America Marching On: A Screen Editorial With Lowell Thomas (1937)

[Music] you there is one thing we are all interested in it is our future more than anything else we want to know how we are going to get on earn more money build better homes have higher standards of living one thing is certain our grandfathers never dreamed of the progress which American industry has achieved in recent years a pattern to all this progress what makes this American System of ours take well when we look at a big plant like this it all looks pretty complicated but the truth is there is a pattern of progress and it's just as simple as ABC now you'd never expect to find the secret in a little Mill like this would you but let's turn back the clock a 100 years or so and take a look at what's going on in this Mill about a century ago a Miller and his helper sat at a rough board table in the Gathering dusk they had worked since early early Dawn grinding slowly away to produce about 10 bushels of wheat someday John I'll have a big house with two rooms one for cooking and another for sleeping and you you will have a warm cabin of your own with floor of boards perhaps even a bed with a real cotton mattress instead of your draw pet and how can we today we ground 10 bushels farmer share is nine bushels if we only had a bigger and better Mill we could grind more and finer flour sell it at a cheaper price more people could pay and make more profits but we need 10 grindstones and a larger wheel to turn not one stone and the Little Wheel we have here but how can we get the money for a bigger Mill Mr Scott and Mr Burton have some money there are other of our neighbors who like them have some savings we shall ask them to put in their savings and with this additional money we can build a larger Mill how can you get Mr Scott and Mr Burton to put in their money what can we offer them why we'll give them a share in the mill and with the bigger Mill we can grind so much more fine flour there will be more for all of us to share we'll all be better off and so the new Mill was built and instead of grinding wheat on shares for the farmers the new Mill bought and paid for all the wheat and sold all the flour the new Mill earned not just one bushel a day but many many bushels out of each 10 bushels which the mill earned as profit the Miller for his good management received one quarter of a bushel Mr Scott Mr Burton and the other investors received two bushel and John and his helpers for it was now a larger Mill divided the other seven and 3/4 bushels this worked so well for everybody that the money partners that is the investors began putting part of their share back in the business as a result more jobs were made more grain was ground and the company grew bigger and stronger and thus the Miller had more money also he bought a fine House of four rooms and a buggy to ride in he worked only from daylight to dusk and had a suit of store clothes and even meat on his table twice a week and as for John his helper he had a house with two rooms good food and yes a Sunday suit the other helper had as much as John and no one had to work quite so hard anymore because there was a new fangled thing called automatic Machinery coming into use why in a 12-hour day a man could produce enough flour to have all day Sunday to himself as the years wore on John the helper succeeded the old Miller then John grew old too but the work grew easier Machinery did many of the hard jobs now and the low EST Helper because he could produce more with a machine than with his two hands lived better and had far more Leisure than the old Miller himself ever enjoyed and as the mill prospered so did the farmers instead of selling 10 or 100 bushels of grain to the mill they sold a th000 or 10,000 and with the money they got from selling more wheat they began to buy more of the products of industry and as the years rolled by John's sons and his helper sons and the sons of of the money partners and many newcomers carried on the business there was a new now called a Horseless Carriage the man who was now the head Miller had one and here and there a Miller's helper could be heard to say that he expected to own one someday then came a day when depression stalked the land men became scared and not only did many foolish things but made equally foolish statements over production they cried the system is all wrong let's remake America now wait a minute this was in 197 but with all the mistakes all the human weaknesses of 197 progress kept on the day did arrive when the Miller's helpers drove their cars to work and owned radio sets and in the passing crowds it became impossible to distinguish between the man who worked in the mill and the Miller himself and so it was with the farmers too step by step as the mill prospered the farmers got more money until they like the Miller and his helpers could buy Automobiles and radios and electric lights and the other conveniences to make farm life easier and happier today in Industry the money invested to back up each wage owner's job gives him more and better tools to work with and the resources of Science and Industry working together make it possible for him to produce more and thus earn more no wonder the American Workman has become the highest paid in the world with the greatest amount of leisure time no wonder too that we consumers have benefited through the production of continually better Goods at lower prices yet it all seems so natural but sometimes you and I aren't fully aware of the vast industrial progress in which we take part for instance yes sir this is the latest and snappiest 1914 model a bargain too at $5,200 today we have far superior cars at an average cost of around $700 and the result 24 times as many Passenger cars were owned in America last year as in 1914 that's what happens when they make a better product at a price more people can pay here is the family's pride and joy in 1924 a radio set cost around $200 and today a set far better than that one can be bought for as little as $20 result millions of radios in use today and what is true in these industries has been repeated in almost everyone you or I can name with the result that more Comforts and luxuries are steadily being made available to more people and so this is the pattern of American progress the only way to get ahead workers management and money Partners striving together to produce a better product at a price more people can pay and as they succeed all of us can have more of the good things of Life higher standards of living [Music]