 The DuPont Cavalcade of America, starring Cornel Wilde. Good evening. This is Cornel Wilde. Tonight, Cavalcade transports us to the great American plains, where dust is a villain, and the young man fighting it runs head-on into trouble and romance. But before we go there, here's Bill Hamilton of the DuPont Company. Thank you, Cornel Wilde. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. How does your car look today? A little shabby, perhaps? Does it need touching up? Maybe a complete paint job is called for. In either case, your classified telephone directory under the heading DuCo Refinishing will lead to the refinisher nearest you. Phone him or drive around to his shop. Let him check your needs and give you an estimate. Whether he paints your entire car or just touches up the bad spots, ask him to use DuPont DuCo factory-matched colors, colors scientifically mixed to accurately match the color of any car. DuPont DuCo lacquer finish for automobiles is among DuPont better things for better living through chemistry. And now, the black duster, starring Cornel Wilde as young Dave Hammer on the DuPont Cavalcade of America. The dust bowl in the dry wind, the parched and powdery dry plateaus, and the hot sky. A windmill, a silo, a tractor broken and abandoned, a barn and a banging door, and all the land gray in the dust. As a farmer despondently stares at an empty, walker-in problem. Okay, okay, ma. Old Dave Hammer's bone tired of trying to make things grow in this dry shifting dust. Ma's worn out from trying to keep her house clean. Even the kitchen isn't safe this spring morning when the wind seems to be picking up the entire dust bowl and blowing it right into Ma's batch of oatmeal cookies. Here, Pa, taste this cookie better. I can't tell how anything is with my new teeth. Pull a grid. Off-hand, I'd say it tastes pretty much like her own topsoil. Oh, now, Pa, I'm serious. So am I, and I don't like it. The way the wind's rising. I think Darlene will make it to the station. Sure, and Dave will drive coming home. Well, they'll be all right. Fine thing. A kid eats boarding house fiddles all year, comes home from college for a bite of his mother's cooking and what's he get? Dirt. Not to make a man stop and consider. Consider what? Well, look, Ma, let's just take the realistic view of this thing for a minute. Now, we could sell this place, buy a piece of land, maybe further west. They tell me the fruit growers are making big money out there. It seems to me I've heard that song before. Well, can I help it if all of a sudden just like that it stops raining and the drought sets in? These here plains are green and pretty when we come here. Somehow you didn't mind the wind. Well, it's gotta rain again sometimes. Yes, but when? I want little Dave to have a real chance. If he marries Darlene, how's he gonna manage any better than we've been doing? Dave, you'll find a way to manage. Just you wait and see. Lee, how are you, honey? Oh, you look great. Davey, gee, you've grown another foot. Oh, I'm so glad you're home. Yeah, it's home all right. Got a mouthful of dirt the minute I stepped off the train. Oh, it's been absolutely awful. You must have read about the storm we had Thursday. Yeah, I got the tail end of it up north. Looks like we're in for another one. Oh, you're not kidding. We'd better hurry. It gets so black you can't see your nose. Okay, come on. How's the Jalopy running? Fine as far as I know. But your paws have the dickens at the time with his tractor. Dirt in the muller. I bet he's been cussing the blue streak ever since. He hasn't repeated himself once. Oh, here we are. You've been around helping Ma? Oh, thank you so much. Go on, Ma wrote me. You've been a wonderful neighbor. Well, since the hired hand in his wife's life has been pretty hard on your folks. That's one reason your paw wants to pull out. Pull out? What are you talking about? Wasn't the car going to start? Oh, she's just getting used to my touch again. She'll start. Come on, Susie gal. Oh, look, Dave, over to the south. That's the way it was last Thursday. Like a big twister. Well, if Susie doesn't double-cross this, we'll make it home. Now, what's this about Pa wanting to leave? Oh, he's not the only one. Everybody around here is thinking about it. The wheat crop's bound to be poor. Yeah, so they all just want to clear out and call it a bad job. Oh, I'm sure I do. I'm so sick of going around with a dirty face all the time. I feel absolutely like I was down in a coal mine. Well, honey, you grew up in Babylon Springs. It's home. I'll take Hollywood, California. You're just kidding yourself. The minute you left here, you'd be so homesick you'd be heading back on the next bus. I would not. I agree with Pa, Hammer. You mustn't let him talk into that grass as greener on the other side of the fence stuff. He's had itchy feet ever since I can remember. Oh, my goodness. Are you blind? Any place would be greener than this. Maybe right now, darling. But I learned some things at school that kind of changed my ideas. Science has begun to take an interest in the farmer. Science? Oh, what could a kid like you learn about it in two years of school? My dear girl, on the campus, we do not refer to college men as kids. Oh, we don't. Well, you may be bigger than your Pa, but around here you're still little, Dave, and don't you forget it. Well, you always did like it. They could start John and me didn't, Johnny. Oh, Dave, put your headlights on. It's coming. Oh, gee, can't we go any faster? Well, you and I might, but I think we better stay with the car. Come on, Susie Gal. Don't let a little thing like a black dust to break your spirit. Sound like you're enjoying it or something. My girl, the true scientific mind enjoys nothing more than to be challenged by and to grapple with insurmountable difficulties. Well, you can go ahead and grapple. I'll take Hollywood. I wish they'd get here. Not much use looking out the window for them. Can't see as far as the barn. Maybe I ought to go see if the cows are all right. Now, don't you go out in it, Pa. They ain't any worse off than we are. Oh, cuss it. What's the use of having a farm if I got to stay inside all day and watch my fields just get picked up and blown away? You're always talking about being overworked. Relax. Why don't you better stand in there by the window? Oh, look, there's headlights out there. They were coming towards the house, but they stopped. If they're stalled, I better go try to get them. Pa, I'm scared. Now, don't you worry, Mother. Just hold down the porch. I'll manage. Little Dave. Son, is that you? What way is it, Pa? Over here. Can you tell the direction of my voice? I can. We'll make it all right, okay? That's your face covered up? There we are. Hello, son. Oh, Pa. Gosh, I'm glad to see you. You two hurry and get in the house quick. All right. I better go look at the cows while I'm out. Okay, Pa. Oh, Ma, it's good to be home. God is good to see you. Here, here's some wet towels. Wipe your faces off. Did you get your eyes bad, darling? I hope I never have to live through another one of these awful things. I'm going to get away from this dust bowl if I have to hitchhike. Pa's talking that way, too, David. So I hear. Well, maybe you'll all change your minds when I tell you what I've got planned. It's something I learned at college and it's going to help us all. I know these storms are awful, but they might be so destructive that people have been using the land right. Oh, bunk. Well, I mean it. Everybody plowing up the sod, planting the wheat everywhere. The topsoil is loose. The wonder of the wind comes along and blows it away. What are you talking about, David? He's got a scientific mind now since he went to school. Well, do you think I went just to have a good time? Of course you didn't, son. The farmers just get together and plan. We might beat the wind. The best way I know to beat it is get away from it, like Sam Webb and the Marshall family. Clearing out of here all 15 of them, even my own hired man. And did you ever stop to think that leaving the loose soil untended is one of the reasons why we have dust? So what? We can't keep everybody else here? And I sure ain't fun to deserts. That's what the section's turning into. Oh, Pa, now please give me a chance. When you let me go off to college, we agreed that I was to bone up on all the new ideas so we could make a go of the farm. I've thought all along you were behind me on it. You can use your new ideas out west just as well. Not on somebody else's farm. You own this land. After a lot of years, you've got a home. I want you to keep it. Home? A pile of dust. And all the college graduates in the world can't make farmland out of it. I work all my life, and what do I get for it? Sand. Don't build thy house on sand. Build it on a rock. Says that in the Bible. Well, it's in there. Read it to yourself. Pa, the barn door. Gee, hot of it. I must have left it unlocked. Well, I'll go try to shut it, Pa. No, you're too late. It's ripped off clean. My dingy's the whole side of the barn. The wind's taken it along with everything else. Well, maybe I can do something. Maybe nothing. You stay here. And my mind's made up. We're heading west the minute I sell some poor sucker this patch of desert paradise. You are listening to the Black Duster, starring Cornel Wild as young Dave Hammer on The Cavalcade of America. Sponsored by The Depaunt Company, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. Well, the wind has gone for a little while. The great cloud of black dust finally spent itself. And in the Babylon Springs barbershop, the farmers are comparing notes on the damage to their fields and homes. Yep. And it must have been a foot, foot and a half deep on the kitchen floor. Well, it's a living breeze. Little Davey Hammer. Hiya, hi, Pa. Good to see you all. Grewed up another yard, yard and a half, didn't you? How's your pa like looking up at you? When can you take me, Joe? Trim. Trim. About half hard, Davey. Soon as I shave Georgie here. Hey, did you learn anything up that school kid setting how to bend your elbow? Hope they learned him how to conjure up some rain. Yeah, I learned lots of things. You know, they had an experimental farmer. Oh, yeah, don't say. I suppose they told you what to do when your grains gouged out by a dust of roots and all. Uh-huh. I learned some about how to prevent it happening. Yeah. What do we do? Plant it upside down? Yeah. Say, I got a better idea. We just get ourselves a great big pipe about a mile, a mile and a half wide and let the wind blow through a whoosh right down to the goal. Well, you're not so far off at that, Elmer. You know, if we could all get together, put in deep fur as crosswise to the wind, we'd have some protection against the blowing. Huh? I don't get it a little, Davey. I hope I could only show you. Wait a minute, I got it. Here's George all lathered up. Now, let's say his face is your wheat field, see? I see, but Georgie ain't gonna like it much. Okay, now, we've got to work out a long-range plan for contour farming. In the meantime, we have to take emergency measures. Now, the lather here is the topsoil. Now, I run my finger through it to make rough furrows like this. What is this? Not quite, George. I march the stubble, and this feels like plenty of stubble to work with. You're not kidding, Davey. All right. So you're doing your rough plowing and your stubble mulching now. How long is that gonna last in a big blow? Well, that's where the planting comes in. From now on, we ought to be planting George's jaw here to grain sorghum, instead of putting wheat on the whole side of his face. We plow our furrows around the hills like this. Yeah, cut it out, that tickles me. You talked all this over with Big Dave, Sonny? Well, I'm afraid he doesn't go for it much, but he might if the rest of you did, especially if you could take a gander at George's face here. Well, your father's been having a pretty rough time of it with nobody to help him. You can't blame him for getting discouraged. Well, of course I don't, but I want to see him and all the rest of us put up a fight for our land, the homes we've built. Looks like we're gonna need a powerful big slingshot to whip this Goliath, little David. See, that ain't bad, and I thought it up myself. No, that's pretty good. Except the Goliath I'm after isn't only wind and dust. It's our fear that fighting him won't do any good. That we're late before we're even started. I still don't see what this here rough plowing is gonna do for us. All right, look. Now, George's nose here is the... It's the side of a hill. If I plow crosswise to the wind, hey, Joe, put some more lather on it, will you? All right. No, you don't. I stood about enough of this. Just cause my face looks like the Badlands don't mean I'm gonna stand for having it plowed up. What's that kid of yours up to, Hammer? Going around talking everybody's arm off about contour plowing. Can't make head or tail out of it. He's just a mate too big for his britches. You know how kids are. You was pretty riled up about it, though. Well, I am, and I ain't. He knows how I feel about staying here, but he went ahead anyway, hooping and hollering to everybody about science. He'll come too when he sees they ain't paying no attention to him. I heard he's gonna try to get some money from the government. You mind saying that again? I said Little Dave's talking about getting some money from the government. I don't believe it, Hickman. My boy wouldn't do no crazy thing like that. Go ask him yourself. You don't want to take my word. Charity. I think he's no son of mine's gonna put me where I got a bag while I'll quail the tar out of him. Oh, wait a minute, Hammer. Pardon now, my Wilkes. This ain't like Charity at all. It's begging for money, ain't it? I may be no great shakes as a provider for my family, but I'm telling you, I'll run my jalopy to Timbuktu if I have to before I'll take a handout. And if you see that smart aleck kid of mine around here yammering to people, you can tell him I said so. Blackberry pie, Pa? No, much obliged. Now, these put up last fall. The boy there's something. Pa's favorite, I don't know why he don't eat. I ain't hungry, that's all. Where's me eating, tobacco? In your pocket, there on the sewing machine and in the cupboard, and don't you dare touch that bottle? No, what's the use? A man can't call his soul his own around here. Oh, now look, Pa, if you'd only let me explain what we're trying to do. All I know is my own son comes home and tries to take over, tries to put the Hammer family on the dole. On the dole? What are you talking about? You thought I wouldn't get wind of your shenanigans trying to get money, huh? Now, Pa, that money wouldn't be for us personally. It's for gas for the tractor so we could work three, maybe even four sections. Tom Bullock over at the Soil Conservation Office will show us how. It's a test. It's to help everybody around Babylon Springs, don't you see? Well, I see things realistic, and that's more than you do. Well, give me a chance, won't you? Sure, I will. I'll just clear out and soul your mother and I'll bet even Darlene. You can have the whole place to yourself. No, it can't be that way. We've got to stick together. Stick together? Well, not me. I'm even ashamed to show my face around town. Well, all right, Pa, I won't ask the government for money. We'll do it on our own. Well, there's a meeting tomorrow night and I'll put it up to the boys. It'll be tough going, but... Well, I figure if my idea is any good, lack of money won't stop it from working. As I look at it, we can get a pretty good start without any extra money if we pool our gas and tractors. We can use your gang, Pa, Elmer. Deep furrow each field according to the contour. Or in other words, against the wind. Then go on to the next. How about it, boys? What happens to the wheat when we furrow right through it that way? Well, we're bound to cut down some. I eat that as much as you. We've got to improvise wind breaks or we'll lose the whole crop. I still don't savvy how furrow is going to stop the wind. Well, it's just temporary. We'll have to start conserving the land right from now on. So we'll be prepared for these dry spells. The furrows will help hold the dust that keeps knowing away at our wheat. They'll lay there instead of blown over the top. Oh, it will, will it? Oh, Pa, sit down and hear me out. What do you please? Are you going to stand there with printed directions from the college and tell the dirt where to fall? Oh, please, Pa, Hammer, sit here with me. I ain't sitting down. I got the floor now and I'm going to find out how many friends I really got. Now, nobody's against you. We're all in this together. This is a country where old methods and new ideas can't work together. That's what made us great. And what'll make us lick this or any other problem? We can all do something, don't you see? Yes, we can make up a caravan heading west as soon as the wheat's in or we can get a breath of clean air. Now, how about it, boys? Let's look at this thing realistic. You're going to stay and wait for the dirt to fall down in Dave's furrows? Or are you coming with me? Well, I guess we'll find out. Well, I reckon I'll stick around a while and give little Dave's scheme a whirl. Me too. Yeah, I guess a whirl too. Only you three out of the whole darn bunch. Well, I guess that proves something. How about you, Darlene? You want to come along with Mother and me? Oh, I'd like to go. Sometimes, sure I would. But right now, well, I've changed my mind. I'm going to stick with Davey. OK, Darlene, that's your business. And what Dave does ain't my business any longer. But if any of you die hard, think you're going to bring a plow onto my land. You got another thing coming. All right, come on, boys. Let's get out of here. Don't, Dave. Let him go. Why does he have to be so stubborn? Because stubbornness runs in your family. That's why. If you weren't stubborn, too, would you be trying to fight a battle all by yourself and loving that paw of yours so much it hurts? And, oh, gosh, would I like you one smittering as much as I do? Of course not. Oh, gee, honey. Come on, we're wasting time. You've got a lot of details to talk over. If you and the boys are going to start furrowing in the morning. Hey, darn good time so far, Elmer. Yeah, better than I figured. Now, we better get a move on now after we want to finish. Yeah, the wind's getting worse. Now, wait a minute. There's big Dave. Hey, it looks mighty sore, sonny. Maybe he meant what he said last night. Oh, you're not kidding. Well, stop here, boys. I guess I better go over. Oh, okay, kid. Now, Pa, the law's worried sick about you. Where have you been? I've been minding my business and my land, scientist. And I figure I'll go on minding it. Well, there's another dusty coming up. We've got to... You're not bringing them tractors past my property line. Now, look, what's the harm in trying... I got a little wheat left. You ain't running no furrow soot. Now, Pa, I'm not trying to fight you. No? Well, bring them flowers past this line and see what happens. Oh, look, Hammer, you got to give the kid a chance. This is a free country. I don't got to do anything. Of course you don't. That's the way you want to be, but it seems to me your boy's got a little bit of slant on things. He's thinking about all of us. I don't know what call you got to mix up into this, Wilkes. Now, please, Pa, we can't ever be against each other. That's a funny one. What do you call this? Well, it's crazy. We're after the same thing. We just have different ways of going about it. That's all? Bring them factors past here and you'll find out what my way is. Well, it seems to me your way has never brought us anything but misery. You can't stick to anything. Ever since I can remember, we've been moving around from place to place because you were sure we were going to get rich in some land of promise somewhere. You've been kiddin' yourself all your life, Pa. And this time I don't aim to let you kid me. I'm grown up now and you can't leave me around by the nose anymore. I'll learn you to talk that way to me. Pa! That's the way you want it. Dave. Davey, I... I don't know what come over me. I'm sorry I did that, sir. Oh, that's all right, Pa. Well? What are y'all standin' around for? You wanna tear up my land, don't ya? I said, what are you waitin' for? Right, dingies? You gonna let a crazy old man stop ya? Go ahead, boys. I'll be there in a minute. All right, Daddy. All right, Daddy. Pa, if that big idea yours is gonna work now's your chance. Go on, go on, get busy, the wind's comin' up. Well, maybe if he went back to the house, Ma's worried. Come on, Dave. I'm stayin' right where I'm standin'. Now will you get? All right, Pa, sure. Sure I will, and thanks. I think we better stop for now. Get into windy. Okay, kid. As long as we got this field done. Yeah, we better get on home while we still can. What about you, Pa? We're goin' back and find him. Well, he wouldn't have stayed out in this just to be on him. Well, I don't know, and I'm worried. Oh, we understand, kid. You did the best you could. So long, Davey. This custer oughta prove somethin'. Yeah. Maybe you're gonna knock Goliath for a loop yet. Yeah, well, so long. So long. Thanks, fellas. Donna, you shouldn't have stayed out. I had some thinkin' to do. Well, this looks like it'll be the worst we've ever had. I'm gonna be out of a mind. I was watchin' this here furrow you and the boys plowed up. Oh, that's only a beginning. It may not mean anything yet. It means somethin' to me. Look, it's fillin' up with dust, just like you said it would. And the wheat's still standin'. Well, sure it is, but we'll have to keep plowing once, isn't enough? That's good rich dirt. Maybe we'll get a rain one of these days. Soak it down. That's right, Pa. Look at that. Wheat's still standin'. Bye, dingy. Come on. Let's go home, little Davey. Okay, Pa. Your mother and Darlene must be while worrying about us. You all right? Me? Well, sure I'm all right. Well then, come on. Don't stand there grinnin' like a young billy goat. You know, little Dave, lookin' at this thing realistic, I figure we got a lot of work to do after this storm's over. Yes, by dingy's a lot of work. Once again, here's Bill Hamilton of the DuPont Company. Just by glancing at that cigarette, cigar or pipe you're smoking, if you smoke, it's hard to realize all the watchful care that goes into growing tobacco. Tobacco is an important American business. Two billion pounds were grown here last year. Tobacco is an income crop for farmers in 21 of the 48 states. Growing good tobacco is a highly specialized, highly scientific business. From the time the seed beds are first prepared until the auctioneer cries sold, growers must follow a careful program which has been developed through years of research at agricultural experiment stations. In this program, DuPont Chemical Research helps to bring about greater yields of higher quality tobacco. In the spring, after the plants come above the ground, they're often threatened by a deadly fungus disease called blue mold. Blue mold can wipe out a whole crop of tobacco plants. So to protect the young plants from blue mold, growers use DuPont Firmate Fungicide. For the flea beetle, which also attacks the young plants, they use DuPont Denate DDT. Tobacco plants in the field need plenty of nitrogen for a high quality leaf. DuPont Uraman Nitrogen Fertilizer helps to meet this need. And at the same time, DuPont Insecticides control harmful insects like the hornworm and budworm. These products of chemical science, which mean a more fragrant, high quality leaf in the warehouses when market time rolls around, are hidden values in your cigarette, your cigar, your pipe tobacco. DuPont Firmate Fungicide, Denate DDT, and Uraman Nitrogen Fertilizer are among DuPont's better things for better living through chemistry. Next week, Cavalcade presents the celebrated star of stage and screen Dorothy Maguire in No Greater Love, an original radio play based on the story of Clara Moss, a nurse and her patient, and their love that was stronger than death. Be sure to be with Cavalcade next week for this moving, emotional drama starring Dorothy Maguire. Tonight's O'Reilly News is coming to you with the story of Dorothy Maguire. Tonight's original DuPont Cavalcade, the Black Duster, was written by Virginia Radcliffe. Cornell Wild will soon be seen in the 20th Century Fox production, Walls of Jericho. Featured in tonight's play with Cornell Wild was Rosemary Rice's Darlene, Irene Hubbard as Ma Hammer, and Cameron Prudhomme as Pa Hammer. Music was composed by Arden Cornwell and conducted by Donald Brown. Ladies and gentlemen, this month of March is the month for the annual fund drive of the American Red Cross. As we all know, this organization exists only to serve humanity, and it depends on us. Help the Red Cross help others by contributing as much as you can to this annual drive. This is Ted Pearson inviting you to listen next week to No Greater Love starring Dorothy Maguire. Cavalcade of America is presented each week from the stage of the Longacre Theatre on Broadway in New York, and is brought to you by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. This is NBC, the national broadcasting company.