 DuPont presents the Cavalcade of America. Before we start this evening's presentation of the Cavalcade of America brought to you by DuPont, we wish to read excerpts from two letters, one from a successful businessman, president of his company, and the other from a housewife. The businessman says, I listen to your broadcast each Wednesday, and it gives me much pleasure to compliment you on what I consider the finest program ever produced, combining education, entertainment, and refinement. The housewife says, We want to express our appreciation of the Cavalcade of America, one of the finest programs ever on the air, educational as well as highly entertaining, thanks again for an extra fine program, as well as extra fine products. These two typical comments show how the Cavalcade of America is received by both men and women, and in fact by all members of the family. Our listeners symbolize the many millions of Americans who benefit from the research of DuPont's chemists, who are ever working toward their goals, better things, or better living through chemistry. DuPont Cavalcade Orchestra plays an overture suggesting the locale of the first episode in this evening's broadcast, a special arrangement of, By the Waters of the Minnetonka. It begins on a night in the spring of 1804, sitting on the moonlight. I'm looking at this little river, Pierre. I'm doing some figuring. Do you ever see the water so high? When I see water run so fast, I like it. Your eyes are locked this way like me. Maybe I'll see you now in my new baby in two, three weeks. Sure, I want to get home too, but riding the logs on a stream like this is dangerous. Don't worry, Steve. You don't think about the river, but about home. And I ride into still water. My wife, she said to me again, Pierre, you big fool. Why you leave men and come without you? What good these big trees do? There is no one to buy them. They'll find a market one of these days, I reckon. And this city is going up south of here. We could just find a cheap way to send them on timber. They have many cities in this way. You ought to see a town like Springfield, Illinois. And that's where my cousin Abe Lincoln lives. Not a lumberjack like me, but a real for sure lawyer. Gosh, when I look at him, I wish I could read a lot of books and make something of myself. You don't have to read a book to do that, Steve. You have a good mind. I don't know. All that's on my brain right now is how I could get word to still water. Try and talk them out of starting the drive too soon. Did log drive us to start quick in Spring, Steve? Hey, Steve! Yeah? What is it? Word from still water. You're to start the drive at sunrise. At sunrise, huh? Well, that kind of settles my worries and leaves us to do the best we can. Great log drive started in the spring. Thousands of logs. A winter's harvest rolled the rivers towards the sawmill. Balancing deathly on top of them were the expert rivermen using the utmost judgment and skill to avoid being thrown among the swift-running logs. Where rivers curved, the logs were after jam. A few days after the drive to the mill at Stillwater on the San Qua River has started, Steve Hanks and his helpers worked near open water to break up a jam. Be careful Pierre. Those logs are jumping over on city. Life is a favor. Nothing out from too many. Hey, Steve! Here's the key lock. Jammed in a rock. I think I can get it with my cat hook. I know why we're out here in midstream. I'll call the boat. That's all! Pierre's down! Come on. Be careful if we get near him, Ken. Don't fall on yourself. Here's the open place. He's coming up again. Can I get you Pierre? Hold me tight now. Hey, Dan, you straddle that log on the other side. You can't get me out. Yeah, we can try here. All right. You ready? Steady on your log, Dan. I'm fine, Mama. I got you too. All right, now. Pull together. All right. All right. I'll take him on this log. All right. Take it easy, Pierre. You're up now. That's it. I steady on it a minute now. You get your breath. I'll hold you. We better get him ashore, Steve. Suppose this jam broke on its own account. Pierre, put your arm around my neck now. There. You stand? Easy. I almost won't bite myself. Yes, you can. Here, I'll help you. Steve, now. Careful. You're too good, man. I'm thinking that's what I'm going. I don't see you no more. Oh, forget it. Watch that rock now. Just a step further. There you are. Yeah, we're safe. Lie down, Pierre. Hey, Steve, should I go tell the Batto to paddle out and use the canthooks on that log? No, I'll shout. Batto! Now break up that paddle in a few minutes. Yeah. How do you feel, Pierre? I am better. I like you. Hey, Steve Hank! Well, Will, say, what are you doing up here? Mr. Steele, send me up the river from Stillwater. If you have a big jam, don't break it. Stop the drive. Well, what's the matter? Yeah, I'll call the Batto. Batto! Look at those logs raced now. Why should we have tried to stop the drive, Will? What's happened? The water's so high, and the poo-mint, few waters prove that both of our logs will be raced right past the mill. There's no hole where there's work for nothing. The chain of logs is pressed across the river to hold the timber back until the sawmill was ready for it. When it voked, the logs raced on. A few days later, at Stillwater, into the office of the mill, where the sparing lumbermen are gathered, Steve Hank enters. Hello, Steve. Take a chair. Sit in on the meeting. Thanks. Go ahead, Mr. Andrews. Well, what I want to know is, what's this town going to do? How can we last through next winter when every cent we'd counted on has gone down this internal river? Hank, I'm trying to tell Mr. Steele that a lot of these logs leased in by will pile up on shore further down. The cotton eddies have ripped and debased. Yes, McCusick, but how are you going to get the logs upstream again? Well, I got them upstream. Take them to Sawmill's downstream. There aren't any mills closed. Float all the way to Markets. Float them to St. Louis. St. Louis. It could be done, Mr. Steele. Make a raft of the logs we can salvage just as we've made big rafts of grass lumber. Why have floated timber rafts for two seasons? Logs are different. Heavy and tricky. Yes, but these men know logs, too. McCusick, you try your scheme. It's crazy. We'll see. Scout along the same crawl for what timber you can recover. Try to find a practical way to float it. I don't expect any miracles. Steve, will you handle the logs down the Mississippi? I'll be glad to, Mr. Steele. You can find the crew. You know the men. I'll get a crew. I don't know just how many logs we'll get through, but there'll be some arriving in St. Louis. New drafts were formed. And under Steve Hank's, they started south on the river. The rafts were pulled ahead by tow lines fastened to anchors, which were laid ahead by rowboats and warped in by hands. The Vancouver was safe, but dangerous Lake Betton with its difficult currents and sudden storms was what the men feared most. A few days after the start, as the rafts near the south end of Lake Betton and safe things... It's all right to me to look this leg with lightning arms. There's no way we can beat your log raft as long as this one, Pierre. Yeah, all right, Pierre. When this lake gets the rare and the round, we'll break up and go float in the shore on spinners. Is that the skip signal on us? Yeah. Wind in the line! Gonna be higher, so pull! Steve, we're in an awful bad place for a storm. We can only speed it up a bit with... What's that? Nothing to scare you. Just a little lake steamboat. Pierre, bring that cowboy you got so they won't run into us. Get to Darker and Mischief here. Take your coat and wave it to them. They'll get the raft through Lake Pippin. It's a big sweep for the Mississippi. But Steve Hanks knew all the tricks of the Great River, for he had floated rafts of dressed timber down it. About two weeks later, on board the lead raft... Steve, wake up. What's the matter? Hey, where are we? How long have I been sleeping? You get some sleep first time in three days, so I don't like to wake you. Hey, watch the hand. I see that big town. St. Louis! Pretty close to the shore, Steve. That dock is the mill we're to go to. Look, the folks starting to come down to the shore. When and what in heaven's name we're up to, bring in a whole forest on its side down to Mississippi. Stand by, man, to cast anchor. We win, Steve. We're almost... So we'll all have something to brag about from now on? But Steve mostly. And he worries always. He have no chance to do something in the world. Ha! Now everybody think he do plenty. This man of endurance and hardiness to accomplish a feat like that of Steve and Hanks and his helpers, salvaging thousands of logs and bringing them hundreds of miles to a southern market. They had shown the way for many others to follow. Basic needs of America. But as the years passed, other vast riches were discovered, especially petroleum deposits. It is 1898, a few miles from the town of Beaumont, Texas. Captain Anthony Lucas of Washington is talking with George Hamill of Texas. What are you thinking about, Captain Lucas? Oh, I... I don't know if I'm thinking at all, Hamill. Your Texas son makes me lazy. Yeah, I reckon I know how you feel. Sitting out here in this lonely place all day, hearing nothing, the clank of this driller kind of puts me to sleep, too. How'd you happen to come to Texas, Captain? Why, a young schoolteacher in Beaumont. Patilo Higgins got me interested. Sure, he's been talking about oil since he was knee-high to a hot-toed. Got oil on the brain. Yes, I suppose a lot of the natives around here don't put much faith in him. Yeah, some of them do. When we heard he was getting a real engineer and geologist down from Washington, we thought you'd just take a quick look around and leave. That's what gets me, Captain. A man like you setting out on this lonely spot day after day. Well, that's my business, Hamill. Take patience to prospect for any sort of mineral. A man who strikes oil west of the Mississippi. Yes, I'm so used to thinking we won't strike oil. Last night, I got to wondering what had happened if we did. Folks had flocked in here like they did in Pennsylvania, right? Yeah. What happened? Indians stopped. Maybe they found something. Well, here comes your brother, Sam, in an awful way. What's the matter? I run for your lives. Come on, come on. We're coming, but what for? What's the matter back there? Keep on the oil, I think. Water's shooting out. Wind the other way. You need to pay. What's the deal? They're gone. Five hundred, then a thousand. The oil spread widely in a sinister black lake. People rushed from all over the country to view the phenomenon. On the eighth day, Captain Lucas and his helpers frantically shoveled dirt from one of the embankments planned to hold the oil. Captain, we're not getting this embankment high enough. No. It's going to be overflowed like the others were. Well, there's nothing we can do but shovel, Hamill. We'll have to keep it up long, I think, Heavens. The engineers from the Star Oil Company are on the ground now. The Star Oil Company. They sent men down here. Couldn't they, Sam? There's just the biggest well in the world. Yes, there's a regular oil company around to control it. I hope they buy it this morning. Hey, Captain! Oh, here's Jim. I'm all excited. What is it, Jim? Hey, Captain, there's more letters for you at the Shackson. Huh? How bushy basketball. It's like the postmaster into Beaumont's mighty sorry that they discussed your command. You, uh... Open the letters, Jim? Yeah, I did. Some of them. All alike. Folks from New Orleans, the main, offering us a way to close the well. Yeah, some of them are right cute about it, too. Wouldn't tell us their idea. Can we say them plenty? Well, I've had some sensible schemes set in at that. But I'd rather an experienced oil company get in here and handle it. I'm alarmed about what would happen if the oil catches fire. Well, might as well get burned up with ground and oil. Oh, here's those engineers. Oh, Captain Lucas? Oh, well, well, Mr. Eakin. Have you, uh... Have you finished your inspection? Yeah, Mr. Ross and I have gone over the ground, sir, Captain Lucas. Good. We've looked at the well from as close as we could get. I estimate it's lowered a thousand barrels right now. I knew you'd be astonished, gentlemen. I'm ready to talk business any time you like. Uh, my crew can finish this in a minute. Uh, I... I'm sorry, Captain Lucas, but, uh... Your well's too big for any of the established oil companies and, uh, too big. There's more oil in that well than the whole world could use from now to the end of time. Yes, yes. The chief market for refined petroleum is kerosene for lamps. Lamps are gradually being replaced by electricity. So much oil, Captain Lucas, is more than the world needs. It's a surplus, useless profit. No, I don't agree with you, sir. I'm only a mining engineer, not a chemist or a physicist, but where the earth is provided a product like petroleum, men will find a use for it. Well, possibly, Captain, possibly. But, uh, that's outside our problems. Well, it's been an amazing sight anyway, Captain. Thank you for giving us the opportunity of seeing. Yes, sir. And we have to catch a train north to make sure we have to be on our way. Well, uh, goodbye, sir. Goodbye, Captain. Goodbye. Well, that's too darn bad, Captain. Say, you, you look right sorry about it. Well, Jim, I don't know what to do, I... The thing for us to do, Captain, is to show them we're wrong. Maybe we can get this well under control ourselves. You've got any way worked out how to do it, Hamel? Uh, Mr. Busy building them bankrupt, I couldn't think much about it. It seems to me if we rigged up a kind of a carriage that'd anchor a gate valve against upward movement, we could divert the oil through a pipe. Yeah, but remember, you've got to launch that apparatus against the column of solid oil. Well, at least we can try it. Hamel, you quit shoveling and take enough men to build whatever you want. But hurry! Hamel and his helpers worked valiantly, and Hamel's gate valve plan finally stemmed the flow of oil. But by this time, the dangerous Black Lake, 300,000 valves of oil had fooled relentlessly across the Texas prairie. In spite of the danger, thousands of prospectors arrived from everywhere. We're grilling for oil. Early in March of that year, as the men at work were building embankments, Captain, we ought to start operating our oil pretty soon. Folks all around us here look like oil and get into the market ahead of us. I know, I know, Hamel, but we've got to figure out what to do with this service oil first. You just let your own affairs go while you're worried about what might happen. What's up? Why? Why? We're going to the prairie. We can't help it. Come on. Wait, wait. We'll build a back flat. You can't discourage a volcano, Captain. It's coming fast. And if you fire this into the pond, Captain, you'll be sure to lose all of the oil. What are you doing? Building a fire on this oil. Light your hand, Captain Hamel. You're going to lose every job of what we work for, Captain. Like man, do you want all the Texas above and smoke? Stand back! The walls of a mess, the explosion through blazing oil high into the air, and rock the earth for miles around. And where the rich oil lake had been, lay only blackened charred masses of waste. When this waste had cooled, men ventured into the field to hunt for their wells. A few days later, at the edge of the field, Hamel returns to report to Captain Lucas. Well, what's the bad news, Hamel? I can taste anything now. Well, it's perfectly safe, Captain. What? That doesn't seem possible, Hamel. Well, I don't know about other folks' wells, because they may have been kind of careless about the Regan. But our pipes and gate valve are in place. Go and look for yourselves. Oh, I hope you're all right, Hamel. Captain, you shouldn't just pace up and down here day and night. Fire's over. A lot of damage, but it wasn't your fault. You've got an oil well run. It's been standing around long enough. Yes, yes, but look at those ruined black fields. People swarming on them thicker than ants. Geologists prospecting. Yes, curiosity seekers and a wildcat is coming. How do you do? How do you do, gentlemen? I don't want to improve, but I spot you for oil, man. Oh, you do. I'm offering you the last desire but not left in this district. $10,000 an acre cash. Wait a minute. How much? A lot's going from 10 to 100,000 an acre. Now, if this thought was anywhere near Spindletop, I'd have to charge you 100,000. But gentlemen, this whole region is soaked in oil. How do you know? Well, sir, the only reason any of us know is because a man named Lucas, a few people like him, had spunk enough to keep nosing around here till they found oil. The rest of us can now enjoy the benefits without working so hard. Listen, man, you're talking to Captain Lucas who drills Spindletop. Captain Lucas. Captain Lucas. Well, pardon me. Yeah. That's a great thing you've done for us, sir. Yeah. Yeah. Well, is this land still bringing prices that high? You worried about burning up Texas, Captain? Well, that little fire that licked up 300,000 barrels of oil just advertising. From now on, this state really starts to work. The Western oil fields fulfill the expectations of patients enduring men like Anthony Lucas. The expansion of American industry, especially the rise of the automobile business, put work to this great mineral wealth. Men of strength and hardiness developed America's natural resources. They deserve a special place of honor in the Caval Gate of America. An automobile or tractor or an oil furnace is a consumer of petroleum. Therefore, the intelligent national use of oil is an important matter to practically everyone. We all should do everything possible to conserve this tremendously useful natural resource. The research chemist has helped conserve our supplies of petroleum by developing more efficient ways of using it. The chief use of petroleum is for motor fuel. And the processes used in refining crude oil today yield nearly twice as much motor fuel as those of a few years ago. Chemists of the oil industry found a way to crack the heavy molecules of petroleum in a manner that increased the production of gasoline by billions of gallons every year without any greater drain on our oil reserves. Other chemical achievements have contributed toward making gasoline and lubricating oil more efficient and more economical. Dupont, for instance, has developed in collaboration with the oil industry some remarkably effective chemicals called anti-oxidants. These chemicals curb the natural tendency of cracked gasoline to oxidize and form gummy compounds. They are so efficient that one pound is enough to stabilize 50,000 pounds of gasoline. You as a motor car owner gain a direct benefit from these anti-oxidants, for they check the formation of gum which otherwise would foul the working parts of your engine wasting its power and preventing its efficient operation. Dupont Chemists working with the petroleum industry have also developed a number of products called extreme pressure lubricant bases. Oils and greases containing these products last longer and give better protection. Extreme pressure lubricant bases create tougher oil films which stick to metal surfaces better, thus saving wear and tear on cylinders, gears and other working parts. Chemical products such as these serve you so inconspicuously that you are hardly aware of their existence, but they stand as one more illustration of the Dupont Fledge. Better things for a better living through chemistry. Resourcefulness will be the title of the program next week at the same time when Dupont again presents the Cavalcade of America. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System. New York.