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¶ He said that, as President, "he could and would" use his influence to change the Senate's rules so that a majority (instead of two-thirds) of the membership could shut off a filibuster—and thus make possible passage of an FEPC law. Previously, he had expressed "doubts" that a President should interfere with Senate rules; while he had not opposed FEPC, he had taken the general position that the states should be encouraged to tackle the problem (as he had done in Illinois).
In his formal speeches, Stevenson has supported, or defended, the record of the Truman Administration, domestic and foreign—though some of his defensive remarks (e.g., on corruption) admit by implication far more than Truman ever has. Some of his own elaborations:
Communism Abroad: "The answer to Communism is, in the old-fashioned phrase, good works—good works inspired by love and dedicated to the whole man."
Communism at Home: After saying early in the campaign that the hunt for Communists was a hunt for "phantoms," and that U.S. Communists "aren't, on the whole, very important," he said that "as far as I'm concerned this fight will be continued until the Communist conspiracy in our land is smashed beyond repair," and that the job of tracking them down should be turned over to the FBI. "Our police work is aimed at a conspiracy, and not ideas or opinion. Our country was built on unpopular ideas, on unorthodox opinions. My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular."
Corruption: "Whose fault is it that we get what we deserve in Government and that the honor and nobility of politics at most levels are empty phrases? It is not the lower order of the.genus pol, but it is the fault of you the people. Your public servants serve you right. Indeed, often they serve you better than your apathy and your indifference deserve, but I suggest that there is always time to repent and amend your ways."
Inflation: "The cause of inflation can, I believe, be made plain. Let's stay in the kitchen a moment. It is as though we were making bread and while we answered the phone a malicious neighbor [i.e., Russia] dumped a whole cup of yeast into the bowl. That's the inflation story. In fact, that is inflation."
Lawyers & Poets. The legend has grown up that Stevenson writes all his own speeches. No human being could do that, and Stevenson didn't try, even at the start of the campaign. His Liberal Party speech drew, in part, on a memorandum written by James Wechsler, editor of the far-to-the-left New York Post. The Detroit labor speech, in which Stevenson called for repeal of Taft-Hartley, was written by Willard Wirtz, onetime member of the War Labor Board.