Evening star., 1951-10-27
Partial Text of Truman Talk

lection against unemployment.
We believe in good wages, and we
have legal wage floors to prevent
sweatshops. We have set up a
system of social security.
We have written into our laws
the principle that all groups
business, labor and agriculture
should work together to maintain
employment and expand the
economy. We have learned to
use the great resources of our
economy, through Government, to
prevent economic suffering and to
protect against sharp declines in
the business cycle.
1t is quite clear that since
Gompers' time we have made
great advances in our economic
theories and our economic policies
We no longer believe that ma
tural laws" make the poor poorer
and the rich richer We no longer
subscribe to the nonsensical idea
that economic wen-being trickles
down the scale from the well-to-
do to the wage Garner.
U. S. Gains Are Cited.
In fact. we have proved that
just the opposite is true. We have
! proved that If the Wage-earner
and the farmer are prosperous
and secure the rest of the people
will be prosperous and secure. too.
Today, the working people of the
United States are better off than
any workers in history, and the
annual income per person in this
country is 40 per cent higher than
IT was in 1889. This is a real
gain OF 40 per cent-after taxes.
and taking price increases into
account.
But we have had to fight for
these advances and we will have
TO keep on fighting in order to
hold them. There are still people
who cling to the old trickle down
theory; who think that our sole
concern ought to be profits. and
that wages ought to come after
profits have been taken care of
This is the same blind attitude
that brought on the great depres-
sion, but it is still with us.
Let me give you an example
Our defense program has brought
with it the threat of initiation
OF runaway prices. Adequate price
controls are essential not Oily for
the wage Garner, but for business
as well. They are essential to the
defense of the Nation and to world
peace. In this emergency, you
would think that all citizens would
want good. strong price controls
to protect themselves and the
whole economy.
But this has not proved to be
the case. Scores of special inter-
ests have ganged up together for
the purpose of securing special
short-run advantages for them
selves at the expense of all the
rest of us. These special inter-
tests have adopted the principle
that price control is all right #
| it does not require them to ABSORB
a penny more in costs. or forego
a penny of profits, no matter now
high their profits may be.
This is the main idea behind the
terrible Capehart amendment,
which I tried to have removed
from the price control law. 1t is
also the old trickle- down ides., in
new setting-take care of the
profits first and the general well
fare last.
Imitation Curbs Lacking.
| This administration will do Its
best, with the tools the Congress
has given us, to curb imitation. But
the tools are not good enough to
do the job as it should be done.
In this present time of crisis
the defense of the free world de-
Ipends on the production of Ameri-
lean mines and factories. Labor
iorganized labor-has the great
responsibility of using its strength
to increase defense production. 1t
has the responsibility for helping
to make wage stabilization work.
1t has the responsibility, along
with management, of preventing
the interruption of defense pro-
Iduction.
I am confident that the Ameri-
can labor movement will measure
up to these responsibilities. For
labor understands what is at stake
in this struggle against aggression
and the threat of war.
Labor knows that Communism
is the mortal enemy of free trade
unions. Labor knows that free
trade unionism-the international
unity of free workingmen-forms
one of the greatest bulwarks
against communism. Labor knows
that we cannot have peace for
ourselves if we turn our backs on
the needs and desires and hopes
for progress of other free people.
This is why the American labor
movement has given such firm
support to the foreign policy of
this country. This is why Amer
lcan labor is working so vigorous
ly with free trade unions through
out the world for peace and
human progress.
GOmpers' Principles Followed,
In all of this, the labor move
ment has been following the prin-
clples established by Samuel
Gompers. There was never any
one who worked harder than
Samuel Gompers for international
collaboration among free nations
and free working men. There was
never any one who believed more
deeply in the cause of peace and
justice for all the people of the
world.
That was his goal-and it is