 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 present Words at War, bringing you another dramatization based upon the most significant writing to come out of this great world conflict. And here again where this is usual, to introduce our program is one of the keenest judges of good books in America, Clifton Fadiman. Mr. Fadiman. Good evening. Is this horrible war merely the forerunner of one still more horrible? Is it man's destiny to plunge humanity into the degrading bloody abyss of war every generation or so? Will there never be an end to the senseless slaughter of human beings by other human beings? Tonight we'll examine these questions. I'll tell you more about our program after a word from Jack Costello. You know about this time of the year a good many of you ladies are apt to be involved in a little chore known as fall house cleaning. You clean away dust of summer and prepare for the dirt of winter. May I make a suggestion? Protect the surfaces of your home with wax and that semi-annual house cleaning job will be relatively easy. By services I mean not only floors, furniture and woodwork, but many others like windowsills, Venetian blinds, picture frames, refrigerator, leather articles. What happens is this. The coat of Johnson's paste or liquid wax forms an invisible tough shield that protects these surfaces and keeps the dirt from penetrating. That's why it's easier to clean them, easier to keep them clean. That's why a Johnson waxed home is sanitary, more apt to be a healthful home. And may I add that floors, furniture and woodwork regularly polished with Johnson's wax becomes more beautiful with each application. Mr. Faderman. Our program tonight is suggested by two very important books recently published. One is The Time for Decision by our former Undersecretary of State Sumner Wells. The other is US War Ames by Walter Lipman, the eminent writer on political subjects who is one of the few living Americans who took part in the formulation of our war aims during the First World War. In their books, Mr. Wells and Mr. Lipman ponder the most important subject in the world today. What are we going to do about the peace? Will it be a lasting peace or just another long armistice? Now the views of these two distinguished authorities do not coincide in all particulars, but they are agreed that we must do more than we have done before to ensure the peace, to make certain that this time we mean it when we say it will be the war to end wars. You know we said that once before. Don't you remember that wonderful day in November 1918? Agnes, where are you? Agnes, do you hear that? It's peace, Agnes. Peace, the war is over. It's real this time official, the war is over. That means chicks coming down. Yes, that's right, honey. Come on, the town's going crazy. You never saw anything like it. Let's go and celebrate with the rest of them. Hurry up, Agnes. I'll be ready in a jiffy. Atta girl, oh boy, I just got the yell or something. Hurry up, Agnes. Over there. Who are Charlie and Agnes and what have they got to do with our story? Well, they're not any special Charlie and Agnes. Let's call them average Americans. Average Americans who sent a boy off to the last war, the war to end wars, and who are in that fortunate group of parents who saw their boy come home safe and sound. Where is he, Agnes? I don't see him. The train's just stopping, dear. Oh, yeah, yeah. Maybe you missed it, huh? Maybe you won't be on this one, huh? Oh, he was. This was the train, Charlie. Oh, I don't know. You can't tell about these trains. Maybe you couldn't catch it. Lots of guys getting off down there. I don't see Chick. Oh, hey, Agnes, there's Chick. Hey, Chick. Here we are, Chick. Oh, pardon me. Let me see. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Pardon me. Hey, Chick. Oh, Chick. Chick Boyd. Mom, I... Oh, gosh, I can't believe it. Oh, Chick. You look thin. He looks wonderful. I feel swell. Now, come on. Give me that bag of yours, Chick. Now, what are they to be, son? A big steak? Anything you say, the town's yours. Chick, you're home. Your mom, I'm home for good. Yeah, what do you say, Chick? What do you say? Hungry? How about that steak? Not right now, Dad. I'd like to go home and get out of this uniform. What? Get out of that uniform? Oh, you can't do that, Chick. I got to show you off to the guys at the office. Oh, Charlie. All right, come on now. Let's get out of here, huh? Oh, hey, George. George, look who's here. My boy, Chick. No, no, no. Go ahead and play some more. Must have been terrible for you, Chick, darling. Well, I guess it was. But I guess it was worth it, Betty. I mean, to end this kind of thing. We've ended it now. There won't be war anymore. Really, Chick? Won't there? Betty, how can there be the world to be crazy? Look what's happened. Look what this war did. It brought out poison gas and tanks and planes that can carry a couple of hundred pounds of bombs. Well, the next war would be worse. I don't think the world's that crazy. Well, it couldn't be. Please stop playing. I'm sorry. Ah, this war is something to be forgotten. Let's talk about you and me, Betty. When can we get married? Any time, Chick. And Betty, that's as fine a roast as I ever tasted. Chick, you're certainly married a fine cook. She's not bad, Dad. Oh, that old roast is nothing. Here, Charlie, talk. You think he never got anything to eat at home? Oh, he's just being polite. Now, why don't you all go in and sit in the living room and I'll clear up the dishes? But I'm going to help. Oh, no, you're a company mother. You're not going to do a thing. Now I'm going to help you. Come on, Chick. Let's let the women folks argue about the dishes. Here, have a cigar, son. Thanks, Dad. Uh-oh, the baby is awake. The baby is crying. Let's tiptoe in and take a look, eh? Oh, what's the matter, fella? Safety pin sticking you? Just plain fretful. Cut it out, youngster. You haven't seen anything yet? Just wait until you lie in a foxhole all night with the planes diving at you. The grenades exploding all around you. You've got a nice, soft crib now. Wait until you have to sleep in a foot of water with the shells bursting a few yards away. Cut it out, baby. If you think this is tough, just wait until 1941. About this time, a few years after the armistice, Germany was supposed to deliver certain war equipment to the Allies. She didn't do it. She was supposed to turn over coal and other raw materials. She didn't do it. She was supposed to reduce her army to 100,000 men. She didn't do it. She got away with it. Was anybody worried? Live and let live, I say. From now on, let's keep our noses out of their affairs. They'll always be scrapping in Europe. It's none of our business. Right, you are, George. Hey, you're pretty well up on international affairs. Well, yes, I read quite a bit. Yes, sir. Say, you know that little Chevy of mine? Yeah. Well, I took her out to the big hill last Sunday and dog gone if she didn't climb it in high. Well, what do you know? Over in Italy, a fat man put on a black shirt, pulled his belt so tight that his chest stuck out and gave the world a new word to Ponda. Did anybody get excited? Yes, sir, gentlemen. Ah, no, not for me. Just coffee. Say, chick, what do you make of this guy Mussolini over there in Italy? Oh, I don't pay much attention, but the confidential business report we get at the offices, he's doing a lot for Italy. He's got the trains running on time over there. Is that so? What do those guys call themselves, anyway? Um, fascists. Fascists, huh? That's a funny word, isn't it? A very funny word, Joe. About as funny as a buzzbomb hitting a children's hospital. About as funny as another guy who started throwing his weight around another section of Europe. What is it, Charlie? Take a look at the picture of this guy who's doing all the talking over in Germany, Agnes. Isn't he a dead ringer for Charlie Chaplin? Let me see, dear. Yes, he is. That mustache is exactly the same as Charlie Chaplin. Ah, the pleasant years. Gertrude Aderle is swimming the channel, Shipwreck Kelly sitting on a flagpole. Oh, that's funny. Gertrude Aderle is swimming the channel, Shipwreck Kelly sitting on a flagpole. Rudolph Valentino. Al Capone, Amos and Andy. The Vagabond Lover. The Kansas City Nighthawks. The Charleston. The Black Bottom. Dr. Kuwey in every day and every way I'm getting better and better. Oh, yes. Weren't we, though? Good evening. I'm meeting my son here. Sorry. Joe sent me. Oh, okay, Doc. Hey, Dad! Oh, there you are, a chick. Well, how've you been, son? Oh, swell, Dad, swell. Coming over to Bud's birthday party tomorrow, aren't you? You couldn't keep me away. Say, how old is he? A 10, huh? Yeah, a 10. Oh, Dad, he's a great kid. Yeah, he is, chick. Just like you with that age. What'll it be, Chance? You got any of that imported stuff? No, just off the boat. We scraped it all. Okay, bring us a couple. Let's have a look at your paper, Dad. Sure. Anything new? Not a thing. Japan invades Manchuria. How are things at the office, Dad? Mussolini in power in Italy. The man with the funny mustache gaining strength in Germany. The Japs in Manchuria and daring the world to do something about it. We couldn't be bothered. Let's get out of the story, as we shall see. This is Clifton Faderman. Tonight on the Johnson-Wax program, Words at War, we're bringing you a program suggested by two books, The Time for Decision by some Nobles and U.S. War Ames by Walter Lippmann. We want to look ahead tonight to the kind of peace that will last. But first, we're looking back to see why the last peace didn't. We're looking back with an American family we've invented. Charlie and Agnes, their son Chick, who was in the last war, his wife Betty, and their son Bud. Let's rejoin them. So Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and so what? So nothing. We had other things to worry about, the depression, bread lines, 10 million unemployed. So Japan got away with it. And on the other side of the world, the guy with the mustache and the guy with the chin exchanged winks and said, brother, this is going to be a cinch. The guy with the mustache and the guy with the chin exchanged winks and said, brother, this is going to be a cinch. So in due course, Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Get your paper. And our friend Agnes chatted over the telephone. Did you ever hear anything like it, Betty? Yes, I think the cutest things. Imagine five of them, quintuplets. Huh? Oh, quintuplets. The chin looked at the mustache and said, now. The mustache said, now. Italy invades Ethiopia, paper. And then the mustache looked at the chin and said, now. And the chin said, now. Hitler starts universal military training. Oh, it makes my blood boil. Hey, wait, hold everything. At last, our friend Charlie is getting mad. Good. Let's listen. Yes, sir, it makes my blood boil. What's that, dear? Oh, these gangsters, this Dillinger guy, running wild, shooting people. Why don't they stop him? Oh, I suppose they'll catch him in time. In time, in time, in time's not enough. They ought to run those guys down and send them all to the chair. We can't just sit by and talk about it. Why can't people wake up to that? Why can't they see what's going on right under their own noses? Why can't they? They're Occupy's Rhineland. Civil War. Japan invades China. Hitler demands... Hitler demands... Hitler demands... Hitler demands... Where does that clock? Oh, hey, wait. No, stop them, somebody. Stop them. You overslept. Know what time it is? September 1st, 1939. And so in due time, it began all over again. The boys went off to camp, not Charlie's son this time, but Charlie's grandson. And they were the final furloughs. Dad, mother, Mary and I want to be married before I go overseas. Married, son? Wouldn't it be better to wait until after the war, Mary? I don't want to wait. Neither does bud. We want to be married now. I know, but you can never tell about... Sure, kids, get married and get what happens as you can while you can. God bless you both. Thanks, mother. There were the leave takings, the pitifully brief honeymoon, and inevitably, there were. I got it, honey. Telegram. Oh. Sign for it, please. Dad. Telegram. Oh, who is it from? Just a minute. We regret to inform you that your son was killed. No! It had happened again. It had happened to the baby that lay in the crib just a couple of years after the last armistice. His father had fought the war to end war. Only to have this war flame again and claim his son. Americans are awake now. They're thinking now. Thinking and reading. Reading books like the two that suggested our program this evening. The Time for Decision by some nobles. U.S. War Ames by Walter Liffen. They're talking things out now. The Charlie's, the Agnes's, the chicks and the Betty's. George, I just read some of their Wells' book. It makes good sense to me. I've been going through Liffen's U.S. War Ames. I string along with him. Oh, listen, you fellas. Don't go hi-hat on me. Books like that. Baloney. You know it's all just talk. There's nothing you can... Joe! Joe, don't talk like that. I talked like that the last time. I said it was Baloney. That was the trouble last time. We didn't want to talk about it. We didn't want to read about it. No, we sat in speakeasies while the Japs went into Manchuria. We played bridge while Hitler took the Rhineland. We worried more about a few 10 cent gangsters in this country than the international gangsters who were plotting to... Dad, Dad, Dad. Take it easy. Dear, I've never seen you so excited. I know, I know, but I just see red. Wait a minute, Charlie. I'm the guy that's kind of out of order, I guess. I guess I was trying to be funny. Now, forget it. Tell me about it. Maybe I can learn something. What does Weld say? Yes. Tell us, dear. Well... Well, he... What would the setup be, Dad? Well, it would be a world council of the United Nations. But based on regional representation. How? There would be 11 members. One each for Great Britain, the United States, Russia and China. Two members for the group of the European states. One member for the Far Eastern states. One for the Near East and the Middle East and Africa. And one for the British Dominions. Yeah, but how would this council work, Charlie? Well, if any dispute came up between nations after the Armistice, it would be referred to the council. They'd try to settle it peacefully. If they couldn't? Well, they'd call out the International Police Force and say, Boys, there's trouble down at the corner of six and so on, so take a run down there and calm them down. Yeah, seems to me to be a lot like the League of Nations. It would be an improvement on it. Maybe so. But let me tell you when I got out of Lipman's book. I haven't read that one yet, George. You should. Anyway, Lipman approves of a world council, but only if it's for the purpose of consulting and negotiating. He doesn't want the world council to settle the affairs of all the nations in the world. Well, why, George? Well, Lipman says the world naturally divides itself up into regions that have common interests. For instance, one of them is the Atlantic region made up of the United States, Great Britain, France and Canada, together with Australia, the Low Countries, Scandinavia and South America. Now, all those countries have interest in common. It's to their interest never to go to war with each other. Go ahead. The second region would center around Russia. The third around China and someday, when we've made enough progress, it'll be a fourth community for India and that area of the world. Well, what does it all boil down to? Well, any disputes within any region would be settled by the members of that region and not by outsiders from halfway around the world. Well, what advantage would that have over the wealth plan? Oh, here. But get me straight. I'm not an authority. But Lipman puts it this way. Suppose the United States gets into a dispute with a Panama. All right. That's a matter of interest to Mexico, Brazil and some other members of our Atlantic community. What is it any concern of China or Russia? We'd resent China and Russia sitting on what we considered a neighborhood argument, wouldn't we? But Mexico and Brazil, well, they live on the same street. It's their business, too. We want to consult them. I disagree. No, George. No. It well says when there's trouble any place in the world it concerns the whole world. Yeah, but under Lipman's plan it'll never get to be a world problem, don't you see? It'll be settled right in its own backyard. It would work. That sounds to me like you're just putting a new name on a big four-power military pack. China, Russia, Great Britain and us. And you know what happens to military treaties in this world. They blow out the window. Well, your other plan won't work. The League of Nations didn't work. It could have. If it had the military power to back up its decisions. Well, I'm sure I don't know. What do you think, Chip? Mr. Wells or Mr. Lipman? I don't know, Mother. I don't know. I want to think it over. I just know this. I lost a son in this war, and I'm interested in any plan that looks for world peace. We've got to get such a plan. And the more we think and talk and read, the more likely we are to get it. By George, we're going to think this time. We're going to think and do something. If I have to go around personally and throttle every lad... Look what you've done, Charlie. You've waked the baby. You sit still, Mary. I'll go tend to him. The baby's awake again. Let's tiptoe in and have a look. Cute little fellow, isn't he? Always waking up and... But wait a minute. This isn't the same baby we met before. No. This is that baby's baby. This is Bud's baby, a baby that we'll never see as far. How would you like your war, baby? Your grandfather, Chick, had his with tanks, poison gas, and planes that could carry a hundred pound bomb. Your father had his with blockbusters and buzz bombs and slaughtered civilians and enslaved peoples and persecuted minorities. How will you have yours, baby? The next one ought to be a pipperoo. What are we going to do for the babies who toddle and cry in their cribs tonight all around the world? Give them peace or the most horrible war of all time. Tonight we've directed your attention to the two books that suggested this program. Sumnerwell's Time for Decision, Walter Lippmann's U.S. Warrains. We respectfully suggest that these and every other serious plan for world peace deserve the profound study of every American. Clifson Faderman will return in a moment to tell us about next week's program. Friends, are you satisfied with the looks of your automobile these days? If you're not, have you done anything about it? There's an easy remedy for a shabby-looking car with Johnson's car news still available at dealers everywhere. Cleaning and polishing a car isn't the big task it used to be. With car news you do both of these jobs, cleaning and polishing with one application. Car news is a liquid that you apply with just enough rubbing to loosen the dirt. It dries to a powder and when you wipe off this powder you'll see a finish that reminds you of the day you first saw your car on the showroom floor. This is not an exaggeration. We receive many letters from car owners who tell us just that. There's more satisfaction driving a car that's bright and clean. So why not stop in at your dealers tomorrow and buy a package of inexpensive Johnson's car news, spelled C-A-R-N-U. Now, Mr. Faderman, what about next week's program? Well, as you all know during the 14 weeks that Fibre McGee and Molly have been on vacation, the makers of Johnson's wax have proudly sponsored this Words at War series. Next week is our 14th and final show on the sponsored series. And you can bet that we're going to make it a bang-up broadcast. Matter of fact, we're trying to decide ourselves now between two outstanding and very provocative books. Whichever one we decide on, I'm sure we'll give you a half hour that you'll remember. So be sure to tune in. Oh, incidentally, we've received quite a number of letters asking us to identify again the book we did last week. It's called One Man Air Force by Captain Don Gentili, as told to Ira Wolford. Now, this is Clifton Faderman inviting you to be with us again next Tuesday. And until then, goodbye. Tonight's dramatization was written by Gerald Holland. Music was composed and conducted by Morris Memorsky. And the production was under the direction of Anton M. Leeder. Jack Costello speaking. This is the National Broadcasting Company.