 The Cavalcade of America, presented by Dupont. Among America's well-known men are many who came from Europe to try their fortunes and make their homes in this land of opportunity. One of the most appealing and important of these was the German Swiss named John A. Sutter. Although he is known chiefly because gold was discovered on his California property, Sutter's life was actually spent as a pioneer, a homemaker and a farmer. For centuries, alchemists had tried unsuccessfully to make gold from base metals and fails. Dupont chemists have learned to make products infinitely more valuable from cotton, wool, coal, and other everyday substances. As Sutter worked quietly and earnestly on the work that he believed more important than the discovery of gold, similarly, the research chemist is striving earnestly towards the ideal, which is summed up in the Dupont Fled. Better things for better living through chemistry. As an overture, Don Voriz and the Dupont Cavalcade Orchestra will play Alice Holiday from Rudolf Rimmel's operetta, Katinka. Dupont Cavalcade moves on. Dupont Sutter was born at Cannern in Baden, Germany, of Swiss parents in 1803. At the age of 31, he left his family in Burgdorf in the canton of Bern and set out for the new world to make his fortune. He landed at New York, pushed westward to St. Louis, and from there he was soon traveling as a trader over the famous Santa Fe Trail. Most of the American Southwest was then Mexican territory, and in the summer of 1835, we find Sutter crossing what was then the boundary line between the United States and Mexico. At this outpost, a crowd attracted by the dust cloud raised by his wagon wheels is at the gate. Oh, it's a bit of chaos. Could you tell me where I can find the head of the government and Santa Fe? I am the Alcalde here, Senor. Oh? But I am Don Sutter, with a caravan of merchandise from St. Louis. Yeah, I'm glad to stretch my legs after riding so long. You are an Americano, Senor. I am a Swiss, but I hope to become an American. Ah, Senor, you should be a Mexican. That is a great country. They land of opportunism. What more could I ask in the fine land of the American West? Ah, then you have never seen California. California? Well, I've heard of it. Is it only claimed? Senor, there is no place to equally. I cannot wait to return. Beauty, fertility, with everything. And the climate is, Senor, the climate of... Speaking of climate, do you mind if we get a little in out of the sun? Oh, don't, Senor. We shall find cooler shade there. Go. Enter, Senor. Thank you. Sit down, Senor. If you'll excuse me, I should like to present my passports, pay my duties, and tend to my business here. Afterward, I will be glad to hear more of California. You can hear all about California in one word, Senor. I would rather be a town in California than a freeman anywhere else in the world. That should be easy for an Alcalde to arrange. Senor, let us know. The Mexican government has other ideas than yours. They think I have value here. Well, I hope my cargo has some tend to your value, Alcalde. Well, we need almost everything here. So no matter what you bring, it will quickly be converted into gold and silver. Oh, and I shall be as lucky as King Midas without his curse. Pardon me. King Midas? Who is he? He is in a story I used to tell my children. A miser who wished that everything he touched would turn into gold. Oh, Senor, where is the curse in that? Where? A man cannot eat and drink gold, Senor. And when King Midas touched food? Ah, Sisi, I understand. He turned to gold and he started. That is a good story. But fortunately in California, the greatest riches come from its gold and sunlight. Oh, then someday I will go to California. To me, there is no gold so fine as a field of wheat ripening in the summer sun. Three years later, John A. Sutter started for California by way of the Oregon Trail. Arriving in Vancouver in October, he found that he couldn't get south by land until spring. So he boarded the ship bound for Honolulu. From there, he went to Sitka, Alaska, which was then Russian territory with a load of merchandise. With the supplies he received in exchange, he sailed south and at last entered the picturesque city of Monterey, the capital of Mexican California. In the party of the bright Adobe headquarters, Sutter is received by the governor, Alvarado. Daniel Sutter, your papers are in good order. And the letters you bring me from my friends in Honolulu speak most highly of you. What do you want of me? I understand you are grunting land. I want a place where I can make myself a home. I'll take land you cannot govern easily because it's far away. Will you be responsible for keeping order there? Yes, and it will be like an outpost for you to protect your lands along the sea coast. Let me see. There is the Sacramento Valley. Some say it is beautiful and fertile and very far away. I think it might do you very well. I am ready to start any time. You are very confident, senior. Senor, you go and select your land. If you still want it a year from today, come back. Then I will make you a citizen of California and the ruler of your own land. The font cavalcade moves forward. The land John Sutter selected was in the beautiful valley where the American River flows into the Sacramento. With earnest and justice, he gained the confidence of the Indians who lived there. They helped him and his white followers to build homes, plant fields, and ten herds of cattle and sheep. In a year, Governor Alvarado made him owner and ruler of the great farm empire he was founding. As the years slipped by, men came inland from the coast, not wandering trappers, but home builders. In August of 1847, Sutter is in his headquarters as John Bedwell, his right-hand man, comes into the room. Oh, Captain Sutter? Yes, Mr. Bedwell. Sorry, sir, I didn't mean to interrupt your writing. Oh, I have to finish. I have been urging to my wife and family back in Switzerland. She's been so long since I've seen them. Oh, they'll soon be able to join you. We've had a fine crop of wheat everywhere. The herds have increased by thousands. You are the owner of one of the most fertile valleys on earth. Yeah, I have everything in goods, but there's yet to be no money. Even my supply for Monterey must be paid for in beaver skin, salmon and tello. You'll have plenty of cash one of these days. Every acre of your land is fertile, even the mountains. Yeah. And your trees are rather full-grown and plentiful. That's what I came to see you about. You cannot sell trees. Everybody has trees. Oh, I mean we need them for ourselves. We have such a good harvest. We've got to make new threshing floors at all the farms. It'll take too long to hew the timber and smooth it by hand. We've got to have a sawmill. Yeah? Well, there's a good fall of water at American Fort. Well, that's 40 miles from here. I'll build you a road to it. But then who will build a mill? There's a good man who's been working on a flower mill with me. Name of James Wilkins Marshall. Yeah? Send for him. He's right outside. I might have known you'd lose no time bid well. Come in, Marshall. Thanks. How do you, Captain? Fine, fine, fine. You sit down. Thanks. So, you want to build a sawmill on the American Fort, eh? Sure I will. How much? Well, I don't want to be paid in any of the tin money you use around here. Why? That's the best money there is. But just pieces of tin with stars stamped on them? Yeah, but every star means a full day's work. When a full day's work is equal to a fixed amount of wheat, land or cattle. We've got a full schedule. Why not give out the goods instead of the tin coins? Because a man out here can only eat so much food. And look out for a few cattle of his own. So, when he wants to save credit for the future, he takes the coin. Yes, but that kind of money is no good for credit outside of here. It would be if the world had in its sense. As long as it ain't, I'll pass up your tin money. Fair. What's your proposition? For building and managing a sawmill? One half of all the timber cut in it. Yeah, some fair to me. Eh, bid well? I think it is. All right, then. Go up the agreement, bid well. Yes, sir. Here's my diary. I should think, Marshal, that it should be as well offered our tin coins as a pile of lumber out here in the woods so I can turn that lumber into gold in San Francisco. Well, money is scarce even there. Yes, it's strange no gold has been found in California. Well, maybe it's here, but just buried too deep for our plowing and digging to turn up. Eh, I'd give half my land for enough of it to bring my family over here. You know, sometimes I get so lonely for my wife and children. I wish every blade of wheat and every head of cattle were made of solid gold. Might as well make a good wish while you're at it, Captain. Wish it were the stones in the sacrament. Eh, you can laugh. But it isn't funny to me. Well, here's the agreement about the sawmill. Few men don't mind waking up from your pipe dreams. You can sign your names here. Maybe the sawmill will change your luck, Captain. There may be real money in those woods. I only want enough to bring my family here to meet. The work at the sawmill progressed slowly. After the mill race was dug, there was trouble with the tail race. The stubborn rock made it hard to dig deep and wide enough to carry the water from the mill. Meanwhile, California became a part of the United States, and the wild, new territory now flew the American flag. On January 24th, 1848, Marshall comes into Sutter's Fort in great excitement. Captain Sutter! Eh? Oh, hello, Marshall. You look all head up this afternoon. Are we alone? Yeah. Open the door. Eh, you're very secret and mysterious, Marshall. What are you so excited about? This! It looks just like an old dock bottle to me. Take it up. Look what's in it. Well, it's heavy and fresh. It is! It's gold! Gold! How do you know? Have you tested it? Maybe it's wood gold. Feel the weight of it. Bite into it. I feed it with rocks. It's malleable. Soft and heavy. It's gold, I tell you. It's the sawmills. The gravel's full of it. It's everywhere. You're a rich man. You worth millions. Billions! Eh, I'm not so sure of that. It's your land, isn't it? I don't know. It was in California, it was Mexican country, but now it's occupied by the United States. I don't know for certain who it is. It's got to do something to make sure? Eh, well, I can send a copy of my lease to the American governor for official approval. Do it quick. There's no time to lose. Do it now. You can take it to the governor. No, no, I gotta get back to the sawmill. Eh, then I'll send Bennett. We, we gotta keep the secrets. Don't the men know what you found? They watch me, but they think it's just crap. It's not worth losing their pay for. A day's pay. Well, I can pick up more than that for 15 minutes. Oh. You'll have everything you want in the world. Now, Captain, if you can just keep it secret and move fast. As Sutterwatch Charles Bennett sailed down the Sacramento River to get official confirmation of his lease of land from the Indians, he knew it would be no easy matter to keep the great bananas a secret. Bennett stops off at Benicia on his way down the river to Monterey and drops into Fester's general store to hear the news of the day. Hello, there, sir. Well, hello, Bennett. What's the news from the Sutter's fort? Well, the flour mill's nearly finished. We're waiting for the millstone. You'll have a long wait. In part, there's one of the stones broke down. There here are Sutter's building a sawmill. Yep. He's got plenty of fine timber to be cut for the Askins. Timber? Huh. Plenty of that around here. Too bad he didn't have real luck like they had over the Montedeble old. Eh, what's that? Coal. They found coal there. Scareds of it. I tell you man, California's going to be a great state someday. Coal, sure. That's nothing. Here's one Sutter's got. Oh, no, it ain't. Not by a darn type. You fellas up the valley are just dirt farmers. Digging crops out the ground. At least if there ain't no forest or drought or flood. Now coal, eh? We got something to heat the site finer and better than coal. Here, get a knife full of this. Well, what's that? What do you think it is? It looks like gold. Is it gold? Ain't sayin' it is. Ain't sayin' it ain't. Well, eh, there must be six ounces of it. That's a lot of money. Where'd you get it? Well, I ain't come from no place but Sutter's. Gosh, old Jupiter. Gold. Oh, it's, oh, it's, come on over here, sir. It's on the ground and you have to dig for it. What's around here, sir? Look at this. What's this? Just look at it. What is it? Gold. Gold. Gold. Leonard dashes on for Monterey and sees the military governor. While he is making the return trip, a waggoner comes into the saloon run by D.C. Smith at Sutter's Fort. Not me, Joe. You owe me for the last time. Ah, set him up, okay? I'll take your word for what I owe you. I'll take your money for it before I pour you a drop. Money is a theft. Well, here, take this. What's that? Gold. Gold. Where did you get it? I was up the storm. I was in supply. You just picked this up at lunchtime. Joe, you're a thief. Yeah, and you're a fool. Yeah, I would be if I thought gold was lying around, waiting to be picked up for the asking. Well, you're a fool if you don't believe it. Tell you everybody up there is picking up something when they got nothing better to do. Nothing's better than you, idiot. What else could be better than picking up gold without work? It's just some of that fool's gold. It won't be fool's gold until it belongs to you, Smith. No, no. You can't talk me into giving you any more credit, Joe. Now, you picked that gravel somewhere else. But it's the real thing, I tell you. Well, here's Captain Sutter. Just come in. You can ask him. He knows about it. Yeah, but we're going to run for this, Smith. Captain, this fella here says there's gold at your sawmill. Oh, so you heard about it already, eh? Is that it? Tell him it is, Captain. I picked it up in the tail race. Same as everybody else. It's a genuine article, ain't it? Yeah, it's gold, I don't know. Hey, is there much of it there? I'm afraid there's a great deal of it. You're afraid? Why, Captain Sutter, let me congratulate you, sir. You'll be the richest man in California. Oh, oh, Bennett, Bennett. I hadn't heard your back yet. What luck, eh? Well, sir, yes, you see, Captain, sir. Oh, the governor refused, eh? Oh, no, sir. Not exactly refused, sir. You see, California ain't Mexican now, and it ain't exactly part of the United States yet either. Yeah? Ain't no law to apply here now. Governor Mason says he couldn't complain at least if he wanted it. Oh, and see, then until the United States takes over, there's no real authority in California. Well, of course, they'll confirm your land for sure, then, but meanwhile... Yeah, I understand. Meanwhile, they're all just causes. Come back to the store, man. Wait a minute, I'll go with you. You'll be needed in the fields tomorrow, Bennett. I'll be working on in the gold fields now, eh, Captain? Come on, Joe. Yes, sir. Smith, call me a brandy. What's the matter, Captain? You don't seem pleased. You ought to be jumping with joy. Why, you'll be the richest man in the world. Everybody says so. Eh, it'll be lucky if I have enough left-of-hook farms to make a good home for my family now. I don't understand, Captain. Surely all this gold really belongs to you. Why, hurry and call it Sutter's Gold. Yeah, but they'll take it for their own just the same, and nobody can stop them. Ah, there must be enough for all. Yeah, the more there is, the poorer I'll be. Don't you see? They will come here by hundreds or by thousands. All my workers will leave me. The reeds will rot in the fields. My sheep and my cattle will wander away into the wilderness. They will be shot for food for anyone who is hungry, miles and miles of land, ordered us for gold. Like the story I used to tell my children, King Midas, with his golden touch. Yeah, yeah, I see, I see, Captain. Well, help yourself to anything you want, Captain. I'm going after the boys to see if I can find some gold myself. In 1849, the gold rush started in earnest. 42,000 prospectors, strong Sutter's lands, maintaining squatter sovereignty. His lands were no longer wilderness. They were overrun by a horde of people, many of them lawless and wild. In 1852, Sutter was joined by his wife Anna and their children. He brought them to Hoke Farm, which was all that was left of his land grant. One evening a year later, John Sutter and Anna were standing on a porch in front of their modest farmhouse. You are very silent, Your Hon. Is it because the view is so quiet and beautiful? No, Anna. I was just thinking how many long years I've worked to bring you and the children to California. I thought to make you a great lady here. I thought I had everything. And then they find gold. And when you get here, I have nothing. This is a nice farm, Your Hon, and I like it. It was just a little corner of my land, and I wanted so much for you and the children. Oh, look. Look, here comes a horseman at full gallop. Yeah, yeah. But it's our boy John. If something must be wrong. Oh, maybe he brings us good news. There is no good news anymore, Anna. Father! Yeah, yeah. Father! Oh, boy! Whoa, whoa! Father! Father, I've got news from Sacramento. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is it? The Supreme Court has decided the land is all yours. All of the first grants. All? Father, you're a great man again. Your father has always been a great man. You'll be rich again, Father. No, no, I'm afraid it is too late. I should always be poor. But why? The land is yours. Yeah, but how am I going to get it? Thousands of squatters are living on it. They say it is theirs. Yes, but you can make them give it back. That'll take money. Money? Why, all that gold is yours. Not until I get every squatter off my land and move in myself. That means fighting every one of them one by one through the courts. Father! All that land and gold, all ours. And we can't touch it. Yeah. It's the curse of the Golden Touch, son. My sheep and cattle. My fields of wheat and corn. Even though you up the Sacramento Valley. Everything turned to gold. No, Johann. Not everything. I know what is left. We are left, Johann. Oh, forgive me, Anna. I was only thinking of what I wanted for you. I have all I want, Johann. A good home with my family all together. Anna, I should have known. I have no gold, but I am still the richest man in the world. Suffer's work was not done. With the more stable early Californians, he saw the need of government. He started as a delegate in the convention that drafted the state constitution and presided at his first session. As a man whose courage and enterprise brought wealth and opportunity to millions, and as a pioneer in the founding of one of the great states of the Union, Dupont salutes John A. Sutter as a gallant leader in the cavalcade of America. In Sutter's time, hardy adventurers dug into California's hills seeking riches buried by nature. Today, another kind explorer, the research chemist, is at work in Dupont laboratories exploring nature's innermost secrets, making discoveries even more important to you and to me than means of gold. Because these chemical discoveries mean greater comfort, convenience, and enjoyment for people everywhere. This evening, we announce another such development, an achievement of Dupont Chemists that is real news for every person who owns or drives a truck or automobile. Let's hear how a chemist describes it. Dupont Chemists have developed a new rayon yarn for use in automobile tires. Dupont's name of this new rayon yarn is Cordura, and it has a tensile strength as great as steel wire of the same cross-section. Tires made with it have been tested exhaustively, and results show four to five times more mileage, plus greater safety. Four to five times more mileage with greater safety at the same time. That is news indeed. Many tests were made on trucks and other motor vehicles under the most stringent conditions of heavy loads and high speeds. Tire makers point out that one of the main virtues of this new cord made of Dupont rayon is that it stands up so much longer under the extreme heat which develops inside a tire when it is run steadily under heavy loads and high speeds. And all tests prove that it will stand more flexing without breaking down, which is another important quality. At present, the output of Dupont's new Cordura rayon yarn is limited, and nearly all of it is going into heavy-duty truck and bus tires. However, production is being expanded as rapidly as possible, which means work for more people and eventually greater tire service and safety for all of us. Not so long ago, 5,000 miles was considered a good mileage for a tire. But since that time, the tire manufacturer and chemist have made remarkable progress toward better tires. Construction methods have been improved, and Dupont produces chemicals that help reduce the cost of tires by speeding up vulcanizing time. Other Dupont chemical compounds make rubber tougher and help tires combat their natural enemies' heat, sunlight, and the oxygen in the air, all of which cause rubber to break down. And now Dupont chemists have developed this new type of rayon yarn, Cordura. One more outstanding illustration of how Dupont chemists are making good their pledge, better things for better living through chemistry. George Washington's Scientific Farmer will be the subject of next week's broadcast. This coming Sunday, April 25th, many communities will change to day-life saving time. If your city or town does not adopt day-life savings, remember that next Thursday, the Cavalcade of America presented by Dupont will come to you one hour earlier. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.