The Cavalcade of America, presented by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. Tonight we bring you the story of Johns Hopkins. The great university and world famous hospital in Baltimore which bear his name, stand among America's foremost contributions to human welfare. Johns Hopkins gave them to us out of the sorrow of his life. And to tell you that story, Norman Roston has written tonight's radio play suggested by the life of this great American humanitarian for the Cavalcade players. Our star is Carl Swenson. The orchestra and the original musical score are under the direction of Don Burys. DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry, presents Carl Swenson as Johns Hopkins on the Cavalcade of America. It's an evening in the year 1807. In the quiet and modestly furnished plantation home of Samuel Hopkins, member of the Quaker Society of Friends, his family sits around the large fireplace listening to Master Johns Hopkins as he recites lines his mother taught him. And she's there too, proudly listening. His queenly mother heard him as she sat in the deeps of the sea. And speedily she rose out of the gray sea like a mist, and sitting down before his face stroked him with her hand. Is it true? Did it really happen that way? Well, of course it happened. Everything that's written in books really happened or else it wouldn't be so beautiful. Isn't that right, mother? Yes, Johns. It's right if you believe it. Oh, if that's what you're learning in school, I don't like school. I'd rather spend my time at the big barbecue. I'd rather go fox hunting than read that stuff. Especially when I get to be as old as you are, Johns. Now don't make fun of your brother. Johns likes school and he's going to study if he wants to. How long are you going to study, Johns? A hundred years? Maybe I will. Maybe I will so I can read all the books in the world. Oh, there, son. Oh, father. Might leave a few books for your father, eh? Samuel, what happened at the meeting? Just as God would have willed, Hannah, we must have a talk. The children can listen too. What is it, father? What's the matter? My children, tomorrow you will wake up in a slightly different world. What do you mean, Samuel? I mean we've decided to free our slaves. Let them go? Is that it? You mean all of them? Well, who will work the plantation then? Who, Johns? You, Harold, Albert, all of your brothers and sisters too. Time has come to roll up our own sleeves. For remember, we are Quakers. You've chosen the right way, Samuel. We're proud to be among the first. And if we lose these houses and the wealth of our fields, we'll gain a greater thing. George, come here for a moment. Yes, sir. You are free to go, George. I'll tell the other slaves tomorrow. Leave, sir? Well, we ain't got no place to leave too, sir. We ain't got no place at all. Nevertheless, you are free, all of you. Those that stay will be hired. Tell them. Yes, sir. You, my sons, are you ready to become workers and live with the light of God shining in your heart? I'm ready, father. Tell me what to do. I can help too. Yes, I can. You, Johns, you're silent. Well, I'd rather try my hand at something else than working in the field. It's truly not suited to him, Samuel. Then he must suit himself to it. Or else he may go then to his uncle Gerard in Baltimore, work in his wholesale grocery business, become a merchant, if he wishes that instead. Well, is that all I may wish, father? It is, son. Well, must I become a field hand or a merchant? And I might put away school for the weighing of groceries? It's a matter of money. But, well, it just isn't right for money to stop a person from going to school. It may not be right, son, but it happens to be that way. I'm sorry you feel so badly about it. All right. All right, I'll go to Uncle Gerard's. I'll become a merchant. I'll become rich. If that's what I have to do, I'll make more money than anybody else in the world. So, you're Johns Hopkins, eh? Quite a grown-up lad. Bright-looking lad, I must say. Thank you, sir. Don't call me sir. Remember, I'm your uncle. How old are you? Seventeen, sir. Hello, uncle. Oh, you want to become a businessman, eh? Well, I want to make a great deal of money. What'll you do with it, then? Well, I'll build a big school so that I can go to it any time I like. A school all for yourself. Is that it? No. No, for anyone else who wants to go but hasn't the means. Nephew, I can see you'll make a devilish businessman, giving away your fortune before it's properly made. First thing, you can't make money being an idealist. Dreaming is all right for those who can afford it. But remember, big dreamers end up in little houses. Let that be your first business lesson. Yes, sir, uncle. Father, mother says to come in. Don't be so vague, Elizabeth. Come in for what? Shall I come in for my bath and my tea or my what? You're a saucy child. What's your name? Uh, Johns. Yes, sir. Liza, this is Johns, your cousin. Why is his name Johns instead of Johns? I don't know. He's a bright-looking lad, just the same. I don't think so, father. Huh? You don't? Very good. You're a saucy girl, Elizabeth. I've spared the rod and spoiled the child I have. Well, I'll go in and see to your mother. Father's very ignorant for a man of his age, don't you think? You don't like anybody much, do you? When I grow up, I'm going to marry a fisherman with a big, white boat. I hate boats. What are you going to be when you grow up? I'm grown up already, if you please. Oh, you're not much bigger than I am. I... I haven't any time for girls. Please leave me alone. Is that so? Well, you can stay alone. I won't ever talk to you again. Fine. Are you going to stay with us long? Yep. All the time. I'm going to work in your father's store and become a big merchant someday. And I'll buy a boat bigger than your old fisherman, too. Can I call you John instead of Johns? Why? Then when I call you, you'll know it's me, because everyone else will call you plural while I call you singular. You go right ahead. You have all the fun you want. But don't bother me too much, because I'm going to be a very busy man with a career. How's the day at Johns? Uh... $3,480 this week, Uncle. Ah, sure. Business is getting better. Oh, no how, but we're moving ahead year after year. Don't suppose you had anything to do with it, eh, John? I suppose I did, even if I say so myself. You did for sure. Yeah, I just took to selling and buying like a cat takes to fish. You've got a shrewd head on you. Remember you once said big dreamers end up in little houses? I say that? Well, now, think of that. Well, I'm on my way towards my house, Uncle, and it won't be little. Few more years, I may decide to go into business myself, right across the road, maybe. Across the road? Now, you forget about that, Johns. Promise me you'll put that out of your head. Well, I got a plan to deal in barter. Lots of people across the Alleghenies haven't got the money, but they have lots of good whiskey. Whiskey? Not in this store. I won't be dealing in the devil's goods. John! Oh, John! Oh, we'll discuss it later, Uncle. Meanwhile, there's a good deal of stock to check in the cellar. Why don't you do it? All right. Say, who's boss around here? All right. Good day, John. You didn't call back. Well, I had to get your father out of the way. What for? Well, you and I have got to take inventory alone now. I know what you're going to say next. You do? Oh, no, no, you don't, Elizabeth. You're going to ask me to marry you. Elizabeth, you shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry, John, but you've had me waiting so many times before this I decided to make it final. Well, here I was all prepared to ask you. Ask me again. A woman likes to hear it again. Oh, may I kiss you first? Yes. And now, will you marry me, Elizabeth? Yes, John. You do look so black and foreboding. I'm sorry, but this is a very sacred moment for me, Elizabeth, and if I sound ominous about it, it... Not you're really wonderful about it, darling, and I'm proud of your work here. Father is, too. You're talking about me, huh? Now, if you don't mind, being as I'm the owner here, I'll walk through my own store and out into the street. Oh, one moment, Uncle. We have something to tell you. Oh, well, I won't give you any more money, John. Well, it's not about money this time. It's about Elizabeth. Well, what about Elizabeth? Nothing, Father, except I'm going to marry John. Marry? Did you say marry? Well, it's impossible. Why should it be, sir? So I'm sir to you now, am I? Well, remember, I'm your uncle still, and Elizabeth's your cousin. But it doesn't matter. It does, it does matter, I say, and by heavens, I'll say it again, and Elizabeth will say it. I enter Mr. Johns Hopkins himself. Go, Elizabeth. Father. Go to the house. Now, sir. Uncle, there's nothing you can say to make me change my mind. There'll be no such marrying in this family, do you hear? But we've grown to love each other all these years, growing up together and reading and laughing together. Well, then there'll be no more together. You can go off and become a beggar again. What? You better not try to stop us, Uncle, for I'll have enough money to line your grave with banknotes. If that's the answer to everything, I'll teach the world some pretty tricks with money. If money is the price of the highest seat in this worldly heaven, I'll be sitting there and looking down on all of you. Father wouldn't let me out except to come here to the meeting house. He's told me many things, John. I had to listen. There's nothing that he can say to stop us. You mustn't believe it. He said it would be a curse before God. No, Elizabeth, no. We have to face the truth. What the truth is that we love each other. Now, we'll go away together. There's a world waiting for us, for new men and women and their children. Children? No. No, not for us. Never for us, John. We're lost to each other. We can't reach out and touch one another again. Elizabeth, I won't let you go. But I am going, John, dear, and you must go too in another direction. I must love you from a distance. Oh, how the gods must laugh at their little joke. They're always laughing at John's Hopkins, taking away his hopes one by one. John! Oh, I suppose you'll marry that funny fisherman with the white boat, and I'll be left alone, always alone. I'll be near you, John, always watching you. John? Yes, my dear uncle, Gerard Hopkins. What can I do for you today? You mustn't be angry at me, John, for the actions of my daughter. I'm not angry at you, uncle, for you've given me ambition, as your lost business can well testify. Who are these other gentlemen? I brought them here, your own brother Quaker's, John, to save you from your league with the devil. We have been informed by your worthy uncle that you are engaging in whiskey, Barter, Mr. Hopkins. I sell goods, gentlemen, and money buys it or anything I can turn into money. Am I to let people starve because they've nothing but whiskey to trade for food? I told you when you were working for me, I wouldn't... Yeah, but I'm not working for you anymore, my worthy uncle, and I'm doing very well alone. And I've just begun. Driving all the people from Ohio into his trade, that's what... Oh, it appears, gentlemen, the evil is not in the trade, but in who does the trading. Well, be assured I'll continue to do business long after you've left this remarkable earth where all things are bought and sold. In that case, Mr. Hopkins, we will be forced to deny you the Sunday use of the meeting house. Very well, I'll build another meeting house. I'll build many new houses. I'll continue to do many things. Your big dreamer, uncle, will not end up in little houses. Order, gentlemen. Next item. The council of the city of Baltimore is assembled to consider a railroad over or through the Allegheny Mountains to Ohio for the purpose of handling certain cargo. Who is to build this railroad without horses? Let him testify. Mr. Thomas, rise. First, my most recent experiments definitely prove the possibility of steam power. We can't waste time with dreams of a madman. I tell you, gentlemen, the deed is ready to be performed that will startle the world and bring a great honor to our town of Baltimore. All in favor of allotting certain funds for a railroad, say aye. All opposed, say nay. Nay. Point of business pertaining to railroad hereby forever closed according to record. We now proceed. One moment. Is there no one here who can look farther ahead than his purse? Is there no one here with vision? Mr. Johns Hopkins did not ask for the floor. I have it nonetheless. Gentlemen, since the representatives of this town have not the courage to act, I propose to finance this railroad with my own funds and credit, which is very sound as you all may know. Well, Mr. Hopkins, since you feel so confident about the matter, perhaps... Perhaps we'd better reconsider. You're too late. Where's the inventor? Here, sir. You come to my office and we'll draw up the plans. You do believe that? I am certain. Certain that we'll have a railroad over or through the Alleghenies to the Ohio Valley. And it'll be my railroad, with stocks open to the general public, including yourselves, gentlemen. And it shall be called the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. And there'll be no rebates on tickets for members of this council. I knew I'd find you here, John. Elizabeth. Oh, it's good to see you. For these moments I wait for them. They told the crowd at the railroad celebration that you'd be late, but I knew you weren't coming at all. Why? Well, you see, I've been very busy... Oh, John, that's not the real reason. You're tired and you're ill. This cholera, John, you must be careful. Yes, I haven't been too well lately. But there's no time to rest, not for the great Johns Hopkins and his rapidly expanding enterprises. You're a success, John. Banker, a merchant, pioneer. Am I, Elizabeth? Oh, I think not. I think I'm just a lonely man. I'm like King Midas, you remember? I've touched everything into gold, but lost the flesh and blood. John, you're still fighting the world, you're still on the outside. You must come inside. There's a wall, I can't climb. You haven't found those other things yet, John, that lie in the people themselves. You think too much of your own disappointments. Think of the poor dying by thousands this very day right here in Baltimore with the cholera. I had planned for our own children. My fortune was for them, Elizabeth. Don't be bitter, John. You have given freely to all causes except to your own. What is my cause? What has the world given me to be grateful for? Nothing. It's denied me the two greatest things in my life. I lost my chance for education and... and I lost you. Why should I open my heart to this world? What's it given to me but gold? I tell you, Elizabeth, I have just cause to end my life this moment, for I failed. I failed in my own house and heart where no sunshine has entered. Elizabeth, I... John, what? Help me. What is it? What's the matter? I... I feel faint. John, you're ill. Hear ye, hear ye all citizens of the town. You shall keep your windows sealed from the plague and are urged to burn a quantity of feathers or to wear a tarred rope about the neck will also help this collar away. Hear ye, hear ye all citizens of the town. John, what are you sitting up for against the doctor's orders? Oh, I'm much better. I'm feeling fine, Elizabeth. Tell me, what are the bells ring for? The dead. This cholera has been far worse than all the others I remember. There's no room to house the sick and dying. Nurses and doctors are awfully scarce. And those who cannot pay? They've been put in camps outside the city, poor wretches. I'd die for the thousands. Well, Elizabeth, while I was dying I found I had things to live for. All my life I wanted to amass a fortune for ourselves, for our life that was never lived. But now I've learned that I must use that fortune so it'll not shame my ambition. Your ambition was always a brave one? No, but it was a selfish one. Now it's dedicated to the people who are poor, who lack medical care and attention. And to these people I now prepare to return and bear in gifts. Our gifts, Elizabeth. How many gifts, John? Many little ones, but two very big ones in honor of the human race, a hospital and a university. What do you say to that, eh? John, you've come back into the world stronger and braver. Well, it may take long years to get the building started, but like children they'll grow fast. Yes, John, our children, to belong to the world, Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital, forever and ever. I tell you, Elizabeth, I've found some pleasure even in thinking of death in a whimsical sort of way. I even carry my will with me now. Here it is. Here, read it, Elizabeth. Oh, go ahead, read part of it. And I give, devise, and bequeath my country place, known as Clifton, and all my shares and bank stocks owned by me at my death, and not only intended for the use of sick, poor, white persons, but for the use of sick, poor, colored persons. Oh, John. Yes, Elizabeth, I mean it to be that way. I'm so proud of you. And if I shouldn't live long enough to see my buildings, I'd like certain words inscribed over the door. What words, John? Well, these. If ye continue in my word, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The truth. Upon it rests the dream of Johns Hopkins, whose lifetime sorrow inspired him to create two of the world's greatest institutions for the progress and welfare of mankind. Our thanks to Carl Swenson and the Cavalcade players for their performance of the story of Johns Hopkins on the Cavalcade of America. And now DuPont brings you news of chemistry at work in our world. In the DuPont company, highly specialized, trained research scientists have been working now for many years. They have accumulated a store of facts and skills, what the technician calls know-how, with the result that manufacturers engaged in major projects of national importance at the present time come to DuPont for help in many problems. Since this is National Fire Defense Week, here are two instances of know-how and fire prevention. On one defense project, the workmen in the plant had to work near open flame. There was constant danger that someone's clothing might catch fire. DuPont experts, asked for their advice, suggested impregnating the workmen's overalls with ammonium sulfamate, DuPont's fire retardant. Clothing treated with ammonium sulfamate, for example a welder's jacket, will char but never burst into flame. Also because of its fire retardant qualities as well as its preservative value, lumber treated with DuPont's wood preservative, chromated zinc chloride, has been specified on a number of important defense construction jobs. In another field, a manufacturer of windshield wipers for automobiles and trucks was electroplating his wipers so they wouldn't rust. Something was wrong with the finish, and he was rejecting as many as 20,000 wipers a day on his production line. He asked DuPont for advice. A know-how change in his plating process cut rejections to less than a dozen a day. There are some problems of gigantic scope. The Delaware Aqueduct, under construction in New York State at the present time, involves the world's biggest tunneling job, so enormous that 14 separate contractors are handling it. These contractors needed a way to get fresh air down to the men in the tunnels, and they turned to DuPont for help. The Delaware Aqueduct tunnels have been provided with auxiliary ventilation through DuPont Ventube rubberized tubing. Ventube is so flexible that it goes around corners and up and down hills, and so light that one man can install an entire ventilating system with it in a few hours. A whole book could be written about the problem solved by Neoprene, DuPont's chemical rubber. An airplane manufacturer had trouble with his gasoline tanks. As you know, a plane carries its gasoline in its wings, and the wings are subject to terrific vibrations in the air. If vibration opened the seams of the gas tanks, that wouldn't be so good. Could DuPont help? DuPont could and did. Now the gasoline rides safely in neoprene bags inside the wings of the plane. Knowledge gained in one field often aids in solving a problem in another field entirely removed from it. Thus, the DuPont research chemist serves industry and serves you in a thousand unseen ways, as he works to bring you better things for better living through chemistry. And now the star of next week's program, Agnes Moorhead of the Cavalcade Players. Next week our play is about a mystery woman, the unofficial member of President Lincoln's cabinet. Her name was Anna Ella Carroll. She's little known in American history, yet Lincoln relied on her judgment in many of the critical moments during the Civil War. We hope you'll listen to Anna Ella Carroll's dramatic story on next week's Cavalcade of America. Music Supporting Carl Swenson tonight was John McIntyre as the uncle and Agnes Moorhead as Elizabeth. On the Cavalcade of America, your announcer is Clayton Collier, sending best wishes from DuPont. Music This is the National Broadcasting Company. Music
