I've got a makers of better things for better living through chemistry starring Melvin Douglas Tonight's DuPont cavalcade is called Citizen Strauss and here's our star Melvin Douglas Good evening our story is about a man who recognized a parallel to our nation His name was Nathan Strauss in the long struggle of enlightenment against ignorance and prejudice Here's is a story to remember With Melvin Douglas as Nathan Strauss our DuPont play starts in the year 1892 You want something boy? Are you the veterinary? Well that's what the sign says The name is Johnson. We want you out of the Nathan Strauss farm. Horses or cows? Cows. Holsteins or Alderneys? Alderneys. Which one? Princess. Oh fine cow princess What's the matter with her? She coughs Mr. Johnson. She does what? She coughs. Mr. Strauss says it's serious. Oh does he? Mr. Strauss a veterinary? You're a fooling. Everybody knows who Nathan Strauss is. Is he a veterinary? Why he's one of the owners of a big department store in New York. Yes but he ain't a veterinary. When it comes to cows I'll say whether it's serious or not. Alright let's go I heard her Mr. Strauss. She coughed. What do you think? Well cows are like humans. They can take cold. I'd say this is more than a cold. Yes might be that you're right But I saw this cow six or seven weeks ago. Tip-cop shape then. Oh that hurts you doesn't it princess. I tell you she's sick Johnson. Yes you're right. I don't like the sound of that Well not much you sure hanging around the barn. I'll stay with her Mr. Strauss. Now you go on up to the house. I'll do everything I can for her In the year 1892 on the farm of department store owner Nathan Strauss a pedigreed cow coughed. It was a sound that was to alter the pattern of a nation. For not many days later the cow died. Well being a man of inquiring mind Nathan Strauss ordered an autopsy. I brought you a piece of her lung tissue. Look at that Mr. Strauss. Disease? Tuberculosis. No question about it. Tuberculosis? Johnson I milked princess myself one day last week. I gave that boy a big dipper full of her milk. Arnold! There's nothing to get excited about Mr. Strauss. That milk was good. The cow died of tuberculosis. Oh that don't signify nothing. Milk is milk. Arnold! You calling me Mr. Strauss? Yes I am. Get your hat and coat boy. I'm taking you to Dr. Abraham Jacoby in New York for a medical examination. All right sonny that's fine. Put your waist down now. The boy looks fine Mr. Strauss. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with him. I can't tell you how glad I am to hear that Dr. Jacoby. I'll bring him again next month. That's a good idea but I think he'll stay well. You mean that the milk of a tubercular cow can't be transmitted to humans? That's what Robert Koch says. He discovered the tuberculous killers. What do you say? The medical profession agrees with Dr. Koch. Do you agree with Dr. Koch? I'm a member of the medical profession. But you refuse to agree don't you? I'm convinced that tuberculous milk is responsible for tuberculous children. I'm convinced dirty milk spreads other diseases. Can you prove it doctor? I have a filing case full of death certificates that will serve as evidence. Mr. Strauss of every three babies born today one baby will surely die before he reaches his fifth birthday. One out of three. Thirty three percent. I'd like to see those statistics. Don't Mr. Strauss. What good will it do you? I'd like to see them. You're a department store owner. You're a merchant not a physician. You think a merchant's conscience is smaller than a physician's? Here's a key. There's the filing case. I warn you Mr. Strauss you won't sleep tonight. If I were you I'd go back and run my department store. Come into my office gentlemen. It's quieter in here. Thank you. Now Mr. Strauss this is a busy store and you're a busy man so this committee doesn't want to take your time. You see. But Simpson if you came to the point you wouldn't take Mr. Strauss' time. Oh now don't rush me Mr. Strauss. This committee represents the majority of the people of the city of New York. That's just what I was saying. And Mr. Strauss we're asking you how you'd like to become a candidate for mayor. I beg your pardon. How would you like to run for mayor? But why me gentlemen? I'm not a politician. That's why Nathan Strauss is a good name. You're a philanthropist. You have a stable of famous racing horses. You run a good business here. You lead a clean life. People like you. We're asking you to be a candidate for mayor. That's very flattering. Well what's your answer? There's a sheet of paper on my desk with some figures on it. Last week within a radius of 12 miles from the city hall itself 1,036 people died. Mr. Strauss we're talking politics. Of that number 713 were children under five. 664 were babies under two years. Now Mr. Strauss I want to remind you we've come on a matter of great importance. 64% of those who died were babies under two years. Isn't that important? Of course it's important. Mr. Strauss we made you a proposition. You can be mayor of the city of New York. Now what's your answer? My answer is that the death of those babies was caused by tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria, cholera, scarlet fever, septic sore throat, and infant diarrhea. Before I accept a nomination for anything I've got to do something about that. Listen Mr. Strauss if I didn't know your reputation I'd say you had water on the brain. No you're quite wrong sir. I've got milk on the brain. And I'm going right out now and inspect every dairy farm in this county. Are you Mr. Lindsay? That's my name. What can I do for you sir? I was told that this dairy farm sends more milk to New York City than any dairy in the county. You've been told right sir. We've got a big establishment here. What number of flies? Where where you have cows and milk and manure there's always flies that goes together. I was watching your milkers. What about them? Don't they wash their hands before milking? What for? They only get them dirty on the cows. They could wash the cows. Look I don't know your name sir but if you came here to criticize. Mr. Lindsay how much do you want for this farm? Who are you? My name is Nathan Strauss. I want to buy your farm. It's the best one I've seen. But it's dirty. I want to make it clean. I'm not selling. Then sell me your milk. Well that's different. Under my terms. Ah what terms? Have every cow tested for tuberculosis? What for? My terms Mr. Lindsay. Scrub your barns, scrub your cows, scrub the hands and the fingernails of your milkers. Well it isn't the way things are done. My terms Mr. Lindsay. And I'm willing to pay for those terms. What do you get out of it? A demonstration that murder can be stopped. I'm convinced that I'm right Mr. Lindsay. And I'm ready to back up that conviction with every dollar I own. Dr. Jacobi. Come in, come in Mr. Strauss. Doctor I've just made arrangements to buy thousands of gallons of good milk. What I like about you is that you've got presumption. Well I'm going to be even more presumptuous. I've been reading about a Frenchman named Louis Pasteur. What about Pasteur? He's found that if you heat milk below the boiling point, heat it to a temperature of 150 degrees and keep it there for an hour or so, that the heat will destroy the germs in any liquid. Yes Mr. Strauss, that's correct. Well why can't I do the same thing with milk? Why not? Sterilized milk. No, pasteurized milk. You'll need technicians. I've already hired them. I've even bought a building and equipment. You'll need a medical staff. Dr. Freeman, Dr. Green, and Dr. Abraham Jacobi will be my medical staff. They've agreed. Do you Dr. Jacobi? I told you I like a presumptuous man. I've arisen an honest dairyman who won't be on my side once he realizes what we're after. But I'm thinking of my own profession. Nathan Strauss, you're not a physician. Neither is Louis Pasteur. Exactly. He hasn't been forgiven for it. He's considered an interloper. You'll be considered worse because you're not even a scientist. You're a businessman. Strauss, I hope I'm wrong, but something tells me the sky is going to fall on your head. You are listening to the Cavalcade of America starring Melvin Douglas as Nathan Strauss, sponsored by the DuPont Company, makers of better things for better living through chemistry. Our DuPont play continues as Nathan Strauss, a New York merchant in the year 1893, embarks on the work of philanthropy and education without parallel in the Western Hemisphere. Strauss began by calling a meeting of several dairymen. Gentlemen, I have no interest in being your competitor. My only business interest is my store. Well, people are going to be thinking that Nathan Strauss is out only for publicity. I'm not an issue. The issue is that one out of every three babies are born to die before they're five. The people are satisfied with things the way they are. I deny that. The people don't want milk from tubercular cows. All right. We'll have inspections of our herds. How frequently? Every four years, like now? Yeah, what's wrong with that? An inspection once in four years will do as much to make milk pure as a bath once in four years will do to make you clean. Strauss, you're going to antagonize a lot of decent people. As a friend, I warn you, you're going to come in for considerable abuse. Yeah, abuse doesn't kill, but raw milk will. Say, that's good. That's my slogan. Gentlemen, I'm sending my milk, clean, fresh milk, into the slums of New York. And if the mothers can't pay, I'll give it away. Strauss, how would you like to be president of the Board of Health? Oh, I'd love to, Mr. McLaren. What's the catch? Keep your nose out of milk? Attend to your department store? Who sent you, McLaren? I'd be a fool to tell you. Your business, Mr. Strauss, isn't milk. I'm supplying milk for 2,000 babies every day since I'm paying for it. Seems to me it is my business. In other words, you don't want to be president of the Board of Health. Oh, but I do, McLaren. But to save lives, not just for the honor of holding office, well, you have to see it my way. Convince me, Mr. Strauss. I'm a tough man to convince. All right, I will. But wait, do you mind if I talk to Mrs. McLaren this afternoon? Not at all. But I warn you, you'll find her just as tough as I am. Oh, come in, Tom. We have company. Mr. Strauss, I believe you've met my husband. Yes, I have. Mr. McLaren, may I present Dr. Abraham Jacoby, Dr. Arthur Randolph Green. Am pleased to meet you, gentlemen. Strauss, what is this? You asked to be convinced. Mrs. McLaren, will you convince your husband? Here. Tom McLaren, what do you see? You're in cahoots with him, Margaret? I am. What's in this picture, which I took out of my own ice box? What's in it? Milk. Who drinks it? The children. Tom McLaren, do you love your children? Margaret, there's some things I don't joke about. What are you trying to say? Your wife is trying to say that Dr. Green took a sample of milk from this picture and analyzed it. I did, sir. I then took a sample of the waste from the sewer on this street. Mr. McLaren, I found 1,126,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter of sewage. My kids do not drink sewage, Dr. Green. They drink milk. Cubic centimeter for cubic centimeter, this milk is contaminated by twice as many harmful bacteria as city sewage. Tom McLaren, have a glass of milk. I never touch this stuff. Have a glass of milk. Don't yell at me, Margaret. Dennis, John, Elizabeth, time for your milk, children. No, no, don't call the children, Margaret. Leave them be. How about all the women on this street? Right now they're pouring milk for their children. Milk that shows 2,359,000 bacteria to the cubic centimeter. Tom, we're not mothers. We're murderers. Mrs. Strauss, what do you want? I want permission from the Board of Aldermen to sell pasteurized milk at one cent a glass in every city park. What else do you want? I want a permit to triple the number of my experimental milk depots. What else? I want the right to go among the school children. If I can educate the school children, they'll educate their parents. And there's something else you haven't asked for, a job. President of the Board of Health. I want that job very much. And the mayor wants you. Mr. Strauss, why do you do it? It's costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars. Other people can afford it better than you, and they aren't helping you. One of them is. I'll tell you a secret, McLaren. When I began this work, Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan called me and gave me his personal check for $50,000. That's fine, but it must be costing you five times that. Why you? Mr. McLaren, most men who can afford it make their contributions to society after they die. I can't see it that way. Why should people profit more from my death than from my life? When I was a boy down in Georgia, my father once opened the Talmud and he read, What you give after death is lead. What you give in sickness is silver. What you give in life is gold. I'll remember that, Mr. Strauss. Yes, sir. And now I'll tell you something. What, McLaren? You've got an army against you. Don't ask me to tell you how I know. But look out. They're after you. There's a man here to see you, Mr. Strauss. Did the gentleman give his name? He did not, sir. And if you'll forgive me, he's not a gentleman. I resent that. I asked you to wait in the hall. I get lonely by myself. You, Nathan Strauss? I am. I got a summons for you for your arrest. McLaren was right. By the way, what's the charge against me? You are charged with willfully and maliciously contaminating and adulterating baby's milk. Does the defendant realize that it is a criminal offense to adulterate milk? I am aware of the city ordinance, Your Honor. And yet, Mr. Strauss, by your own admission, you caused milk intended for babies to be contaminated. Modified, Your Honor. Do not interrupt the court. You caused milk to be contaminated with foreign ingredients of a highly deleterious nature. The baby's milk was modified with barley water and malt, according to a formula of Dr. Abraham Jacobi. In other words, you plead guilty. Of trying to save baby's life. Mr. Strauss, you are contemptuous. The babies don't think so, Your Honor. I warn you, Mr. Strauss, you would be better advised to allow counsel to speak for you. Your Honor, I intend no disrespect to the court. But I would point out that someone is trying to intimidate me by using a court of law as a club. I don't intimidate, Your Honor. The facts are with me. The public welfare is with me. The evidence of science is with me. You're wrong. Science is against you. Has Dr. Smith arrived? Your Honor, Dr. Smith said he would be a half hour late. Oh, very good. The court declares a recess until such time as Dr. Smith arrives. Yes, Your Honor, that's the evidence of my own scientific investigations. When Mr. Nathan Strauss heats milk to destroy bacterial organisms, he destroys the bacteria all right, but he also makes the milk indigestible. Will Your Honor permit me to question Dr. Smith? Once again, Mr. Strauss, the court strongly recommends that you rely on counsel during this hearing. Counsel is a distinguished lawyer, but he doesn't know milk. I do. Proceed. Dr. Smith, you declare that pasteurization renders milk indigestible. I do, sir. You said also that pasteurization destroys the nutritive properties of milk. I've proved it. Oh? How, Dr. Smith? What proof? By the proof in my clinic. Your Honor, my clinic's crowded with babies suffering from scurvy and wreckage. Brought on, I charge, by the pasteurized milk distributed by this publicity-seeking medicine man. I didn't call you names, Dr. Smith. Well, we'll let that pass. If it pleases the court, may I be allowed to inspect the records in Dr. Smith's clinic? Your Honor, Nathan Strauss is not competent to inspect anything. He's not a physician. I do not ask only for myself, Your Honor. I ask for Dr. Abraham Jacoby and Dr. Arthur Randolph Green. The court so rules. Dr. Smith, the court orders you to make your records available to Dr. Jacoby and Dr. Green and to admit them to your clinic. Mr. Strauss, we've completed our examination of this clinic. Thank you, doctor. May we step into your office, Dr. Smith? Ah, you've taken more time than I have. All right, come in. Strauss, I want to say immediately that I refuse to talk to you. I deny your qualifications and your competence. How about Dr. Jacoby's competence and Dr. Green's? Dr. Jacoby, repeat to Dr. Smith what you found. Dr. Green and I studied your records and examined every baby in this clinic. We questioned each attending physician, each nurse. Dr. Smith, there is absolutely no substance to your charges, and Dr. Green will so testify in court. You may continue testimony, Mr. Strauss. Your Honor, since the inception of the pasteurization program, Dr. Green has carefully studied 20,111 slum babies who have been fed exclusively on pasteurized milk. Dr. Green, I ask you a question. Yes, Mr. Strauss. During the hot months of July and August, what has been your previous experience with slum babies? They die like flies in the thousands. From what diseases, Dr. Green? Milk-borne diseases, Mr. Strauss. Septic sore throat, infant diarrhea, typhoid. The death rate is enormous. And now, Dr. Green, will you tell the court how many babies fed with pasteurized milk have died this summer? Of 20,111 babies studied, only six died. You will kindly notice, Mr. Strauss, that this court joins in the applause for your work. Thank you, sir. Your Honor, gentlemen, what I've done, I've done as a citizen. But as the president of the Board of Health, I do say this. Laws will be passed. In our lifetime, we shall see the inspection of dairy cattle for tuberculosis made mandatory by law. We shall see pasteurization made mandatory by law. I don't deceive myself that these changes will be made easily or without opposition. But no good thing in history has ever been introduced without opposition. And now, if the court will excuse Dr. Green and me, we must leave. We have work. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Melvin Douglas. In the slums of New York in the 90s, before Nathan Strauss set up his milk stations, out of every 1,000 babies born, 241 babies died. Four years later, of more than 20,000 babies whom he'd fed, only six died. Do you want more evidence? Look in your baby's crib today. Why speak not as an actor, but as a father? How many of our children are alive because of the vision and the courage of this man? No physician, no scientist. A merchant who gave not only of his fortune, but of his heart to humanity. Nathan Strauss, another American to whom we are indebted for life. Next week, the DuPont Cavalcade will present another of your favorite Hollywood stars, Virginia Bruce. Our play is the remarkable story of Rose Knox, the First Lady of Johnstown, New York. Be sure to listen. Tonight's DuPont Cavalcade was written by Morton Wishingrad. Music was composed by Arden Cornwell and conducted by Donald Voorhees. The program was directed by John Zaller. The DuPont Cavalcade of America comes to you from the stage of the Belasco Theater in New York sponsored by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of better things for better living through chemistry. Next, hear Fanny Bryce's Baby Snooks on NBC.
