Roanoke Rapids daily herald., 1948-09-19
VOLUME XXXIV NUMBER SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1!
Truman Flags Republican rarty
In Midwest Farm Speeches

President Truman opened his
drive for the farmers votes by
telling an Iowa throng that
"Wall Street reactionaries" and
Republican gluttons of privi-
lege" are out to beat down farm
prices and strip away farm be-
nefits.
The Republican Congress, he
said, HAS already stuck pitch
fork in the farmers back"
The Democratic Presidential
nominee spoke yesterday to a
crowd at the National Flowing
Contest at Dexter, Iowa.
Governor Thomas E. Dewey,
the Republican candidate, has
headed for Iowa today Sunday.
He will deliver major speech
at Des Moines tomorrow night.
Both major party candidates
have laid out cross-counrty
stumping tours that will take
them to the Pacific Coast and
back.
Time and again in his Dexter
speech Mr.. Truman referred to
the Republican as "gluttons of
privilege" A farmer once him
self, he rared back and talked
to his predominantly rural aud
ience in corncrib language.
He told them that Congress
gave the speculative grain trade
a rake-off at your expense" He
cautioned them against being
fooled again by the slick propa-
ganda of Wall Street" He charg-
ed the Republicans with "plain
hokum."
"The big-money Republican
looks on agriculture and labor
merely as expense items in a
business venture" he declared
He tries to push their share
of the national income down as
low as possible and increase his
own profits. And he looks up
on the government as a tool to
accomplish that purpose"
Republican reactionaries, ;"
he continued, ''now are attack
ing the whole structure of price
supports for farm products.
"How many times do you have
to be hit on the head before you
find out what's hitting you?" he
asked.
"It's about time that the peo-
pie of America realized what
the Republicans have been do
ing to them"
The Iowa farm folks stood and
sat in the hot midwestern sun
shine to hear the president.
Your best protection" he told
them, lis to elect a Democra-
tic Congress and President
that will play with the farmer"
Although the Dexter speech
was his first major address on
MIR. Trurnan's 9,500-mile trans
continental swing, he had waved
and spoken briefly to thousands
of people as his 17-car special
train rolled smoothly across O.
hio, Illinois and Iowa.
He arranged to spend Sunday
in Independence, Mo-, his old
home town, and leave tonight
for Denver, where he is to make
another major speech tomorrow.
Mrs. Truman and their daugh-
ter, Margaret, are with him on
the western trip.
Governor Dewey sets out from
Albany tonight. His Des Moines
address is expected to deal not
only with farming, but with do
mestic and foreign problems.
Republican enthusiasts from Sc
veral nearby Midwestern states
said they will be on hand to
swell the audience at Drake I'm
iversity stadium. An automo-
bile caravan of 1000 Nebrask-
ans was expected.
Before setting out on his
trip. Dewey met at Pawling
N. Y. yesterday with about 100
farm editors from 80 states, for
a fill-in on their views on agri-
cultural conditions and farm po-
licies. He told them the United
States may have to continue
always" to feed western Europe
Already he has come out for
"a firm program of price sup
Continued on page 16)