This is Ronald Reagan, speaking to you from Hollywood. You know me as a motion picture actor. But tonight Im just a citizen. Pretty concerned about the national election next month and more than a little impatient with those promises the Republicans made before they got control of Congress a couple of years ago. I remember listening to the radio on election night in 1946. Joseph Martin, the Republican Speaker of the House, said very solemnly, and I quote, We Republicans intend to work for a real increase in income for everybody by encouraging more production and lower prices without impairing wages or working conditions. Remember that promise. A real increase in income for everybody. But what actually happened? The profits of corporations have doubled, while workers wages have increased by only one quarter. In other words, profits have gone up four times as much as wages. And the small increase workers did receive was more than eaten up by rising prices, which have also bored into their savings. For example, here is an Associated Press dispatch I read the other day about Snip Al Carpenter, a craftsman in Union Springs, New York. Seems that Mr Carpenter retired some years ago thinking he had enough money saved up so he could live out his last years without having to worry. But he didnt figure on this Republican inflation which ate up all his savings. And so hes gone back to work. The reason this is news is Mr. Carpenter is 91 years old. Now think of the contrast with the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, which reported a net profit of $210 million dollars, after taxes, for the first half of 1948. An increase of 70% in one year. In other words, high prices have not been caused by higher wages, but by bigger and bigger profits. The Republican promises sounded pretty good in 1946. But what has happened since then? Since the 80th Congress took over? Prices have climbed to the highest level in history, although the death of the OPA was supposed to bring prices down through quote, The natural process of free competition, unquote. Labor has been handcuffed by the vicious Taft-Hartley Law. Social Security benefits have been snatched away from almost a million workers by the Gerhart Bill. Fair employment practices, which have worked so well during wartime, have been abandoned. Veterans pleas for low cost homes have been ignored. And many people are still living in made over chicken coops and garages. Tax reduction bills have been passed to benefit the higher income brackets alone. The average worker saved only $1.73 a week. In the false name of economy millions of children have been deprived of milk once provided through the Federal School Lunch Program. This was the payoff of the Republicans promises. And this is why we must have new faces in the Congress of the United States Democratic faces. This is why we must elect not only President Truman, but also men like Mayor Hubert Humphrey of Minneapolis, the Democratic candidate for Senator from Minnesota. Mayor Humphrey, at 37, is one of the ageless men in public life. Hes running against Joe Ball, who as a member of the Senate Labor Committee, helped write the Taft-Hartley Law. The Republicans dont want to lose Ball, and theyre spending a small fortune on his campaign. Theyve even sent Dewey and Warren out to Minneapolis to speak for him. President Truman knows the value of a man like Hubert Humphrey in the Senate. And he has been in Minneapolis, too, campaigning against Joe Ball. Mayor Humphrey and Ball are the symbols of the political battles going on today. While Ball is a banner carrier for Wall Street, Mayor Humphrey is fighting for all the principles advocated by President Truman. For adequate low cost housing. For civil rights. For prices people can afford to pay. And for a Labor movement freed of the Taft-Hartley Law. I take great pride in presenting my friend, from Minneapolis, Mayor Hubert H Humphrey, candidate for United States Senator. youtube/watch?v=uJDhS4oUm0M
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 04:47:27 +0000
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