“I am glad to come back through Galion”
by GalionLive • June 18, 2009 • Life in Galion • 1 Comment
This week, Galion enjoyed the visit of a convoy of historic military vehicles, making its way across the country on the original route of the Lincoln Highway.
Some months back, GalionLive! took at look at some of Galion’s best-known visitors over the last 200 years. From sports greats like Jim Thorpe and Jessie Owens, to national figures such as Thomas Edison and Mark Twain, the list was an impressive one.
Galion’s long-time location as a division headquarters for the New York Central railroad meant that political figures also paid visits – often during special campaign whistlestop tours of the Midwest. One such stop occurred on October 16, 1936, as then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to town and spoke to an assembled crowd.
The American Presidency Project has just released a transcript of Roosevelt’s remarks on that occasion, which are included below. It is interesting to note that the remarks centered on the farm economy, which was a larger part of the local economic scene in 1936 than it is 73 years later.
“My friends, I am glad to come back through Galion. I have been here many times before. I am particularly glad to see, by the expression on your faces, that you are much more cheerful than you were in 1932.
You know, while I am theoretically a lawyer, I am also a bit of a farmer. I farm in two places, one on the Hudson River and the other down in Georgia. That is why I know something about farm prices. One reason why I think you here are more cheerful is because corn is selling at better than ten or fifteen cents a bushel and because hogs and cattle are selling at better than three or four cents a pound.
Of course, improvement in agricultural prices was one of the vital parts of the program that we started three years ago. And I am not going through the country making one kind of speech to farm people and another to city people. Nor am I making one kind of speech in the West and another kind in the East.
I believe that in the past few years the people of this country have begun to think in national terms. You, I know, understand that unless farm prices are good, the great farming population of this country cannot buy the things that are made in the cities. That means that the railroads do not make money because there are no goods to be hauled; and, in the same way, the people in the cities, unless they have work, cannot buy the produce of the farms in the country. In other words, we are all in the same boat, no matter what our occupation, no matter whether we live on the farm or in the city, no matter whether we live in the North or the South.
I know from personal experience that people in the cotton belt in this country cannot buy the foodstuffs produced in the North if they have to sell their cotton for four or five cents a pound. In the same way, you people cannot buy overalls made of southern cotton when you get only ten or fifteen cents a bushel for your corn.
I have always been particularly interested in the fact that this part of Ohio has gone in for diversification in farming. The more that we can diversify our farming all through the country and not have to depend entirely on one crop, the better it will be for the Nation as a whole. In that respect, you are setting a perfectly fine example for the farmers in the State of New York and for the farmers out West and for the farmers down South.
I am mighty glad to see you and I want to thank you on behalf of Mrs. Roosevelt for the flowers. They are perfectly beautiful, and there has not been a sunflower aboard the train yet. (The sunflower was the campaign flower of the Republican candidate for President, Gov. Alfred M. Landon.)
My friends, on the third of November I am expecting a telegram from the State of Ohio saying that all is well.”
Of course, all was well with Ohio for Roosevelt that year – in fact, Alfred Landon garnered the votes of only two states – Vermont and Maine.
Citation: John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters,The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database). Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15191.
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