The Pittsburgh Press (November 5, 1944)
Europe’s oppressed people look to our Commander-in-Chief, running mate says
Independence, Missouri (UP) – (Nov. 4)
Democratic vice-president candidate Harry S. Truman, closing his campaign in his home town, tonight characterized President Roosevelt “as a symbol of liberty to all the smaller nations of the world.”
“The small nations of this world look to our Commander-in-Chief to champion their interests,” Mr. Truman said in a speech broadcast to the borderline state of Missouri.
‘Send him to peace table’
He said:
Franklin D. Roosevelt is the symbol of liberty to all the smaller nations of the world. On our President the oppressed people of Europe will depend to renew their hope in the future.
You will not let him down. You will not betray the American boys who have made the greatest sacrifice a man can make for his country, by gambling on the peace. You will send Franklin D. Roosevelt to the peace table.
Mr. Truman asserted we lost the peace in 1920 “when we were misled by the promises of a candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Warren G. Harding.” He charged the Republican candidates “can offer us no more than did Harding,” that for “political expediency they rendered lip service to the foreign policy of the Roosevelt administration.”
Mr. Truman said:
Ask yourselves if you are willing to take a chance on a man who has had no experience in world affairs, who has no program to secure the peace.
Ask yourselves if you want a man with no experience to sit at the peace table with Churchill, Stalin and Chiang Kai-shek, or do you want a man to represent you who can meet those great leaders on equal terms?
Bids for farm vote
Mr. Truman, turning to the home front, declared the Roosevelt leadership “will create new opportunities for our returning veterans and for all of our people.”
He continued:
I have had an opportunity given to few men to study and to observe what has been done to get this war won.
I have had intimate contact with the men who are getting the job done. I can tell you that these same men will utilize our plants and facilities and our resources just as efficiently for peace as they have for war.
Mr. Truman made a final bid for the farm vote, declaring that “the farmer knows that his government has done more to help him in the last 12 years than was done by any other administration in our history.”