The Cavalcade of America presented by DuPont, an original radio play inspired by the life of John Sutter and the California Gold Rush, starring Edwin Jerome in the role of John Sutter. The DuPont Company, makers of better things for better living through chemistry, present the Cavalcade of America, dedicated to those men and women in every walk of life who have shaped the destiny of America in the past and to the youth of today who will shape the destiny of America in the future. Before proceeding with our Cavalcade play, we pause for a moment to bring you an urgent message from the American Red Cross. Money is needed now to buy food, clothing, and medical supplies for suffering people in war-torn Europe. Americans have never failed to answer cries of distress from far off land, and we cannot fail now in this sad hour. Send your contributions to your local Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. California in the year 1839, California under Mexican sovereignty, Purple Valley, missions, ranchos, and haciendas. At Monterey, His Excellency the Governor Juan Batista Alvarado has arrived at his capital on the Pacific. Striding across the courtyard, his cloak billowing from his shoulders like of a million clouds, he is surrounded by clamoring excited settlers of valley. Governor, the cattle plague is in the valley again. Governor, what do we do? The cattle are dying. Callous Excellency. We'll have to leave the valley. Haciendas are ranchos. We'll have to return to Mexico again. Same story. All the way up the valley, I hear it. Big cattle, whole herd dying, plague, starvation. But what can I do? We don't want to go back. Show us how to cure the cattle. Please, Excellency. Please, Excellency. One moment. One moment, all of you. You have your ways of curing stock of the plague. Try it. Make it cure them. We have tried, but it does no good. I am no farmer. I don't know how. Why do you come here to me? You are the Excellency, the Governor. You've got to help us. Would if I could, you all know that. There must be some way. There must be someone who can rid our cattle of this plague. If there is, I'll offer 50,000 pesos. 50,000. Excellency. Be, Senor Horta. Excellency, I have heard of a man curing one heifer. It was on my rancho. Who was this man? Why haven't you brought him here? He left. Where he is now, I do not know, Excellency. He must be found. What was his name, Senor? He was Swiss, Excellency. He was Sutter, John Sutter. So you are the remarkable Captain John Sutter, eh? That is my name, Your Excellency. But why remarkable? Remarkable enough, Senor. I have heard you can cure our valley cattle of this plague. All of your herds in California can be cured as easily, Your Excellency. There is a remedy I learned in Switzerland. We care for our stock, the six stable members of our family. Hmm, so? Well, Captain Sutter, I will give you 50,000 pesos if you read this on this cattle plate. I shall pay you in gold. I am sorry, Your Excellency. I am not interested in gold. Quite you must be mad, Senor. All men want gold. Your Excellency, what do this gold? Can you feed it to starving people? Can you cure sick cattle with it? Captain Sutter, you are a strange man. You mean you do not want wealth? Certainly I want wealth. I did not endure three years of hardship getting to California to acquire a gold that destroys men. That is not what I promised my wife, Alma. And when I send to Switzerland for her to come to me, I want to show her real wealth. Real wealth is land. Very well. You cure the cattle. The land is yours. But as far as the Far Hills area, you know it is already taken up. But I want this far beyond the hills, the valley of the Sacramento. What part of it do you want, Captain Sutter? I want all of it. The entire Sacramento valley? All, east and west, from one mountain range to the other. What would you ask, Captain? It is equal to half of France, and your little Switzerland could be tucked into one corner of it. That is why I wanted, Your Excellency. You say you do not understand me. Perhaps you would if you had grown up in Switzerland, a crowded little farm. Always I dreamed and told Anna of a place like this, like the Sacramento valley, with vast plains and fertile land. Now I understand a little, yes. But still it is much land you ask. Perhaps it is too much for my people to understand. Your people have been here for years and have not dared to set foot on it. They will never develop it. I will. But can you? If I don't, you can have it back. Give me a proficient grant. If I make good what I promise, the land is mine. Captain Sutter, you readers of this play, and you will have the chance to develop the whole valley of the Sacramento. If you succeed, you hold it. That is the bond. Salute, Captain Sutter. Salute, Your Excellency. The Where is it, boys? Right here, Captain. She's a mighty fine calf, Captain. Yeah, mother and child, both doing fine. Yeah, yeah, she's a mighty fine calf. And fish. The Captain's so proud of you, Bessie, can't talk. Bessie's looking like she's got something to be proud of too. She ought to. Bessie, you've just had the first calf born at Fort Sutter. That's right, Ben. Captain Sutter, the captain's all right. Some other time, Emily. The captain's busy right now. But Joe, we've got something to ask him. We've just got to know. What is it? Speak up. What is it, please? Go on, then. You ask him. No, you're the one to ask him, Jeff. Well, you were marrying us when they told you about Bessie. Oh, yes, I was marrying you, wasn't I? There was I. Oh, yes, I didn't quite finish. Jeff Clark, Emily Taylor, I now pronounce you man and wife. She is so pretty. Thank you, Captain. Goodbye. What is this? It's a seed. It must have a name. What do you mean, Captain? The calf, Joe, the calf. First thing born on my land. The first of the herd that will cover these hills. It's like a first seed that grows and multiplies, for it has greatness in it a thousandfold. Ah, yad yad. It is the beginning of everything, like in the first book of the Bible. Well, little one, I am going to name you Jenny. That's for Genesis. He begins. Father, how much more is it to your farm? Oh, yes, we have been on my farm for miles and miles, Laura, but we do not call it a farm here. We call it a rancho, and mine is the biggest rancho of all. And what do you think of it, Anna, darling? I do not know what to think, Johan. It is so big and everything. Even you seem new to me. Oh, now, Anna, darling, I have not changed so much. I was always like this. Only in Switzerland I could not do the great things I have done and the greater things I will do here. You will get used to it. Morning, Captain, sir. Oh, morning, Phil. How are you today, Captain, sir? Oh, boy, oh. Yes, put 50 men to work at the mill. See that the grain is all ground before the crops come down from Pether River. Yes, sir. And Bill, Marshall has sent down lumber from the new tannery. You put your men to work there. There is a new bunch of settlers showed up down the valley, Captain. Good. They need a hundred more up in the south orge. The next group can go to the vineyard. All right, we will put them to work, Captain. Goodbye, Captain. Come, come, boys, be there. Who were all those men, Johan? Oh, some of my foremen, Anna, darling. I have many others. For all the thousands and thousands of acres of wheat and grapes and timber, I need them all. And will they get all the people you just ordered? They must get them, Anna, for I must work every acre to hold it. And settlers are coming every week from all the 29 United States to live on the knees, Captain John Sutter. Somehow this is frightening to me, Johan. It's nothing to be frightened of, Anna. You're almost like a teamie, Father, or an emperor. Yes, yes, I am, my child, of a land bigger than all Switzerland, as big as half of France. You see, from the mountains there to the others yonder, and as far as you can see between it, it's all mine. Oh, who, who, boys? Here they are. Here's Fort Sutter. A fort? Why must you live in a fort? Why? Because I am the chief of all the government of the frontier, of the Rio del Sacramento. Oh, it's not much like Switzerland, isn't it, Anna, darling? No, no, Johan. Everything is different, even my Johan. You forget all your volleys, Anna, darling. I, the king, command it. Tonight, I give the Spanish fiesta in your honor. Please, everyone, please, may I have everyone's attention, please? I propose a toast to our distinguished guest, His Excellency, the governor of California. Salud! I thank you, Captain Sutter. I shall respond with a toast to the great man who more than fulfilled his agreement with Governor Alvarado, and rightfully is entitled to his new grant. For he has changed the wilderness to a paradise, and has colonized it with many people. A toast to Captain Sutter, the owner, free and clear, of all the lands in the Sacramento Valley. Come, Anna, darling, let me show you the plans I have made for a house. But Johan will have a house already. I like it, don't you think? It's a house, it's not a house, we must have a mansion, and I have the plan for it here. It shall be a house fine enough for John Sutter and his family. But Johan, this man, you have truly a palace. Of course it is. Here, you see, here is the reception hall, here is the drawing room, and here, my audience chamber. There I shall hold court as required by my official authority. It would be very nice, I'm sure, if it is not too expensive. What do I care for expense? My crop this year will pay off the last of my debt. But let us be careful, Johan. It is so big, getting a nice house. I must say, it must all come down on my head. Oh, now Anna, darling, the land is ours, they can't take it from us. All right, if you say so, Johan, but promise me one thing. Please give me a little house, only a few rooms if need be, Johan, but maybe we can do there sometime. Well, perhaps. There is a little farm on Feather River, I might build you a little house there if you need. Now I will be happy, Johan, because some day we may be glad we have such a little farm and a little house. Captain Sutter! What are you doing here, Marshal? I ordered you to stay at the new mill till it is finished. The mill? I got something better than a mill for you, Captain. I told you, Marshal, the new mill must be finished as soon as possible. Here, here's why I'm here, Captain. What is it? What have you in the bag? See for yourself what it is. It's gold. Gold? Gold? No, no, not gold. Pure, pure it is, gold, pure gold. Where did you get it, Marshal? So along the bank of the American River, right at the mill. At the mill? Yeah, the seam's lined with it. You can pick it up with your hands. Have you told anyone? Oh, not a soul. You must tell no one. Oh, I won't, Captain. But they'll see us taking it out. We are not taking it out, Marshal. What? Are you crazy? I would be crazy if I let word of this around. I would not have a workman left at the mill. I have too much invested there. But there's enough gold there to buy ten mills. And enough gold to lose everything I have put in here in the valley, Marshal. I've got to finish this job. Everything depends on it. Go back to the mill, Marshal. Forget you ever found it. Forget a fortune? A fortune under my feet and not even lean over to pick it up? Oh, no. I'm going back there and pick up a million dollars. And then I'm going to spend it. And go back for more and spend that. The rest of my life I'll dig and spend. Dig and spend, yeah, that's it. Why be crazy not to? Marshal. What, huh? That's what gold does to you. That's what would happen to all of us. We would all get just like you are now. Trace of gold. It is a fever, Marshal. You have got to forget it. No, no. I don't know, Captain. A fortune. Listen, have I not always pleased you fair? Yes, you have, Captain. Then go back to the mill and do as I say. Never tell anybody? You mean nobody outside of you, huh? Listen, the gold will stay there. It always has. I hope it always will. You're wrong, Captain Sutter. You can't hide gold for long. I haven't got time for another one, boys. I've got to get back to the mill. Captain Sutter wants lumber. Oh, lumber can wait, John. It's a long drive back. But it's a long drive that has no turning this day. Your boots need another drink. Yeah, yeah, that's right. All right, same thing, Ted. Let's have one for the Scotty, too, huh? All right. All in the house, boys. That suits the Scotchland, huh? That dew, that dew. Especially when the wee whistle is rusted. Isn't anything like a hard ride to do that, eh, Marshal? Well, maybe I won't be making that long ride much longer. What do you mean? Oh, nothing. None at all. You've got to quit the sawmill, are you, Marshal? Quit that sawmill? I should say not. Eh, better let me pay for the next one, Marshal. You haven't much money. What do you mean, I haven't any money? Your press was empty, I saw it. Trust the Scotchman to notice that. Sure it's empty. But I always keep a reserve. Well, if you believe he's got a reserve, Ted, set us up again. All right. What do you think this is? A lot of rocks, I'd say. A lot of rocks, huh? I guess you guys don't owe gold when you see it. Gold? That's what I said, partner. That's pure gold. Gold. Gold. Gold. Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! Yeah, heard it over the saloon yesterday. They discovered gold over the tunnel. Come on, let's get over there and take out the claim. No. No, you can't come on my land. It is mine. You have no right. No right. California, eh? Take out the news. Come on, let's go. California, eh? No, my land. All of it. All mine. Not yours. Take it, Monty. Go to the mountain and say, we stay in California, eh? Well, all tickling. Just follow the sunset. Way out to the west. It's mine. Keep out. Take a bay from here. Sure, I'm going all the way to California, eh? Yeah, think of it, Monty. Halfway there. Now you've taken out those chairs ready for all the gold and gold and gold. Come on, tell the others. Let's go. No, no. It is mine. You can't take it from me. That's my land. Yeah, you heard me. When is the next boat leave for California, eh? That's what I said. California, eh? No, no. All of you. Get out of here. Get off my land. And be a simple sailor. Come on, let's get us off here. Me and Monty, we need to get out of California. Monty, come on. It's a big one. I want to get out. It's a big California. Sure, everybody's following the dream over the world in California, eh? Everybody. You can't take it away from me. My land. Mine, I tell you. All right, folks. Here we are. Here's California, eh? Over there, southern coast. Come on. You're too bad in our California. No, no. Get out. Keep out of here. You're taking my land. You can't. It's mine. It's mine. It's mine. Poor Johan. Like a swarm of locusts, Anna. Nothing left but stubble now. I know, Johan, but we've still got our little farm. We can go there and be happy. Happy? No, Anna, I have still got pride in me. I won't be happy until I get it back. All of my land back. But how, Johan? There is a way. I am not licked. Not yet, Anna. Captain Sutter! Sam Bannon. Howdy, Sam. What are you going to do now, Captain? I am going to get my land back. Every acre of it. I am set on filing suit into United States court under my original claim. Well, that's the whole northern half of the state. Captain, if you proceed with this suit, there'll be trouble among the settlers. And if the land only in trouble, Johan, please, please don't do it. Anna, every ounce of gold in this bonanza belongs to me. And I will make them pay me back every cent. But you've always despised gold. Why do you not... Gold can be used to restore these lands. That is the only reason I want it. Well, Captain, there's one thing certain. Win or lose, this is going to be the biggest lawsuit in the whole history of the world. You know what, Hank? That fellow Sutter says he's going to get all that land in the Sacramento back. Going to court about. You mean he thinks he can drive us off our farm? That's what. Why, he's crazy. Crazier than that yonder mare of mine. Come on, get up. Did you ever hear the like, Sarah? That great goat of a Sutter trying to say we're on his land. They ought to pin him up where he belongs. Tired whistlers to the gate for him. Yeah, that's what the crowd's doing over at the courthouse. Big Mouth Sutter's trying to get back our farm. It's been his land all the time. Yeah, Big Mouth, that's more than you can say for his wit. The judge will fix him, I tell you. The court finds that Captain John Sutter did in fact hold a prior title to these lands in suit. And therefore, he is entitled to full restoration of all his property and absolute title there to. Hank. Yeah? Sheriff's come to drive us off. Get the boys together. Meet tonight down at Sutter's court. Got your pick, men? Sure, we're ready. Soon the rest get here, let's go. We've got enough now, come on. No, listen, everybody's going to be in on this. Where we're heading for ain't going to move away anyhow. All right, men, you ready? Yeah. Come on, what are we waiting for? We'll get that Sutter coyote tonight, boys. Let's go. Johan, Johan, wake up. Johan. What is the trouble, Anna? Listen. What can that be? I'm afraid, Johan. Mother, mother, what's the matter outside? Now, now, now, Laura, don't be afraid. You see, Anna, it's only some of the squatters being driven off by the sheriff. But they're coming here to the fort. What? Turn it down, boys. What is that? Come quickly, Johan, out the back way. Come, Sutter, run from that place, my banana. No, I would say. No, this is unkind, and listen to me, Johan. It won't do any good to stay or even to try to stop them. You'll get this very quick, Laura. Yes, mother, I'm right here, but it isn't. All right, Anna, we will go. Quick, out this way. Yes, Laura, hurry. No time to lose. Come, come this way. We can cross the fields back here. Laura, Johan, Laura's fallen down. It's my ankle. Oh, here, here. I will help you. Oh, Johan, they're burning the house. Here, here, behind the shed. We will stay here for a while. Johan, I've home everything. Ruined. My land in ruins. Now our mansion burned before it was finished even. Oh, we do not need such a big house. We have to live a farm. It isn't house. All my work destroyed everything in action. Oh, Johan, my poor Johan. All because of the gold. It drives them mad, just as I said. Gold, gold, gold. Johan, don't. They have taken from me, but it's mine. It is all because of their greed. Their greed for gold. But I will come back. The law says this land is mine. Mine, mine, it's going to be. Good morning, Mr. Brannan. Morning, Laura. Mother and father home? Mother's inside, Mr. Brannan. And I think I see father. Father? Father, Mr. Brannan is here. All right, Laura. Is anything the matter, Mr. Brannan? Just a little business. I'm going to talk over with the Captain Amit, it'll keep. Good day, Sam. What is the news? I've had a wire from Washington, Captain. Oh, well, if it was good news, Sam, you would have a happier look than you have. Much too bad. About the appeal of the settlers to the Supreme Court. They reversed the judgment of the lower courts that upheld your title to these lands. I'm afraid this Feather River farm is about all you have left, Captain. Maybe, maybe this is just as well, Sam. Maybe this is enough for you. But, Johan... Well, nothing else to say, Captain. Out of the going. Goodbye, Sam. You're always welcome here. Thank you, Captain. Goodbye. Goodbye. Well, Anna, maybe you are right. This farm here, you're not for long yet. Just as my Anna always was. Hey, Anna. Johan, the other land, they're all gone now. You don't mind that, Johan? But here long before I came, Anna. It will be here long after I am gone. I have been riding these days over to the little farm, and I have been thinking a few things out. Maybe I expected this today, Anna. Well, Johan... Yes. I was greedy, Anna. Not for gold, no. What was power and land. Power and gold, they don't matter. It is the land that matters. The land and its people. The people who will fill these valleys with little farms like ours. People with their crops and their orchards, their homes. They will be the ones who will make California greater than I could. Or anyone else. And so John Sutter and those heroic pioneers of California take their honored place in the cavalcade of America. Thank you, Edwin Jerome. And now our story from the wonder world of chemistry. In California, as everywhere, they found that real wealth was not gold, but the hardworking, earnest people who settled there. People and the useful products that people produced. What pains taking hands and creative minds can do with nature's raw materials is well shown by something that Columbus found on his second voyage to the New World. He saw natives playing games with bouncing balls that were made from the sap of trees. Those bouncing balls were rubber. But not rubber as you know it. For the stuff that goes to make the many modern rubber products you use is much more than raw rubber out of a tree. Often a dozen or more other materials are added to raw rubber to make a compound suitable for your tires, your hot water bottle, your garden hose, or whatnot. Down a list longer than you are. This list is so long, in fact, that one company alone is said to make well over 32,000 rubber products. Almost every important use of rubber was predicted by a smart Connecticut Yankee 100 years ago when rubber was little more than a curiosity. Needless to say, he didn't have automobile tires on his list, but he did suggest rubber tires for wheelbarrows. That Connecticut Yankee, Charles Goodyear, did a lot more than imagine ways of using rubber. He made the wide use of rubber possible by a great discovery, vulcanization. In the early 1800s, a factory was started in Massachusetts to make rubber clothing and shoes, life preservers, and wagon covers. They weren't much good. In hot weather, they melted and got sticky, and in cold weather, they cracked. Today, DuPont produces many chemicals which have aided chemists of the rubber industry in improving the quality of rubber products. Some of these chemicals give rubber the right consistency for manufacture. Others aid vulcanization, and still another group give greater resistance to the destructive forces of oxygen and sunlight and to cracking caused by constant bending. But in addition to helping improve products made of natural rubber, DuPont has created a new kind of rubber called neoprene. Products made of this man-made material serve industry where other products fail. In the development of neoprene, chemists have forged another link in the chain making America secure within her continent. For here is a material that must be counted among the items for national defense. Neoprene is another remarkable expression that DuPont pledged, better things for better living through chemistry. Now, the Cavalcade of America's Historian, Dr. Frank Monahan of Yale University. Next week, Cavalcade presents a musical tribute to America's beloved delight opera composer, Victor Herbert, whose charming melodies have woven a spell of joy and beauty into the fabric of an American era, gone but never to be forgotten. It was Dean Taylor who summed up his musical genius when he said, Victor Herbert never wrote a vulgar line of music. For his contribution to the happiness and spirit of Americans, in his day and in ours, our next broadcast of Cavalcade will honor the memory and the music of Victor Herbert. When you visit the World's Fair, don't fail to visit the DuPont exhibit. There you will see firsthand many of the wonders of chemistry. The orchestra and the original musical effects on the Cavalcade of America are under the direction of Don Voorhees. This is Basil Rysdale sending best wishes from DuPont. This is the National Broadcasting Company. Thank you.
