 Edward Arnold in The Man Who Wouldn't Be President on the Cavalcade of America, sponsored by Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. Right, Cavalcade brings you the story of Daniel Webster, the greatest speaker America has produced. One of the six greatest orators of all time, mighty champion of the Constitution in those years when the nation was threatening to split asunder. Edward Arnold appears tonight through the courtesy of Metro Golden Mayor, in whose production The War Against Mrs. Hadley he is now starring. Presenting Edward Arnold as Daniel Webster in The Man Who Wouldn't Be President on the Cavalcade of America. Dan Webster, they called him, and in the year 1839, widespread was his fame. Like Dan Webster? Well, I say there's the greatest man in the USA. He's the one we want for president. I told you, once he talks the very devil out of taking away a man's soul. Six years at sea, I've been, and I tell you, they've heard of Dan Webster from Port Said to Singapore. Why, they say, where's the Blonnie Stone for a watch, Bob? And it's so great that he owned the mint, the gold he gets started with. I thought it'd be nice for us to watch the New York Harbor appear. We're docking a little while. Yes, I know. Oh, Dan, it's wonderful to be coming home again, and with the next president of the United States. You are very hopeful, my dear. And why not? Didn't the Whigs promise before we sell our summer that you would be our next president? No, now that you mention it. Oh, Dan, it's thrilling to think that my husband is going to be the next president. Caroline, we've worked very hard to further presidential ambitions. And four years from now, we're going to have our aboard. I always said years from now. Oh, Caroline, I don't know how to tell you this. The pilot just brought the papers aboard. I'm not going to get the presidential nomination from the weak party this time. Oh, Dan. I know, I know, it's a blow. All your career, Dan, all of it is led only toward the day when you would be president. What can the party be thinking of? What reward is there? Now, Caroline, my dear, Henry Clay has good reasons. The party has laid its plans very carefully. Henry Clay, but he told you... Political expediency alters all things, my dear. We've got to have dramatic slogans, popular catchphrases, and a famous soldier to oppose the military reputation of Andrew Jackson's party. You mean old Tipi Canoe, General Harrison? Harrison, plus a man who can carry this out. You couldn't mean John Tyler. Yes, but he's not important. Who remembers Vice Presidents? But Tyler is no weak. And for General Harrison, just because he won a battle is no reason... Political expediency again, my dear. The slogan doesn't look bad in print, does it? Tipi Canoe and Tyler, too. Like something those old minne-fantal hall would contrive. Tipi Canoe and Tyler, too. Why, that'll sweep the country like wildfire. It's tremendous. Is it? Oh, Dan, don't try to hide your feelings. Being President has been your dream and mine. Since you were a boy, you've worked for it, lived for it. There's not another man in the United States with your fitness for that office. You say nothing, I haven't told myself, but... Well, there's no use trying to deceive you, Caroline. I am sick about it. On the other hand, we've had some rather homely truths forced on us, which we can't overlook. Homely truths? Yes, you see, I've looked upon as a money man. Oh, what? Yes, really. One of the rich, a plutocrat, they call me in the West. Little do they know. You could have been rich, you know. Your law practice is very lucrative. Well, I can go back to it now. Is that what you would like to do? More to the point. Is that what you would like to have me do? Oh, Dan, darling, no. No, you've got to stay in politics. You've got to show this country what a great man you really are. Yes. I think you're right. It's all clear to me now, and the groundwork is laid. Well laid. We'll engineer the weak party of the power with Harrison and Tyler. The next convention, four years hence, will be a different story. Carriage over. Yes, sir, Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. How did Mr. Webster... How are you, Nally? Verified. Welcome home. Welcome home. Look. Look, Dan, a torchlight parade. Well, it started. You hear that, Caroline Chippitano and Tyler, too. General Harrison, hero of the battle of Chippitano. Already made march to it. A catchy phrase is slogan, and the weak party will be in power. Dan Webster's party. You will be president. The people want you, Dan. Even in England, they think of you as the most important leader in America. Yes, Dan, you'll be president. And what a wonderful president you'll make. You know, my dear. I kind of think you're right. General Harrison. Read all about it. Wake Convention nominates General Harrison, Chippitano and John Tyler, too. Get your papers. General Harrison becomes president. Read all about the plans for the inauguration. Read all about it. I, William Henry Harrison, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Thank you, Mr. President. Oh, just call me General. You know, I can't get used to Mr. President yet. You've been trying to get him in at the youth of today, sir. You have us to guard. Thank you, General. It was mighty nice of you to fix up my inaugural address for me, Dan. That was so good at making speeches. Well, I'm glad to do anything I can for our party. Well, Dan, I... I suppose Clay has already told you what I have on my mind. You mean about my becoming Secretary of State? Yes, Dan. I want you. I need you in my cabinet. General, I sincerely appreciate this honor, but I'm afraid I must return to my private law practice at least for a while. Dan, I'm a soldier. I'll come to my objective. Looks like there's another war on the border. The Eurus to Cafer is, well, it's serious. The Canadians have already fired the first shot. Oh, well, I needn't tell you about it. Congress has voted $10 million and 50,000 men. You talk of the war was inevitable. It is, Dan. We've always had war of some kind with England, war with England always will. But right now we're at peace only because of a truce which might be broken at any minute. That's exactly what I'm talking about. War with England can be avoided now and forever. Do you hear? Now and forever we will only work out a fair and lasting basis for peace. Impossible. Nothing's impossible. We have fought two wars and Lord knows how many skirmishes during the past 50 years and over what? Overpiddling questions that can be settled permanently over a conference. What are your ideas on the subject? Well, when I was in England I met a friend who once had lived in New York and knows our point of view, Lord Ashburton. We talked then of something so simple yet so tremendous that we ourselves were awed by it. A treaty between ourselves and Great Britain which would write and end two wars. Sounds like a fight, team Dan. But a great thing if you can do it. Would I have your fullest backing then? Have it your way, Dan. You'll be running the State Department. Then I will think it over, General Harrison. Well, let me know soon. I remember. This all points to the next week's convention four years away. You're working toward the presidency, Dan. I'll be at the convention and they'll nominate anybody else and Dan Webster over my dead body. For every influence I've got, I... My general. Oh! Mr. President, what's wrong? Nothing. I... I'll be all right. Catches me sometimes right here. Oh, can I get you a glass of water? No, no, no. Thank you very much, Dan. I... I got to get some rest, I guess. Of course. Remember, Dan, my promise comes from the heart. You are listening to Edward Arnold as Daniel Webster in The Man Who Wouldn't Be President on the Cavalcade of America sponsored by Dupont. As our play continues, Lord Ashburton has arrived to discuss the treaty with Daniel Webster. Do you have some more of the Ford, Lord Ashburton? Don't mind if I do. Excellent port, Mr. Webster. Thank you. Now about the treaty. Well, I see you're as eager as I am to get on with our business. I believe we understand each other perfectly. I believe we do. Keep it a simple treaty, I say. Let us distill a document of not more than five pages of writing. Something at which any man may glance and almost immediately say, Yes, this is for the peace of the world. This is for the understanding of nations. This is God, precisely. And let us work with our wording until it stands crystal clear and unmistakable. We must at all times remember we are working for the peace and goodwill of our nations who are really brothers. If our efforts are successful, then perhaps our ideals of peace may spread throughout the world. I think your plan is beautiful. Even sublime, my dear Webster. But after we've drawn such a treaty, can we get it passed? Does my parliament to be considered a New York Senate? Well, it'll be a struggle. There's a good chance for us, my lord. I am as free to act as any secretary of state has been in our history. Your queen has given you extraordinary powers of negotiation. Yes. Yes, Caroline, what's wrong? Oh, Dan, I saw flares at the White House. Heard shouting, I sent Nally to see. Nally? Nally, come in here. Tell Mr. Webster what you heard. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I did just like Missy Webster see. Went to see all about the settlement. Yes, yes. Well, what happened? He's dead, Mr. Webster. General Harrison. Dead? The president? Yes, sir. Good heavens. Why, he's only just been put in office. Hardly a moment. Get the carriage ready at once, Nally. Yes, sir. Webster, what might this mean to my mission? I can't tell you at this moment. The vice president, John Tyler, automatically becomes president. He disagrees with our party generally and with me in particular. Heaven only knows if he will even retain me in the cabinet. I must go see our party leader at once, Henry Claim. Hurry, Nally, don't stand there gaping the carriage. I won't know what to tell you, Dan, until Tyler gets here, and we know if his real allegiance turns out to be toward his old party or ours. You don't understand, Henry. I'm wondering about the treaty between us and England. You don't understand me, Dan. I'm wondering if you may not have to resign from the cabinet. Why should I have to resign? Unless Tyler wants to make a new appointment. Well, Tyler will retain you in the cabinet. Don't worry about that. Compose with the best men in the country. The question is not whether Tyler will retain the cabinet. Whether the cabinet might not have to abandon Tyler. Don't shock me, Henry. If Tyler will only retain me, I... Why, how can I abandon this work? Perhaps the most important treaty this country ever negotiated, one that will forever settle our differences with Great Britain. Dan, don't you understand that if you remain in Tyler's cabinet, it may cost you the presidency? Already we know he's not loyal to the Whigs. He'll give us lip service and secretly carry out policies of Andrew Jackson. Ah, you mark my words, Dan. You must get out of the Tyler cabinet. Otherwise your political future's dead. The treaty with England can wait. The treaty with England can wait while Dan Webster plays politics. Wait until Dan Webster pays his tailor. Wait, wait! I say no! Not when we've seen men of the same mother country, the same language, the same heritage of honor, we see each other in wars over what? Politics and taxes and all the mean little disputes between selfish men. Oh, Henry, I'm going on with it. England and these United States bound to each other by an everlasting treaty of peace and goodwill is a name far above my insignificant ambition. I stay with Tyler. Well then, sir, you and I have nothing further to discuss. That's all, Nellie. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Shall I poke up the fire some more? No, Nellie. No, that's all. Run along. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Is it true, sir, that they put President Tyler out in the weak party today, sir? No, yes, yes. They read President Tyler out of the party today. Now run along, Nellie. I want to think it along. Yes, sir. I won't let nobody in the library know all. And now we have a president without a party. The cabinet is resigned, all but me. They ask my decision, my decision. All day they dinged at me, my friends and my colleagues. Dan, you're making a mistake. You're through with your stick with Tyler. Dan, I'll owe you $10,000. Do as your party wants, Dan. Dan, I've always wanted my husband to become president. That vice demands pleadings dimming up your day. The country won't understand why you're staying in Tyler's cabinet, Dan. I've called you a traitor to your party, Mr. Webster. You've got to get out. Resign with the rest of the cabinet or you'll never be president. Stop it! Stop it! Voices, voices. I've heard them all day telling me what to do, telling me what to do. Excuse me, Mr. Webster. Yes, Nellie. I thought I told you this. Yes, sir. No, sir. Excuse me, sir. But he's in great dudgeon to Lord Ashburton. Ashburton will show him in. Come in, sir. Come in, come in. Forgive me for disturbing you, but I've just heard the amazing news that your entire cabinet has resigned. Naturally, I miscommunicate the status of things at once to the Prime Minister. Dare tell me, Lord Ashburton, if I must resign, don't you feel you can carry on with my successor? I was expecting that question, my dear friend. I can only say that the matter of a peace agreement could not be carried on. But truly, that... Let me be frank. My government considers yours very difficult to deal with. You are one of the few Americans in public life in whom my government has confidence. I don't believe I can offer the slightest hope of getting the treaty passed, unless I can assure them that I deal with Dan... Dan the Webster. I see. Thank you for being so frank, my lord. Thank you very much. For the good of our two great countries. I hope your decision will be to let me inform the Prime Minister that you will remain in office. Lord Ashburton, you may tell the Prime Minister that I have placed the treaty we have designed above the strife that now tears my party apart. I shall remain as Secretary of State. I believe I can understand the sacrifice you'll be making. And I give you the humble thanks of generations to come. But what effect will your remaining in the cabinet have on the passage of the treaty through the Senate? Henry Clay and the rest of the party will never forgive me. They will lead the entire party against us to the bitter end. And I can only say I shall do my best. Mr. President, I rise to a point of order. Mr. President, I demand the floor. I demand the Senate procedures usual. Secretary of State has been given the floor. Secretary of State. That day he's going to talk to the treaty. What good it'll do him, I don't know. Henry Clay will fix him. Clay never forgave him for sticking to silence. He's reached the speaker stand. Mr. President, and gentlemen of the August Chamber where I so long sat as a member, I come before you on behalf of a treaty with Great Britain for which my office now seeks your ratification according to the Constitution. Over what do Great Britain and ourselves disagree at this late date? The Canadian boundary whose precise location has never been settled? The slave trade which we all agree we can stop if our navies only cooperate? The British navies refusal to stop searching our ships at sea for sailors of British blood which can be stopped by agreement? Now gentlemen, these are simple questions. By this treaty I say and you will give to the great nations of Canada and the United States the only boundary in the world not bristling with guns and not guarded by soldiers. Consider now Article 9. We're in Great Britain agrees jointly with us to suppress the trade in slaves. I say to you that if we do not pass this treaty the despairing cries of men who to this day are being sold into bondage may haunt your dreams forever. Along the African coast where the forge still rings with hammer blows making manacles for you and them This document which will for all generations to come make an ally of the nation which has been for the past 50 years at odds with us I leave in your hands the fate of nations their fate today and for generations to come. I thank you. Kentucky, Mr. Henry Clay Mr. President my remarks on the question of passing the treaty will be brief. I am for its passage without the change of a comma or a period. Chairman of the Senate the vote on the treaty with England in favor 39 uphold nine. Henry let me thank you for what you did today. Congratulations Dan. In our new first rolls to speak I was against yours as every senator of our party but when I heard you when I sensed the urgency and sincerity behind what you said I knew then that you'd indeed sacrificed your chances of ever becoming the president of the United States for something far greater. You still think I was crazy to do it? Dan, I think you're a great American what more can I say than that? Thank you Henry, good night. Good night Dan. And may I say my dear that you are extraordinarily beautiful Oh, I do love you. Ah, then I've had two triumphs today. And you know now that you can never step out of public life. Only Dan Webster has the power when every other man is failed to make men believe in what's right. You can never retire. Yes, it looks as if it's the Senate for the rest of my life and a lifetime of bills unpaid. But oh Dan what a wonderful president you would have made. You know my dear, I'd rather think so myself. Yes, I'd rather think so myself. Thank you Edward Arnold. Ladies and gentlemen later in the broadcast Mr. Arnold will return to the microphone. Before he does, Gain Whitman has exciting news of a new group of chemical compounds. Newspapers recently carried a news item from an aircraft corporation stating that flexible plastic tubing is being used in many of the new war planes. The item was given only a few lines of type, no headlines. But the fact behind the news is that this flexible tubing made of a new group of vinyl resins represents an important contribution to the war effort made by American industry. Moreover, this group of vinyl resins as they are known to chemists in itself represents a new contribution of chemistry that may do a great deal to make this world a better place in which to live when at last the war is won. For this flexible plastic tubing which today is carrying gasoline to the roaring motors of America's fighter planes without risk of breakage from vibration or the action of gasoline and hot oil is only one of the things already being made of these new materials. The polyvinyl alcohols and polyvinyl acetates as chemists call some of these resins are white powders that look in their initial form rather like cornstarch. Modified and compounded they become threads or films or sheets. Clear or opaque or colored. When they're molded or cast they're like rubber. They're flexible, tough, resistant to abrasion and light in weight. And the many things they can do are as remarkable as the properties of the materials themselves. For instance, vinyl resins in the form of adhesives are taking the place today of tons of latex. Natural rubber. Vinyl resin adhesives are so firm in their grip that wood bonded metal actually splits and tears apart before the adhesive itself will give. Electric wires can be given a coating of vinyl resin for insulation so thin that you can hardly see it on the wires. Gloves and aprons can be made that withstand virtually all of the solvents and oils used in industry. Their wartime uses only begin to indicate the possibilities open to such vinyl compounds after the war. There are machines in war plants today using vinyl resin valves where metal valves can't stand a gap. There are vinyl compounds that can be used to line oil and grease-proof containers that replace containers of metal. For example, ration kits for the army. Polyvinyl alcohol has improved the weaving properties of some of the new textual materials. Other vinyl resins improve paper in tough paper containers that replace metal containers. There are vinyl resins that can be tinted in beautiful colors. There are resin bonded papers that are of value because they have some of the properties and do some of the jobs not done by cork. There are laminated fabrics that are flexible and need more resistant to shock and abrasion than many metals. In fact, one of the most valuable properties of polyvinyl alcohol is that even in thin films it is unbelievably tough and strong. There are vinyl and other plastics available even today which can be so treated that their tensile strength is equal to that of steel. They withstand a pull of 60,000 pounds to the square inch. They're being tested now in scores of ways to find out just those special fields in which their properties best suit them. This is only a brief glimpse of an exciting new contribution of the chemist. But brief as it is, it gives you beyond the wartime uses of these new vinyl resins a forecast of what is to come of a whole new group of future DuPont better things for better living through chemistry. And now the star of tonight's cavalcade, Edward Arnold. Thank you, thank you. Or should I have introduced you as Dan Webster? Well, Dan Webster is one of my favorite members, John. It's fitting for cavalcade to celebrate this year, the 100th anniversary of a treaty that joined our country and England in a pact of friendship. That was a great service to his country. Well said, Mr. Arnold. And now, John and friends everywhere, here is a service you can render. Put 10% of your salary into war bonds. Join up tomorrow, won't you? If you can't make it 10%, make it all you can because that way Uncle Sam can count on its coming in every month. The money you invest does double duty. It buys safety for your country and it buys your personal security in the years ahead when you would be getting back $4 for every three you've invested in freedom. Now, pass the word along, will you? A dime from every dollar, every payday. Thank you, Edward Arnold. Next week, cavalcade celebrates the Christmas season with a modern miracle play A Child is Born, especially written by Stephen Vincent Bonet, distinguished American poet. In this moving interpretation of the old story of the nativity to which Mr. Bonet gives fresh significance for our war-torn world, Lynn Fontaine and Alfred Lunt will be cavalcade stars. Our story tonight was written by Hector Cheveny, included in the cast were Agnes Morehead as Caroline William Farnham as President Harrison Joseph Kearns as Henry Clay. Next week, Lynn Fontaine and Alfred Lunt co-starring in Stephen Vincent Bonet's poetic nativity play, A Child is Born. Cavalcade is honored to announce that this will be the first co-starring appearance of Mr. Lunt and Ms. Fontaine on any sponsored broadcast. The musical score in tonight's program was composed and directed by Robert Armbruster. This is John Heaston sending best wishes from DuPont. The program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.