.880 --> 00:06:57.520 We will have the election of 1958 and we'll find out then. We'll have plenty of timber. We won't be in trouble about that. 61 00:06:57.580 --> 00:06:59.280 Do you plan to campaign, Mr. President? 62 00:07:00.140 --> 00:07:04.180 That was my question, sir. You were a little bit later in the campaign. Do you plan to campaign actively? 63 00:07:04.180 --> 00:07:11.960 Well, it depends altogether on whether the National Democratic Committee and the Senate or whether the House of Committees want to use me. I'll be glad to do anything I can to help. 64 00:07:12.220 --> 00:07:20.560 See what you think. Here's the situation that they are so kind to me, they sometimes overdo it. 65 00:07:21.260 --> 00:07:29.800 They'll have a supposed meeting in some place like the one we're going to have tonight and there'll be half a dozen others in connection with it, which are all right and I like to go to them. 66 00:07:29.800 --> 00:07:39.000 But if I were 44 or 54 instead of 74, I could get around a little faster, although I go too fast sometimes for a walk with these boys in the morning. 67 00:07:39.760 --> 00:07:45.820 But what the doctor was interested in was to be sure that the old machine didn't wear out until after the campaign in 1960. 68 00:07:46.900 --> 00:07:48.420 Is your old machine going down at all? 69 00:07:48.740 --> 00:07:57.080 Not necessarily. Only when the madam and the doctor says that you can't go this place or that place or the other because you'd better sit still and rest a little while. 70 00:07:57.080 --> 00:08:03.640 Well, I guess that's true after you get to be 70 that you do have to take it a little slower, I'll admit that. 71 00:08:04.420 --> 00:08:09.080 But I'd like to have you boys keep up with me sometimes if you want to take a walk at 120 a minute. 72 00:08:09.200 --> 00:08:10.200 Do you still take your walks? 73 00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:10.760 Yes. 74 00:08:11.060 --> 00:08:12.100 What time did you get up this morning? 75 00:08:12.700 --> 00:08:16.880 Well, I was on the train this morning but I got up to use the time, about five o'clock. 76 00:08:17.540 --> 00:08:20.460 That's standard time, not your crazy time you've got here in Chicago. 77 00:08:22.640 --> 00:08:23.900 All right boys. 78 00:08:23.900 --> 00:08:31.740 I'd like to raise a private issue but apparently the issue we're going to have to face in the next two years. 79 00:08:32.120 --> 00:08:43.820 But in your opinion, this is also a hypothetical question, can a man of Catholic religion be elected president or vice president of the United States? 80 00:08:43.860 --> 00:08:45.760 Well, up to date it's been a handicap. 81 00:08:45.760 --> 00:08:51.160 Now I hope that we'll get over that because no such handicap should exist in this great republic of ours. 82 00:08:53.280 --> 00:08:57.580 Mr. President, do you have any comment on Harold Stassen's fate in Pennsylvania? 83 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:01.740 Well, it just goes to show that a man had better stay in his own better wake. 84 00:09:01.880 --> 00:09:04.380 I think if he'd stayed up among the Swedes he'd have better luck. 85 00:09:07.460 --> 00:09:15.380 Some of the Democrats, Mr. President, are saying that Vice President Nixon's trip to South America did him a lot of good in support of the candidacy for 1960. 86 00:09:15.820 --> 00:09:22.560 Well, it may have. I can't answer that question because I'm not a very good politician. I'm just a country boy, a retired farmer from Missouri. 87 00:09:23.140 --> 00:09:25.220 Could you consider yourself a diplomat now, Mr. President? 88 00:09:25.520 --> 00:09:26.800 I never was one. 89 00:09:29.020 --> 00:09:29.620 Mr. President. 90 00:09:29.620 --> 00:09:35.260 In the technical definition of the word, a diplomat is a man who tells the truth. 91 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:45.460 Go ahead. Go ahead with your question. 92 00:09:46.120 --> 00:09:52.480 I was wondering, sir, if you had any... would you be against Mr. Stevenson running for a big time? 93 00:09:52.480 --> 00:10:00.820 I'm not against anybody. When the Democratic Convention acts, I'll be for the nominee and try to help elect him, not on who to be. Neither do you. 94 00:10:03.820 --> 00:10:05.820 Read the speech. It'll tell you about it. 95 00:10:06.840 --> 00:10:10.480 Yes, I have planned to go to Russia and thought one time I was going to get to go, but it didn't happen. 96 00:10:12.160 --> 00:10:12.160 97 00:10:12.600 --> 00:10:17.280 Stalin invited me while I was at Potsdam, but I never got to go. I never had a chance to go. 98 00:10:17.340 --> 00:10:18.200 Do you think he'll ever go now? 99 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:20.540 I don't know. We'll have to wait until things develop. 100 00:10:20.540 --> 00:10:27.420 Mr. Truman, a former president of the Republican Party wrote a book about a Democratic president. Mr. Gubin wrote it about Mr. Wilson. 101 00:10:27.680 --> 00:10:32.800 It's a very good book, and I like it, and I'm very glad that he did it. It's a fine job. You ought to read it. 102 00:10:32.940 --> 00:10:37.260 You'll get some information that you haven't had because he treats Wilson like a dog, just like he didn't me. 103 00:10:37.860 --> 00:10:39.720 You're publishers and editors, not you, boy. 104 00:10:40.120 --> 00:10:45.220 Sir, I was just wondering, sir, if you might write a book about some Republican president, which one would that like? 105 00:10:45.220 --> 00:10:50.300 Well, if it's necessary, I guess I could do it, but I don't like to write books. It's too much trouble. 106 00:10:50.500 --> 00:10:52.060 Which president would it be? 107 00:10:52.520 --> 00:10:54.380 Well, we'll have to contemplate that, too. 108 00:10:54.400 --> 00:10:54.800 Okay. 109 00:10:58.280 --> 00:11:01.520 There are plenty of them, about which a book could be written, and elaborate. 110 00:11:01.760 --> 00:11:07.120 Mr. President, do you have any comment on the lack of labor legislation in this session of Congress? 111 00:11:08.560 --> 00:11:08.920 Too bad. 112 00:11:08.920 --> 00:11:17.220 Mr. President, have you and Governor Herman discussed the possibility of Governor Herman regenerating in 1960? 113 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:24.280 Governor Herman's discussion with me has always been to have himself reelected governor of the great state of New York, 114 00:11:24.280 --> 00:11:28.540 and then after that there'd be plenty of time to talk about the convention of 1960. 115 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:30.040 You have not discussed the subject? 116 00:11:30.040 --> 00:11:34.200 I have not discussed the subject. You accept the hope that he'll be reelected governor of New York? 117 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:36.180 He'll be still, of all the candidates. 118 00:11:36.180 --> 00:11:38.300 You have to ask him. I can't answer that. 119 00:11:38.400 --> 00:11:39.520 Well, is he still your favorite? 120 00:11:39.740 --> 00:11:40.440 Is he? 121 00:11:44.820 --> 00:11:46.960 Dave is pulling the lights up there. 122 00:11:48.760 --> 00:11:52.200 I'm all right, Dave. Dave wants somebody to say thank you, Mr. President. 123 00:11:52.540 --> 00:11:53.200 Finish your question. 124 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:56.960 I don't know. 125 00:11:56.980 --> 00:11:59.000 Mr. President, the United States President says that. Thank you. 126 00:12:01.920 --> 00:12:03.320 Everybody's always good to be with you. 127 00:12:33.960 --> 00:12:35.980 Thank you. 128 00:13:04.220 --> 00:13:05.880 Thank you. 129 00:13:23.920 --> 00:13:26.300 Thank you. 130 00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:57.840 Thank you. 131 00:14:08.780 --> 00:14:10.180 Thank you.