 It's necessary for us under the Constitution of the United States every four years to get out and have a scramble for the presidency. We're having that right now and I'm going around over the country facing such wonderful people as you to tell you exactly what the domestic issues are in this campaign and try to convince you that the Democratic Party is the party of the common people. Born in Lamar, Missouri on May 8, 1884. In 1890, when I was six, we moved to independence. My father was operating a farm out of town. I made a number of new acquaintances and became interested in one in particular, Bess Wallace. We went to Sunday school and public school from the fifth grade through high school together. When I graduated from high school in 1901, both I and my family expected there would be some chance for some more education. But difficulties overtook us and we lost both the family farm and the home place and independence. I got a job as a timekeeper on a railroad construction outfit. In 1906, I went back to my parents' new farm where I stayed until the war came along. In March 1918, we sailed for France aboard the George Washington. A board ship we watched New York skyline diminish and wondered whether we'd be heroes or corpses. Most of us got by without being either. In July, the colonel sent for me. Harry, how would you like to command a battery? I said, well, sir, I hope to be able to do that someday. He said, all right, you'll take command of Battery D tomorrow. They went to the front under my command. I returned to civilian life in May 1919. I was 35 years old. The next month, I married Bess Wallace. Five years later, our daughter Margaret was born. In the meantime, Eddie Jacobson and I made plans to open a men's furnishing goods store in Kansas City. He was my canteen sergeant during the war. We did a flourishing business for about a year and a half and then came the squeeze of 1921. Jacobson and I went to bed one night with a $35,000 inventory and awoke the next day with a $25,000 debt. Early in 1922, the Democrats began talking about candidates for county judge. The store had closed and I decided to make the race. When the votes were counted, I won by nearly 300. There has been much speculation about my relationship with the powerful Missouri political boss, Tom Pendergast. He was interested in having as many friends in key positions as possible, but he always took the position that if a man didn't do the job, fire him and get someone who would. In 1934, I ran for the U.S. Senate after serving as presiding judge for eight years. I campaigned as a supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The election was a pushover for the Democrats, so I came to the U.S. Senate and went to work. Although I was 50 years old, I was as timid as a country boy arriving on a college campus for the first time. I am glad the 75th Congress is coming to an end. I think that Congress has accomplished some great things for the country. It will also be a very great pleasure for me to get back to Missouri and do some fishing. When I was sworn in as senator for the second time in 1941, the country was preparing for war. I was concerned about charges that the huge contracts that resulted from the expansion of our defense machinery were being handled through favoritism. I called for a committee to investigate the situation. I became the committee's chairman. In all, it saved the American taxpayers about $15 billion. When the 1944 convention met in Chicago, the president expressed a preference for me to run with him as vice president. The convention, I went to Washington for a visit with President Roosevelt. He told me that because he was so busy with the war effort, I would have to do the campaigning for both of us, and we mapped out our program. The campaign of 1944 was the easiest one I'd ever run in. The Republicans never had a chance. I'm sure that the president and I will have the support of the nation. I saw what the long years in the presidency had done to Franklin Roosevelt. His eyes were sunken. His magnificent smile was missing from his careworn face. He seemed a spent man. I picked up the Bible and held it in my left hand. The Chief Justice gave the oath. The clock below Woodrow Wilson's portrait marked the time at 709. Responsibilities, we must carry on. If there can be no possible misunderstanding, both Germany and Japan can be certain, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that America will continue the fight for freedom until no vestige of resistance remains. Stalin, Churchill, and I met at Potsdam. Russia agreed to enter the Japanese war, and the use of the atomic bomb was decided. But the final decision of where and when to use the bomb was up to me. We are now prepared to destroy more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake. We shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war. In August 1945, the bomb was dropped on Japan and the Japanese surrendered. America and her allies, crowned before the White House, await the announcement from the President that the Japs have surrendered unconditionally. I deem this reply a full acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, which specifies the unconditional surrender of Japan. In the reply, there is no qualification. Reporters rush out to relay the news to an anxious world and touch off celebrations throughout the country. Still to speak, all the human appeals to all Americans to help hold the line against inflation. I say to you that we as a nation have it within our hand to make this post-war period an era of the greatest opportunity and prosperity in our nation's history. Housing was one of the hardest problems I had. The shortage had been building up for years. I told Congress that we needed about five million additional homes at once. I also asked for full employment legislation and programs to stabilize the cost of living. High prices were not taking a holiday. Most of Europe was bankrupt and we were the only nation that could come to its aid. We proposed the Marshall Plan, named for General George Marshall. The countries of Europe would use their full productive resources with whatever help we could give them. The Russians tried to get us out of Berlin by closing off the road to the city, forced to make emergency arrangements to have essential supplies flown in. As part of my daily routine, I usually took a walk of a mile and a half at a pace of 120 steps a minute. After you're 50 years old, this is the best exercise you can take. If I had heated my family, I would have left the White House at the end of my first term. Almost all the polls in 1948 showed my popularity at an all-time low. But there was still unfinished business. In the early days of my administration, I insisted on a workable fair employment practices program and all the enforcement of civil rights as guaranteed by the Constitution. That is why I was perfectly willing to risk defeat in 1948 by sticking to the civil rights plank in my platform. The defection by some of the southern states, notably South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi, was something I had anticipated. Accept the nomination, selection, and make these Republicans like it. Don't you forget that. I went directly to the people in all parts of the country, riding thousands of miles by train and speaking at whistle stops along the way. Today the Democratic Party stands before the country a living force for peace and freedom. Today we are rallying our forces for the greatest struggle in our history. In that struggle, I ask your support. This is a country so evenly divided in a national election that no one saw the presidency of the United States in his own right. It's in glass of buttermilk. It's 6.30. It's in, and the radio, took Kelton Barn as it then developed. And Mr. Kelton Barn was saying, while the president is a million votes ahead in the popular vote, we have yet to hear. And defend the constitution of the United States. So help you God. So help me God. Russian threat to Europe. The Berlin blockade. The communist takeover of China in 1949. All these were sparks that could have led to a third world war. The last and most serious was Korea. We could not stand idly by. We had learned from experience that any other course would have led to another world war. I believe that we must try to limit the war to Korea for these vital reasons. To make sure that the precious lives of our fighting men are not wasted. To see that the security of our country and the free world is not needlessly jeopardized and to prevent a third world war. General Douglas MacArthur was our top field commander in Korea. I've always had the greatest respect for him as a soldier. But time and time again he showed he was unwilling to accept the policies of my administration. I have therefore considered it essential to relieve General MacArthur so that there would be no doubt or confusion as to the real purpose and name of our policy. It is of the deepest personal regret that I found myself compelled to take this action. General MacArthur is one of our greatest military commanders. But the cause of world peace is much more important than any individual. I decided not to run again in 1952. The best all-around man to succeed me was the governor of Illinois, Atley Stevenson. After his nomination I presented him to the convention and said I'm going to take my coat off and do everything I can to help him win. That November I voted in independence. Mrs. Truman and Margaret walked with me to the polls. I thought we had lost the election even before I went to bed. The reports the next morning show that Dwight Eisenhower had won by the largest popular vote in history. For almost eight years I'd put in long hours, usually 17 hours a day. But it was worth the effort because the results were showing. 62 million people were at work and all had better incomes and more of the good things of life than ever before. We have made a contribution to the stability of the USA and the peace of the world.