 Starring Tyrone Power in Arrowsmith on the Cattle Gate of America, sit by Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. Ladies and gentlemen, today, as never before, a challenge is open to you. A challenge to work for the world they believe in, and through hardships and disappointment to hold fast to their ideals. Tonight our play concerns a young man, a restless curious dreamer, a scientist by ambition who stumbled on the road but who set his goal among the stars. From the great story by Sinclair Lewis, which many enjoyed as a play, and later a picture, Dupont presents Tyrone Power as Arrowsmith. South Dakota in the spring, a shabby frame house in Wheatsville, with a doctor's sign on the door. In the makeshift laboratory next to his office, young Dr. Martin Arrowsmith is gazing earnestly into a microscope. Suddenly he looks up, calls to his wife. Liora, look here. What do you see on this microscope slide? Let me see. I don't see anything. That's just it. Nothing. And that's the serum they're using for sick cattle around here. Martin, those test tubes are pretty important to you, aren't they? Well, I want to keep up on technique. Now look here, Liora, if you mean I'd rather be back in that Mowley laboratory with old Gottlieb, you're crazy. I've got a practice to build. And a wife to support. Darling, I wouldn't trade you for all the laboratories in the country. Waste my life puttering around a lot of glass jars? I want to cure people. Well, it seems to be an awful healthy town. Well, they have to get used to a new doctor before they come around. It's only six months. A customer. A patient is the word. I'll go. Dr. Arrowsmith? Yes, gentlemen, come in. This ain't exactly a medical meeting, Arrowsmith. As a matter of fact, I'm very glad to see you, gentlemen. There's a little matter of some infected cattle. Just while we're here. Arrowsmith, I've been a practicing veterinarian out here since before you got out of knee pads, if you ever did. Go on, Mr. Dunziger. I ain't aiming to see a young squirt with a lot of newfangled notions coming out to this town and telling me my business. You see, it's this way. We don't think them cows are sublamed sick. Don't you? Well, maybe you'd like me to show you a few cases of black leg and that dishwater serum you use. Arrowsmith, your practice ain't building very fast these days. And one of the reasons is that folks around here like people who don't mind their own business. My business is to see that people don't get sick. It's just what we're saying, Arrowsmith. You stick to the people, we'll tend to our cows. I'll inoculate them, all right? With this stuff? Well, those cattle will have to be destroyed. Take it easy, son. We ain't shooting any cows around here. Maybe the county health commissioner will think differently. Arrowsmith, we came around here to give you a little friendly advice. If you want to get along in this town, you better take it. Oh, excuse me. Well, hello, Willie. Arrowsmith, my sister's awful sick. Mom wants you to come right away. Can you? Well, yes. I'll be right out with you, Willie. Wait till I get my bag. You're a pardon, gentlemen. I reckon we're through now that we understand each other. We understand each other perfectly. Good day. Yes, Leora? Oh, I must have been asleep. What time is it, dear? About four o'clock. You must be exhausted. I'll picture some coffee. No, no thanks, Leora. Martin, look at me. What happened? The kid died. Oh. Diphtheria. Oh, Martin. I did what I could. They called me too late. Please, darling, every doctor has to lose a case sometime. The Novacs don't think so. Said they didn't want to call me at all, but she got to look so bad. Oh, Leora, how can I wake these people up? How can I teach them that sickness can be overcome? Disease can be prevented if they'll only let me work. Why don't you say what you're really thinking? What's that? What you mean is, why can't you work the way you want to? Why can't you be looking down pierced tubes instead of supporting a wife? Leora. Oh, I'm not accusing you, dearest. I only want what you want. And deep in your heart of heart, you want to go back to your laboratory work. Leora, that's nonsense. Is it? I found this letter in the bureau when I was straightening up. I never read one before. I'm just, I didn't, darling, but when I saw McGurk Institute on the envelope and the next Gottlieb's name, I just couldn't help it. Oh, Martin, why didn't you tell me? Well, now you know. Yes, and I'm so proud of you. That paper you wrote must have been wonderful. I never knew a thing about it. And now Dr. Gottlieb offering you a job at McGurk. Oh, Martin. I have a job to do here. But you've always wanted to do research. This is your chance. And what about the practice I was going to build? If I left now, I'd be a quitter. Half the town is fighting me, and the other half is laughing at me. With things like they are, how much real good could you do if you stay down here? Oh, I don't know. I'm beginning to wonder how much good any one human being can do alone. That's what Gottlieb once said to me. When a man begins to doubt everything, including himself, he's on the road to becoming a scientist. Maybe we ought to go. Honey, I'm sorry. I won't be home tonight. I know it's the fourth night in the laboratory, but this is beginning to look big, and I can't leave these cultures. Yes, I'll get something to eat. No, I don't need a clean shirt. Good night, honey. Sleep well. Come in. You were clean again, Martin. Oh, Dr. Gottlieb, I'm glad you're here, sir. I think I've got it. I've checked and double-checked and checked again. Look, look at this test tube. Three days ago, it was full of staphylococcus bacteria. Now it's clear as water. The bugs are dead, killed by this X-principle. I've done it again and again. Look at these notes. If you can find a hole in them or a mistake, I'll eat them. Why, we've got something here that's... Martin, Martin. What's the matter? You think I may be wrong? No, Martin. I think you're absolutely right. I think it is something very big. Dr. Gottlieb, I was hoping you'd say that. My boy, I don't quite know how to tell you this, but, well, this came today. What is it? The research quarterly. You'd better read it. You see, Martin, Dr. Sundgraf of the Swedish University has announced his own discovery of the X-principle. You mean he's discovered my X-principle? Let me see it. Dr. Jensen Sundgraf announces the discovery of a new element he calls bacteriophage. It's results in destroying staphylococcus. Yes. That's it, all right. So I'm washed up. Washed up? The whole year's work out the window. And this was going to be... You young fool. Are you working for science or some get-rich-quick scheme? But you call yourself a scientist. A great principle has been discovered. Does it matter whether Dr. Arrowsmith or Dr. Sundgraf or anybody else found it? Our little ambitions, our little disappointments, for what do they count? The darkness has been pushed back a little bit more. A new truth has been uncovered. Now we must go on proving it, making it work. That decides. Yes, I see. I guess my disappointment just got the better of me. Ah, you're young. Martin, you say you approve the ex-principal. With monkeys, rabbits, rats, everything I could. Good. Would you like to try it on human beings for final proof? Human beings? That's impossible. There is an island in the West Indies where plague has broken out badly. I have recommended you go there with your serum. You mean I could go? Myself? Yes. Oh, what a chance. Why, I'd stake my life on this serum. It'll clear up that island. Just a minute, my boy, you are not going down there to work miracles. You're going down to make a scientific test? You know to prove anything about a serum, any serum, you must check results of those to whom it has been administered against those to whom it has not. You mean give it to only part of them? Yes. And let the rest die when I know that I can save them? You don't know anything until you've proved it. And you can only prove it by finding what happens to those who have had it and those who haven't. A control group, Martin. Like your laboratory work. But I know I can cure them. I know... No, my boy, you don't. You don't know anything until you've proved it. Do you? Do you, Martin? No, sir. Then you'll do it? Yes. Yes, I will. You are listening to Arrowsmith starring Tyrone Power on the Cavalcade of America sponsored by DuPont. Maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Martin Arrowsmith and his wife, Leora, are establishing themselves in their new quarters on a little tropical island of St. Hubert's. Now there, not a test tube broken, not a bottle spilled. Darn good, I'd say. Oh, Martin, isn't it beautiful? I can't believe anything as wicked as plague could exist here. Well, it does. And I wish you were a thousand miles away, Leora. Oh, Lord, let's not talk about it. I'd love to be here if you were here. Darling, I love you for that. But it's just that you're so dear to me, that's why I worry about you. My whole inspiration, my only purpose lies in you. My dearest. And if anything should ever happen to you, I... Well, I... Silly, nothing will. But if it did, you go right on with your work. Don't you see, darling, that your work really counts? Not without you. Your work is bigger than both of us. Promise me, darling, you'll put it first. Always and forever. You make it sound quite wonderful. Promise? Promise. Now, let me go. We'd better finish unpacking. What's in this box? Here, I'll take it. It has my hypodermic needles. I'd better get a move on. Martin, isn't it quiet? Too quiet for me. Sort of ominous, isn't it? It's like... Like waiting for something. I guess if you've lived near a trolley line all your life, you're always waiting for something. There goes a wagon by now. Leora, come away from that balcony. What a funny, quaint little wagon. All covered. Yes, I know. I'm sorry you saw it so soon. Carry all the bodies away in there? There isn't time for separate variables. Oh, it's horrible. All this beauty crawling with death. Martin, how are you going to keep your promise to Dr. Gottlieb to give the serum to only half the people? How can you? I can because I've got to. I'm going to see the governor in his board now to set up the control groups. Gentlemen, it's the most brutal, inhuman thing I've ever heard of. 10,000 people dying, and this man wants to use them like ditty pigs. Your Excellency, our problem here is to save lives. Yes, but it's to do it in such a way that 10,000 people won't die from plague again. I've got to find out the value of this serum. You know that serum works. I don't know anything of the kind, unless I can see what happens to those who get it and those who don't. What right have you to say who shall get it? I haven't any right, except to do the best I can for all plague victims everywhere. Don't you see, Your Excellency, if we can definitely prove this serum works, we'll wipe this plague from the face of the earth. If we can... I am not interested in the earth. I'm interested in this sick dying island. Science takes a larger view of disease, Your Excellency. Science? You dare to talk science and propose a scheme like this? The clinics are set up, Dr. Erasmith. Lines of natives are waiting. For heaven's sake, ma'am, will you help them? Let me inoculate half of them and I'll do it. Oh, no, that's Dr. Erasmith. I cannot and I will not give my consent to such a plan. Good day, son. Gentlemen, I'm sorry. Sorryer than I could ever tell you. Good day. Dr. Erasmith, may I speak with you? Oh, yes, of course. My name is Stokes. I have a parish out in the greedy. I heard you just now. Yes? I think you're right. You've got to stick by your guns. You've got to stick by your guns. Mr. Stokes, you make me feel like a human being again. Not again to think I was some sort of monster. The trouble with them is they're all afraid for their own hides. I know. Now, there's a village in my parish, some 300 souls. About a third of them are already dead. Plagues everywhere. Now, if you want to make your test there... With no interference? Not a word. Oh, come on, man. What are we waiting for? I'll pick up my stuff and we'll start in half an hour. Hello, Mrs. Erasmith. Your husband home yet? No, he's still in the Greeter. Been there for two days. Well, I have a message for him from the council. They've finally decided to let him work his own way. Oh, I'm so glad. It seems cruel, but Martin is right. Well, I do hope he gets back soon that plague's spreading like wildfire. Yes, I know. It's terrible. Say, you're looking a little washed out yourself. The climate getting on your nerves. Oh, no. Just lonesome for your husband, I suppose. Yes, I... I guess so. Well, you take it easy. I'll be over tomorrow to see if he's back yet. He'll be glad to see you. Goodbye, Mr. Drake. Goodbye. Oh, Martin. Hurry home. I am lonesome for you. Oh, Kerry, would you get me a glass of water? Yes, ma'am. So hot. I feel sort of... Sane. Doctors seem like he been going a long time. He'll be back soon. Oh, thank you. Good. Watch out there. Don't spill it, ma'am. Ma'am, you're shaking like a leaf. I have such a peculiar chill. Oh, Sutton. You've got a mighty funny color, too, Miss Aerosmith. You don't suppose that you could have... It might be, Kerry. It might be. It is, Miss Aerosmith. You've got the plague. I'll get it, too. I'll get it. What did you say I... I should do? When you weren't here, neither did you say you'd... I can't see my... Yes, but he's been in Ligrita. He'll be here soon, now. We wait too long. There he is. He's coming. What for, ma'am? Medicine. Save our people. My lord, but I'm glad you're here, Aerosmith. They're getting pretty ugly. They all all right? No, they haven't gone in the house. We want white man's medicine. The council has decided to let you make your experiment. Oh, thank God for that. Listen, all of you, you'll get medicine. Go down to the clinic and wait. They're getting dangerous, Aerosmith. What shall I do? I haven't been home yet. I'm going in and get more bottles. You stay here and watch them. Then come down to the clinic with me and help me divide them up. I don't know how you can do it. Neither do I, but I must. Lord, it looks so different back home in a nice, pure laboratory. When you see their faces... You wait here. You hear me? I go get medicine. You see, I haven't time to fool. Where are you? If you... Leora, not you. Not here alone. Why didn't they tell me? Oh, my darling. Leora, what's the plague? Blasted? It's killed the only thing I ever loved. I'll end it. I'll end it for good. No one's going to get it again. No, Smith, your experiment's your test. Let's have over the experiment. I'm going to save them. All of them. Congratulations, old man. I welcome back home. Another call, Dr. Aerosmith. Do you have the paper that you believe the plague is wiped out for good? How many people did you save a day according to reports? Please, gentlemen, I'm sorry. I just got back. I haven't anything to say. What you've got to? You're a public hero, they expect. What do they want me to say? I understand your wife was a... Leave her out of this. Get out of here, all of you. I have nothing to say. Nothing. May I come in? Oh, at last you have come to see me. I am glad. All right. I just got away, Dr. Gottlieb. It's pretty thick out there. All right. It's a price of fame, Martin. I'm not a hero, and you know it. You saved a very fine thing down there, Martin. You saved the lives of a great many people. Why don't you say what you really think? I failed. I messed everything up and lost the best chance I'll ever have to prove anything. Oh, Martin, we are what we are. When the time for the decision came, your heart won. I wanted to prove it. You've got to believe that. Then when Leora died, something happened. Well, why don't you say it? I know it. I know good. You are good, Martin. It's just, well, a man is born with a desire to find the pure truth, or he is born without it. Yes, I deserve that. I am sorry about Leora. Well, Leora was wonderful. Her love and confidence gave me courage. Great courage in the face of everything. I understand. She must have had a premonition about it, too, for she made me promise her that... Where? Oh, no matter. I guess I let her down, too. No, my boy. I don't think you ever did that. Never mind the polite words. I've had of all of those I can stand. Oh, Martin, I meant nothing unkind. If you have a minute, come and look. I have a little growth in this test tube. No, I... I think I'll go along, sir. You're busy. Come in. Her wife of one of the trustees is on the phone. She wants to know if you'll speak at her club on Friday. Oh, good Lord. Take the message and I'll call her back. Yes, sir. She is important, Martin. I can't do it. I can't do this sort of thing. Oh, you're excited, my boy, and tired. Tomorrow it will all look different to you. No, I'm afraid not. Not tomorrow or any tomorrow. The plans and hopes I had are a thing of the past. Martin, about that promise you made to Leora. Yes? I can guess what it is. Well... There's a small laboratory upstate. They haven't much, but they leave you alone. They need a research man. I thought maybe... Not me. I'm all through with that. And what about Leora? I can guess your promise to her. Leora was the kind of woman who knew the real values of life. Well, what about Leora, you senseless old man? Can't old Gottlieb understand what's in my heart? Why, I can't go on without Leora. Without her, nothing mattered. Martin, Leora was above the sorrow and bitter disappointment when she knew your work and hopes were pushing back the darkness from the earth. You haven't lost Leora, Martin. She is with you now and forever. Now listen to him. Old Gottlieb must be out of his head. Or is he? Maybe that's what Leora meant when she said she'd be with me always. Well, Leora, darling, it may be that you are here with me. If you are, speak to me. Let me feel a warmth of your love and confidence once again. And now you must find it back again. Remember your promise to Leora. For only in you does she live. Only in you and your work will she live to the end. Gottlieb is right. My promise to Leora is the only thing that matters. I promised her I'd go on. That's it. I will go on for her and for me. And whatever I do, if it's good, it'll be hers as much as mine. I'll tell old Gottlieb. I'll tell him now if he'll ever stop talking. Think well, Martin. Think well and give me your answer. Well, Dr. Gottlieb, if you think they'll have me, I'll go. Oh, my boy, my boy, I am so proud of you. I've failed in everything so far. I know I have. But I want to try again. Are you sure, Martin? Are you sure? I'm sure are this minute than I've been in all my life. Have you any ideas for work? Have I? Dr. Gottlieb, there's a quinine derivative compound. And I would like to make a study of its actions on the human body. How long do you think it will take this work? Three years, maybe four. Then if it doesn't work, I'll try another angle. Time doesn't matter anymore. I know where I'm going now. Thank you, Taron Power, for your fine characterization of Dr. Martin Arrowsmith. Ladies and gentlemen, in a few moments we shall hear again from Mr. Power. In the meantime, Gaine Whitman has some interesting information for you. You have been asked to conserve paper to save even your old newspapers. Why? Can't the United States make enough paper? The United States can make enough paper, all right. We have single plants, in fact, that can turn out a million pounds a day. But the war is demanding paper in unusual amounts, and quickly too. Even shelves for cannon are packaged today in hard laminated paper tubes. These are made from reworked paper. That's why you are asked to conserve paper. That's why it's vital to keep every paper mill in America running 24 hours a day without shutdown. Tonight we bring you news of how do pot chemists are helping the paper mills to run day and night with fewer shutdowns. Fewer waits of 20 minutes or half an hour, while the rollers are cleaned and re-threaded. The thing that shuts down a paper mill oftenest has an ugly name. It's ugly in itself. Slime. Pulp stock, from which paper is made, is a mixture of water and fiber. Something like 600 different kinds of bacteria, fungi and algae can live in it, and they produce slime. Have you ever noticed a brittle, waxy spot in a piece of paper? When you hold it up to a window, the light shines through it. That's slime. To you it may be only an annoyance. But to the paper mill, it's a great deal more than an annoyance. Slime in a paper mill means clogged screens, means breaks as the half-finished material travels over the rolls, means a costly shutdown. And a half hour in a mill that makes half a million pounds of paper a day means that 5,000 pounds of paper will never arrive where they're needed. Until recently, paper mills kept down the bacteria, fungi and algae that form slime with ammonia and chlorine. But today, every pound of ammonia and chlorine are precious. So, not long ago, DuPont chemists went to work to see what they could do to help America make more paper. There was a DuPont compound, trademarked Lignosan fungicide, that had won a place for itself in the lumber industry because it kept air-dried lumber from developing ugly stains in drying. Those stains in lumber the DuPont experts knew were caused by fungi. If Lignosan could handle the job for lumber mills, they reasoned it ought to handle it for pulp and paper mills. And handle the job it does, tests have now proved. So powerful is the germicidal action of Lignosan that only 4 to 8 ounces of it will protect a ton of paper fiber. So tonight, the paper mills of America are endlessly turning out the paper the nation needs. Some of the credit for that belongs to the DuPont chemist with his better things for better living through chemistry. And now tonight's star, Tyrone Power. I guess there isn't an actor in Hollywood or New York who wouldn't enjoy doing Aerosmith, and I'm no exception. Well, it's a grand story, Tyrone, and just as inspiring today as when Sinclair Lewis wrote it. Even more so. For today in the rush of events, in the thick of a world fight for freedom, there seems to be no more time for quiet thought for the search for truth. Yet it is that unbeaten scientific spirit, the spirit of young Aerosmith that must ultimately make this world a better place to live in. Good night. Thank you, Tyrone Power. Now a word about our play next week. It is the celebrated stage and screen comedy, Accent on Youth. Our star is Walter Pigeon, and featured with him will be the charming young screen actress, Miss Ellen Drew. Don't forget, next week, Cavalcade of America presents Walter Pigeon with Ellen Drew in Samson Raefelsen's great comedy, Accent on Youth. Tyrone Power, soon to be seen in Eric Knight's This Above All, appeared on tonight's program through the courtesy of 20th Century Fox. Supporting Mr. Power this evening were Lorraine Tuttle as Leora and Lou Merrill as Dr. Gottlieb. Original music for tonight's program was composed and directed by Robert Armbruster. This is John Heaston sending best wishes from Dupont. That comes to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.