 The Johnson-Wax program, Words at War with Clifton Fadiman. The makers of Johnson's Wax for home and industry in cooperation with the Council on Books in War Time proudly presents Words at War, one of the most widely discussed programs in America. Grammarizations of the most representative books to come out of this great world conflict. And with us again to introduce our program is the well-known radio personality, author and critic, Clifton Fadiman. Good evening. Tonight, Words at War presents in dramatic terms the gravest social problem facing America today. The return to civilian society of that one-tenth of the population, which the other nine-tenths have used to fight a war. After Jack Costello brings you a brief message from our sponsor, I'll tell you more about tonight's program. Folks, when you apply Wax to the various surfaces around your home, I wonder if you realize how many different purposes you're serving. I'd like to mention four important ones and I'll be brief. First, you're practicing conservation. Johnson's Wax, regularly applied, gives protection against wear, makes your things last longer. Second, you're adding rich beauty to every room of your home to be enjoyed by your entire family. Third, you're saving yourself hours of work all year because dirt does not readily cling to a Johnson Wax surface. And fourth, which you may not fully realize, you're helping to protect the health of your family. A waxed home is a clean home and a clean home is a helpful one. So it's definitely profitable to invest a very small amount of money and a modest amount of your time to enjoy all these advantages made possible by a regular use of Johnson's Wax, paste, liquid or cream. All right, Mr. Fadiman? Tonight's Words at War program is based on Willard Waller's book, The Veteran Comes Back, The Story of the Returning Soldier. Remember, the veteran who comes home is a social problem, the major social problem of the post-war world. No man could have a better moral claim to the consideration of his fellows and no man could have a better right to bitterness. How are we going to give G.I. Joe his rightful place in society? Listen, the discussion has already begun. The debate is raging. In Congress, the newspapers over the radio, in union halls, Chamber of Commerce meetings, on street corners, a debate to find a solution to the problem of G.I. Joe when Joe comes home. I've request up your nice, chummy meeting, friends, but I've been listening to your discussion for a long time. And the least I can say about it is... Well, we're doing it for... Because you overlooked one important point, friends. One very important point. What? Today, more than at any time in history, the veteran is a threat to society. Well, I heard you say before that nothing was too good for G.I. Joe. That sounds familiar, fellow citizens. You ever hear this poem by Kipling? It's called Tommy Atkins. I picked it up in a library in London. I went into a theater as sober as could be. They gave a drunk civilian room, but hadn't room for me. They sent me to the gallery around the music halls. But when it comes to fighting, Lord, they'll shove me in the stalls for it's Tommy this and Tommy that and Tommy wait outside. But it's special train for Tommy when the troopships on the tide... What is that supposed to prove? It proves, friends, that during any war in history, nothing is too good for the veteran. After the war, the veteran's good for nothing. But this time, the boys aren't coming back to selling apples and they're not coming back to charity. This time, if we don't get what we want, if we don't get what we've been promised, if we don't get what we deserve, you can kiss your democracy goodbye. I'm prepared to prove my point with pages from history written in blood with records of the veteran's anger. Today, I've come to testify before the nation. The core witnesses. It's against Clause 2, H5. Adam Chalk, gentlemen. We want to hear what he's got to say. Yeah, go ahead, Joe. Call your witnesses. All right. My first witness is Private Jeremiah Smith. My name is Jeremiah Smith. I was a tin smith before the war. Worked in Philadelphia where I had my own shop. Fought in the Revolutionary War. It was on October 19th, 1781, that we heard the news. The war was over and we were to be demobilized. The news was met with sullen resistance. Demobilized. I'll be hanged if I'll be demobilized while receiving my pay. Give us our pay and we'll go home and not before. Yes, give us our pay. We're not beggars. We're entitled to it. We fought for it. Justice. We will get justice from Congress. Armed to Philadelphia. If they don't give us our pay, we'll take it by force. When we reached Philadelphia, we constituted a body of 300 fully armed troops. Together with the Philadelphia Garrison, we marched on the Continental Congress. It was mutiny. Finally, Congress was forced to remove from Philadelphia to Princeton when the mutiny died. A little later, we were discharged, shortchanged and swindled, and the speculators reaped the harvest. It was only because America was young and there were new frontiers to be explored that counter-revolutionary was averted. Have you anything to add to your testimony, Private Smith? Yes. I only hope that the veterans of future wars will receive better treatment from the people of the United States. Did you hear that? Private Smith hopes that the veterans of future wars will receive better treatment from the people of the United States. Did they? I call my next witness, Corporal Rufus Bowers. I fought in the war between the states on the Confederate side. You Yankees up north will call me a rebel, but to the people of the South, my people, I was a soldier. After we surrendered, you people in the north imposed your will upon the South. Well, in 1867, we held a meeting. Now I ask, are we going to stand for this? How long are we going to let the carpet-baggers and crooked politicians tell us what to do? Is that what we fought for in the war? You bet it isn't. Does anybody care what happens to the veterans? Has anybody given us jobs? Has anybody given us land? We want to keep from starving. It's up to us veterans to take matters into our own hands. What do you propose? A new organization has been formed recently, organized to relieve the injured and the oppressed, especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers. I propose we join this organization and fight with them for the restoration of the South. The organization we joined was the Ku Klux Klan. The whole South became the Invisible Empire. Our leaders were our officers. Our methods were force, violence, and rule by terror. Prior to the whole the four whites and Negroes riding into their land, we soaked wooden crosses with kerosene and set them ablaze to spread fear throughout the countryside. We killed! In the end we succeeded. The old order was restored. In a different form maybe, but restored. Now I know it was a mistake. We didn't help the South and we didn't help ourselves. But I also know that in those days we were better enough to follow anybody who promised us salvation. I can only hope that the veterans of future wars, if there be future wars, will receive better treatment and a greater understanding from the people of the United States. And did they? Well, let's see. We'll buy a pencil. Anybody want a pencil? Please buy a pencil and help a veteran. Can't you look where you're going, you old bum? Excuse me, lady. You've turned my stockings. Well, I guess you're lucky you have legs, lady. I'll report you to the police. That's what I'll do. Pencil, buy a pencil, please. Please buy a pencil and help a veteran. Buy a pencil, please, sir. Oh, hello, Joe. Hello, Charlie. How's it coming? Selling any today? I was hoping I'm picking up a dollar. Thought I'd bring some milk home to the kid for a change. But I guess today is not the day. Yeah, it's tough. Call that today. Close to zero. Yeah. Just like that night in the argon. Yeah. Those were the days. We were heroes then, huh, Charlie? Yeah. Yeah. That's the way we took care of the veterans. And this is the way some of the veterans took care of themselves after the bitterness had a chance to take root and spread like a disease. Yes, sir. What can I do for you? Is there anything you want? I'm closing up now. This is a holdup. Hand over the dough. No, no, please don't shoot. I'm an old man. Please, Mr. I said hand it over. But it isn't here. I took it to the bank. Open that cash register. Open it! Now hand it over. And don't make a mover outplug you. Dirty little property here. Getting rich while other guys were doing the fighting for you. We took care of them all right. We taught them how to kill. And then we turned them loose to starve. This is Clifton Faderman bringing you another Words at War program in behalf of the makers of Johnson's Wax. Tonight, Willard Waller's book, The Veteran Comes Back. We've heard G.I. Joe make the blunt statement that today, more than any time in history, the veteran is a threat to society and its democratic institutions unless he can be successfully re-naturalized into his native land. We've heard from two witnesses, one of the Revolutionary War and one from the Civil War corroborating the evidence. We've seen what happened to the veteran after World War I. Now the remaining witnesses are ready to testify. Our program continues, as G.I. Joe says. My next witness is Private Mike Haggerty. I'm Mike Haggerty. I fought with the AEF in 1918 and I marched with the BEF in 1932. Maybe some of you guys have forgotten what the BEF was. Well, let me refresh your memory. In 1932, the bonus was still unpaid and the veterans were pretty sore about it. We had a right to be. We were broke. We had no jobs. Many of us were on relief. Our bonus certificates were pledged to the limit. And let me tell you, brother, we were pretty desperate. They said we fought the war to make the world safe for democracy. Now I say we'll have to fight another war to get paid for our fighting. Let's march to Washington and demand payment from... In 1932, the first veteran contingent left Portland, Oregon. And that was the beginning of the BEF, the Bonus Expeditionary Force. We traveled in old jalapes, hitched rides and rode the rails. And from every state, veterans came to join us. By the time we reached Washington, we were 10,000 strong. And we paraded on Pennsylvania Avenue. Soon there were 20,000 of us, camped at Anacostia Flats near the Capitol. Our wives and children come down, and we build our shacks and lean tubes. Yeah, the wait list right now, buddy. We'll be here until 1945. Yeah? Yeah, we made up our minds. We were going to stay there until 1945, if necessary. But of course, we never figured they'd use the army to drive us out. The big push began on bloody Thursday, July 28. Troops from Fort Mayer Infantry, Cavalry and Five Tanks. Get it down! Never remember! Hold your ground! And that's not all. We've heard enough. We'll see to it that there won't be another... Oh, let's go home. We're only wasting time. Wait. Wait, there are more witnesses. I'm sure you will find their testimony interesting. What has happened in the United States, you see, isn't the worst. A few outbreaks here and there, but on the whole things have been quiet. No real threat to democracy has developed so far. But in other countries, it was different. Quite different. I call my next witness, Sergeant Albert Girard. I am Albert Girard, a veteran of France. After the First World War, I joined the Croix de Feuille. It is the Cross of Fire, an organization of French veterans. We were hungry and jobless and had lost faith in the people of France. And the Croix de Feuille promised us a way out. In 1930, we began to intervene in politics. We allied ourselves with the fascist organizations of Italy and Germany, and then stalled French fascism, which sold out France to the enemy. Corporal Hans Baumann, a veteran of Germany and a member of the elite guard. In 1918, we lost the war, but kept the cause. The people gave us nothing. But there was a man who did. We followed that man and produced the counter-evolution. And it hurts once again us, that old frown. I took a heart on speciality, more than he does. We, the veterans of Italy, marched to the Mussolinian Rome and helped establish the fascist. Gee, I Joe, if you're trying to prove that our veterans will behave like Germans, you're crazy. The bonus march was a mistake. Our veterans will never act like thugs and bullies. They'll never make a settlement like this man doesn't know what he's talking about. He is bitter, naturally, but that will pass away. When he comes home and finds his loved ones waiting for him, all the bitterness will evaporate. Evaporate? Don't count on it. We're a democracy and will remain a democracy. You hope. Our veterans won't behave like German bullies in Italian thugs. You think not? Well, let me tell you something. Army is as strangely alike. When it comes to war, there's little difference between army-made men. There's little difference between veterans of times and places. And there is no difference in the bitterness. I told you you overlooked one important point, my fine civilian friends. You've overlooked what it means to be a soldier. You know one of the first things the army does to you? It destroys your individual will. Hear me say right face? When I say right face, you right face! Sergeant, I thought... In the army you're not supposed to think. You're supposed to follow orders. Do you understand? In the army you're not supposed to think. Take four or five years of that and see what happens. And take four or five years of being away from home. Come on, come on, brace up, kid. Come on, it isn't as bad as all that. Don't worry about me, Mac. I... I guess I just feel blue, that's all. Sure, sure, I know. You're lonely. We all are. It's all right, kid. No, it's not all right. It's not all right. I'd just as soon be dead as staying this whole another day. I'd just as soon be dead. Yeah, loneliness. The kind you never felt in your life. And fear. Fear and horror. The shells kept digging up the dead. We buried them and the shells came again and we had to rebury them. The bodies smelled and the stink drove us all crazy. We kept reburying the bodies and the German guns kept digging them up. The plane crashed. I pulled the pilot out. He didn't have no head. My buddy was killed on the road. The passing traffic mashed his body as flat as wallpaper. The bomb hit our sick bay and pieces of human flesh were embedded in the steel walls of our ship. We kept finding those pieces and it drove us nuts. That's not so pretty to listen to, is it? Are you squirming now? Maybe you'll squirm even more when you hear how the guys at the front feel about their buddies back home. While we're out here fighting and dying, those guys back home are making a dough. Guys know different than us with nice fat jobs. Boy, but I like to lay my hands on them. Next on the hating list of the profiteers, the boys were jacking up the prices so we'll come home to a nice happy inflation. We'll fix them all right too. And trailing behind on the same list are the home front soldiers. Hey listen you guys, see how you like this. There are men in the Navy who got commissions, although the only ship they have ever seen is a junior partnership. That isn't funny. That's not funny at all. Not funny because that hate, that bitterness will become greater as the war goes on. Because that bitterness will be taken out on somebody. And it would be just too bad if we were taken out on the people of America. It would be just too bad if G.I. Joe came home and followed an American Hitler who promised him the things he will not find. Well what do you propose then? I'll tell you what I want. When I come home I want to see a better America. What do I mean by that? I mean a society in which there are jobs for everybody, planned jobs with a decent living wage. I want better housing for me and my family. I want security, social and otherwise. I want you to think of human rights when you begin to reconvert not just profits. I want a better educational system. I want a health program, medical care for me, my kids and my family. I want a rehabilitation program. I don't want bonuses and pensions. But I do want the same kind of prosperity and peace that you now have in war. Just remember this. When we come home we'll join our veteran societies, some of the VFW and some of the American Legion. If they don't work out we'll form one of our own. But we'll be there with you in every town, in every county, in every state. We'll be there and we'll be waiting 12 million of us three times as many as the last time. Enough to make a better America or enough to destroy it. This is Clifton Faderman. The Johnson's Wax program, Words at War, has brought you a dramatization based on Willard Waller's new book, The Veteran Comes Back. Make no mistake about it. What you've heard tonight is no mere empty threat. The veteran is highly organisable. If he doesn't get justice from the people who have used him to fight the war, he'll become the tool not only of the demagogue, but the undercover organisations as well. The Ku Klux Klan has already started a campaign to win the support of a formidable army of veterans, operating from secret headquarters in Detroit. The problem is grave and the solution lies with us, the people of America. And now before I tell you about next week's program, here's Jack Costello. I've been thinking that in telling you about Johnson's car and you, perhaps I haven't made it clear enough how easy the job is. In the old days to clean and polish your car was a pretty hard task. It took three or four hours. But with car and you, you do two jobs at once. Clean and polish with the same application. That's one reason it's so much quicker and easier. The other reason is that car and you is different. It's a liquid that dries on application to a powder. When you wipe off that powder, your car's finish looks very much like the day you saw it in the showroom. Of course, the best way to fully realise what I'm saying is to try car and you on your own car. This would be a very good week to do it. Why not ask your dealer for a package of Johnson's car and you, spelled C-A-R-N-U. Mr. Faderman. Next week on the Johnson Wax Program, Words at War, we bring you One Man Air Force. The dramatic story of America's top airman, Don Gentili. Now this is Clifton Faderman inviting you to be with us next week at this time. Until then, goodbye. Tonight's dramatisation was written by Ben Kagan and featured Lamont Johnson. Music was composed and conducted by Morris Memorsky. The production was under the direction of Anton M. Leader. Next week, listen to One Man Air Force on Words at War. Jack Costello speaking, this is the National Broadcasting Company.