Me And Mr Marshall (1949)

[Music] this is the rure this is a coal mine and this is me name Hans Fischer age 26 profession Optimus there are thousands of us alt together working in 150 different pits we mine hope 8 hours a day 6 days a week we come from all over Germany from all trades and all backgrounds the work is hard and dirty they say a minor has to be part Chimney Sweep part ditch digger part crazy anyway you can see for yourselves it's no fun so maybe some of you are wondering just why we do it well I can't speak for all of us of course but I'd like to tell you why I came and why I stayed maybe you remember that newsreel last year the one that showed the thousandth rwer volunteer from the American Zone I made quite a ceremony out of it there I am that's me just behind the guy in the white sweater I was number 987 later they made some speeches all about doing our bit things like that listen we were going to the Roar for calories clothes and a roof over our heads and we didn't kid ourselves we got our first look at the place next morning nothing for a picture postcard but then we hadn't come for the scenery that first meal was wonderful all, 1500 calories of it the processing began right away medical checkups and all that to tell you the truth it reminded me a little of when I was drafted except this time the shoes fit and the beds were softer too I I decided the rwer and I would get along fine we went to school few days after that learned to speak mine language and got introduced to some of the tools of the trade and finally the day came and we went down for the first time well I had that roof over my head even if it was 380 ft thick pretty soon it became a routine go down pick load load pick come up again the only thing miners have in common with Big Time operators is the color black a hot shower soon removes the evidence as I said it got to be a routine I even got used to Hanging my clothes 30 ft up in the [Music] air yes I got my clothes new clothes bought by the point system that's a special procedure worked out for us the harder you work the more points the more points the more you can buy I couldn't complain I was getting what I came for and then I heard about something else something I hadn't come for it had been in the papers for months of course but I didn't pay much attention till one day when I saw how a tied in with coal it's pretty complicated but I think I I've got it figured out now it was M Marshall's idea in the first place he's the foreign minister of the USA he sprang the idea in a speech last year in America first he pointed out what a tough time all Europe was having recovering from the war it wasn't just that factories were bombed or Transport Systems all chewed up War threw a monkey wrench into the whole Machinery of European treas industry and commerce were in a mess from Stalingrad to Paris from Copenhagen to Trin unless something was done about it Europe might just go kaput because when people get hungry enough or cold enough or hopeless enough they start to look for the easy answers uniforms and slogans violence and Barb Wire [Music] and the world couldn't take that again but what was the answer Mr Marshall proposed giving us Aid to help Europe help itself this is what he said any government that is willing to assist in the task of recovery will find full cooperation from the United States governments political parties or groups which seek to perpetuate human misery in order to profit there from politically or otherwise will encounter the opposition of the United States it would not be fitting for the US government to undertake to draw up unilaterally a program designed to place Europe on its feet economically that is the business of Europeans the role of this country should consist of friendly Aid in the drafting of a European program and of later support of such a program in other words the aid would be American the teamw work and the Brain work strictly European everybody called it the Marshall Plan they liked the idea in London the British wanted every country in Europe to meet and work out a recovery program together and it went over big in Paris the French wanted European cooperation to get the wheels turning again but Moscow wasn't interested the Russians said they thought the whole thing would lead to interference in a country's Private Affairs funny I thought European recovery was everybody's business anyway when the Marshall Plan countries finally got together there were 16 of them which ones let's look at the map the question America really asked Europe was do you want our help in a European recovery plan these countries following Russia said no these countries including Western Germany said yes Czechoslovakia couldn't make up its mind this was the situation in black and white you might say the yes countries went to work and Drew up a kind of blueprint for Recovery they wanted increased production Financial stability and world trade and they wanted to get it by working together over a 4-year period us Aid was going to be just the spark that ignited the engine after that the participating countries themselves would be at the controls each country had its own special problem of course but the principle was always the same let's look at Germany's case for instance before the war Germany imported right and left mostly food and raw material she paid for them with the products from her mines and factories the war took care of that about the only thing we had left to sell was scrap iron and lots of other countries were already well supplied of course production got started again one way or another but today it's still below what we managed before the war look at the situation right in my mind for instance there's not enough coal because there's not enough Machinery there's not enough Machinery because there's not enough steel and there's not enough steel because there's not enough coal that in case you didn't know it is what's called a vicious circle or take another case no farm equipment no food no food no production no production no export no export no import no import no farm equipment no food and you're back where you started with nothing but coal is the Crux of the whole thing because even when it's not mixed up with food or steel it's producing heat power and light for other industries that are and the vicious circles aren't just German either they're International many countries which send raw materials to Germany need RAR coal for their own Industries still with no machinery and all the other problems our RAR coal production last year was only half of the wartime Peak something had to be done and something was done in Washington where the US Congress finally voted about 5.5 billion dollar for Aid to Europe of course the money had to be spread over 16 countries but there was a lot to go around here's roughly what the distribution looks [Music] like Germany's case is special beside the Marshall Plan money itself she's getting about 658 million in special funds that moves her from fifth place up to Third all this money will be spent the way the 16 Nations wanted it spent us aid for the first year will look something like [Music] this but Germany is getting more than just the credits given her directly by the USA many other countries are coming to Germany to spend their Marshall Plan money on German products that business doesn't only mean dollars for Germany it's the beginning of new German trade with Europe and the whole world the way I see it American Aid means enough steel to provide for peacetime industry enough Machinery to turn out the goods we need enough raw materials to keep those machines humming enough exports to pay for our Imports enough bread and butter enough pots and pans and above all enough coal to get the wheels turning at top speed again that's how we can finally revive trade and commerce in and out of Germany and England and France and all the other countries that believe in working together we've got the spark now a55 billion dollar spark and the engine is turning [Music] over I like being part of all this it's something big and good and I think it's going to pay off for Europe for Germany yes and for me too that's why I'm down here 8 hours a day 6 days a week the name Hans fiser the profession just call me a marshall planner [Music]