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From The Militant, Vol. 13 No. 1, 3 January 1949, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Congress and the American people are eagerly awaiting the President’s annual “State of the Union” message, which Truman will deliver on Jan. 5. We predict in advance that the main direction pointed by Truman will be toward militarism and war. We further predict that he will offer little or nothing toward the solution of the major problems confronting the American people.
Truman – as he has already indicated – is going to water down many of the promises he made in his election campaign. He will hedge on unconditional repeal of the Taft-Hartley Law, his key promise to labor, and offer a substitute bill with many features of the Taft-Hartley Act.
Last week Truman’s Attorney General Tom Clark revealed how the Administration intends to carry out its promise to defend civil rights. It will continue its Gestapo-like “loyalty” purge and “subversive” blacklist and will seek to amend the Espionage Act to legalize many of the illegal practices now carried out in star-chamber sessions of Truman’s “loyalty” boards.
The most Truman will offer as a housing program is a for-the-record endorsement of the Taft-Ellender-Wagner bill calling for only 5 million government-financed, privately-built housing units in 10 years. Housing experts say there is an immediate urgent need for 25 million new units.
On the high cost of living, Truman will repeat his proposal for limited stand-by price controls coupled with power to freeze wages, after prices have soared way beyond wages, and with the object of maintaining this gap between living costs and the pay-envelope.
All Truman’s campaign promises on social welfare – health, education, minimum wages, old age benefits, etc. – will boil down to not more than a tiny fractional increase in federal expenditures compared to the $15 billion minimum he plans for direct military spending, including the atom bomb.
During the election campaign, the Socialist Workers Party presidential and vice presidential candidates, Farrell Dobbs and Grace Carlson, predicted that few of Truman’s promises would be kept if he were elected. His “State of the Union” message next week will confirm this prediction to the hilt.
The following election campaign program of the SWP remains the only sound legislative program to meet the urgent needs of the people as the 81st Congress prepares to convene:
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