I went to snopes to check this out. Yes, they verified that this was published back then. But what is even more frightening is the excerpt from President Truman’s speech they showed which prompted this poem to be written.<\/p>\n
\tThis is what snopes said:<\/p>\n
\tOrigins: \u00a0 On 3 November 1949, President Harry Truman appeared in St. Paul, Minnesota, in conjunction with that state’s Truman Day Celebration, and that evening he delivered an address on the subject of opposition to Democratic efforts to promote the general welfare, stating (in part):<\/p>\n
\tWe know that there will be more prosperity for all if all groups have a fair share of the wealth of the country. We know that the country will achieve economic stability and progress only if the benefits of our production are widely distributed among all its citizens. <\/p>\n
\tWe believe that it is the Federal Government’s obligation, under the Constitution, to promote the general welfare of all our people–and not just a privileged few. <\/p>\n
\tThe policies we advocate are based on these convictions. <\/p>\n
\tWe maintain that farmers, like businessmen, should receive a fair price for the products they sell. <\/p>\n
\tWe maintain that workers are entitled to good wages and to equality of bargaining power with their employers. <\/p>\n
\tWe believe that cooperatives and small business should have a fair opportunity to achieve success, and should not be smothered by monopolies. <\/p>\n
\tWe hold that our great natural resources should be protected and developed for the benefit of all our people, and not exploited for private greed. <\/p>\n
\tWe believe that old people and the disabled should have an assured income to keep them from being dependent on charity. <\/p>\n
\tWe believe that families should have protection against loss of income resulting from accident, illness, or unemployment. <\/p>\n
\tWe hold that our citizens should have decent housing at prices they can afford to pay. <\/p>\n
\tWe believe in assuring educational opportunities for all our young people in order that we may have an enlightened citizenry. <\/p>\n
\tWe believe in better health and medical care for everyone \u2014 not for just a few. <\/p>\n
\tWe hold that all Americans are entitled to equal rights and equal opportunities under the law, and to equal participation in our national life, free from fear and discrimination. <\/p>\n
\tNow, my friends, these are the policies that spell the progress for all our people.<\/p>\n
\n\tPresident Truman’s remarks ostensibly prompted the New York Daily News to dub his address a "pie-for-everybody" speech and publish the "Ode to a Welfare State" in response:<\/p>\n
\tHere is the link: http:\/\/www.snopes.com\/photos\/politics\/welfareode.asp<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Was sent to me by a friend Attached files Replies: Posted by: Skinny on April 6, 2012, 6:59 pm I went to snopes to check this out. Yes, they verified that this was published back then. But what is even…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-we-live-in"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}