OUT OF DARKNESS

Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] I think it's a nice strain in the whole city. >> It is. >> I hope the tree as you are on the floor, dear. >> Oh, Kevin. Uh, unwrap that tinsel for dad, will you? >> Oh, Kevin, I wonder what Santa Claus is going to bring you. And I wonder what he's going to bring you, my darling. >> Quite a guy, this Mr. Claus. Sometimes I wonder how he ever manages to make ends meet. Prices have got so high. >> Now, what have Price's got to do with Santa Claus? He makes his own toys. You know that, Joe. >> Yeah. >> I'm so excited. Uncle Bird is coming. >> Oh my goodness. Uncle Bert. I knew there was something I'd forgotten. His box of cigars. He's at the drugstore all paid for, and I forgot to pick it up on my way home. I'll go get the mother. >> Oh, no, dear. I don't like you to go out after dark. You stay here and help daddy. >> Oh, don't be silly, mother. It's just down at the corner. I'll only take a minute. >> Oh, and Janet, [Music] >> get me a pack of cigarettes, will you, honey? >> Of course. >> Anything for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. >> Bye. I'll be right back. [Music] Good heavens. Right here in town, too. >> Yes, right here in town. Practically in the middle of town. About time the people of this town did something about it. >> City manager's office. Yes. Who's calling, please? Mr. Assembly. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right, I'll give him the message. Thank you. Goodbye. Another one. That makes 27 today. About a hundred since yesterday morning. And this one was really hot under the collar. You'd think I was the criminal. Miss Keith, I wonder just what is wrong with our police department. I know how bad it is, Mr. Jordan. Nobody knows better. I also know it won't be cleared up till we get a decent system of street lighting. Crooks love the dark. And it's dark over most of the town, Mr. Jordan. Except on the corners. In other words, Chief, you really feel that improper street lighting has a good deal to do with crime. Feel it? I know it, Mr. Jordan. Crooks hate light like poison. You don't see burglars going around Jimmy and Windows in broad daylight, do you? Unless it's on a pretty lonesome street. Well, that's pretty obvious, of course. Chief, you have any figures on how much more crime there is at night than in the daytime? >> Figures? Now, what would I be doing with figures? After all, Mr. Jordan, I'm just a cop. I don't tell the boys in city council what to do. It's very much vice versa. Well, Chief, suppose we do some figuring. [Music] I'll send you a statistician to help you study the records. You know, I have a notion that something pretty interesting might turn up. [Music] Oh, and Daddy, I wish you could have seen your movie, too. It was so funny, wasn't it, Mommy? Oh, daddy, look out. [Music] Chief, about that survey into crime after dark. While you're at it, I want you to also check into traffic accidents. >> Now, look, Terry, why don't you just run your Chamber of Commerce and let me run my newspaper? As long as there are people, there'll be crime and there'll be traffic smashers. I don't think darkness or daylight makes that much difference. But Caleb, it's not only a matter of crime and traffic accidents. It's also a matter of inspiring community spirit, community growth, and promoting business. Like, Caleb, people are not only afraid to go out on the streets after dark, but they're ashamed to. What's the matter, Caleb? You afraid of somebody? I'm not afraid of anybody, at least of all the businessmen who advertise in my newspaper. And if that's what you're trying to do, threaten me with a loss of advertising revenue, unless I go on some crazy crusade to turn darkness into daylight, just go back and tell the advertisers this is an independent paper. And you can tell your guys at the Chamber of Commerce that this newspaper stands for what it thinks is right and proper. And I certainly don't think it's right and proper to settle the citizens of this town with a new load of taxes just to build up the business of a few merchants with fancy ideas. They're only open two nights a week anyway. >> Well, Caleb, I guess this is going to be a bigger job than I thought it was. He's seeing you. [Music] Dismal. Downright dismal. [Music] Well, there they are, Mr. Jordan. We went back over the records for the last 5 years. Pretty startling, I'd say. I guess this gives you an idea of what I was driving at, huh, Chief? Listen to this. Our records show that at night during the past 5 years, there have been roughly twice as many rapes, five times as many assaults, six times as many thefts, and eight times as many burglaries as during the day. Nearly 34 of all serious traffic accidents occur during the hours of darkness. And there's only about a third of the travel on our streets. Chief, I believe we've got something here. Something important. [Music] The great white way, the pride of Fort Butler. When those lights was put up there, I was dancing the Charleston High School. 25 years. Well, they might call them glaring gerties. They might not be no good for lighting up the street, but I still think they're mighty dirty. Oh, he must have spent the whole row on the main stem because there's certainly no great white way out here. Look at that light. Oh, brother. It's about as useful as a hole in the head. Look at the way it lights up half that house on the corner. That's one good thing about our street lights, Nick. Think how handy they'll be in case we have another war. Blackout order comes, we just go right on being normal. Hey, look it. What's that? [Music] What happened >> back there? Hit me. Took my wallet. One of them. [Music] >> I noticed Caleb Franklin's playing down crime stories in his newspaper these days. He gives just two paragraphs to that fellow who got knocked in the head last night. I guess he figures he better not help advertise how badly we need new street lighting. >> Why? What's it to him? >> Oh, you know, he's one of those what was good enough for grandpa is good enough for me guys. Doesn't cotton to my idea be able to relight this town. Think I'm out to waste the people's money. >> Nothing like wasting the people's lives as long as you save their money. >> Yeah, I'm going to have trouble in the city council, too. So, most of them are inclined to agree with me. Phil, you aren't likely to get the city council down on you, are you? With all this business about a new street lighting system. >> Look, honey, don't worry about that. >> I know, Phil, but they could always fire you, you know. We're settled here now. The children have their friends at school, and we have a nice home. >> Why, Mrs. Jordan, I do believe you're losing faith in your old man. Besides, a good city manager can always get a job, you know. Don't you think I'm a good city manager, Mrs. J? Don't be silly. >> Well, I got to rush. I have an early appointment with Dave Barley. He's a lighting specialist down at utility. Bye now. And don't worry, my pet. I'll manage the city. You just manage me. >> Well, goodness knows I try hard enough. >> I have to come to you, Dave. I figure you utility people can give me the lowdown. In a word, what is the overall status of our street lighting at the present time? In a word, lousy. We have over a 100 miles of streets and nearly all of them are improperly lighted. The city so far has concentrated on new areas as they were developed. But there's been no >> Dave, how much trouble would it be for you to make up a lighting survey of our entire city so I can have some real ammunition when I go before the council again? >> A lot of trouble. But I've got news for you, Phil. I've already made that survey. [Music] I'll just bring it up to date. Now, in towns where a modern street lighting system has been installed, merchants find that cheerful, well-lighted streets attract more shoppers and help to put them in a buying mood. Now, listen to this quote from a furniture store owner in Seymour, Indiana. Since our modernized lighting system was installed, Seymour retail sales are greater than the total income of the local people, which indicates we are attracting many dollars from the buyers in the trading area. >> Uh, Mr. Jacobs, may I say a word at this point? >> Certainly. >> I might point out, too, that other cities have proved that a well-lighted business district helps to raise and stabilize real estate values. Why, it's even been proved that good lighting means better fire protection. because of the improved conditions under which the fireman worked. >> Now, I suppose you're going to tell us that a fireman is have to lose a hose in the dark. And while he's hunting for it, the house burns down. [Music] In our considered opinion, our city manager is wasting far too much of the city's time and money wandering all over the face of America looking at street lights. The time could be better spent, it seems to us, if he stayed right here in Fort Butler. And that gentleman is the plan. would take about four months to put it through. >> And where do we get the money? >> Cities somehow find the money for all other pressing needs, schools, libraries, charities, sanitation, and so on. But for some reason, they overlook street lighting. This first graph shows the widening gap between our lighting expenditures and the rise in our population and automobiles. This one shows how far our expenditures for street lighting have lagged behind our other community expenditures. Actually, the project which I've been describing would cost each citizen of Fort Butler no more than the price of a golf ball or four packages of cigarettes. >> Mr. Chairman, Mr. Franklin, I understand that our city manager is going to give us a report on his uh travel. Maybe we ought to hear from him at this point. >> I'm sure if Mr. Jordan is ready, we're all ready to hear him. Mr. Jordan, >> Mr. Chairman, members of the council, ladies and gentlemen, if I was enthusiastic about the notion that Fort Butler should have new street lighting before I went on this trip, I am a thousand times more so now. But I found out in Cleveland alone supports everything I believe about Fort Butler's need for this project. In Cleveland, I was the guest of Mayor Thomas A. Burke, who with Elmer L. Lindset, the president of the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, spearheaded a vigorous street lighting program that has changed Cleveland from a city plagued by after-dark crime and traffic accidents into one of the best lighted metropoli in the world. In four years, Greater Cleveland hung up the astonishing record of correctly lighting more than 900 miles of streets, and the results were equally astonishing. After dark, pedestrian traffic fatalities have decreased 34%. While daytime pedestrian traffic fatalities were increasing 15%. And in some types of crime, the number of cases has decreased by as much as 78%. in Kansas City, Detroit, and Denver, my eyes were opened further about what can be accomplished with proper street lighting. While in Pittsburgh, Massachusetts, a town of 42,000, the new lights have resulted in such an upturn in trade that new businesses are moving in at a surprising rate. And there's a spirit of healthy pride that any town anywhere might well enter. Driving through scenic New England, I was depressed at what night does to this section, which is so beautiful and inviting by day. Then about 50 mi below the Canadian border, I approached Lynenville. Was just like suddenly being warmed by an open fire. Later that night, I got together with Lee Gray of the utility and George Aley, president of the board of trustees. Lee explained that this community of just 1,500 persons had established itself as the first town in the country with a fluorescent lighted main street. And the new lights, he pointed out, are paying off tremendously in increased safety, increased business, and civic pride. They are a special asset during Lynenville's annual winter sports carnival. All this, of course, is just a part of a nightlighting drama that is unfolding all over this nation. In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I want to say that if a small community like Lynenville, Vermont, can embrace progress with such enthusiasm, it ill behooves the citizens of Fort Butler to stay in the rut that gets deeper year after year with crime, traffic fatalities, and the loss of business. The citizens of Fort Butler need the protection, the increased prosperity, and the sense of civic pride that improved street lighting would bring them. Let's see to it that this community is brought once and for all out of darkness. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] Well, what do you know? Listen to this, Arty. Sounds like the old man's really out for blood. In his determination to push through a new street lighting program for the city against the wishes of at least two members of the city council and a large section of the citizenry, Mr. Jordan has succeeded in saddling the city with a new burden whose magnitude is out of all proportion to the haunted virtues of new street lighting. We think it's time to remind Mr. Jordan and the >> I hate to give up this paper route but my mom don't like me getting up so early every morning waiting on this gloomy corner for that newspaper truck. >> How many mornings I have to go around with you before I can take it on by myself? Oh, just a couple. Seems to me that truck is late today. Not a sign of her yet. So, all come along with you every morning. Just about. Only one is still called to make him stay at home. Well, here she comes at last. And oh boy, look at her zipping along. She's late. All right. [Music] [Music] How'd it happen, Paul? Whatever was the matter, >> I just couldn't see. That's all. I couldn't see. I just couldn't see. It isn't very often that this old newspaper man has to eat crow. But there comes a time in every man's life when he must admit that he's been dead wrong. This is one of those times for me. Many of us are often blind to what is good. Some from sheer stubbornness, others because they sincerely believe they are right and offer substantial reasons why they think so. Sometimes all your reasons are destroyed by one single terrifying bit of evidence. This has happened to me with yesterday. My eyes were open. The city manager and the city council have been trying to open them for some time. It took a small void to do the job. It is my earnest hope that the relighting of Main Street will be rushed with all possible speed and that the authorities will receive full support from the citizens in the plan eventually to relight the entire city. This newspaper will earnestly endeavor to help build this public support. It will fight just as hard for the speeding up of the street lighting program as it did against the notion that new lights were a necessity. Take the word of this sadden editor for it. They are to those who are responsible for this forward step against which I fought so bitterly. I offer as an editor my profound apology and as a citizen my abiding gratitude. Extra extra extra read all about it. It's your latest right here. Extra extra read all about it. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] 45. [Music] [Music] ladies and gentlemen, the governor, [Applause] my good friends of Fort Butler. It gives me the deepest satisfaction to be here as you are turning on your new lights which puts you in the company of many other progressive cities which are enjoying the many advantages of proper street lighting. And I hope to be on this same platform when you're ready to relight your entire city. When this little switch is thrown, it sends a signal to the men at the power plant to turn on this first section of your street lights. But I am not here to do the honors tonight. There is only one person who should logically throw that switch to start brightening your city. He knows as well as anyone the real meaning of proper street lighting. For a long time there was a question as to whether he could continue to remain among us. And of course we are all very happy he survived. And it gives me a real thrill to place the honor of turning on these new lights into the hands of Jackie Cummings. [Applause] Jackie. [Applause] Well, I never did like the dark. I saw plenty of that. I don't know what I'm going to say, but I know what I'm going to do. I'm as anxious to see see these street lights as you are. So, here goes. [Applause] >> Oh, Jackie. Wonderful. This is great. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat.