The Pittsburgh Press (September 5, 1944)
Truman stresses reconversion
Seeks labor’s aid in Michigan speeches
Detroit, Michigan (UP) –
Senator Harry S. Truman, Democratic nominee for Vice President bidding for labor’s support in November, declared tonight that if President Roosevelt is reelected the nation’s armament plants will be converted to post-war goods production, but that if he is defeated they probably will be “junked.”
Completing a Labor Day schedule pf three addresses and a press conference in this industrial area, the Missouri Senator told a gathering of AFL leaders that “if those who fear the competition of these new plants have their way, they will be shut down.”
Shortly after noon yesterday, he went to Pontiac for a brief appearance.
Mr. Truman told the CIO rally:
America is again at the crossroads. we must again decide whether we shall help suffering humanity find the hard road to lasting peace, or revert to selfish isolationism.
You all know that the greatest advances made in the history of labor have been made under the administration of the greatest friend labor ever had – Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Plants built for war work can provide jobs for all if we have the courage and resourcefulness to help industry put them to work on peacetime goods.
These new plants, added to those we had before the war, can produce a wealth of peacetime goods beyond anything we ever dreamed.