 presents Robert Stack and Jean Lockhart. From Hollywood the Mutual Network in Cooperation with Family Theatre presents These Thy Gifts starring Robert Stack. To introduce the drama here is your host Jean Lockhart. Thank you Tony LaFranco. Family Theatre's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that has to become an important part of our lives if we are to win peace for ourselves, peace for our families, and peace for the world. Family Theatre urges you to pray, to pray together as a family. And now to our drama These Thy Gifts starring Robert Stack as Joe. In the beginning man saw that he had dignity and a great hunger and a great thirst. For his dignity demanded freedom and his freedom demanded the choosing of his own destiny, his own government. And for this he lived and died through a million generations seed upon seed from the beginning of the world to the crossing of the last Korean River. And his thirst will never be quenched and his hunger will never be satisfied. Dear mom and dad, for the first time in a month I have a chance to write you. It isn't much of a chance so I hope you won't mind if I have to sign off suddenly and say goodbye. The fighting has been pretty tough all along this front and our unit may be called up again any minute. I'm sitting in what's left of the town's only hotel. I look up from the littered desk I'm writing on and look straight down the town's main street. The view is perfect because more than half of the hotel's front wall has been blown away. A burned out enemy tank is lying on its side in the gutter about half a block away. Two ragged children are approaching it cautiously wondering. Don't imagine that just because I haven't written I haven't been thinking of you because even in a crazy place like this there are plenty of things to remind a guy of home of things he used to do things he didn't do but wished he had like yesterday. I want to tell you about yesterday. I was coming out of the supply tent when I ran into Sam Everett one of my buddies. Hi Sam, what dips? Where you been Joe? I've been looking for you. Mail call. Mail? Gen U Y and United States mail. From home. For gosh sakes, why don't you say so? Some comedian. I walked then I ran up the main street across what was left of the local car barn then up to the CP like a fire horse. It was great. It was wonderful. I sat right down outside on an old watering trough and read every word you and mom had written a dozen times. Oh incidentally mom, don't worry about Johnny playing high school football he won't get hurt. He's tough like me. But when I started to tell you I finally woke up to the fact that I had another letter too. I looked at it. The envelope said official United States business. Open it up. I read it. And I laughed. What's the matter Joe? Fred Allen drop your line. Hey look what I got. This is your ballot it says. Ballot. That's all I need right now is a ballot. So what? I got one too. There's an election coming up back home. Sure. Back home candidate Joe Housas is trying to climb aboard some local gravy train but he needs my help. So they send me a ballot halfway around the world. Stop that war boys and help elect Joe Housas County Commission. But look at it the other way. Maybe you don't want Joe Housas to be County Commissioner. So what's the County Commissioner? Can you handle a bay in it? Can you fire a machine gun? I don't know. I don't know why it struck me so funny. Last election back home all I had to do was walk one block and a half to Craigins Barber Shop. But I didn't do it. Too busy I guess. I had a date that night had to wash the car and get my tucks from the cleaners and see about Mary's corsage. One block and a half. But now the government sends me a ballot across 4,000 miles of water. 4,000 miles. Boy that ballot came a long way. Well I guess when I opened that envelope and looked at that ballot I felt the same way as I did back home on election day. I knew I ought to do something about it but then I thought what's one vote more or less? Now why is it important for me to vote when there's millions of other people that do it? Because back home I'd hear a campaign speech on the radio. Turn to something else. The speeches are for the other guy. I'd see a campaign poster. Look for something more exciting. Campaigns are for the other guy. I'd hear about a political debate between two leading candidates and I'd forget about it. Debates were for the other guy. In a small corner of an unexplored continent certain brave men took up their stand alone. A handful of men asserting their independence from a power whose flag covered the seven seas. They were alone and for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence we mutually pledged to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. I'll admit this much. I did try to study the ballot and make some sense out of it but the names didn't mean much and some of the offices, well, they didn't mean much either. I noticed a fellow named Smith was running for congressman against a fellow named Brown. They're both good guys probably but I wondered what difference does it make which one I vote for? The reasons of each territory belongs the right to determine through their representatives whether slavery should be admitted to that territory or not. Meanwhile, slavery should be allowed. Mr. Douglas's latest speech on slavery. A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe the government cannot endure half-slave and half-free. They were all good men but it made a difference which men were victorious. The two children have grown a little bolder now. They're moving around the enemy tank and making short little forays up at sliding sides and down again. Two stretcher bears walk along the street to a narrow doorway and go in. A Jeep roars up the street and stops in front of the doorway, waiting. But he soon the stretcher bears come out, place the body across the Jeep and drive off. I stare again at my ballot. Strange battles were taking shape on the one side. The basic teachings of Christianity are in America's bloodstream. The central doctrine of its political system, the importance of the individual is a doctrine inherited from 1900 years of Christian insistence upon the immortality of the soul. And on the other side, the democratic concept of man is false because it's Christian. Against the Christian doctrine of the infinite significance of the human soul, I oppose with icy clarity the saving doctrine of the nothingness and insignificance of the human being. The words became a rumbling in the ancient lands of the Teuton. Restlessness and discontent were organized into battalions and taught to march with deadly high stepping precision. The fever spread with the speed of a plague and the map of the world darkened and curled like a burning parchment. And man shame filled the cups of two hemispheres, Buchenwald, Dachau, Lieditzsee, Pearl Harbor, Batan. There was the long road back. There were the investigations, the post mortem on dead war. There were the excuses, the analyses, the reasons why. One of the most important factors in the steady rise of Adolf Hitler was the non-voting population of Germany. In the Reichstag election of 1928, one-fourth of the eligible German voters failed to take part. Disinterest, bread, laziness. Laziness, bread, despair. By the 1930s, the people were ready to accept any of the glittering promises offered by Hitler and his aides. In Italy, too, the indifference of the people to the fate of parliamentary government was one of the foundations of fascism. The people had become listless enough to accept anything. And the payment was small. It was something they had never bothered much about anyway. Their freedom. There was the long road back. There was Carigador. There was Solano. There was Omaha Beach. There was Main Street. Morning. I'm the inquiring reporter of the Morning Blade. Mind if I ask a question? Oh sure. Read your column every day. Thanks. Your name? Joe Adams, senior. Senior, eh? Yeah. Got a son overseas. Great kid. Okay. Now here's the question. Did the last minute appeals of the candidates influence your vote, or was your mind made up already? Well, tell the truth, I didn't get around to voting in today's election. Didn't vote, eh? Well, to me, it's all just politics anyway. People are sick of it. Candidates are all alike, full of hot air, and big promises. Now, at this country this is Jim Carson with the 6 o'clock edition of your evening news. Early returns in today's election indicate that voting was light. Political observers blame the sudden change in the weather. Many workers consider themselves lucky to make it to the office without getting drenched in the downpour. Children are tired of playing on the burned out tank. Namelessly, they wander on up the street. I wonder if they know where they're going. Where are their mother and father? Where are they sleeping tonight? I come back to the ballot and start to mark in the X's. I wish I knew more about these guys. Ah, maybe be better if I didn't vote. In 1944, only 55% of the eligible voters went to the polls. In 1946, only 30% made use of their ballot. Try to realize what this means. If only 30% of the population votes, then it is possible for a body of human beings composed of only 15% of the total electorate to govern this nation. This means 85% of the electorate would be taking orders from 15% of the people. No one could be blamed for concluding that the people of America would just as soon have a dictatorship. Since 70% of the people don't care to exercise their democratic rights. Our procedure is simple. It worked in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and it will work anywhere the people are careless enough to let it work. First, we become part of a government legally by forming a coalition with some group that is willing to go along with us. Then we insist that a communist be minister of justice. This happened in Bulgaria and Romania. You see, the ministry of justice controls the courts, which means that the opposition will get no breaks at all. Then we demand that the minister of war be a communist. This took place in Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia. A communist minister of war guarantees that there will be no successful anti-communist uprisings. Put a communist in as minister of the interior. This takes care of the police force. Put a communist in as minister of information. This takes care of censorship. And this can be done by only a small minority of the electorate. Providing the majority does not vote. Unless the name seems to get longer, may the best men win. I only wish I knew more about them. Who they are, what they stand for. If they're the right guys, I hope they get in. But my one vote sure looks small when you think of all the other people voting. One guy can't do very much, can he? Mr. Editor, thank you very much for letting me in. I got a plan. Okay, you got a plan, but let's make it snappy. Now, in a short time in Italy, it's a big election. Who's the win, the communist? That's what everyone says. That's what everyone says. The Christian Democrats, they don't got no chance, eh? But what's this got to do with your plan? It's everything to do. The Christian Democrats, they're no win because everybody think democracy is in no work. All the time from after the war, I hear the same thing from Italy, democracy is in no work. So what's the good? So the communist to win. Everybody think everything's bad in America. This will make me very sick. But what can one man do about it? I do it. I do it. My relatives in San Caterina, Sicily, I write them letters, lots of letters. I write to my wife's relatives, my boy, a girl, they write to Italy too. We tell them what's a wonderful thing in democracy, how democracy work, how happy we are, how proud they listen to me, they believe me. They know I tell them the truth. So you write a few letters. What's that going to do in a big country like Italy? So lots of people who write to ladies, hundreds, a thousand write a letter to Italy, tell them about democracy. But how are you going to get all those people to write? I tell them in president in the United States, he says a fine idea. I tell the club, they says a fine idea. I tell the newspaper, I tell you the newspaper, they should tell people. Well, your idea is good. Okay, you doubt that she's a work, all right. I say she's started to work already right now, and she's going to work some more. What are you going to do? Going to write the more letters and the more letters. My friends, I tell them to write, they tell their friends to write. Pretty soon, everybody, she's right. Pretty soon, everybody in Italy will know what one man can do in a democracy. Goodbye, Mr. editor. Yeah, Jim. Yeah, looks like we got a story here. Oh, that election in Italy, huh? The Christian Democrats, five to two majority. That was a surprise ending. Mac, I want you to write the best doggone editorial you ever wrote in your life. We owe him that much anyway. What's the pitch? The pitch. What one man can do in a democracy. It's almost pleasant sitting here in this quiet room. Well, what's left of it? The sun has come out. It makes little sparks glitter on a pile of rubble outside the door. Just talking like this about home makes a fella feel that home is right nearby. Let us award this far away. I feel drowsy. Like I used to at home after a big Sunday dinner. Joe. Yes, step up here, Joe. That's the boy. Step up. Yes, stop your trembling, Joe. I didn't know I was trembling. You're trembling like a leaf, Joe. You're afraid? Oh, no, sir. I mean, well, I just don't know what this is all about, sir. Oh, yes, you do, Joe. No, no, sir. Tell the truth now, Joe. Yes, sir. You're afraid, Joe. You're afraid that you're dead. Oh, no, sir. Look at the bullet hole in your tunic, Joe. Yes, sir. You see, Joe? Yes, sir. Very well, then. Let's get down with our business. First, Joe, I need a complete report about you, your background, your life in general, the things you believed in, the things you failed in, and the things you accomplished. Yes, sir. Your early days at school, for instance, you were a bright boy, I understand. Tell me, Joe, do you remember this? Dear voice of the people, it's time we Americans did something about these high taxes. And my father's a businessman. He works hard all day long. Doesn't make so much that he has to give most of it away. And for what? What has the government done with the money it is taking from people like my father? Very nice. Very nice. A young man who speaks his mind and shows independence of spirit. Good thing. Yes, sir. Your father had planned quite a career for you, Joe, remember? But you had your own ideas. You decided you wanted to do something else. You got that job, coaching high school basketball and football, and you were good, Joe. And wasn't it wonderful that in this day and age, in this country of yours, a young man could face life with such a choice and not be hindered by what someone else might want him to do? And then, Joe, the army. Yes, sir. You didn't like to go, but there was no doubt that you should go. Why, wasn't there any doubt, Joe? I don't understand. What did you think you were going to fight for, Joe? I will. Well, I had a lot of ideas about that. What were they? Well, I mean... Let's put it this way. What are you fighting for? Oh, rather, before this unfortunate accident happened. In fact, let's put it another way. Joe, what did you die for? For freedom. Ah? Your epitaph could read, he died for freedom. Very nice. Yes, sir. I see you're old enough to vote, Joe. What were your political affiliations? Well, I never had any. What? I never voted. But isn't freedom something that depends on the individual exercising his rights and performing his duties? Yes, sir. And you never exercised those rights or performed those duties? No, sir. But you died for them, nevertheless? Yes, sir. Is life that cheap? No, sir. I don't understand you, Joe. No, sir. I don't understand you at all. Joe! Joe, wake up! What's the matter? March order, Joe. We're moving up tonight. It's a nice convoy's assembly in 1,800 hours. Now get going, Joe. I'll be right along. And don't go to sleep again. You missed the warm. Dear mom, dear dad, I'm moving up tonight. At 6 o'clock, the convoy'll assemble. 6 o'clock. You'll be sitting down at the table with Johnny and Sue. Dad will say, Grace, bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, and these thy gifts. Well, so long, both of you. Take good care of yourselves. And I wish I had more time to ask questions about how things are going, how everybody's doing. But I'll be time later on. And don't worry about me. I'm tough, like Johnny. All about the ballot. I finished it. It sealed, and I've cast my vote. That ballot came a long way. But the way I figure it, I've come a long way, too. I guess that ballot is one of the things I came for. This is Gene Lockhart again. Well, we can't all agree on candidates and issues, but we've got to go along with the viewpoint expressed in the story we've just heard, that this business of voting is a pretty sacred obligation. That's assuming that we free people have a moral duty to stay free, and I think we have. I don't mean whom we vote for, Democrat, Republican, but the civic act itself, the process of orderly selection in a nation which prides itself on its motto, in God we trust, and in a nation which is able, despite the hurly-burly of political campaigns, to conduct these contests without violence, without gunfire, and without bloodshed. For that, we can be mighty proud of our country, but also grateful to Almighty God that we can still exercise this privilege. And if you look at it that way, the trip to the voting booth can be an act of thanksgiving to the God in whom we trust. If everybody felt that way, the act of voting would be a tremendous form of worship on a national scale on election day, bringing down blessings and divine guidance on our choice. The family that prays together stays together, and so does the nation that prays together, because a nation ought to be a kind of big family. So let's vote and pray, both. Remembering always that a world that prayer would be a world at peace. More things are walked by prayer than this world dreams of. But Family Theater has brought you These Thy Gifts, starring Robert Stack. Jean Lockhart was your host. Others in our cast were Jean Bates, John Stevenson, Jack Krushen, Ken Christie, Tom Holland, and Pat McGeehan. The script was written by Thomas Burns, with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman, and was directed for Family Theater by Joseph F. Mansfield. This series of Family Theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who feel the need for this type of program, by the Mutual Network, which has responded to this need, and by the hundreds of stars of stage, screen, and radio who give so unselfishly of their time and talent to appear on our Family Theater stage. To them and to you, our humble thanks. This is Tony LaFranco expressing the wish of Family Theater that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home. And inviting you to be with us next week, when Family Theater will present a snake in time, starring Frank Fay and Jean Cagney. Join us, won't you? Here to broadcast throughout the world and originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.