 The Cavalcade of America, presented by Jupots, a story of Jane Adams of Hall House, starring the great American actress Helen Hayes in the role of Jane Adams. This broadcast of the Cavalcade of America originates in the auditorium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the General Federation of Women's Clubs is holding its annual council meeting. And in dedication to all the women of America who have devoted themselves to the welfare of humanity, and with Helen Hayes, our star, Cavalcade pays tribute to the work of Jane Adams and the founding of her great social institution, the Jane Adams Hall House. In Mark contrast to the story of Jane Adams is the old story of King Midas, who made a wish that everything he touched would turn to gold. When the wish was granted, Midas at first thought himself a very wealthy man, until his food and drink and even his little daughter changed to gold at his touch. What is this thing called wealth anyway? Money has no value except for what it will buy. Real wealth consists of those things you can use and enjoy, those things which contribute to man's comfort and happiness. The fact is that the average American is better off than the things that constitute real wealth than were the richest men in the world a relatively few years ago. King Solomon, in all his glory, didn't even have a toothbrush. Last year, the University of Notre Dame, after studying the management of the household budget of the people of the United States, reported that man today as a result of science and invention is surrounded in his home by comfort unparalleled in the history of the world. Comfort for more people. The creation of real wealth, true wealth, by improving upon the gifts of nature, by creating new comforts for mankind from the forces that are found in the sunshine, the earth and the water. This is the dream and the practical day's work of the chemists who are toiling in DuPont and other laboratories. The products of chemistry are in the house you live in, your ice box, your radio, your automobile, the clothes you wear, the dishes on your table, the books you read. DuPont chemists have contributed plastics to make many things you use, paints and finishes to beautify and protect your home and much in it, better yarns for clothing, better dyes for fabrics and many other advancements that touch your daily lives. But the chemist is never satisfied. He knows that although we may think we're living in an age of wonders, it has really just begun. So as the chemist works, he thinks not only of today, but of the future and by so doing he helps fulfill the DuPont pledge better things for better living through chemistry. Helen Hayes as Jane Adams of Hull House in the Cavalcade of America. In the town of Cedarville, Illinois, one spring night in the late 1870s, a boy and a girl walked arm in arm down a quiet residential street. The boy's name was Charles Carlton. The girl was Jane Adams. At the door of a substantial red brick mansion, they paused for a moment and Jane extended her hand. Good night, Charles, and thank you for a delightful evening. I. Yes, Charles. Oh, nothing silly. There. Jane. Good night, Charles. Well, Jane, 11 o'clock. I know, Father, it is late, but it's such a lovely spring evening. You want me to tell you all about the party? You like that, Carlton shaft, don't you, Jane? If I marry Charles will be the man, Father. If you marry Jane. Oh, now, Father, don't try to rush me. You don't think I'm just a flirt, do you, Father? Why, of course I don't. I know you do well for that. In fact, I think I know what's on your mind now. What do you think it is, Father? I remember when you were a very little girl, Jane. We went for a walk through the section across the tracks. It was the first time you had ever seen the way four people lived. I remember the little houses and people, so many people. And there was a little puzzled frown on your face, like the one you're wearing right now. Oh, well, Father. Jane, you and I have been very close to one another since your mother's death. And I think I know what's best for your own good. You must give up these ideas, Jane. But I can't. I can't know that such injustice exists and not want to do something about it. Father, Abraham Lincoln was your friend. And I know you don't like to see such things any more than he would have. Abe Lincoln was a man. Oh. These things are not for women to concern themselves with. I have a better idea, Jane. How would you and Ellen like a trip to Europe this summer? Oh. And then, when you come back, if you still feel the same way about Carlton, we'll have a September wedding. A trip to Europe? Oh, Father, you are a darling. Well, I'll just pass my bedtime. Awake me in time to see you off to school. Oh, I'll be up early all right to tell Ellen. Oh, Father, I do thank you. I'm so happy about the trip. It's going to be such a wonderful adventure. Shall we get down, Mr. Adam? Oh, yes, of course. I want to see it all. Be careful there. Well, this is it. You might call it the senior side of London. Oh, Jane, the crowd, the people around those carts. Huched as carts. The poor come here to bid for food. Not a very pleasant sight, is it? Oh, the smell. That's not fresh food. And their hands. Why do they hold their hands up like that? Well, you see, they haven't the money to buy. So the dealer has thrown out a rotten cabbage once in a while to thin out the crowd. Oh, that's horrible. Thank God we have nothing like this in America. Young lady, have you ever been in Halstead Street in Chicago? Well, no. Well, Miss Adams, you'll see things just as bad as this in Halstead Street. Halstead Street, Chicago, 1883. Ugly and sprawling, its head in the shipyards and its feet in the stockyards. 32 miles of unreleaved squalor and misery. Poles and Slovaks, Italians and Irish, crowded together. A dozen to a house built for a family of three. It was the shapeless core of an America yet to be born. The America of the melting pot of races and nationalities. The America of the 19th century sweatshop and its ally, the Ward Healer. Well, Mr. Sillard, what's up? Just this, Regan. You run this ward. You know where this place's hull house is. What's it worth to kick that Adams woman and her crony out of it? What for? What's she doing to you? Stirring up trouble with the girls in my factory. She's got them coming to me as into her workless hours. They don't do no harm, does it? Well, I'm telling you, she's putting ideas in their heads. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting more money. They think they can live soft, hanging around hull house. Ideas, Regan. Dangerous ideas. Hey, he's right, boss. We're losing votes because of her, too. Why didn't you tell me that before, Calleran? Oh, honest, boss, I didn't know it was important. These two women move into hull house. Saloon on one side and Mamie Clarks on the other. We thought it was charity-like. But it ain't only charity. She's given them ideas, too, like Silla says. And then my ideas ain't doing us no good. How long has this thing been going on? Long enough. That's what the landlords are going to tell you, too. She's back at the tenants complaining about the rent and the stairways being broken. I get it. What I don't get is why. What does she care? She don't have to live down here. That's me, boss. All I know is she does care. Plenty. Listen. There's only one thing anybody really cares about, Calleran. And I figure she must be getting pretty low on cash. I think we can get her there. Sure, boss. All right. Send her a ton of coal, see? Fix her taxes or something. You know, get her on our side. Then we start suggesting things, huh? Won't work, boss. I'm telling you, we've got to get busy right now. Yeah, that's a big talk. With whom are you going to get busy, Mr. Calleran? Oh, why, Miss Adams, we were just talking about you. Hey, Joe, set up a beer for Miss Adams. Oh, no, thank you. I wanted to talk to you about a few problems in the neighborhood. Well, I'm the man to talk to you about that, Miss Adams. Oh? I know this neighborhood inside out. Do you really, Mr. Regan? I do. You know about the bales of oily rags stored in the basement of 2840 and the broken fire escape in the rear house of 2718? Do you know about the unquarantine cases of smallpox in Mr. Murphy's house? Well, in a city as big as Chicago, Miss Adams, and a section as crowded as this ward, everything can't be taken care of. I'm afraid I don't agree with you, Mr. Regan. In fact, I'd like to tell you about a plan I have. Why don't you come to Hall House tomorrow? Hall is willing to talk things over, Miss Adams. Good. Then I'll expect you. All right. I'm a thrush now. Good night, gentlemen. Good night, Miss Adams. Good night, Miss Adams. Well, if you go over up against bars, I do. But two can play at that game. And here's where I play the ace. Callahan, grab a hack and go down to the free press. Go to the front office. Tell the old man I sent her. Have you seen the morning papers? Well, I know, Charles. I didn't have time. Well, here is the ironically named free press. A front page editorial. And a cartoon of me. What a child. I didn't know Hall House was that important. Jane, that editorial means the end of Hall House. But how can it? It's addressed to the workers of this ward. Says you've been meddling in the affairs of the working people down here, and the employers are going to see they lose their jobs as a result. Oh. Jane, it isn't safe for you to stay here any longer. I've come to take you away. No, Charles. This is my home. And it isn't only my home. It's the home of those children in there. Don't you see? Jane, these people only understand one language, the language of stones and riots. You'll be injured physically if you stay on here at Hall House. Please come with me now. No, Charles. I won't. Jane, I'm warning you. You're heading for trouble. Trouble. Thank you, Charles. I'm not worried about myself. Yes, Ellen? You hear that noise? Yes. I wonder what it is. Jane, come to the window quick. What is it, Ellen? They're coming up Halstead Street. This way. Is it a parade? Well, I don't know. Very clear, Charles. I'll stick to your mealy-hine scheme in the very light if I go down from under our nose. Well, Mrs. O'Brien, you said yesterday that I was your friend. You told me that the Irish never turn on a friend. Do you remember that? Not on a friend the Irish won't turn. But, Anna, you don't have to mind your own business. Oh, why are we going to be here? What more are we going to be here? Yeah, we're coming here. Listen, you've got to listen to something someone has said. You've condemned me without a trial. Why? Why? Have I ever broken a promise to you? Please go to your homes now. They're home. Jane, listen. They don't want to be held. They want to be left alone. They didn't do this because they hate me, Charles. Not those people. They were led into it by the men who want to drive me out. Oh, I'm not through, Charles. I'll rebuild Hall House if it takes me the rest of my life. That's utterly impossible, and you know it. Charles. I'm sorry, Jane. Why don't you admit the obvious? The obvious, that's just what I do admit. These people need help. That's why there's got to be a Hall House. And everybody in town's laughing at you. Everybody, Charles? Jane. Charles, will you help me? Will you? All right, Jane. I will. If we could get support from the important people, Hall House needs friends now more than ever. Charles, you're a member of the Manufacturers' Association here? Yes. Would they let me talk to them? Could you arrange that, Charles? I could. Oh. Oh, yes, I see, of course. It would hurt you in their eyes if I came to them through you. I'll see that you'll get a hearing, Jane. I thank you, Charles. I know you'll never fail me. As association, the meeting will now be addressed by Ms. Jane Adams. Ms. Adams, please. Thank you. Gentlemen, when I first came to Chicago, I believed with Abraham Lincoln in the innate reasonableness of the common people. I also believed in the innate reasonableness of the employing class. I believed that if actual abuses were pointed out to them, they would do what was in their power to correct them. Ms. Adams, will you excuse the interruption? Certainly, Mr. Chairman. A question that Justin sent up to the chair. Ask Ms. Adams whom she represents. I represent Hall House. What does Hall House represent? It represents every man, woman, and child in the 20th Ward. It should, in turn, represent every man here. But it apparently doesn't. It certainly doesn't. Gentlemen, you don't have to try to make this experience any more painful than it is. What I want to say to you is this. One of the men in this room is working a 10-year-old child from 15 to 18 hours a day. What is he going to do about it? One of the men in this room is paying a child who is going blind, five cents a day to do fine sewing in a dark room. What is he going to do about it? One of the men in this room is heating a textile factory with oil stools. The floor covered with inflammable material. And there are 40 girls working in that factory. That's none of your business, Ms. Adams. Thank you for speaking up, sir. I asked you, what are you going to do about it? There are hundreds of factories like yours where girls are working under those dangers. What if a fire breaks out? If Ms. Adams wants fire escapes, why doesn't she go to the philanthropic real estate board? Oh, gentlemen, gentlemen, this is America. I can't believe that you, with every advantage, can be so short-sighted, so even cold blooded. People are starving. Well, Ms. Adams, when it comes to charity, I don't think you'll find it as cold blooded as you think. I move gentlemen, the association advances Ms. Adams to check as an indication of our cooperation. Say a check for $100. Yes, I will. I thought any intelligent person would see my point. I'm afraid I was mistaken. I see you misunderstand me, gentlemen. Goodbye. Jane, you're back early. They simply won't listen. Ellen, how much money have we left? What's the balance? Oh, it's all right. Ellen, I want to know. Well, Jane, we haven't any money. Not a penny. But Ellen, what about that Russian woman? She stopped the check. Brightened by the publicity. Terrible things the papers have been saying. Yes, they'll all be the same way, I guess now. It's no use, Ellen. We've done everything we can. Hall House is closing. There's a gentleman outside to see you, Ms. Adams. All right, have him coming. This way, sir. And thank you, Ms. Adams. I'm a member of the Manufacturers' Association. I heard you speak at the meeting. Oh, I remember. You with a friendly face. You see, I knew what you were talking about. I was born in this neighborhood. It was most discouraging. Well, it needn't have been. I've got you some friends. And here are their calling cards. Chicks. But enormous chicks. And that's just the beginning. Every decent businessman in Chicago, and there are a lot of them, is going to be rooting for you by the time I get through with them. Then we'll start on the politician. Oh, yes. You're so very good. This will help so much. Well, they don't know it yet. But I've already made out their next month's checks, except for the signatures. And they're for double these amounts. Ellen, wake up, wake up. There's a fire somewhere. Fire? Yes, get up, Ellen. Come look. Guys, it's all red. You know what it is? No. It's so especially. Get your clothes on, Ellen. I'll call a handsome cab. We're going out there. Stand back, everybody. Keep outside the road there. I'm Miss Adams, the Polar House Officer. Won't you let me go clean? I'm sorry, Miss Adams. My orders ought to make no exception. The building's due to crash any minute now. But it's fire, and they're not doing anything. They're just standing there. Well, there ain't nothing they can do, lady. Them girls are out of their misery now, anyway. All right, everybody. Move away now. Quick, keep getting away. Good morning, Miss Adams. May I come in? Yes, I was expecting you. You read about the terrible tragedy. It's still a factory. Yes. Forty girls, burned to death. It's shocking, Miss Adams. Shocking. Yes, Mr. Regan. It must never happen again. We must find out who's responsible. Not always easy to do that, Miss Adams. Start an investigation. Somebody must go to prison for this. We've got to make an example. Siller, of course. But you can't always pin things on people. No, I suppose not. Just the same somebody's going to take the blame for this. Well, I'll certainly use all my influence to help you there. Mr. Regan, I was there last night. Oh. I had the fact. I saw that fire hose break. Why did it break? Because it was no good. Who pocketed the money that would buy a good one? You did. Wait a minute now. I saw firemen struggling with a ladder that wouldn't work either. You had taxpayers' money to equip that firehouse. You didn't. Now look here. You were responsible for the death of those girls. You got a wrong slant on this whole thing, Miss Adams. If I thought there was one word of truth in what you say, I'd spend the rest of my days making it right. You're going to start by handing in your resignation. Mr. Siller is going to start by going to prison. And there's going to be a change in Chicago, Mr. Regan. I'll see these people won't have to suffer much longer. There's going to be a law to protect the working people of this state from greed and selfishness and the designs of those who are laughingly called their betters. The labor bill is ready for your signature, Donna. Very well. I'll sign it now. Well, Miss Adams, you should be very proud today. I want to congratulate you, Governor, and thank you for all the help you've given me. I congratulate you, Miss Adams. You are really the one who is responsible for these new laws regulating labor in Illinois. President Roosevelt, we'll see you now, Miss Adams. Will you come in, please? Thank you. Miss Adams, she's delighted to meet you. Thank you, Mr. President. So you think women should have the vote, eh? Yes, Mr. President, I do. And I think all America will be feeling that way soon. Have you been a suffrage that long, Miss Adams? Voting is a human right for everybody, Mr. President, and for human rights, always, sir. Well, Miss Adams, I haven't quite made up my mind. There are some bully good arguments in favor of it, all right? Of course, you are one of the best arguments yourself. What is it? The report is here outside. Shall I have them for me? Oh, yes, oh, yes, by all means. Just wait for me. Well, well, how do you do? Miss Adams, we came down here to Hall House to congratulate you on your birthday and get an interview, too. Well, no special wisdom comes at 70. I think it can only be secured through adjustment to a changing world. How about women in politics, Miss Adams? Oh, I'm in favor of them. Women bring a necessary understanding to humanitarian problems. I suppose it's because they're closer to them. I think their viewpoint will improve living conditions all over the country. Any statement on your women's international league for peace and freedom, Miss Adams? Well, that's what interests me most, especially now. A world education for peace. We must continue to unite all our efforts in that direction. It is the only way we will ever be able to have a permanent peace in the world. Ladies and gentlemen, the minister from Sweden, Miss Jane Adams. Miss Adams, my sovereign has bestowed on me a great honor. It is awarding to you the great accolade of the people of Sweden. You are being awarded this tribute in their name. For, like you, they are dedicated to the principles of peace among nations. Therefore, Miss Adams, I award you in the name of Sweden the Nobel Prize for Peace. Thank you. I receive this award for all men and women who find in service to their fellow man the highest expression of God. No one stands alone in the battle for human rights. Progress is not automatic. The world grows better because people wish that it should and take the right steps to make it better. It is only in sharing the sorrows of humanity that we know the full joy of possessing our whole humanity. For all stand equal in the shadow of the grave, wherein no man calls his brother Lord or Master. So are we lifted up together above our petty differences into an encompassing sense of unity. The cavalcade of America honors the great kind spirit of Jane Adams of Hull House. Thank you, Helen Hayes. And now we present Mrs. Sadie Orr Dunbar, president of the General Federation of Women's Club. On behalf of the General Federation of Women's Club, I wish to express our appreciation to the DuPont company, to Miss Hayes, Dr. Monahan of Yale University, and all who have shared in making this occasion a memorable one. We are particularly grateful that this evening's program honored the great humanitarian Jane Adams, founder of Hull House. We at the General Federation find added inspiration in the thought that we share a 50th anniversary with Hull House and have received renewed faith in our own slogan, adjusting democracy for human welfare and the inspiring story we have heard tonight of one of the greatest women of all times, Jane Adams. Thank you, Mrs. Dunbar. And here is the cavalcade of America's historian, Dr. Frank Monahan of Yale University, who will tell us about next week's program. Next week, cavalcade brings you a musical picture of a vanished era, the glamorous and lively days of the 90s, when Midwestern America, robust, colorful, and romantic, typified the dynamic maturity of a powerful and full-grown nation. Then there was a fabulous and carefree life in the Mississippi, the days of the river steamboats, the sidewheelers and the sternwheelers, the melodies, and the tears and the laughter of the old river showboat. In the American theater, the great musical play, showboat, has already become a tradition. Next week, cavalcade of America will present showboats with music by Jerome Kern, a book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, second, and found on the novel by Edna Ferber. Our listeners tonight will be interested to know that a motion picture on the life of Jane Adams of Hall House, starring Irene Dunn, is soon to be produced by Charles R. Rogers of Columbia Pictures, to whom we are deeply grateful for cooperation and research in preparing our broadcast. The orchestra and the original musical effects in the cavalcade of America are in the direction of Don Vorri. In closing, we would once again like to invite all of our listeners to visit Dupont's Wonder World of Chemistry exhibit at the World's Fair of New York, where you can see firsthand some of the many things chemistry is creating for better living. This is Basil Riesdale saying, best wishes from Dupont.