September 22, 1948
Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentleman and fellow Democrats:
I have looked forward for a long time to this visit. I've always wanted to stop in this beautiful city of Oakland and I never had the opportunity before.
I should like to stay here longer, and I think what I have seen here was enough to make me want to do that, but I'm here on business and not on pleasure.
I am here on business that concerns the welfare of every resident in this great State of California.
I am here on a serious mission; and because it is so serious, I propose to speak to you as plainly as I can.
An election will be held in this Nation on November 2d, and the result of that election can mean everything to the people of California, and all the country.
Stated bluntly: It will mean victory for the people, or it will mean a victory for the special interests.
You people here have already been hurt by the failure of the Republican 80th Congress to do anything to control high prices. You have already been hurt by the failure of this same Republican Congress to take suitable action to meet the housing shortage and the crisis in education. You have been hurt by many other failures of the Republican leadership.
Here in the Oakland area, you have a serious housing shortage. You need more housing at lower prices--prices which families of moderate means, particularly veterans, can afford to pay.
You also desperately need low-cost rental housing so that the thousands of families living here in temporary dwellings can be taken care of. If the Republicans have their way, you'll live in those temporary dwellings for the next 20 years.
In July 1948 I called the Congress into session and asked it to pass the Taft-Eliender-Wagner bill, which would have given us more housing at lower prices and at lower rents.
The bill was bitterly opposed by the housing lobby. They've got one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington that's ever been there in the history of the country. The Republican leadership had a choice to make between the interests of the housing lobby and the interests of the people.
They chose to go along with the housing lobby. Even Senator Taft ran out on his own bill--and voted against it. One of the most remarkable things that ever happened in the history of the Congress.
The same thing happened to my plea to the Congress to pass the Federal aid to education bill. Our schools are badly overcrowded and our teachers are underpaid.
There isn't a city or county in the country that isn't short of schoolhouse room and short of teachers. Most of the teachers in the big cities are teaching two and three times as many children as they can possibly do successfully. This same thing happened to that plea. The Republican Congress didn't do anything about it.
The Republican Congress refused to come to the aid of the people.
The most significant thing about the failures of this Republican Congress is that they show so clearly the attitude of the special interests who dominate the national Republican Party. Their actions set a definite, clear pattern. And that means a lot to your future.
Above and beyond the problems that affect all our people, you folks here have a vital interest in this election, because it involves the question of what happens to the water supply of California. That is a matter of life and death to Californians, and particularly to all those who are affected by the welfare of the Central Valley--and I think all of California is affected by the welfare of that valley.
With the Sacramento River flowing down from the north, and the San Joaquin flowing up from the south, this great valley stretches 500 miles from above Redding to below Bakers field. It is a vast inland empire, richly blessed by Nature with millions of acres of fertile soil.
Already the Central Valley has become one of the richest agricultural regions in the world. It has the richest county in the world, the Central Valley has. And it has millions of acres still lying idle with vast possibilities for further development.
But the life of this valley depends on bringing water to the land. That is the limiting factor in the fabulous things that can be done in the Central Valley--water. Water--all the West is interested in water.
The water resources in the valley are limited. Unless they are used boldly, millions of California's fertile acres will continue to lie barren. As a matter of fact, unless your water is conserved wisely, the farms and towns you have already built here are in danger of withering away.
What does this have to do with politics in a national election? Well, I think most of you already know.
If all the great riches of the Central Valley are to be put to use, there must be unified development of its resources--the water and the land--and the wisest use of water for irrigation and power. This calls for great engineering structures--dams, canals, and transmission lines. The job is so big that only the Federal Government can handle it.
I'm glad the Federal Government can handle it. I rejoice, when I consider how the people of our country have joined their strength together to build our great reclamation projects--projects so big they stir our imagination.
These reclamation projects are good for all the Nation, not merely just one section. The money they cost is invested--not spent. A lot of these fellows would lead you to believe that they're making a donation to you, when they're making a reclamation appropriation. It isn't doing any such thing. It's an investment, because that money goes back to the Treasury, eventually. The Government gets its money back and our national strength and resources are increased at the same time.
If we can keep to the present schedule, the Central Valley project now being constructed will, by 1951, bring under irrigation more than half a million acres of land now dry, and will bring more water to another half million acres now being irrigated. The project is already pouring 300,000 kilowatts of power into the lines in California, and within a year will add another 150,000 kilowatts.
These are big figures, and they stand for big increases in the economic strength of California and the Nation. But can we do it?
But big as this project is, and big as the Folsom Dam is going to be, they are only a good start toward what's needed in the Central Valley.
California--and the whole country--need the additional agricultural production we can get from more irrigated land. California-and the Nation--need more electric power.
And we can get it.
The severe drought and the "brownout" of the past winter in California have shown how urgently we need to go ahead to build more dams, more irrigation canals, more power capacity, and more transmission lines.
I have had the experts preparing plans along these lines. They have come up with plans which look ahead to the time when all the water in the Central Valley that can possibly be controlled will be put to use. These plans will permit us eventually to double the present irrigated area of the Central Valley, and much more than double the power output in the valley.
To my mind, these plans have the vision, the foresight, and the imagination to match the dramatic growth and promise of this great State.
But it isn't enough just to have good plans. There must be will and determination to put the plans into operation.
You know the Democratic Party has that will and determination. The record proves it. It was the Democratic Party that saw the possibilities in the Central Valley project. It was the Democratic Party that put the resources of the Federal Government behind it. It was the Democratic Party that started big reclamation projects all over the West--in the Columbia Basin, the Missouri, and the Colorado.
You can count on the Democratic Party to support the Central Valley project, and to see it through to its conclusion. But you can't count on the Republican leaders to go ahead with the full development of any of these projects in Central Valley, or anywhere else.
You know how the Republican 80th Congress has delayed construction work already started on this great project. Apparently they don't even want to finish the work that's already begun. Obviously you can't count on them to go ahead on the bigger job that isn't yet started!
The reason for the opposition of the Republican leaders is plain.
The big business interests in the East who control the Republican Party don't believe in reclamation projects in the West. They don't see how it does them any good to spend Federal money for that purpose, so they're against it. They are willing for the projects to be constructed--provided they can get a rake-off in distributing the power produced at the dams. They don't want power from which they themselves don't get profit.
That's what you can expect from the special interest Republicans--fewer and smaller reclamation projects for irrigation and power, with the power that is produced being turned over to private monopolies. That is their record--that is their record!
The 80th Congress showed the attitude of the real rulers of the Republican Party on this question, as it did on so many others. They hurt you and they hurt this great Central Valley. They gave you a sample of what you could expect if both the administration and the Congress were controlled by the Republicans. You would be in some fix, if you hadn't had somebody at the door to fight these battles.
And they brought up these reclamation and power projects by way of the back door. They didn't do it openly and aboveboard. That Republican 80th Congress cut the 1948 appropriation for the Central Valley in half. Only when construction actually had to be halted on several phases of the project, could those Republican leaders be persuaded to restore the funds to prevent further loss of time and money.
It was all I could do to wring from the reluctant reactionaries the consent to carry on this great project. What hope would there be of getting the Republicans to approve the vast new works that are still needed to be undertaken ?
In the Central Valley the people have also felt first-hand the results of the influence that private power lobby wielded so successfully with this Republican Congress. Time and again the Congress refused to appropriate money to build public transmission lines to distribute the power now available at Shasta Dam. Why was that? Because the private power crowd wants to buy the power at the dam at a low price and sell it to the consumers at a high price, and you would pay the bill.
This private power crowd is the same shortsighted group whose restrictive practices were responsible for the "brownout" that caused you so much trouble last winter.
You can't get the benefit of low-cost power by dealing with outfits like that. The private power lobby is holding you up and the Republican controlled Congress is helping to do it.
I see no reason why you should let a monopoly, which is run only for private profit, obstruct the progress and the economic advancement of this whole great State of California.
I see no reason why you should suffer a "brownout" to gratify the greed of corporate monopoly. Nor do I see any reason why you should have to keep on getting up an hour earlier every day, when all the rest of the United States is going off daylight saving time this fall. It wouldn't happen if it weren't for these greedy fellows.
But the Republicans who control the Appropriations Committee and other committees of Congress think otherwise.
Cheap and plentiful public power is of so little importance to them, as compared with increasing the profits of their corporate friends, that they will let you have the "brownout" and the early daylight, and everything else.
The Republicans who control the Appropriations Committees of the House and Senate, on which the future of this great project depends, are not Californians.
They are not Westerners.
They are Eastern Republicans.
They belong to the dominant element of the Republican Party.
They are so dominated by the private power lobby that they are willing to cut off the hopes of the West for progress and industrial growth. That is typical of their limited vision.
The election of a Republican administration in November would not change this situation one little bit. The same men with the same backward ideas would continue their stranglehold on the appropriations for the Central Valley projects--and all the other great projects throughout the West.
The only way to get them out of this position is to elect a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress.
You've got a good man right here in Buell Gallagher. And if you prefer to keep that backward fellow in there, instead of electing a good man like this, you ought to get what you deserve. If you elect a Congress that is working in the public interest, we'll get these projects through.
With a majority of Democrats in Congress, these Eastern Republican mossbacks will be removed from their chairmanships on the first day of the new Congress.
You know what happened in 1946. Twothirds of you stayed at home. You didn't think it was worthwhile to go out and vote. The facts of the case are that all of you had jobs, all of you had good incomes. You didn't think it made any difference who ran the Government. So you elected that Republican 80th Congress. And the people who got the chairmanships in the House and the Senate were the old mossbacks who are living in 1898, and they're trying to run the Government on the 1898 basis. If you want that, you ought to send them back.
Now, if you do the right thing, these fellows will be replaced by representatives of the Democratic Party, whose record is on the right side of the ledger, and whose plans for the future stand for speedy, vigorous development of the economy of the West.
These are simple facts of American political life.
In this election the future development of California--indeed, of our whole country-is at stake.
If you want a Government dedicated to the development of the resources of this great State and this Nation, in keeping with their rapid growth and glorious future, it is in your power to get it.
I am going to continue to fight to achieve this goal with everything I have.
And if you honestly believe in the welfare of the people, and will do your duty on the 2d of November, I'll accomplish that purpose. But if you're going to stay at home, because the national income of this country is the biggest it's ever been in history, and because 61,000,000 of you have jobs, and because the farmers have the greatest income they've ever had in history--if you're going to stay at home and let nature take its course, you'll get just exactly what you deserve. I don't believe you're going to do that. I think you're going to turn out on election day, and you're going to turn out these backward looking fellows and put in some people who know where they are going--and they will be people who are going to work in the public interest--and that means you're going to vote a straight Democratic ticket on the 2d of November.
NOTE: The President spoke at 8:53 p.m. at Lakeside Park. His opening words "Mr. Chairman" referred to State Senator Oliver J. Carter, Chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee of California. Later he referred to Buell Gallagher, Democratic candidate for Representative from the Fifth District of California. The address was carried on a nationwide radio broadcast.
Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentleman and fellow Democrats:
I have looked forward for a long time to this visit. I've always wanted to stop in this beautiful city of Oakland and I never had the opportunity before.
I should like to stay here longer, and I think what I have seen here was enough to make me want to do that, but I'm here on business and not on pleasure.
I am here on business that concerns the welfare of every resident in this great State of California.
I am here on a serious mission; and because it is so serious, I propose to speak to you as plainly as I can.
An election will be held in this Nation on November 2d, and the result of that election can mean everything to the people of California, and all the country.
Stated bluntly: It will mean victory for the people, or it will mean a victory for the special interests.
You people here have already been hurt by the failure of the Republican 80th Congress to do anything to control high prices. You have already been hurt by the failure of this same Republican Congress to take suitable action to meet the housing shortage and the crisis in education. You have been hurt by many other failures of the Republican leadership.
Here in the Oakland area, you have a serious housing shortage. You need more housing at lower prices--prices which families of moderate means, particularly veterans, can afford to pay.
You also desperately need low-cost rental housing so that the thousands of families living here in temporary dwellings can be taken care of. If the Republicans have their way, you'll live in those temporary dwellings for the next 20 years.
In July 1948 I called the Congress into session and asked it to pass the Taft-Eliender-Wagner bill, which would have given us more housing at lower prices and at lower rents.
The bill was bitterly opposed by the housing lobby. They've got one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington that's ever been there in the history of the country. The Republican leadership had a choice to make between the interests of the housing lobby and the interests of the people.
They chose to go along with the housing lobby. Even Senator Taft ran out on his own bill--and voted against it. One of the most remarkable things that ever happened in the history of the Congress.
The same thing happened to my plea to the Congress to pass the Federal aid to education bill. Our schools are badly overcrowded and our teachers are underpaid.
There isn't a city or county in the country that isn't short of schoolhouse room and short of teachers. Most of the teachers in the big cities are teaching two and three times as many children as they can possibly do successfully. This same thing happened to that plea. The Republican Congress didn't do anything about it.
The Republican Congress refused to come to the aid of the people.
The most significant thing about the failures of this Republican Congress is that they show so clearly the attitude of the special interests who dominate the national Republican Party. Their actions set a definite, clear pattern. And that means a lot to your future.
Above and beyond the problems that affect all our people, you folks here have a vital interest in this election, because it involves the question of what happens to the water supply of California. That is a matter of life and death to Californians, and particularly to all those who are affected by the welfare of the Central Valley--and I think all of California is affected by the welfare of that valley.
With the Sacramento River flowing down from the north, and the San Joaquin flowing up from the south, this great valley stretches 500 miles from above Redding to below Bakers field. It is a vast inland empire, richly blessed by Nature with millions of acres of fertile soil.
Already the Central Valley has become one of the richest agricultural regions in the world. It has the richest county in the world, the Central Valley has. And it has millions of acres still lying idle with vast possibilities for further development.
But the life of this valley depends on bringing water to the land. That is the limiting factor in the fabulous things that can be done in the Central Valley--water. Water--all the West is interested in water.
The water resources in the valley are limited. Unless they are used boldly, millions of California's fertile acres will continue to lie barren. As a matter of fact, unless your water is conserved wisely, the farms and towns you have already built here are in danger of withering away.
What does this have to do with politics in a national election? Well, I think most of you already know.
If all the great riches of the Central Valley are to be put to use, there must be unified development of its resources--the water and the land--and the wisest use of water for irrigation and power. This calls for great engineering structures--dams, canals, and transmission lines. The job is so big that only the Federal Government can handle it.
I'm glad the Federal Government can handle it. I rejoice, when I consider how the people of our country have joined their strength together to build our great reclamation projects--projects so big they stir our imagination.
These reclamation projects are good for all the Nation, not merely just one section. The money they cost is invested--not spent. A lot of these fellows would lead you to believe that they're making a donation to you, when they're making a reclamation appropriation. It isn't doing any such thing. It's an investment, because that money goes back to the Treasury, eventually. The Government gets its money back and our national strength and resources are increased at the same time.
If we can keep to the present schedule, the Central Valley project now being constructed will, by 1951, bring under irrigation more than half a million acres of land now dry, and will bring more water to another half million acres now being irrigated. The project is already pouring 300,000 kilowatts of power into the lines in California, and within a year will add another 150,000 kilowatts.
These are big figures, and they stand for big increases in the economic strength of California and the Nation. But can we do it?
But big as this project is, and big as the Folsom Dam is going to be, they are only a good start toward what's needed in the Central Valley.
California--and the whole country--need the additional agricultural production we can get from more irrigated land. California-and the Nation--need more electric power.
And we can get it.
The severe drought and the "brownout" of the past winter in California have shown how urgently we need to go ahead to build more dams, more irrigation canals, more power capacity, and more transmission lines.
I have had the experts preparing plans along these lines. They have come up with plans which look ahead to the time when all the water in the Central Valley that can possibly be controlled will be put to use. These plans will permit us eventually to double the present irrigated area of the Central Valley, and much more than double the power output in the valley.
To my mind, these plans have the vision, the foresight, and the imagination to match the dramatic growth and promise of this great State.
But it isn't enough just to have good plans. There must be will and determination to put the plans into operation.
You know the Democratic Party has that will and determination. The record proves it. It was the Democratic Party that saw the possibilities in the Central Valley project. It was the Democratic Party that put the resources of the Federal Government behind it. It was the Democratic Party that started big reclamation projects all over the West--in the Columbia Basin, the Missouri, and the Colorado.
You can count on the Democratic Party to support the Central Valley project, and to see it through to its conclusion. But you can't count on the Republican leaders to go ahead with the full development of any of these projects in Central Valley, or anywhere else.
You know how the Republican 80th Congress has delayed construction work already started on this great project. Apparently they don't even want to finish the work that's already begun. Obviously you can't count on them to go ahead on the bigger job that isn't yet started!
The reason for the opposition of the Republican leaders is plain.
The big business interests in the East who control the Republican Party don't believe in reclamation projects in the West. They don't see how it does them any good to spend Federal money for that purpose, so they're against it. They are willing for the projects to be constructed--provided they can get a rake-off in distributing the power produced at the dams. They don't want power from which they themselves don't get profit.
That's what you can expect from the special interest Republicans--fewer and smaller reclamation projects for irrigation and power, with the power that is produced being turned over to private monopolies. That is their record--that is their record!
The 80th Congress showed the attitude of the real rulers of the Republican Party on this question, as it did on so many others. They hurt you and they hurt this great Central Valley. They gave you a sample of what you could expect if both the administration and the Congress were controlled by the Republicans. You would be in some fix, if you hadn't had somebody at the door to fight these battles.
And they brought up these reclamation and power projects by way of the back door. They didn't do it openly and aboveboard. That Republican 80th Congress cut the 1948 appropriation for the Central Valley in half. Only when construction actually had to be halted on several phases of the project, could those Republican leaders be persuaded to restore the funds to prevent further loss of time and money.
It was all I could do to wring from the reluctant reactionaries the consent to carry on this great project. What hope would there be of getting the Republicans to approve the vast new works that are still needed to be undertaken ?
In the Central Valley the people have also felt first-hand the results of the influence that private power lobby wielded so successfully with this Republican Congress. Time and again the Congress refused to appropriate money to build public transmission lines to distribute the power now available at Shasta Dam. Why was that? Because the private power crowd wants to buy the power at the dam at a low price and sell it to the consumers at a high price, and you would pay the bill.
This private power crowd is the same shortsighted group whose restrictive practices were responsible for the "brownout" that caused you so much trouble last winter.
You can't get the benefit of low-cost power by dealing with outfits like that. The private power lobby is holding you up and the Republican controlled Congress is helping to do it.
I see no reason why you should let a monopoly, which is run only for private profit, obstruct the progress and the economic advancement of this whole great State of California.
I see no reason why you should suffer a "brownout" to gratify the greed of corporate monopoly. Nor do I see any reason why you should have to keep on getting up an hour earlier every day, when all the rest of the United States is going off daylight saving time this fall. It wouldn't happen if it weren't for these greedy fellows.
But the Republicans who control the Appropriations Committee and other committees of Congress think otherwise.
Cheap and plentiful public power is of so little importance to them, as compared with increasing the profits of their corporate friends, that they will let you have the "brownout" and the early daylight, and everything else.
The Republicans who control the Appropriations Committees of the House and Senate, on which the future of this great project depends, are not Californians.
They are not Westerners.
They are Eastern Republicans.
They belong to the dominant element of the Republican Party.
They are so dominated by the private power lobby that they are willing to cut off the hopes of the West for progress and industrial growth. That is typical of their limited vision.
The election of a Republican administration in November would not change this situation one little bit. The same men with the same backward ideas would continue their stranglehold on the appropriations for the Central Valley projects--and all the other great projects throughout the West.
The only way to get them out of this position is to elect a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress.
You've got a good man right here in Buell Gallagher. And if you prefer to keep that backward fellow in there, instead of electing a good man like this, you ought to get what you deserve. If you elect a Congress that is working in the public interest, we'll get these projects through.
With a majority of Democrats in Congress, these Eastern Republican mossbacks will be removed from their chairmanships on the first day of the new Congress.
You know what happened in 1946. Twothirds of you stayed at home. You didn't think it was worthwhile to go out and vote. The facts of the case are that all of you had jobs, all of you had good incomes. You didn't think it made any difference who ran the Government. So you elected that Republican 80th Congress. And the people who got the chairmanships in the House and the Senate were the old mossbacks who are living in 1898, and they're trying to run the Government on the 1898 basis. If you want that, you ought to send them back.
Now, if you do the right thing, these fellows will be replaced by representatives of the Democratic Party, whose record is on the right side of the ledger, and whose plans for the future stand for speedy, vigorous development of the economy of the West.
These are simple facts of American political life.
In this election the future development of California--indeed, of our whole country-is at stake.
If you want a Government dedicated to the development of the resources of this great State and this Nation, in keeping with their rapid growth and glorious future, it is in your power to get it.
I am going to continue to fight to achieve this goal with everything I have.
And if you honestly believe in the welfare of the people, and will do your duty on the 2d of November, I'll accomplish that purpose. But if you're going to stay at home, because the national income of this country is the biggest it's ever been in history, and because 61,000,000 of you have jobs, and because the farmers have the greatest income they've ever had in history--if you're going to stay at home and let nature take its course, you'll get just exactly what you deserve. I don't believe you're going to do that. I think you're going to turn out on election day, and you're going to turn out these backward looking fellows and put in some people who know where they are going--and they will be people who are going to work in the public interest--and that means you're going to vote a straight Democratic ticket on the 2d of November.
NOTE: The President spoke at 8:53 p.m. at Lakeside Park. His opening words "Mr. Chairman" referred to State Senator Oliver J. Carter, Chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee of California. Later he referred to Buell Gallagher, Democratic candidate for Representative from the Fifth District of California. The address was carried on a nationwide radio broadcast.