 Dupont presents Judith Anderson and Burgess Meredith in Native Land on the Cavalcade of America. There is a quality of voice. There is a song that nobody ever quite forgets. It's the voice of one half of the human race, a woman's voice. It's something to reduce the shock of being born. Something to make death a little easier to face. A comfort in time of sorrow, a lullaby. Our play tonight is as simple as that lullaby and is old. And yet it is for today and of today. And so, through this medium of radio, we are going to bring you some old stories and some new stories of women. And then we shall see if they don't all add up to one story that is important for today. Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry, presents the distinguished actress of the American stage, Judith Anderson. With Burgess Meredith again as your narrator in Native Land on the Cavalcade of America. Monday, September 29, 1941. We've come a long way and we will go on from here. For there is an originator among us, a creator of ourselves, a renewer, a multiplier, a woman. Many things to worry her so much, depending on her. Get out of the patient little tasks, sewing and mending and fixing things over and thinking things over. A citizen of the world is emerging, a new woman. They've been announcing her arrival for a long time. They thought maybe she was Mrs. Pankhurst. She thought she might be like Mary Curie, a scientist, discoverer of elements. Ramilia Earhart, a fire, a pioneer. They didn't know she was not one woman, but many. Not then or when, but right now. Monday, 29, 1941. Well, here we are again. They're even bringing back the styles, making us look like 1918. But it's not like 1918. There's something different this time. I don't mind giving up stockings, but they'll find out lipstick really means something to a woman's morale. I'm not going to sit home, not me. I'm learning his job too, just in case. Sometimes I wonder about bringing more children into the world the way it is. But John wants children, so do I. We can't just stop living no matter what happens. September 29, 1941. Yes, we will go on. There is a comforter, a binder of wounds among us. A nurse and a lover. She is the old and the new principal we always come back to, love. The love stories of our native land are endless. There is one they tell about a woman who was a citizen of this republic when it was still only a hope, only a dream in the minds of a few brave men and women. It's a curious kind of love story, one you have to look at closely even to see the love in it. Judith Anderson is going to play it for you now. It all took place in the kitchen of a farmhouse near Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the third year of the War of Independence, the year 1778. Get away, Miranda. I've got to strain this milk before you get anything. I'll stop your fretting. I declare you've been short-tempered ever since Edward went up to the war. I reckon I have too. Ain't right leaving a lone woman on a farm this way, the milking and the feeding and the plowing to do. Now, what are them dreaded dogs you open up? Ain't no use in my telling them to stop, they don't heed me. Ezra, they always listen to. Well, they've stopped anyway. Now, here's your milk. Someone's outside. Good thing I got Ezra's old flintlock here beside me. Who's there? Speak up, mister. I've got the drawer on you. I'm warning you. Ezra! Oh, well, of course I'm going to kiss you. Yeah. I declare a body. I think we was just sparring instead of being old married folks. Now, what's the matter, Ezra? What are you scared of? Well, wait. I'll take a look out. I ain't no one out there following you. No, no, no. No one in the yard nor on the road. Why are you worrying about what they do to deserters? Ezra, you ain't... Oh, of course you ain't. A man's got a right to get home and see how his farm's getting on. Well, sit down and let me get you some beddle, Ezra. You look all starved out. No wonder, coming all the way here from Valley Porge in this weather. Dressed in em' rags. Last I heard tell you it was six months ago from some place called Brandywine. Squawkelson's boy was drumming back from there. Had a leg off. That is how you was in that battle with him. Said you was mighty brave. Made me right proud hearing him talk like that. I reckon lots of men are leaving Valley Porge. Can't blame him, I guess, with a cold and a snow and nothing but rags on their feet. Yeah, yeah, I heard of him. One student in Germany. Lafayette Pulaski. Almost seems like sometimes these foreigners were doing more fighting for independence than we are. Mm-hmm, yeah, I heard tell of that too. This tubing has you drilling the whole day long. Of course, maybe drilling is good in some ways. Maybe if we'd had more drilling of our militia before, we'd still be holding Philadelphia. Oh, I can understand you coming home like this. And like you say, you'll go back in the spring after you get thawed out. But I reckon plenty of them just say that as an excuse to desert. They're my way, I think, and Esra. There ain't no excuse for a deserter. When you think of the ones that stay in there, they're all that's keeping our hopes together these days. Of course you ain't, Esra, I know that. No, no, I ain't laughing at you. I couldn't laugh at a thing like that. Esra, listen, the horseman, he's turned in here. He's coming up the lane. Esra, you get down that wood chest and hide. Come in. Oh, it's you, Squire Kelton. Poor Mrs. Kelton. Pretty sad losing a fine boy like Joe. You tell Miss Kelton I'll be right over. Good night, Squire. You can come out now, Esra. It was Squire. Oh, you heard. Esra, back to Valley Forge. But I thought you said you was gonna stay here on the farm for a while. The cold, Esra, the snow. You ain't got the proper clothes. I miss you, Esra. I miss you more than you'll ever know. No. No, no, no, don't talk like that. No, don't, Esra. Of course it was a mistake, but you're gone back. And we ain't never gonna talk about it again. Kiss me goodbye, Esra. Goodbye. We'll be winning, Esra. Because we got right on our side. Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking for you to come back. This woman who sent her man back to Valley Forge was not to be the last of her race. She's lived in many places in her time and looked for her in the hills in the frontier country. The men went there first alone and with them the center of town was a saloon and when the women came, the center of town became a school, a town hall, a courthouse, a skyscraper. A few weeks ago the women changed it again. The center of town was an enclosure of chicken wire piled high with aluminum. Old aluminum, old pots and pans, but not for sale. The people crowded around it admiring the women's gift to their nation. Excuse me. Can I get through, please? Why, sure, Miss Brady. Well, it's my little saucepan. See, it's right on top of the stack there. I want to get it back. Well, Miss Brady... See, my daughter gave it to the man while I was out. I bought one to put in its place. It's brand new. Oh, sure, sure, Miss Brady. We'll swap with you. Don't look much like... I know, but it means a lot to me, Miss Simmons. I've had it almost 20 years. It was a wedding present. The only one I ever got. The little sacrifices, the hundred little things that would help so much, cheerfully given up when the time comes for giving things up. Yes, women are like that. And then there are women as their men sometimes see them. Yes, women are like that, too. It is a woman in East Orange, New Jersey, whose husband is always bringing home convenient little presents. Don't tell me you paid $2.98 for that. Well, that's not much. Look at all the things it'll do. It'll open cans and bottles. It's a glass cutter, a pencil sharpener. It's got a compass in the handle. But we have a can opener, and it paid $3 or $4. It wasn't $3 or $4. It was $2.98. And we haven't got a decent can opener in the house. Here, let me show you. Where's the can you were going to open for supper? This one? I was. You know you could make your work twice as easy if you had any kind of instinct about machinery. Now you just flip this little thing over here. Kind of stiff at first. Arthur, did you hurt yourself? No, no, I just caught my thumb. Very simple. Now you just... Arthur, maybe you better let me... Hand me the hammer out of that drawer. The hammer. Thanks. Now, this thing fits over this thing. What the... The mean's getting cold, dear. Just a minute now. Just a minute. It's been busted when he told it to me. Dear, what's the compass in the handle for? What? How do I know? If I ever get my hand in... Yes, women are like that, as any husband can tell you. And women can tell you some things about themselves. There's a woman in Gary, Indiana, who was talking to a very dear friend from a public phone booth. Well, I simply told her that if it was a child of mine, I'd try to see that he had some manners. And do you know what she had the nerve to tell me? I'll be thrown. Just some people waiting to use the phone. You think it was the only public telephone in town? Well, as I said... Your time is up. That will be five cents for an additional three minutes, please. Oh, all right. Just a minute. Hang on, Evelyn. Oh, dear. I don't think I have... Lady, I gotta catch a train. Oh, mister, would you mind getting this dime changed for me? But, lady... I'll really be through in just a minute. Yeah, whatever. Are you still there? A man just went to get me some change. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. So I said to her... Well... Women are like that. This week, there was a woman in Eastport, a New England woman, who saw her only son off on the train, a son in an army uniform. Take good care of yourself, son, and write me every time there's a bow. I'll be all right, ma'am. I know, but the place they're sending you to sounds so cool, so far away. Well, goodbye, hon. Goodbye, Sam. Goodbye. New story, an old story. The age-old story of the woman who must say goodbye and wait at home. A great dramatist has caught and told that story in a play that is the acknowledged classic of our time. His name, John Millington Singh. His play, Writers to the Sea. We've chosen it for this story of women and the cavalcade of America because it expresses more eloquently than we can hope to the universal strength of women in every age and time. The Woman of Writers to the Sea is a mother named Mara, played by Judith Anderson. The scene is a tiny island off the Irish coast, but for that matter, it could be any island or any continent. The characters are men and women in all times who face the inevitable. In Aaron, the inevitable is the sea. It's you, Nora. Please, mother. She's lying down in her room, God-helper, and may be sleeping if she's able. Is the sea bad out, Nora? Midland bad, God-helper. And it's worse if it'll be getting one of the tides turned to the wind. What is it you have under your shell, Nora? A shirt and a plain stocking that will cut off a drowned man and Donny Gall. Nora. I, your brother, Michael, they are. He was washed ashore on your Donny Gall after nine full days, God's fairest soul. Oh, Nora. Isn't it a pitiful thing when there's nothing left of a man who was a great rower and fisher, but a bit of an old shirt and a plain stocking? The death of mother, it would be to know of this. And Bartley may be going to the sea this very day. Mother herself is coming. Now, do you put the clothes behind the chimney? Isn't it enough of a fire you have on the half of the day in the evening, Catherine? There's a cake baking at the fire and a glass face, Mother, and Bartley will want it when the tide turns if he goes to Connemara. Bartley won't go this day with a wind rise in the south and west. He won't go this day and leave me destitute with no son living at all. I heard Stephen Fettie and call him Sean saying he would go. Where is he now? He went down to see would there be another boat sailing in the week. I hear someone passing the big stones on the path outside. A bit of new rope was bought in Connemara. Now, do you get it for him, Nora? You'll find it on a nail in the wall where stand the white boards were brought in for making the coffin, if need be. I hung it there this morning for the pig with the black feet was eaten. You do right to leave that rope Bartley hanging there by the boards. It'll be wanting in this place, I'm telling you. If Michael is washed up tomorrow morning or the next morning or any morning in the week for it's a deep grave will make him by the grace of God. I need the rope. Otherwise I've no hearter the way I can ride down on the red mare. And I must go now quickly. This is the one boat going for two weeks or beyond it. An affair will be a good affair for horses I heard them saying below. It's a hard thing they'll be saying below if your brother's body is washed up and there's no man here to make the coffin. And I have to give him a big price for the finest white boards you'll find in Connemara. How would it be washed up mother? And we have to look in each day now for nine days a strong wind blowing a while back from the west and south. And I'll be going down now. But you'll see me coming back again in two days or in three days or maybe in four days if the wind is bad. Isn't it a hard and cruel man won't hear a word from a woman and she is mother holding him from the sea. It's the life of a young man to be doing a man's things mother. We've gone to the sea or whatever need be. And I must go now quickly. I ride down on the red mare and the grey pony will run behind me and fetch a good price at the Galway fair and I bring it back with me for your needs in a day or maybe two days. A blessing of God on you. He's gone now God's curse and we'll not see him again. He's gone now and when the black knight is fallen I'll have no son left me in the world. Why wouldn't you give him your blessing mother and he looking round in the door? Isn't it sorrow enough there's on everyone in this house without you or sending him out with an unlucky word behind him and a hard word in his ear. The son of God forgive us Kathleen we'll have to forget him to give Bartley a bit of bread. Here mother, do you take it and let you go down to the well and give it to him and he passin. You'll see him then and the dark word will be broken and you can say God's speed you the way he'll be easy in his mind. Give her the stick Kathleen Michael's stick all that's left of him. I in the big world the old people to believe in things after them for their sons and children but in these days in this place it is the young men to believe in things behind for them that do be old. Do you sit by the fire mother and warm yourself. Didn't you give him this bit of bread mother you still have it in your hand. I'll tell mother. I've seen the fearfullest thing any person has seen since the day Bride Dower seen the dead man with a child in his arms. Tell us what it was. I went down to the well then Bartley came along and he riding on the red mare and not stopping all the son of God's Paris then I've seen him. What is it you've seen? I've seen Michael himself. Nay mother it wasn't Michael you've seen his body is after being found in the far north and he's got a clean burial for the grace of God. I tell you I'm at the sea in him this day and he riding and galloping Bartley on the red mare and he going by quickly in the blessing of God on you he says I looked up then and there was the grey pony running after and Michael upon it with fine clothes on him and new shoes on his feet. No mother it was not Michael Michael is after being found near Donegal. Give her the clothes of his they found Kathleen so she may see for herself. A bit of shirt and a plain stocking it is his they are surely Bartley will be lost now too let you call in him and make a good coffin out of the white boards for Bartley which is Bartley will be safe mother didn't the young priest say the almighty God wouldn't leave you self destitute with no son living it's little the likes of him knows of the sea I've had a husband and the husband's father and six sons in this house six fine men and some of them were found and some of them were not found but they are gone now a lot of them there were Stephen and Sean were lost in the great wind and found after in the Bay of Gregory and carried up the two of them on the one plank and in by that door that looks out to the sea what's that Kathleen just some colonists from the shore surely they carried them in and I stood here waiting and I seen two women and three women and four women coming in and they crossing themselves and not saying the word Nora it's them the old women and the old men Kathleen Nora is it Pat sure Michael they come for or what is it at all why are the old women coming in like this and I just telling of it they're carrying the thing among them and there's water dripping out of it is it Bartley it is it is surely Maura God rest his soul softly now Patrick nip him up and lay him on the table aye what way now was my sun drawn the grey pony knocked him into the sea and he was washed out where there's a great surf on the white rocks the grey pony is it aye they're all gone six sons and the husband and the husband's father all gone and there isn't anything more the sea can do to me Colm maybe your self name would make a coffin when the sun rises there are nails with the boards there Kathleen there are not Colm we didn't think of the nails the great one that you wouldn't think of the nails it isn't that I haven't prayed for you Bartley and Michael to the Almighty God it isn't that I haven't said prayers in the dark night till you wouldn't know what I'd be saying but it's a great rest I'll have now the way all women have when the time is done and great sleep and in the long night my son Michael has a clean burial in the far north and my son Bartley will have a fine coffin and both of them haven't done what they had to do what more can we want other than that no man at all can be living forever and a woman must be satisfied and she going on with life to the end yes we've come a long way we will go on from here for there is an originator among us a creator of ourselves a multiplier a woman whatever new things she will be doing will be from the ancient source of her strength out of the old and new principle love and courage to go on to native land on the cavalcade of America sponsored by Dupont maker of better things for better living through chemistry the national defense program headlines the news of the day a program so vast it challenges the mind to grasp it planned and executed in typically American style it will succeed partly because all the precious now of American industry is behind it one of the main reasons America has such knowledge is that as a nation we believe in research American industry spends 300 million dollars a year on research with 2300 companies employing more than 70,000 trained research specialists a vast reservoir of knowledge upon which the nation can draw chemistry has long been a leader in research in the United States with chemical industries employing by far the greatest number of research workers the Dupont company alone maintains 31 research laboratories in various sections of the country what do they do? well a laboratory at Richmond Virginia continually works to improve rayon yarn from a Dupont laboratory at Buffalo New York has come fiber D a wonderful new textile fiber which promises better wearing more brilliant moth proof rugs and carpets from a Dupont research group at Deepwater New Jersey came the antioxidants that enable the gasoline you buy today to perform at high efficiency without following your motor from another research group came the first commercial production of freon refrigerant which makes your refrigerator the safe and efficient household friend that is today from still another Dupont research laboratory came nylon research is the very life blood of a chemical company like Dupont in a sense indeed research is the company two kinds of research the kind that tackles an industrial problem and solves it and the other kind of research that sets out just to learn something and then out of knowledge gained out of money and time and energy spent out of the patience and the hard work and the worry comes up smiling with a new plastic a new yarn or a new and better way perhaps of making an old product out of research came the know-how for the American defense production program that is shifting today into high gear and out of research too will come our brighter tomorrow with new industries that may seem as strange at first as the automobile seemed in 1900 or as television seems today bringing Americans new opportunities in the richer happier world that is implicit in the Dupont pledge better things for better living through chemistry next week the cavalcade of America will present the great American actor Paul Muney in an original radio play by the eminent screenwriter Dudley Nichols in this his first play written for radio Dudley Nichols has told the amazing story of Simone Bolivar who first dreamed of Pan-American unity on cavalcade next week Bolivar the liberator starring Paul Muney on the cavalcade of America you have heard of the great American actor Nathan Anderson featured in a dramatic monologue and in a radio adaptation of John Millington sings writers to the sea native land was prepared under the supervision of Robert L. Richards in collaboration with Robert Tallman this is Burgess Meredith sending best wishes from Dupont this is the red network of the national broadcasting cabinet