The Cavalcade of America presented by DuPont, makers of better things for better living through chemistry. To the millions of men and women who have labored, and today labor still, with hand and mind and heart, to build and to preserve a great free nation, the Cavalcade of America proudly dedicates the unending story of a new life in a new world. Tonight for our radio play, The Cavalcade of America presents the great American drama, Valley Forge, written by the distinguished American playwright, Maxwell Anderson. Valley Forge was originally staged at the Guild Theater in New York City, and ranks among the best of Maxwell Anderson's poetic dramas. Our star from The Cavalcade Players is John McIntyre, who plays the part of George Washington. Kenneth Delmar is Spad, Ray Collins is Alcock, Carl Swenson, Teague, Edwin Jerome, Lieutenant Cutting, Jeanette Nolan, Mary Morris, Alfred Shirley, General Howe, and William Johnstone is Tinch. Our orchestra and original musical effects are under the direction of Don Voorhees. DuPont, makers of better things for better living through chemistry, present Valley Forge by Maxwell Anderson on The Cavalcade of America. All the darkness and all the greatness surrounding the birth of the United States of America are expressed in two words. Those two words are Valley Forge. Valley Forge in the winter of 1778. Phew, I'd like to see anybody eat this filthy muck. That's Congress food, Spad. And therefore no chore for a white man. Come, Mason, speak no treason. Oh, treason is out. Congress. We ought to flay the hides off the Congress and use it for shoes. Shoes? Boys, what this army needs is pants. I can't even borrow a teak spare when he ain't using them. Quiet, quiet, quiet, you woojer, forget Neil's sick. Don't mind him, Neil. Go to sleep, boy. All right. Don't let them take me to the pest house. It's bad enough to die, but a man don't want to be scared to death. Hmm, the fever. Now you quit this talk of dying, Neil. Here, take some broth. Broth? Spad? Sure. I stole it, so I know it's good. Boys, I'm going out tonight for a spell. Where you bound, Teague? You see me about the first of April. Better than the first of April. Don't count on me to put up a story for you. Ah, how long are any of you going to be here? You'll all go like Neil, there, or me. Now walk to Philadelphia. That's where General Howe eats. No, sir, I'm going home, because I'm cold and hungry, that's why. All right. But remember the new penalty for desertion is 75 lashes on the bare back. That's a good deal to take on a cold day. Ah, he'll never catch me. Ah, it's you. Good evening, Lieutenant. Evening. Where'd you get the dog, Lieutenant Cutting? Why, I found him. That is, I don't really know. The cur has been following me all day. Give him some food, one of you. All right, come on, pup. Try this. I warn you, it may poison him. Yeah, yeah. Tanchun? Oh, Colonel Tanch. Ben, General Washington is looking for a squad for a raid on the Hay Islands, for Fodda. Yeah, aye, sir. Aye, aye. All right, Lieutenant Cutting, draw four days' rations. With my compliments, Colonel, the thing is impossible. We've drawn the last ration for the regiment. It seems you enjoy the situation, Lieutenant. This is probably the worst managed army in the history of military operations. There are certain names I don't care to hear insulted. I insulted nobody. The matter arranged, Colonel Tanch, I'm in haste. I'm sorry, General Washington, but Lieutenant Cutting says he's drawn the last ration for this regiment. Lieutenant, the food train will arrive soon. Oh. Pardon me, General Washington, but is this the train which was to be sent by General Putnam? It is, though I don't understand how you came to know of it. I, uh, I found out from General Conway. I supped with him. Putnam was unable to supply the food. I had to go to the Putnam was unable to supply the food. I hope I haven't betrayed their confidence. It sticks in my crop a little that quite by chance these little military details are relayed to me. Sir, I hope I have not offended... Not in the least, sir. I'm grateful for the information. The expedition will be postponed. General. Yes, Colonel. Would you like to know whose dog this is? Come, Colonel, I'm in haste. His color reads Rover. Sir William Howe. William Howe? He's roved all the way from Philadelphia. It's General Howe's dog. You might know from the fat on his ribs he was no local product. Is there quill and paper here? Yeah, I got some. Then, Colonel, address a note to Sir William. Yes, sir. Say we are returning his dog. And add that I am astonished to find him at Valley Ford. I had supposed all the desertions to be going the other way. Will the errand amuse any of you here? I'd like to carry the note, sir. Very well. Now, Colonel, when you're finished, we'll go. General Washington. Yes. I've heard regulations about going home without leave. They say it's 75 lashes. The traditional penalty for desertion is shooting at sunrise. We're more lenient. Now, look, General, I'm going hungry here. My old woman's going hungry at home. Now, if I go home, we both eat. Just do it, will you, Teague? Now, I'll come back next spring and every spring. If I were in your position, Teague, I should feel as you do. But if you go home and we all go home, you needn't come back in the spring. I fight for a dream, something that's never existed on this earth and never will unless we make it now and put it here to stay. The right of freeborn men to govern themselves in their own way. Men are mostly fools. And so far our Congress is as rotten as the sow belly it sends us. But this is your fight more than mine. If we lose you, we've lost our war. And the dream may never come true. Come, Tench, there's much to do. When I finish the letter, sir. If that wasn't a valedictory, I never heard one. He's tired, and the others are tired of him, and when he goes... Come, Lieutenant, then you name your new leader. Somebody will have to. There's open dissatisfaction and you're as aware of it as I am. And tell me this, why is Conway pensioned off with minor command? I thought we'd come to Conway. If it occurs to me, Lieutenant, then it may be no accident that General Howe's dog is following you around. Boy, I can explain that. You needn't try. Spadden. Yes, sir. Here's the letter to Sir William Howe. Good luck, and good night. Good night, sir. That's right. My little company is ready with her play, General Howe. Good. The dance is ended. Let us have your masquerade, Major Andre. You will excuse me, ma'am. Certainly, Major. Lieutenant Fitzroy, the first great impersonation of Washington, sir William. Sir. Ladies and officers, the program will be taken over by General George Washington and what he calls his Continental Army. I hope you will find it amusing, Sir William. No doubt, Major. Yankee Doodle has no shoes, Yankee Doodle's dandy. For him and X he has no uses, for he fills up on brandy. Yankee Doodle, keep it up, Yankee Doodle's dandy. Mind the music and the steps and with the girls be handy. My socks are wet, my shirt never laundered. I grind the neighbor's children up for food. Come on, get up, or I'll hit you again. Why are you ragging my feet? Get up and fight like a man. Who is he? He doesn't belong in the bay. You, you there. Where's that man? Who are you? What are you doing here? I'm bringing General Howe's dog back to him. With a letter from General Washington. A letter from General Washington? Here it is. And your dog. Thank you. I hope you will be my guest at a good dinner, for I have heard you fare lightly at Valley Forge. Somebody's been lying then. Well listen, last night I threw away more than I ate. As you wish. Let us proceed with the dance. Major Andre, will you step out into the fall for a moment please? Certainly Sir William. I have had bad news tonight Major. The French will ally themselves with the colonists. And we will have a war on two fronts. So? The French want to make this a real war. If I can get a message to Washington before the word of the French alliance gets to him, I might twist both the news and his frozen stubbornness. You see? Quite so. By the way Major, is this your guest looking for you? Ah yes it is. He's Mr. Smery Moritz. Oh Sir William, Mary is an old acquaintance of George Washington. She knows General Washington. I'm sorry Major to have... Oh, oh I beg your pardon. Mr. Smery Moritz? Sir William Howe. Mr. Smery Moritz. Sir William. Tell me gracious lady, how well do you know General Washington? Oh, since I was a child Sir William, I still admire General Washington, even in defeat. Defeat? Mistress, I want this war to end. And now it's perfect suicide for Washington to continue. You've heard of the French alliance? He bases all hopes on it I believe. Well there's to be no alliance. If I had an hour to talk things over with this Washington... Oh if you only could. Perhaps a woman, a friend of his youth, my... Me? Oh but I've no wish to face him as a bearer of bad news. This is not bad news. I offer him peace with honor. I don't want to put this on paper, but you could tell him. Very well. I shall see General Washington. General Washington, there's a woman outside who wants to see you. Let her wait, Tinch, until we finish this business. Yes, Sir. Well, Sterling, out with it. General Washington, Conway, Gates and others are plotting to supersede you in command. I have intercepted a letter from Conway which proves it. Here it is. Part and cipher. Cipher? I shall see Conway. It's Congress that stands in your way, Sir. Why the country come to you with open arms if you'd lay down the law to Congress. Are you proposing I make myself dictator, Colonel Tinch? It's that or lose. Has it escaped you, Sir, that we fight this war against usurpation of power? Our Congress is the heart of what we fight for, good or bad. And I uphold it. How much food will be on hand, Tinch? Three or four days provision. I wouldn't want to eat it. Neither would you, Sir. Food for three days. We'll gamble our three days on a change of luck. The order's given. Good night, gentlemen. Good night, gentlemen. Good night, Sir. The woman who's waiting to see you says she has a verbal message from General Howe, Sir. Oh, well, let her in. Yes. This way, Mistress. Thank you, Sir. General Washington. I should remember you. Mary Phillips. Once. Mistress Morris now. We grow old, we mortals. But you came here from General Howe, I understand. Sir, General Howe proposes a peace. Nothing reserves save the King's sovereignty. We asked for complete independence. And even at Valley Forge, we have hopes. Hopes in France. Word has come to Philadelphia that your French alliance has failed. Then we must fight on alone. As long as I have one soldier at Valley Forge. Gentlemen, I had the pleasure of turning down General Howe's dinner to his face. You saw Howe? I did. Boys, we can lick him. We can lick him for sour apples. That bunch of wildflowers. You turned down a dinner? Oh, I ate. But not with those namby pambies. Look at this. Corn! And there's more where that came from. General Howe's corn cribs. There's 6,000 bushels. If you boys will come with me, we'll get breakfast for everybody. Breakfast! Come on! General Washington. What is it, Prince? I've stabled the horses and have two congressmen left over. Shall I fetch them in? By all means, Tinch. And set two more places for breakfast with the same fare they send us. Yes, sir. Come in, gentlemen. Mr. Harvey. You're welcome, gentlemen. I have anticipated your appetite. Breakfast is on the table. Please be seated. Right here, Mr. Washington. Here you are, sir. Sirs, you must remember you've left me without a quartermaster these three months. Most unfortunate, General Washington, but there's been some quarrel in Congress over appointments. What is this? Not bad at all. Moves are trifle. Weevil's hard to kill. Do you mean to poison us? Congress sent it and sent nothing else. Perhaps it will help us decide on a quartermaster general. Well, what would you say to Conway? If you choose Conway, I'll resign. Now you'll learn that Conway... Gentlemen, forget that you're a congressman. Forget that I'm an officer. You'll wrangle over ribbons while men die, while our cause dies. You'll wrangle over Conway. Still Conway. Tense. Show General Conway and Lieutenant Cutting in, please. Yes, sir. General Conway. I'm afraid I was tardy, sir, but my men have apparently set off the parts unknown. Reserting? That is serious, Lieutenant Cutting. We must take it up later. General Conway, you wrote this letter to General Gates, indicating that it will not be long before he takes my place. Do you recognize it? That is not in my handwriting. I am weary of these excuses and slips, lopped from men who are not my friends, but dare not say so to my face. It hardly becomes your strap to squirm like a hook to you. Very well I wrote it, but it's not treason to write a letter to Gates. I am concerned with notes in cipher and clothes, addressed to Lieutenant Cutting for transfer to General Conway and through him to Gates. And they contained? Why, nothing. Only the terms acceptable to General Howe if our army surrenders. You understand, gentlemen, my objected to General Conway's promotion. Perfectly. I apologize. Will you gentlemen speak up for me? Pai, they know as well as I of this correspondence, and most of Congress knows of it. Can this be? The war began to protect our trade. And where's our trade now? Nobody makes money. We might have won. Good God, have you fudged our cause on purpose? If we're to lose the war, why not lose it honorably in battle? Well, you see, there is a trend toward peace for business reasons. Then I'll end this war for you and do it quickly in our own fashion and on our own terms. You take no steps without instruction. You take steps without instruction and take them now. Open the door, Tex. Gentlemen, I've had enough. Get out! Tex. Yes, sir? Oh, I've been a gull. Behind my back they've made shabby deals, shelling for shelling, men's lives for copper pennies. General Washington, you can't mean it's over. Yes, Tex. I've given myself to a footless insurrection. I'll get three lines in history, touching a minor figure in a brief uprising that died early in some year of our lord. Send word to General Howe. Our conference awaits only on his pleasure. Let him name his hour in place. I'll send the message, sir. But don't surrender. No. Tensch, this nation's spending its heart's blood for a packet of liberty. We opened the packet today and it was empty. The appointed hour, this is the barn where Howe was supposed to meet us, but I understood Tensch was to be here, General Sterling. What's that? Big to report, General Washington. Colonel Tensch was here, but he stepped out to mix in the shindy. Oh, it's you. I'm sorry, sir. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, it's you. Lieutenant Cutting told me you had deserted. Oh, we got hungry and just set out to get some corn. That's all. By so doing, provoked that skirmish out there when we were supposed to be under a truce. Like most of my orders, it was violated. What do you expect a man to do? I have appointed to meet here with a British officer. It would mortify me somewhat to introduce him to renegade Continentals. Cutting's a renegade, if you ask me. If I'm one, I'm glad to get out of here. Teague helped me move Neil. What? If we move Neil to General Washington, I'm afraid it'll finish the boy. See, some of us got clipped. The boy can stay. Dry quiet land and rest your head here. Quiet? Find a stone, General Washington, and cut my name. My name was Neil. And say, he died of wounds in battle. Yes, sir. Say, long ago, he died in a lost cause. Cut it deep. It's all I'll ever have. General Washington! General Washington! Yes, Ken. Sir, these men here have sacked a dozen of the enemy's corn cribs. Food is now stored in the Clapton's Landing. There have been some wounded in the action, some killed. Among the latter, Lucifer Tinch. You list yourself among the slain? This is rather tasteless joking, Tinch. I'm dead enough. My boots are full of blood. Dead for hay and grain. That's a high death for a squashing soldier. I have loved you, sir. But if you set your seal to surrender, my curse on you. And I had done. Tinch, man. Tinch. I can ill spare him. Dead for hay and grain. Excuse me, sir. General Howe is outside. Let him wait a moment. General Washington, I was going home that time, and then you told me I better not, and we stayed. Didn't you mean that? I meant it then, but now you're free to go. Now, look, when a man wants food, he has to get it. Now, we're not through fighting. Maybe we're not the kind of army you wanted because we don't keep drill. Now, we won't starve either, and the army won't. We stole Howe's corn last night, a thousand bushels. Ferried it over. Yeah, that ought to last a while. General Washington, if you stay, we can make a fight of it. But if you're gone, they'll drive us all out west. We never thought you'd quit. Do you want the war to go on? Yes, sir. If I believe 10 men would follow me, I'd not be here. I'll go with you, sir. That's good for all of us. While there are men who would rather not live at all than live not free, we'll fight this war together. Call in General Howe. Yes, sir. Come in, gentlemen. General Howe. At your service, General Washington. General Howe, there will be no peace on the terms now offered. These hunters and backwoodsmen have heard your offer, and they reject it. Your choice of counselors is your own, of course, General Washington. But you've lost, you know. Your government's opposed. Your men in rags... We know it, General Howe. By all the rules of the game, we're beaten and should surrender. But these men follow a dream. A dream that men will bear no burden save of their own choosing, shall walk masterless and choose their gods. It's destined to win, this dream. Even if we should fail, it's destined to win. I'm no Don Quixote to battle with dreams and windmills. We must go. Goodbye, sir. Goodbye, General. And so we're left with some years of revolution on our hands, and we have food for three days. And then for three days more if we can find it. Soon it will be spring. Mason and Neal and Tench. They paid for our three days. We must bury them here. They died here and earned their ground. Shall we fire a volley over our dead? We'll need our powder, and dead men don't hear volleys. So be it, then. This liberty will look easy by and by when nobody dies to get it. . Two words. all the darkness and all the greatness surrounding the birth of the United States of America. Two words, Valley Forge. The Cavalcade of America thanks John McIntyre and the Cavalcade players for their performance of Valley Forge. The performance of Valley Forge by the distinguished American playwright Maxwell Anderson. And now the DuPont Company brings you its story from the wonder world of chemistry. Virginia sent to Valley Forge its pioneers of democracy. Today DuPont is sending to Virginia its pioneers of modern science and industry. They go as emissaries of a free enterprise that the spirit and courage of Valley Forge made possible. At the Virginia town of Martinsville, close to the North Carolina border and many of the South's great new textile mills, the DuPont Company will build a new plant for the manufacture of nylon yarn. Construction is to begin at once. When complete, the new plant at Martinsville will employ 750 workers and to build will cost approximately 11 million dollars. A few years ago, nylon was but a chemist's dream, a dream 200 years old that seemed impossible of fulfillment. But behind that dream was the pioneering spirit still alive which believes nothing is impossible if one keeps on trying. Late in 1938, DuPont was able to announce that the first textile fibers to be wholly manmade had been drawn from a class of materials derived from air, water, and coal. At the time, many who heard or read of those unique gossamer-like filaments probably thought of them as just another laboratory novelty. But shortly a great factory began to rise at Seaford, Delaware. Nylon appeared in retail stores in the form of brush bristles. Beautifully sheer hosiery of nylon yarn followed and American women found it was a better hosiery. Surgeons discovered in nylon a better material for closing wounds. Industry experimented and developed still further uses. Public demand forced a doubling of the capacity of the original Seaford nylon plant and today more than 90 percent of the yarn produced continues to go to manufacturers of full-fashioned hosiery. Now comes Martinsville, again in answer to public demand. The DuPont Company's investment today in nylon manufacturing facilities, made or authorized, stands at 28 million dollars. By March of 1942, the company plans to be producing 16 million pounds of nylon yarn yearly, as well as substantial amounts of nylon in other forms. This large new investment in nylon is an evidence of the continuance of the American incentive to grow and to improve. The steam shovels about to bite into Virginia's soil at Martinsville give tangible character to the DuPont pledge, better things for better living through chemistry. And now the star of next week's program, Carl Swenson. Ladies and gentlemen, for our broadcast next week, the Cavalcade players will bring you the story of Matthew Fontaine Moray in a radio play, Pathfinder of the Seas. His is one of the most important names in American navigation, for by his charts, our ships sail the seas and our planes span the continent. I am very proud that I've been asked to play the part of Matthew Fontaine Moray on next week's Cavalcade. Thank you and good night. On tonight's program, the orchestra and original musical effects were under the direction of Don Voorhees. Your narrator was William Spargrove. This is Clayton Collier saying good night for the Cavalcade players and best wishes from DuPont. Here is a special message to every American citizen. To vote you must register. At a time when democracy is on trial throughout the world, we in America have the right that is denied to millions of the Earth's peoples to choose those who shall govern for us. To make democracy work, we must register now and vote on election day. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
