WIST Quotations

Truman, Harry S -- Speech (1952-10-10), Syracuse, New York

Dave — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 04:23:31 +0000

Taft explained that the great issue in this campaign is “creeping socialism.” Now that is the patented trademark of the special interest lobbies. Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last twenty years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called Social Security. Socialism is what they called farm prices supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech (1952-10-10), Syracuse, New York
(Source)

Referring to Sen. Robert A. Taft (R-Ohio).

Audio recording (the quotation is at 6:35 into the speech).

Johnson, Lyndon -- Comment (1971) to Doris Kearns Goodwin

Dave — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:15:30 +0000

But now Nixon has come along and everything I’ve worked for is ruined. There’s a story in the paper every day about him slashing another one of my Great Society programs. I can just see him waking up in the morning, making that victory sign of his and deciding which program to kill. It’s a terrible thing for me to sit by and watch someone else starve my Great Society to death. She’s getting thinner and thinner and uglier and uglier all the time; now her bones are beginning to stick out and her wrinkles are beginning to show. Soon she’ll be so ugly that the American people will refuse to look at her; they’ll stick her in a closet to hide her away and there she’ll die. And when she dies, I, too, will die.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comment (1971) to Doris Kearns Goodwin
(Source)

Quoted in Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, ch. 10 "Things Go Wrong" (1976). Kearns was an intern and staff member in the Johnson White House, and worked with him on his memoirs.

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, Butte, Montana (1950-05-12)

Dave — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:28:31 +0000

All of you, I am sure, have heard many cries about Government interference with business and about “creeping socialism.” I should like to remind the gentlemen who make these complaints that if events had been allowed to continue as they were going prior to March 4, 1933, most of them would have no businesses left for the Government or for anyone else to interfere with — and almost surely we would have socialism in this country, real socialism, not the kind they define.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Butte, Montana (1950-05-12)
(Source)