 Starring Lionel Barrymore in Valley Forge, Maxwell Anderson's great play on the Cavalcade of America, sponsored by Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. Ladies and gentlemen, tonight the Cavalcade of America takes unusual pride in being able to present for its first program in the year 1942 a new radio adaptation based on Maxwell Anderson's prize-winning epic drama, Valley Forge. Standing at the threshold of a dark year in our history, it is fitting for us to salute the spirit in which this work has been undertaken. For at no other time has the moving story of Washington at Valley Forge been more apt for men of another generation. His are words speaking to us out of the past. They come as a legacy for us today. So it is that Dupont proudly presents Valley Forge, starring Lionel Barrymore. Give him attention, commanding officer General Washington. Ladies, gentlemen, you'll forgive this delay. Now if you read the minutes, Mr. Tent. Yes, sir. These sentences are to stand. Joseph Cutler for repeated desertions to be cashiered within for me. Samuel Jelliff, who is sentenced to be hanged for espionage, to be reprieved and returned to the office's prison in consideration of having made a full and free confession. Is that all? That's all, General. Unless you have a minute to squander on that way-faced boy you saw in the entrance. Who is he? Hanged if I know his name. I've booted him some five or six times, but he's back again today asking to see you. Well, let him come in. As you say, sir. Come along, man. The General will see you. Thank you, sir. Spit it out and be terse about it. We've no time for a history. Why are you here, lad? Well, I'll say it as brief as I can, sir. I joined the Army for three years, and my time's nearly up. And, well, the truth is I'm dying. Tell me it's egg you, something wrong with my stomach. A colonel tent will arrange to send you home at once. Oh, I thank you, sir, but that's not what I wanted. I'm afraid that's all we have to offer. It's hard to say what it is I wanted. I don't want to die. Nobody wants to die young. I will, whether I go or stay here. And, damn it, let me die for something. I believed in this war we're fighting in, and you, sir. I, I believed in you. I am very much fear you're not fit for service. I'm sorry. You better come along out of here, lad. I'm sorry, General Washington, if I'd had any idea what... Yes, death's a long way from you. How could you have any idea? But let me be on a field with a gun in my hand to die there. Not die retching my lungs and brains out here in this rat trap other than camping. Come, come. There's no time for this man. You're in a fever. One moment, colonel tents. Let him stay. Thank you, sir. Don't you try to see it, sir. A lot of men have died. I'm only one. But we're dead a long time for wanted freedom. We came to fight for something. We believed in... Don't worry, lad. We'll do what we can. You'll be looked after. Yes, sir. Good night. Do you have his name? Yes. Now, gentlemen, it's not by accident as you may have thought that you four are here tonight. You tents? Sterling? Varnum? Lafayette? You know what's in my mind. The reports before us show we've neither food nor clothes, nor arms for the maintenance of an army. No defense if we're attacked. I've written to Congress and I have their reply. They're sending two commissioners to investigate. Sir, I'm a soldier and I take orders. God help you, sir, to find some way to command though we feed on dust and carrion. General Washington, this country'd come to you with open arms. If you said to them once for all, I'll take just this and that. And I'll take it now when it's needed. One word, one breath from you. And you'd blow this Congress that's causing all our troubles from here to Maine. It happens that our Congress is the heart of what we fight for. Good or bad, Mr. Tent. General Washington. Yes, Lafayette? May I begin by saying something you know that may have forgotten? This world you have cut from a wilderness is a new world, brighter with sun and summer, colder with winter cold in the world I knew. I find no man but looks you in the eye and says his thought in your teeth and means it. This was not known before in the world. Europe has thirty kings and a hundred million slaves. Now the name of Washington is magical in France. You will have the help of France before the end of spring. Oh, you cannot wait. I know it. Not possible. Yet, if you knew what dreams and faith rest on you, you would do this impossible. What's on hand, Mr. Tent? We might scratch up by equalizing three or four days' provision. Three days. As for our high purpose, we have it still. But the men, the men are mortal and die around us so fast the heaviest works to bury the dead. If you heard of a martyr, Washington, across the seas, I fear I'll disappoint you. I'd rather live and have my fun and my time before my face hardens into a mountain crag. But we have three days and the order is given. All commanders meet here at five in the morning. All right, John. Lafayette. Yes, sir? Stay a moment. Yes, sir. I was short with you when you meant to praise me. I hope to be forgiven. This war is a democratic war and one man's name... I know, sir. Sometimes I feel I'm a difficult guest. If I'd said what I'd meant, I'd have told you that I expect you to uphold my hands if I ever should falter. Oh, I'm not humble. I stand well in my own opinion. But a man begins to lose his teeth and fears his eyes go bad at 45 and wishes... Oh, well, that's all. Crash. Let it go with the rest. You fall across our knighted valley forward like a young star, all flame. Let's hope you're destined to avoid our quenching. Sir, the sun's quenched in the ocean. But it rises in the morning. I gauge my life. It will be so with you. Brave! Yes, sir, General Washington. Coming right out, sir. The commissioners from the Congress are arriving this morning. Yes, sir. They'll be wanting a bite to eat after their journey, sir. Yes, and give us the stuff that was left from the fusiliers' dinner. Oh, I guess that stuff was worse than you know, General. The cookie couldn't pass that off on the cat. I know. I tasted it. We'll have it this morning. Just as you say, General. I'd stable the horses, sir, and have two congressmen left over. If you can suggest any disposition of them. We're giving them breakfast here. But I warn you to eat sparingly. Heat the mess rave, but heat it just enough to bring out its qualities. Yes, sir. I'll do just that, sir. Shall I fetch them in? They're scraping their boots outside. That argues a certain amount of respect. Yes, fetch them in by all means. Come in, gentlemen. Ah, gentlemen. It's long indeed since I've exchanged views with members of the Congress. Welcome to Valley Ford. What roads? We arrive, so we'll be banked, sir. But nonetheless, welcome for that. This is Colonel Tanch, my aide, who'll hear our discussions. General, we've been abroad since seven. Demi, I'm Star. Well, if you'll excuse a light collation, army fair. Surely bring on your light collation, sir. That infernal host at the inn. We asked the man for colapses, and he sent us bacon. Bacon sickens me. I have a tetchy stomach, traveling. Then it may be that our soldier father won't do. Oh, yes, it will. I'm not so tetchy by now. Then we'll be served in a moment. Now, while we're waiting, I'd like to bring up the question of a new quartermaster. It's plain, an army can't run without a quartermaster. And yet you've left me so these three months. We know it. We know it. It is most unfortunate. But there's been some quarrel in Congress over appointments. I've done my best to settle the matter, but... It's not settled yet? The Lord knows, sir, when, if ever it'll be settled. We authorize you to live off the country, General Washington. I think you'll find there's not much food within our range. And besides, if you turn men loose to ravage and steal... Steal? Ravage and steal? Well, what else can you call it? No, gentlemen, better give up at once than sow the country with footpaths. Now, now, a little discipline's all that's needed. Discipline! Will you show me a rule for holding an army together on air? And I've held together all morning on little more. And I see our breakfast approaching. Oh, welcome to version, General. Here you are, gents. Go ahead, gentlemen. Don't stand on ceremony. Right you are. Mind if I go right ahead? Not at all. Good Lord! Good heavens above! What's the matter, Mr. Fulton? Help! Help! I'm, I'm straining! Get him some water, Rave. Yes, sir. Have you tried this, this awful? In the name of Heaven, General. Are you ill, Congressman? Look, look at your food. It crawls! Will you exaggerate, Congress? This is better than what I've been having lately. Not bad at all. It moves about at trifle. A weevil's hard to kill. What is it? Mostly beans, I guess. Colonel Tange, please, please stop eating it. Take the plates out, Rave. Yes, sir. I'm sorry, gentlemen. This is the mess we've dealt to several corps lately for lack of better. Is that any reason for ladling hogwash to us? You're not compelled to eat it. But the men are. And you sent it. Well, that is bad. I'll admit that. But give us something else to clear the air. After we've settled the question of a quartermaster for my army. General Washington, what the army needs, apparently, is not so much a new quartermaster as a new commander-in-chief. A man with the proper respect for the Congress. If you'll unstable our horses, Colonel Tange, I think we can make it to York by nightfall. Good day, General. Good day, gentlemen. Yes, Lafayette. There's an intelligence from Philadelphia. Huh? Tell me what's in it. It's from General Hauer, sir. He begs you to meet and talk with him under a flag of truce. He bid you come out with no terms, save, total surrender, or in statement of the colonies under the calm. It seems that Congress has refused my country's offer to form a military alliance with the United States. Oh, we've been betrayed, Lafayette. Betrayed by our own people. But it may only be a trick of some sort. No, no, no. And even if it were, I should come to terms with the enemy now. General Washington, you... Where is the meeting to take place? On an island in the Susquehanna. Hey, Island, this is where they guard the food of the horses. We'd plan to take it today. We won't be needing it now, Lafayette. This nation's spending its last heart's blood for a package of liberty. We opened the package today, and it was empty. You are listening to a new radio adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's great epic play, Valley Forge, starring Lionel Barrymore on The Cavalcade of America, and sponsored by Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, a band of continental soldiers is foraging for food in enemy territory on Hay Island. It's me, Marty. Let me in. They dumped another load while you were gone. Enough hay and grain to feed us and the horses. We can figure a way to get it all off this island. Funny, there was nobody on guard at the landing. Maybe they thought we were all dead. See, somebody did take a shot at you. You're bleeding. It's a scratch. This is the kind of war. As soon as you get a pair of britches, they shoot them out from under you. Hey, what's that? Did you hear that? Yeah, they ought to be across for this time. Listen, that's not even a musket. That's a long time. I told them they'd run into something if they stayed past daylight. It's the only barn in the island. Someone outside. Take hold of your musket, Marty. Right. Lift the boat. Stand behind the door. The door? Somebody in there? Step into the light where I can see you. Easy there, easy. Who are you? Where are they? Oh, I beg your pardon, Colonel Tench. General Afieth. You're wearing enemy colors on your legs, man. I got an enemy bullet through them, too. So I see. I hope I'm not going to find it necessary to make you both prisoners. For what? For desertion. We came over here to lift a mess of corn for breakfast. We found more than we figured on. Are there others? You're expecting others? Sure we are. Why do you look so glum about it? This island is in a state of truce, man. General Washington meets with Howe here within the hour. To sue for peace? This is office's intelligence, man. Listen, Colonel, truce or no truce, our comrades are catching it down there now. They are, Colonel. The truce must be over. General Washington should be here by now. He's coming here today to meet with General Howe. But if you've got a fight going, we'll look in on it. How do we get there? Follow the shoreline south. Keep your eyes open for shop shooters. How far is it? Maybe a furlong to the cribs. Where are you dumping this stuff? Clapton's granary. Good enough. You're with me, General Afieth. But of course. Wait a minute. You say the generals are coming here? Yes. What are we going to do? Lie where you are and let them step over you. Only don't shoot them when they come in. That's all I ask of you. Is this the place? That's where they pointed out, sir. I thought tents should precede us. He was here, General. But he stepped out to mix in a shindie. Sir, it seems to me there's something familiar and yet remarkably strange about this place. I've seen these faces before. Yes, sir. In the bunkhouse at Valley Forge. This boy. I remember him especially. Neil's my name, sir. I came to your quarters. Ah, yes, yes, I remember. Well, you look as though you'd got your action, lad. Look, men. I have a meeting here under a truce for the enemy. It would be most embarrassing to have them find me in the company of my own renegade. We understand, sir. Alcock and me will help get the others hit in the granary till you've done. This boy, Neil, General Washington. We move him. I'm afraid it'll finish him. Badly wounded, sir. Well, let him stay if he must. Keep an eye on him, Sterling. We carry a flag, friend. That's them now. Hurry. Come in. Poor shoulder, but it'll do for our purpose. General Washington. General Howell. I'll be brief in apologizing. Some lawless spirits from my own army had descended on this island for their own purposes. The men are still about, but we'll keep the truce now. Well, you've had the best of this day's work. Those rascals of yours rob the corn-cribs, I'm told. However, sick transit horse feed Monday. Does it meet with your wish that we transact our business before witnesses? Sir, I'd a little rather this discussion were known to my officers. Right, sir. Right. And so would I. First, let it be understood that I bind myself to nothing by this meeting. Or have I altered my loyalty to the cause I captained? To tell the truth, when it's no secret, we're sick and sore about this war at home, and would to God it had never started. And we want you back on your own terms. My own terms would mean that we'd never went back at all. But I'm not alone in these decisions. We have a government and plenty in that government as sore and sick as your own. Now, God forbid this, General. Must we take back a king? Damn you, Sterling. You think it's easy for me? They said it was rain on the roof. Who's that? A dying soldier, General. Forgive us. But it was a heartbeat. Like quiet, lad. I'm sorry. I think I'd die. But if I die, you will share my legacy. All men will live free in a free land. All men. And there will be no more tyrants. Don't try to talk anymore, lad. Try to sleep. Sleep? Yes. Sorry to be late, General Washington. Tense. What happened? I shall report it in due time, sir. General Howe, in regard to certain corn, which this squad of the First Virginia sacked last night, let me report it stowed on Clapton's landing. I've said goodbye to my corn, not without regret. As to the losses in this action, General Washington, there have been some wounded and some killed, how many I don't know. But among the latter, Nick Teague and Lucifer Tanch. You list yourself among the slain. This is rather tasteless joking. I'm dead enough, my boots are full of blood. Sit down, man, before you fall. To die for hay and grain, there's a high death for a swashing soldier. The devil damned your kings and congresses and their hay. Tanch, take your hand from me. I'll walk to where I lie. The dog dies best in a corner. Bring on your burlap and the sailor's needle and sew me into sleep. I'm tired and... Tanch, man. Tanch. He's done for, sir. So, William, it may be that you'd preferred to wait elsewhere until we're free again. Thank you. I'm not unmoved at any brave man's passing. But his grief's a private old. We'll take a turn outside. Come, gentlemen. General Washington. Tanch. He's gone. We're all as good as dead love yet. Have you pledged yourself to how? Not yet. Not yet. Dead for hay and grain, he said. Sir, they've had news of the landing. Congress has signed the French alliance. Too late. Too late. Couldn't you gather your troops? Make one final effort, sir. Gather my troops. Gabriel's trumpet might rally that veil of bones. Bring me these specters with the wind-fed entrils and the mouths that open and speak, not gaping in their misery. What could I offer them to follow me? Call them in! Call them in to me! Come in! Come in and hear me! You were some of the best. You renegades there in the granary. There was a time when you had shoes and powder for your guns and fought to rule yourselves. Now I offer you wounds and death, cold and disease and hunger, winters to come, such as this you have with our bloody trail in the snow and no end to it till you shuffle each other in with those at Valley Forge. If you can find within yourselves the courage in the heart to face rewards like this to fight through snow, the winter and the heat of summer and the valleys and the plains to the last mountain peak that we can still call free, our own America, if this is what you want, then close in and take your places in my ranks. You take us back, sir. Take you back. I'll go with you. Come on, you've probably heard what he said. We'll go with you. We thought it was over. We thought it was fallen to pieces. But if you meant what you said about being plowed under before we stop, I'm for being plowed under. Good heavens, what's going on here? Has my hay barn been turned into an American barracks now? Sorry, General Howe. Men, you'd better go back to camp now. All right, sir. Will you do one thing for me, sir? Name it. I want to shake your hand. That'll be something to tell the boys. Would I keep my hand from my friends? My heart goes with it to every man among you. Thank you, sir. Now mind you tell him. Well, George Washington? Sir William, I'm serving to those men in rags of homespun. This war is not mine to end, but theirs. Your choice of counselor, sir, is your own, of course. However, you'll draw this tragedy out further. As far as we must. But you've lost. Lost now. Your government's opposed your men in dragnets. The dregs are what swept up to eat. By all the rules of the game, we're beaten and should surrender. But the spirit of the earth moves over the earth like flame and finds fresh home when the old burned out. It stands over this my country in this dark year and stands like a pillar of fire. They'll press you harder when I'm replaced. Sir, we engage to stand it. Very well. I'll get a dropping at home. Well, goodbye, sir. We wish you good morning and a fair voyage, sir William. So, we're left with some years of revolution on our hand. We have food for three days, sir. And then for three more, if we can find it. And three more, if we can find it. And now I think we will. General, what should we do about tension, the others? We must bury them here. They've earned the ground. We'll fire a volley over them. No, sir. We'll need our powder. And dead men don't hear volleys. So be it then. This liberty will look easy by and by when no one dies together. Thank you, Lionel Barrymore, for a moving performance of a deeply moving American play. Ladies and gentlemen, you have been listening to Valley Forge by Maxwell Anderson. In a few moments, we shall hear again from our star, Mr. Barrymore. The first gain Whitman has a story for and of today. Now, as never before, we can be grateful for synthetic fibers like rayon and nylon. Fibers developed in the chemists' laboratory. When fabrics of rayon yarn were introduced some 30 years ago, they had a good many faults. Women's stockings made of rayon bagged at the knees. A man who sent a pair of rayon pajamas to the laundry often got them back with one leg long enough for a stovepipe and the other about right for a pair of shorts. Year after year, however, behind the scenes, manufacturers labored to improve rayon with the persistence that characterizes American business. DuPont had a part in that improvement. In 1925, rayon appeared as a satisfactory woven dress fabric. In 1926 came Baronet Sappen. In 1928, a chemist discovered that titanium dioxide would take the sheen out of rayon and make it even duller than silk. And today, as everybody knows, synthetic fibers have made tremendous strides and won general acceptance. Americans used 580 million pounds of rayon in 1941. Four and a half pounds for every man, woman, and child in the United States. What synthetic yarns have accomplished for us is really almost beyond comprehension. Rayon means more, much more than pretty clothes. Then automobile tires that wear longer now when we must make every tire wear longer. Nylon means more, much more than long-wearing stockings. Think of the broader importance of man-made fibers. A century ago, according to the best estimate, the total population of the world was one billion souls. Today it's something over two billion, a 100% increase in 100 years. And still, where only a woman of wealth could afford a handsome dress in the old days and even wealthy women tried to make a dress do for two or three seasons, today not hundreds, not thousands, but millions and tens of millions of women wear beautiful clothes. Think for a moment of silk alone. We used to buy 50 million pounds of silk a year. Most of it came from Japan. In 1920, silk cost us $20 a pound. In that same year, new as rayon was, rayon cost $6 a pound. Today, as increased demand has made it possible for industry to reduce costs, rayon sells for 53 cents a pound. Today, these fibers are all doing their part in the wartime economy in order that the future may truly hold better things for better living through chemistry. And now, ladies and gentlemen, the star of tonight's play, Lionel Barrymore. Mr. Barrymore, on behalf of Cavalcade, thank you for tonight's performance. Thank you, Mr. Heaston. And I'm honored and deeply touched that Cavalcade chose me for such an exacting role at a time when this play means more than it's ever meant before to every American. Thank you, Lionel Barrymore. As you already know, sir, next week on the Cavalcade of America, DuPont presents the great screen actor Charles Boyer in The Gentleman from Paris. It is an original play written especially for Cavalcade and based on the career of the young Frenchman who helped to light the torch of liberty in America and carried it back to his native land where we hope it is not forever extinguished. Next week, at the same time, The Gentleman from Paris starring Charles Boyer as the young Marquis de Lafayette on the Cavalcade of America. The original musical score for tonight was composed and conducted by Robert Armbruster. On the Cavalcade of America, your Hollywood announcer is John Heaston sending best wishes from DuPont. This is the National Broadcasting Company.