Excerpts from Harry Truman's Chicago speech 10/25/48 still relevant today.

[Harry Dean]

Excerpts from Truman's 10/25/48 speech in Chicago:

"The American way of life which most of us have been taking for granted is threatened today by powerful forces of which most people are not even aware. The real danger to our democracy does not come only from these extremes. It comes mainly from the powerful reactionary forces which are silently undermining our democratic institutions. I am going to tell you just what these forces are. Look back over history, and you will find that wherever ruthless men have destroyed liberty and human rights, certain economic and social forces had paved the way for them.


What are these forces that threaten our way of life? Who are the men behind them? They are the men who want to see inflation continue unchecked. They are the men who are striving to concentrate great economic power in their own hands. They are the men who are setting up and stirring up racial and religious prejudice against some of our fellow Americans.

Let's take that first group--the men who want to see inflation continue unchecked. Believe it or not, there are such men. They know that inflation--since price controls were killed just over 2 years ago--has sent corporation profits soaring to the fantastic level of nearly $20 billion a year. They are so blinded by the glitter of gold that they forget that inflation--if it is not stopped--will bring on another terrible. crash like the one of 1929.


Now, let's look at that group of men who are jeopardizing the future of democracy in the United States through their concentrated economic power. This is just as dangerous as inflation. Again and again in history, economic power concentrated in the hands of a few men has led to the loss of freedom. When a few men get control of the economy of a nation, they find a "front man" to run the country for them.

Before Hitler came to power, control over the German economy had passed into the hands of a small group of rich manufacturers, bankers, and landowners. These men decided that Germany had to have a tough, ruthless dictator who would play their game and crush the strong German labor unions. So they put money and influence behind Adolf Hitler. We know the rest of the story. We also know that in Italy, in the 1920's, powerful Italian businessmen backed Mussolini, and that in the 1930's, Japanese financiers helped Tojo's military clique take over Japan.

Today, in the United States, there is a growing--and dangerous--concentration of immense economic power in the hands of just a few men. That's a dangerous situation. Great corporations have been expanding their power steadily. They have been squeezing small business further and further out of the picture. That 80th Congress was beset by more lobbyists and more powerful lobbyists than any Congress in the history of these United States.


Now, I must speak of the third evil force which works secretly to destroy freedom, racial and religious prejudice. The tragic story of what happened in Germany is all too fresh. We know how Hitler used anti-Semitic propaganda as a way of stupefying the German people with false ideas while he reached out for power. This was not the first time such a thing has happened. The persecution of minorities goes hand in hand with the destruction of liberty.


This country has been mercifully spared extreme racial and religious strife. But in recent years there has been a new outcropping of demagogues among us. Dangerous men, who are trying to win followers for their war on democracy, are attacking Catholics, and Jews, and Negroes, and other minority races and religions. We must do everything we can to protect our democratic principles against those who foment racial and religious prejudice."

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Aside from not naming Ford, GM, GE, DuPont, Fred Koch, Bush,.... a surprisingly candid look at world history. Much of this sounds still surprisingly pertinent after 68 years. Substitute "corporate tax breaks" for "unchecked inflation", and "Muslims" for "Catholics," and this speech would seem at home in the campaign of 2016... if any of the candidate had the stones to speak like Truman.

Thanks Drew.