 The Mutual Broadcasting System in cooperation with Family Theatre Incorporated presents a point of law starring McDonald-Kerry and Mr. Harry Davenport. Cesar Romero is your host. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. The other day we happened to be talking about traditions. You know, the customs, practices and opinions, the way people look at things. And we got to discussing Family Theatre as a program expressing our traditional, our American way of thinking. Yes, when you come right down to it, faith in God is, well, it's an essential part of the whole spirit of America. It's written in our Declaration of Independence. You'll find it in the presidential messages from Washington Down. It's part of our heritage of life and liberty and happiness. Yes, and part of our heritage of tolerance and trust in our fellow men. It's the spirit upon which our nation was founded and developed. And today you and I, so many millions of us, can express our trust in God, our thanks to God, by simply lifting our minds and hearts in prayer. And when families pray, when parents and children gather together and lift their simple words to Him, who is the Father of us all, there is happiness and peace and God's wonderful contentment in a home. That's why Family Theatre is dedicated to your home, dedicated with the hope that in all homes of America, in all the homes of the world, there will be peaceful, prayerful and happy families. Larry Bledsoe is the owner of the Rafter B Ranch, homesteaded by his father back in the early 1900s. It's not a large spread measured by Western standards. Three weeks ago, a wildcat oil well 12 miles from the Rafter B's south line blew in unexpectedly for 3,000 barrels a day. Since then a boom town has come into existence and the lease hounds have been as busy as a stumpful advance, tying up all the nearby acreage. On this particular day, Larry is sitting on the front gallery of the ranch house, giving instructions to his foreman, Benito Gomez. Tech says he spotted a dozen or so strays in that box canyon on the north range when he came over the rimrock last night. You better take him and Slade and chase him back to the main herd. See, Senor Larry, Mira, look at these car witches just turn in from the road, so big, so pretty. Yeah, shines like a brand new silver dollar in a mud hole. That car don't belong here, boss. Wonder who's it is and what he wants. King Sabi, I go now, Senor Larry. See you at night, Benito. Bye, Condios. Make a pardon? Are you Lawrence Bledsoe? No. Oh, wait a minute. Yes. I haven't called Larry so long. I blamely forgot the handle they baptized me with was Lawrence. A light and set, won't you? Thanks. My name's Kendrick, Mr. Bledsoe. T. Paul Kendrick. I'm proud to meet you, Mr. Kendrick. Set. Thank you. Can I get your cold drink? No, no, no, not right now. Thank you. Well, nice layout you have here, Bledsoe. Thank you, Mr. Kendrick. I like it. If it's a fair question, does it net your reasonable return on your investment? Well, as to that, I can't rightly say. One way you look at it, I don't have an investment. You see, I fell heir to the rafter bee when Typhoid took my mother and dad the same day, so it don't actually stand me a red copper. Oh. As to return, well, we manage to get by. But you're hardly getting rich. Great day in the morning, I should say I ain't. I got a wife and some kids. When the price of beef is up, we lay away a few dollars. When it's down, we spend it. Mm-hmm. Well, how would you like to be rich? Go on. Keep talking. I'm a man of few words, Bledsoe. You've heard of the Wildcat Well, the Intercontinental Oil Company brought in three weeks ago. A man that has to be deep, not to hurt about it. All right, that's my business to oil. I want to lease your entire ranch. Not interested. I'll give you ten dollars an acre cash and one sixteenths royalty of any and all oil we find. No, not interested. Not interested. Man, you don't know what you're talking about. Well, that means around a hundred thousand dollars in cash. And if we strike oil... Sorry, if there's one thing I can't stand, it's Derrick's. Oil Derrick's changed in God's skyline to a dirty mess that smells of money. Sorry, not interested. Why? You're crazy, Bledsoe. Let sentiment stand in the way. Well, if there's oil under your property, you'll be a millionaire, a multimillionaire. You can travel, Florida in the winter to the Canadian North Woods in the summer. You can go to Europe. I've been to Europe with the 36th Division. Thanks, but this suits me right here. Well, you're a harder man to deal with than I anticipated, Bledsoe. All right, I'll make it twenty dollars an acre. Still not interested. That's as high as I'll go, Bledsoe. Use your imagination, man. Picture this scene in front of us here instead of grass and prairie. There'll be a regular forest of oil Derrick's, each one pouring out a flood of black gold. And every dollar's worth it comes out of the ground, six and a quarter cents is yours. How'd you like that? You know, I wouldn't like it worth a hoop. Far as I'm concerned, there ain't money enough in the world to pay for the way those Derrick's had messed up the landscape. But you don't understand, Bledsoe. Oil is essential for our country as well, Bledsoe. So's beef. It ain't a mighty use, Mr. Kendrick. You know, Will Rogers said it for me. Will said that when they cut up the Texas panhandle and made wheat farms out of it, they ruined the finest cattle-grazen land God ever saw fit to bless man. I feel the same way about the rafter bee. The Lord aimed for it to be cattle land. Least wise, I'm satisfied he did. And cattle land, it's gonna stay. I'm not so sure about that. Meaning? I'm a good friend, Bledsoe, but a bad enemy. I want to be a friend. Sorry you're leaving so soon, Mr. Kendrick. And don't forget to close the gate on the way out. All right. I'll warn you, Bledsoe, when I see something I want, I usually find a way to get it. And I want the rafter bee. You want it, but I got it. And what's more, I aim to keep it. You warn me, now I'm warning you. If you or any one of your men so much as sets foot on rafter bee land, you'll get a Winchester welcome. You needn't worry about that, Bledsoe. I never resort to force when there's so many other means, means so much more effective. Oh yeah, yeah, I want to leave you with a little reminder. You haven't seen the last TP Kendrick. Look, Senor Larry, those men, what are they doing? That's a surveying crew, Vanita. And they're on rafter bee land. I'm Larry Bledsoe, owner of the rafter bee. Just what are you gents doing on my spray? Well, I'll take it easy, Bledsoe. We're just a bunch of working boys making a day's wages. We go where the man that hires us tells us to, and that's here. Who's the man that hired you? Kendrick, TP Kendrick. I figured that's the way it was. What are you surveying? All right, now we're mapping this creek bed. All I'm doing is following orders. Then start following these. Get fast, and don't come back. Okay, okay, we're going. But it takes a lot of time to pack this transit. If Kendrick tries to send you back, take my advice and quit. I got nothing again, you armorer's personal. But next time, there won't be any talking. Howdy, Sheriff. Light and set. I'll just do that. It ain't time already that your campaign for re-election is it, Sheriff? No, no, it ain't time yet, Larry. Most a year to go. Well, maybe you're organizing a party there, huh? No, no party, Larry. Son, just what happened to you and Kendrick's surveying crew down by Crazy Horse Creek this morning? Nothing much. I ordered them off the raft of bee. Told them next time there wouldn't be any talking. That matches what Kendrick's told me his crewboar said. Larry, I don't like this a little bit, but I got my duty to do. I gotta tell you, there ain't a thing you can do to keep Kendrick from putting a crew on your spread and surveying it. Why ain't there? Because Kendrick's slept an injunction on you, restraining you from interfering with his survey of your land. Yeah, but it's my land, Sheriff. Since when did the law say a man ain't got the right to defend his own? I don't make the law. I just enforce it to the best I know how. But Kendrick's been saying around the courthouse that you don't own the raft of bee. I don't own the raft of bee? That's what he's acclaiming. I never did get the straight of it, son, but if I was you, I'd hire me a lawyer. I'll get Amos Slaughter. He was a good friend of my dad's. Yeah, Amos is a good one. Ain't a scrapper. Fight a buzzsaw and turn the handle to self. Oh, and Larry, just to humor an old man, be careful when you go into town, will ya? You might bump into this, Kendrick. That's what I'm hoping. Yeah, I figured as much. You'd be the first blood saw I ever had to take in. I'd hate it the worst way, but I'd be duty-burned to do it if he was to tangle with Kendrick. I had notion he'd become to see me, Larry, so I've been studying this law that Kendrick's a toss in your way. But Amos, there just can't be a law that'll let a man take another man's property away from him when he don't owe nothing on it. Well, Larry, laws are like the winds and the rain that the good Lord sends us. They do a lot of good, but sometimes get caught in a twister. Don't look like they're protecting me and mine. Kendrick and 11 of his men is each filed on a section of my land. That's 12 sections they're trying to grab. Will the law let them do it, Amos? Well, now it's a complicated state of affairs, Larry. First off, there's a law in the statute books of this state that defines a navigable stream as any water course which averages 60 feet from grass-root to grass-root for a distance of 20 miles or more from its confluence with a larger body of water, River Lake or for ocean. Crazy Horse Crick runs smack dab through the rafter bee. And according to the law, Crazy Horse Crick's a navigable stream. Now, that's watermelon conversation if I ever hear it, Amos. While 11 months out of the 12, that creek ain't got enough water in it to wet a cigarette paper. It's only when the snows are melted up in the mountains in the springtime. Don't make no difference, Larry. Legally, it's a navigable stream. Now, second off, another law in the statute book states that a navigable stream belongs forever to the state and can't be filed upon for settlement. Wait a minute. I don't exactly savvy that last, Amos. That's his will, Larry. Supposing you're fixing to file on a section of state land that's open for homesteading. That's 640 acres, right? Right. But supposing a navigable stream runs through that section. According to the law, you can't file on that stream bed. So what have you got to do? You've got to survey that stream bed and supposing that part that runs through your section. Supposing just to use even number, supposing it's 100 acres. All right. You've got to subtract that 100 acres from the original 640 and all you can file on is what's left, which is 504. Well, I still can't see what that's got to do with me. Well, when your pappy came out here 48 years ago and filed on his original land, he never made the survey a crazy horse crick that the law requires. Probably never knew about the law. Maybe didn't have the time or the money. Whatever the reason was, he filed on the full 640 acres in 12 sections that's crossed by a crazy horse crick. Kendrick, some way or other, found he's out. Now, he's claiming that your pappies and hence your claim to those 12 sections is invalidated. And null and void cause of an illegal survey. But how come he and his men can file on him? Because if the court decides again, Larry, when that land reverts back to the state, that means the first man or man that claims it can have it under the homestead laws of the state. Well, all I've got to say is it's a sorry state and a sorry country that's got laws that'll let a man steal another man's home and property away from him. Now, Larry, you ain't serious when you say that. Ain't I? I reckon I'm not going to let some land shark take my spread away from me while the law that's supposed to protect me hog ties me. Ain't there another law somewhere that says I got to smile real pretty and shake hands with a crook and maybe serve him a cup of tea while he's sticking his knife in my back? It ain't like you to talk like that, Larry. Besides, Kendrick ain't got the raft to be yet. Not by your darn sight. You said yourself sometimes things get twisted. Kendrick will hire him a couple of high-powered Eastern lawyers and they'll turn us every way but loose. Now, will they? You're forgetting something else, I said. That laws generally protect the people they was aimed to protect. Of course, now, if you'd feel better with somebody else for counsel... I'm sorry, Amos. What I said was thoughtless. I wouldn't have anybody but you represent me. It's better. I mean, thank you, Larry. Let's lay all the cards face up, Amos. Have we got a chance? I'd be trifling with the truth if I didn't admit we're between a hard spot and a rock. But by grabs, Larry, we'll fight him. And if they beat us, there still won't be anybody here in us holler, calf rope. There are those same hombres and your Larry with those same... what do you call it? Transit. You see, transit. There they are, on rafterby land working their full heads off to take it away from me. And there ain't a thing I can do about it. Ah, Pobre Thitho Mio. I wish there is something I can do. These transits are no Larry. What do these hombres do with it, eh? They measure distances with it. Least ways, that's what somebody told me once. So if they do not have these transits they will not be able to steal their after-by from you? I reckon it's something like that. Put down that gun! See if now you can fix those transits with Benito as a shooter, you'll humble you! Benito, you ain't got the good sense of a Bessie bug. But I'm turned if you ain't a man that I'm proud to call my friend. Howdy, Sheriff. Light and set. No, no, thank you, Larry. Oh, there's a howdy, Benito. Buenos dias, señor Sheriff. Sure you won't light and set, Sheriff? No, no, I ain't got the term, Larry. I reckon you know why I'm here. I reckon I do. Son, what in the kid here ever got into you to do such a thing as shooting that transit at Kendrick's? Señor Larry, he does not shoot those transits, señor Sheriff. It is I, Benito Gomez, which do it. Don't pay him no mind, Sheriff. What's it likely to be? Jailhouse or can I put a bail? I'm afraid it's the jailhouse. Oh, no, señor Larry. It is Benito which belong in the Calaboso. He's Benito which is shooting. She's still Benito. Reckon you better handcuff me, Sheriff? You're the boss man here now, Benito. Don't let Kendrick steal the Rafter B while I'm gone. I'm saving that for the law to do. Tomorrow's the big day, Amos. Anything new? I've been working like a pup dog, turning a churn, Larry. Judge Benton Claypool's appointed to try your case. You figure we got a chance with Claypool? He's old-timer and squares they make him. He'll lean over backwards to give both sides a fair shake. But you're still whistling in the dark when you go past the barren ground, ain't you, Amos? Larry, bled so? I'm telling you, if I hadn't been a friend of your papy, I'd have given up this case a long time ago. But why, Amos? Because you're a quarter-wit, a darned idiot that ain't done a thing but throw rocks in my path since the first day I talked with you. Amos, what do you mean? What'd you do? You've begun talking like a darn lame brain. That's what you've done. That's a fine state. This is a fine country. Some reason, rather, the people in this country has got the idea that if there's a better country than these United States of America, they failed so far to hear about it. There's been something sadly lacking in you. You better get down and do a little thinking. And a little praying wouldn't hurt you either. Hear ye, hear ye. This honorable court is now in session. This wenton's a sharp loyal, Larry. Don't un-get you tangled up. I ain't worried, not, Amos. Not after last night. Your Honor, it is not in any way, shape, or form the intent of my client to impose the slightest hardship upon the defendant, Lawrence Bledsoe. In fact, even after my client had discovered that the defendant is not legally the owner of the ranch known as the Rafter Bee... Object, Your Honor. Objection sustained. Mr. Winton, you'll please bear in mind that this court will decide the question whether or not Lawrence Bledsoe's title to the ranch known as Rafter Bee is a legal one. I beg the court's pardon. I meant no offense. Mr. Bledsoe, how much did my client offer you as a lease of the mineral rights upon your ranch? $10 an acre cash and a 1-16th royalty on any and all or. Was that his final offer? No, sir. He raised it to $20 an acre cash. $20 an acre cash and 1-16th royalty on any and all or he'll discovered. A handsome offer. I should be inclined to say a most handsome offer. Object, Your Honor, to that last observation. The amount offered my client is not entering into this case. Whatever it was, it was his right and privilege to refuse it. Objections are stained. Strike the counsel for the plaintiff's last two observations from the record. Counsel will confine himself to his cross-examination of the defendant. I apologize, Your Honor. What was your answer, Mr. Bledsoe, to my client when he made you this handsome offer? The clerk will strike that word handsome from the last sentence. Counsel for the plaintiff will be more careful in his use of adjectives. I stand rebuke, Your Honor. I shall rephrase my question. What was your answer, Mr. Bledsoe, to my client when he made you this offer? I told him I wasn't interested. And did you then not threaten him with some such remark as, if you or any of your men set foot on the rafter bee, you'll get a Winchester welcome? Yes, but that was... Please answer my question, yes or no. Yes. And what did you mean by a Winchester welcome, Mr. Bledsoe? Am I to infer it meant a welcome with a Winchester rifle? It meant I'd shoot him or any pole cat that was working for him the trespass on my land. That is what I thought it meant. I didn't say it till after Kendrick had threatened me. Threatened you? Just what formed at this threat of my client's take? He said he was a good friend but a bad enemy. And did he say he intended to become your enemy? No, sir. He said he'd like to be my friend. But it was the way he said it. What he meant was he'd be my enemy. I'm sure you misinterpreted my client's meaning, Mr. Bledsoe. Unintentionally, of course. Your Honor, we have proved every point we sought to make. We have proved that the defendant's father, either through carelessness or laziness or a willful flouting of the laws of this state, failed to make a proper or legal survey of the lands he claimed under Homestead Law. We have proved that Mr. Bledsoe refused my client's offer in no uncertain terms and even threatened his life. It was only then, Your Honor, that my client undertook the action which has been brought before you for decision. My client regretted and regrets the necessity which has compelled him to take such measures against a citizen and a former member of our armed forces. Yet my client appreciates that whatever oil may lie buried deep beneath the surface of these lands should be exploited for the benefit of this great nation. I may add, Your Honor, that the defendant, by recent remarks, which many have heard, does not seem to have that same regard for this... I object, Your Honor. This court will remain in order or the sheriff will be instructed to clear it. Objection sustained. Strike that last sentence of the counsel to the plaintiff off the record. Your Honor, may I say a few words? I see no reason why this court should not grant your request, Mr. Bledsoe. Thank you, sir. First off, what Mr. Winton was starting to say when Amos and I mean Mr. Slaughter objected was right. I've been saying some fool things against this state and against our country. I was wrong, and I apologize. This public repudiation of former statements is very touching, Your Honor. Quiet, Mr. Winton. Go ahead, Mr. Bledsoe. Thank you, sir. It came to me last night how wrong I was, Your Honor. Nights are long when you're lying on a bunk in a jailhouse cell. I got to thinking about my dad. Now he never could have done what he did in any other country but the United States. You knew him, didn't you, Judge Claypool? I object to the question as irrelevant, Your Honor, and as an attempt to impeach Your Honor's integrity. I think I'm the best judge of my integrity, Mr. Winton. Objection overruled. Yes, I knew your father well, Mr. Bledsoe. I was satisfied you did, sir. Well, last night it seemed like I could see him the way he was when he first came out of this new country. Fresh from the long hitch in the Army and the Philippines. Alabama didn't look good to him then. The land was old and the weevils was eating up the cotton faster than the farmers could plant it. He wanted something else. Room to breathe in. Land he could work so it would be worth something to himself and the generations to come. A spread of his own where he could build a home. Your Honor, I object on the ground. Objection overruled. Go on, Larry. Thank you, sir. When Dad first came out of this country, Judge Claypool, all he had to his name was the clothes on his back, a chop and axe, cast iron skillet, and not much more than enough money to homestead the first section of the Rafter B. But he worked for that land. And when he had to, he fought for it. He fought droughts and hail and floods and windstorms. He tried to do the right thing. He had his land surveyed like the law required, or at least like everybody thought it required, but like a lot of folks around here, he hadn't even heard about what a dried up navigable stream was. He was too busy carving a home out of the wilderness so he'd have something to leave to them that came after him, which happened to be me. I was born on the Rafter B. I got me a wife and five kids. I'm educating them kids. I got a stake in my family and I got a stake in that land. It's mine, Judge Claypool. Mine! Maybe this navigable stream larger gooden. Maybe the state needs it on its statute, books. I don't know. Your Honor, I strongly object to the line of... Jets can overrule. And that is your final one, Mr. Winton. This court acknowledges that they might be a slight question of the legality of the defendant's title to the lands in question. But this court also recognizes the long years of possession of this property, which the defendant and his father before him have enjoyed. This court will not set a precedent by depriving any man of his home because of what was at worst an oversight. And I have no doubt a common one in the hectic days of the early settlement of this state. Therefore it is the ruling of this court that the case against the defendant, Lawrence Bredsoe, be dismissed. Larry, come here. Yes, sir. One thing more. I'll hold you in contempt if you ever raise anything on the Rafter B, that white-faced cattle. A story like tonight's point of law makes me realize in a simple way that this country of ours is a wonderful land. Yes, for millions of families settled in big cities and in small towns or spread out across the plains and prairies, this land is our home. Maybe you look at your family as just a little group. Just a little group of, well, little people. But it's an important group to you and an important part of the nation, too. Because out of the homes of today, from families in all parts of the country will come the leaders of tomorrow, your sons and your daughters. Family prayer will help keep your family happy and well and together in understanding and affection. You'll discover what so many families have always known, a very simple fact. A family that prays together stays together. Before saying good night, I thank MacDonald Kerry for his performance as Larry and Harry Davenport for his portrayal of Judge Claypool. A special word of thanks also to Jack Mitchell for writing tonight's play and to Max Tur for his music. Mel Williamson Directed and John Ryder produced the program. Others who appeared in tonight's play were John Faustini, Joe DeVal, Charlie Seal, Ken Harvey, Ray Millette and Lou Merrill. Next week, our family theater star will be William Lundigan and your host will be Jimmy Gleason. This is Caesar Romero saying good night and God bless you. This series of the family theater broadcast is made possible by the thousands of you who felt in need for this kind of program by the Mutual Broadcasting System which has responded to this need and by the actors and technicians in the motion picture and radio industries. This program is heard overseas through the facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio Services. Tony LaFranco speaking. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.