<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Henry Wallace – had more than a few words to say about Washington and the state of affairs in 1948</figcaption></figure>



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Former vice-President Henry A. Wallace giving one of his many last minute pitches for the vote in November of 1948 – as former vice-President under Roosevelt, he broke ranks with the party when Harry Truman came in, declaring there was no much difference between the Democrats or Republicans. America needed a change and it needed it badly.

Henry A. Wallace: “Tonight, over the entire world, Berlin is on everyone’s
heart. However much incompetent and dishonest men may threaten war, the peoples of all
lands want peace.
They want the United Nations strengthened and preserved by thoughtful action. They are
dismayed at the thought of the world suddenly breaking into two irreconcilable, hostile
segments. They think it is the beginning of a shooting war.
I do not think so. We shall have one crisis after another, but we shall have no war unless our
leaders are criminal as well as incompetent. Tonight, I shall talk about the effects of the Cold
War here at home.
I shall talk about inflation, the price of meat, the price of shoes, the price of milk, the cost of
living. Inflation, what you and I call the high cost of living, is not something that just happens
like the weather. You can’t do anything about weather, but you can about inflation.
Inflation is not accidental. It is man-made. It is monopoly made.
It was made and forced upon us by the men of Wall Street, acting through their agents, the
Republicans and the Democrats. The two parties. And there is something we can do about it.
We can end it. The high cost of living, which is a daily and hourly horror to housewives, wage
earners, small businessmen, farmers, is a profitable venture for the men of monopoly. Indeed,
it is the most profitable venture in all history.
Profits, four times the pre-war, are taken out of your living standards. The prices you and I pay
for meat and for a car have given the meat trust and the steel trust more money than they ever
made, even during the war. Yes, the men of monopoly wanted inflation.
They planned for inflation and they got inflation. How did this all come about? We drove the
men of monopoly, the money changers, out of the temple in 1933, and with them the whole
view that government is run for the few. But in 1940, when the nation was in danger, these
same men who had always fought Franklin Roosevelt began a comeback.
They had the government and the people over a barrel, and they refused to produce except on
terms they dictated, at profits they demanded. Present day, sky-high prices began in the
profiteering of 1940 and 41. But under Roosevelt, we held them in check.
We imposed controls on behalf of the people, and these controls worked. We held the line on
prices and profits. But the men of monopoly were there all the time, waiting, waiting.
And when Roosevelt died, they saw their opportunity and they moved in. They moved in on
Harry Truman and he welcomed them. The representatives of men of greed were his first
visitors after FDR’s death.
I recall on the train, coming back from Hyde Park, the president had just been buried, Truman’s
first callers were Edwin Pauly and George Allen, the errand boys of the big corporations. A
month or so later, Herbert Hoover was called in, the engineer of the Great Depression. Helped
engineer the right about face in Roosevelt’s policies.
Cabinet shifts were made. The men who had stood firm on the Roosevelt policies were the first
to go. The Harrimans, the Snyders, the Forestalls of Wall Street took over.
And with them came the policies of Wall Street. With them came the policy of government on
behalf of the few, of government against the people. The Roosevelt program of controls by the
people, on behalf of the people, went out of the window.
And the Hoover-Dewey-Truman policy of controls in the hands of monopoly for the benefit of
monopoly came in. They competed with each other, the Democrats and Republicans, in their
zeal to serve monopoly. Truman hastened to announce that the war was officially at an end for
the corporations.
In that simple act, he turned over to the corporations $2 billion in tax refunds in 1945. But for
you, the end of the war did not mean an end of taxes. There was no refund.
You are still paying wartime taxes every time you buy baby powder or pocketbooks, every time
you buy a railroad ticket or a movie ticket. “

Here is that complete address, as it was broadcast on Monday, November 3, 1948.

The post Henry Wallace Discusses Inflation – November 3, 1948 – Past Daily Reference Room appeared first on Past Daily: A Sound Archive of News, History And Music.