The end of World War 2 signified more than just the task of picking up pieces and putting them back together again, it signified a change in our attitudes towards race and gender, not to mention sweeping changes in the world regarding former colonies. Independence was by and large more easy to accomplish than the issues of race and gender. It was only since 1948 that President Truman declared the Armed Forces be integrated – it would be a few more years before the issue of race would reach critical mass when Brown v Board of Education put the wheels of the Civil Rights Movement in motion. So too was the issue of gender and equality in areas of employment and the basic issues of life.
Women became a major factor in the work force during World War 2 – operating defense plants and taking over what before were considered to be traditional Male jobs were only the tip of the iceberg. Women were now considered to be a potent political force in America, a force which candidates were now actively courting and which Women were now actively seeking office in larger numbers.
So September 29th marked Democratic Women’s Day in 1949 and President Truman addressed the Women of America by way of address from the White House on September 29, 1949:
President Truman: “I am glad to speak to the women of the United States on Democratic Women’s Day.
As President, I know that women have an interest in the welfare of the Government that goes far beyond job holding or partisanship. I know that women are not misled by political slogans. They have learned that the real issues in political activity are the well-being of the country and the future of their families. Women look beneath the labels and see the facts.
It is my firm conviction that the Democratic Party offers more for the welfare of the country–and therefore more for the women of the country–than any other party or political group.
The Democratic Party has a program.
It is a program of practical measures. It is not a blueprint imposed from on high by a little group of theorists. Neither is it a set of platitudes concocted by a group of corporation lawyers in a smokefilled room. Our program is an expression of the desires of the people.
The Democratic Party does not dodge issues or seek to gloss them over. We state them boldly. We propose concrete and practical action to solve them.
Our program consists of measures which have come up from the grassroots–of ideas and proposals that have been discussed and hammered out among unions, in farm groups, in city councils, in county boards, and in State legislatures. Our program is as American as the soil we walk upon.
It is a program unshakably founded on the principle that the power of government should be used to promote the general welfare. It is a program based upon the experience of the Democratic Party in using the power of government to establish actual conditions in which the people can achieve a better life for themselves and for their children. It is a program of what should be done and what our experience tells us can be done.
We have just heard, from the ladies present here, the viewpoints of the farmer, the worker, and the businessman. It is interesting to see how these three points of view fit together. Each of these groups depends on the others. Farmers cannot be prosperous unless industrial workers have good wages and steady employment so they can buy the products that farmers raise. Workers cannot be prosperous unless the farmers have good incomes and can buy the things that industrial workers make. Businessmen cannot be prosperous unless both the farmers and the workers have the money to buy the things they sell.
All groups in our Nation depend on one another. That is what the term “general welfare” means. The general welfare is the sum total of the welfare of all the groups in our country.
The Constitution was established to “promote the general welfare.” These are the words of its preamble. And that is the duty of our Government.
The Democratic Party proposes to see that the Federal Government carries out this constitutional responsibility. We will do that in spite of the outcries of certain people who say there is something alien or dangerous in the idea of a government that works for the welfare of all our citizens. Those people are just about 160 years behind the times. They want us to forget the language of the Constitution itself.
We have some serious problems in this country today. If we are to continue to promote the general welfare, we must devise modern methods to solve these modern problems.
One of our serious problems today is the fact that there are not enough good houses for our rapidly growing population. The Democratic Party is pledged to work for good housing. The 81st Congress has just passed a public housing bill to provide assistance in building homes for low-income groups. The 81st Congress and the administration are working out solutions for the homebuilding problems of other groups. Since the 1948 election, and in spite of determined opposition, we have made great progress in the field of housing. We are going to keep right on making progress.”
No overnight transformation and many hard fought years ahead, but in 1949 things were starting to move.
Here is that address as it was broadcast on September 29, 1949.
