PAY THE PIPER

[Music] [Music] so [Music] yes [Music] is that your job just who were you expecting [Music] well honey you didn't have to wait up for me i told you i was going to be late what's the matter betty's not home yet i'm beginning to get a little worried where'd she go i don't know she and bud went out about eight o'clock you know their graduating class oh yeah oh well this isn't like it's something that happens every day this is a big event in their lives i know but i thought surely they'd be home before this yeah the last week of high school the little butterflies have come out of their cocoons are trying their wings yeah i suppose so oh well as long as she's with bud wesley i'm not going to worry for a moment tell me just how do i look handsome absolutely handsome when you see it on betty or you want to be sure and get a color picture yeah i will tomorrow show you something think she's gonna like that oh charles but that's that's beautiful absolutely beautiful oh look in the back it's got the name and the dates and things oh she's gonna be thrilled to death just beautiful you know i was just thinking a few short years ago we were taking her off to the first grade yeah now she's all through high school well that is all accepting oh quick mr thompson yes charles thompson that's right what is it you have a daughter elizabeth thompson has has there been an accident where is she tell me i don't know any right way to say this mrs thompson there never is one she's well she was dead on arrival at the hospital the boy died on the operating table [Music] you could sir i'd like to have you come with me [Music] my god so [Music] good to see you oh chief i want you to meet burton wesley father of the boy that was killed in the accident with betty how do you do how do you do chief i wish we could have met under other circumstances won't you sit down thank you pull up a chair charles all right thanks well gentlemen what's on your mind well chief we got the comparing notes we just wondered how extensive an investigation there was after the accident well it was a complete investigation it was thorough i'd say it was very thorough but i understand the the truck driver wasn't even held that's right he wasn't chief it just doesn't make sense now my boy was a good driver he never had an accident of any kind he was a better driver than i am frankly well it just doesn't make sense that he would drive along at high speed and plow into the rear end of a truck chief did they check to be sure the truck had the proper lights we checked maybe the truck pulled out from the side of the road at the last minute no according to our investigation the truck was legally stopped at an intersection and it was properly equipped with all running lights well wait a minute maybe that truck driver turned the lights on after the accident the point is chief there's got to be a reason now as i said before my boy was a good driver a fine driver now you just can't sit there and tell me that he would go out and drive like crazy for no reason at all no i didn't say there was no reason well if there is a reason that's what we want to find out chief have you been holding out something on us i saw no reason to make this public as a matter of fact i didn't even want to tell you to but i suppose you have a right to know we most certainly have all right your son should not have been driving a car he was drunk what and so is your daughter charles what are you saying that's a lie that's a lie and you know it it's all in the medical report and facts don't lie that's gotta be wrong they were just a couple of kids bud was only 18 bet he was just 17. now what's age got to do with it these days oh no it's not true no you're wrong you're absolutely wrong it's not a question am i being wrong charles it's not my personal opinion i'm merely telling you what the medical report shows it doesn't it doesn't make sense there's something awfully wrong here somewhere i'll agree with you in that there's something awfully wrong somewhere these youngsters graduate from high school and they want to celebrate somebody produces a bottle and they're all set just like that it's it's just hard to believe but it's a fact it's the same old drama played over and over again every year with a different cast except me and i'm the one who has to tell him and you don't know how much i hate to tell him them because all i can say to the parents is i'm sorry but i thought there was a law in this state to prohibit the sale of alcohol to minors well there is and we do our best to enforce it but we can't be every place at once is it possible it could be a mistake uh about the medical report hardly hello you just said that this happens every graduation time why don't you put forth a special effort to enforce the law to be sure that no one does sell alcohol to minors charles there's over 50 000 juveniles in this county and there's several hundred thousand bottles of liquor now how many men would it take to make sure that none of these two ever got together i don't know all i know is that somewhere in this county this is a man sold a bottle of lick at the betty in the bud now i'm gonna find that man if it's the last thing i ever do you can count me in on that too and when i do find him chief what are you gonna do with him well that'll be up to the court of course maybe they'll find him they might even suspend his license for 30 or 60 days maybe even 90 days what that is the penalty for cold-blooded murder charles selling alcohol to a minor is not the same as murder at least not in the eyes of the law i don't know how the law look at it but this is the way i look at it when i find that man he's gonna lose a lot more than his license for 90 days and that i'll guarantee you now charles take it easy i can appreciate how you feel but none of this is going to change what's going on already besides how do we know that somebody sold those youngsters a bottle of liquor maybe they got some older person to get it for them whether he sold it to them or gave it to them what difference does it make i'm gonna find him chief i'm gonna track him down if it takes every minute of my life and every dime i own that man's gonna pay how he's gonna pay [Music] thank you [Music] how old are you young lady my business is out of yours [Music] have you ever seen that girl no [Music] do you mind [Music] so [Music] [Applause] excuse welcoming you good evening charles i'll take it fine thank you hello miss thompson good evening mr bond uh you know herbert jackson of the daily news yeah uh mr wesley we've met and mr bell my pastor how do you do gene well please sit down excuse me i'll make some coffee oh honey i wish you'd stay i think you might have some ideas from a woman's point of view all right oh here there sit here i'll tell you why i've asked you to come here tonight a representative of the church the press and the city government three weeks ago i started out to find the man who sold or gave a bottle of liquor to my daughter betty and to bud the night they were killed well i have to admit frankly gentlemen that i've been bumping my head against the stone wall now i'm i'm not a prohibitionist or anything like that but i have found out a few things there's an awful lot of alcohol being sold to minors and what's more there's a regular conspiracy i've run across any number of people who are afraid to talk well i think it's high time something be done about it so that's what we're up against we have just so many men and there's just so much work we can do and as herbert pointed out the men just can't be in two places at once i agree with you on one thing this has got to be a community responsibility we can't leave it entirely to the police we must get public opinion around gentlemen may i say something i wonder if we've been facing this problem squarely what do you mean by that well i feel we should face the whole problem and at least be honest with ourselves i think the real problem is not confined to selling liquor to as long as we have the legalized sale of alcohol in our community what can we expect mr wesley's right gentlemen it isn't only minors who drink and drive there's no age limit to this daily tragedy dr bell we have a law against selling alcohol to minors and as long as you want to work on that angle i'm with you all away but if you gentlemen are going to start a crusade or something against a legalized sale of alcohol i don't know well chief it seems to me that if a giant octopus were threatening my family or the community i'd want to reach out and kill the octopus not just chop off one of his arms even if you were right we'd never get to first place if we start an all-out campaign opposing everything we won't get any sympathy at all yes i'm afraid i agree now uh a lot of us like to take a sociable drink now then i think we should learn to crawl before we walk well i'm not an expert octopus killer i suppose if something is choking you to death that any damage you do to it is good is that the idea gentlemen well that could be the first phase of it i suggest we cross the next bridge when we come to it mrs thompson you haven't said much this evening how do you feel about this from the woman's standpoint well i'm i'm afraid i'd have to agree with my pastor i mean what what difference does it make really if alcohol is sold to minors and they have an accident or maybe maybe they're just crossing a street and a drunken driver runs them down does it make any difference because the driver is an adult is it any less of a tragedy now now honey well is it no oh it isn't any less of a tragedy but let's let's not start down a blind alley let's do it my way gentlemen let's track down and lock up all of these guys who are selling alcohol to miners maybe i can get somebody to talk because i don't care what it takes i'm gonna find the man who sold that bottle to betty into bud now here's what we need we need an organized campaign so the first thing we have to do is to get other people interested in this idea so that we can promote it can they then we need to coordinate our publicity and third each one of us can promote the idea in our own area i agree i'm good to be here come in charles hi chief you know mr lewis i most certainly do he's made some pretty serious charges against you so he says that you deliberately trapped him into selling liquor to a miner well that's ridiculous that you came into his place and got him embroiled into an argument about baseball is there any law against that chief no but there is a law against entrapment the actual plotting to induce a man to commit a felony was it my suggestion that he sell a drink to the girl no but you planned it that way didn't you you had to come in i had her face turned the other way knowing i'd sell her a drink without even thinking about it all right there you are chief next thing you know you'll be selling drinks to 10 year olds now look mister you get a girl like that who comes in with lots of makeup even when you look right at her it's difficult to tell her age why didn't you ask her age i just didn't think about it if you didn't keep that place of yours so dark maybe you could tell whether you were serving drinks to kids or not kids that might go off on the highway and get themselves killed now that's enough charles i don't say it's enough you've got an open and shut case against this guy and what's more i can give you three qualified witnesses you wouldn't talk to me the first time i came to see you would you well if i had my way you'd get a minimum of 10 years now tell me the truth you knew these kids you just served were underage didn't you no i didn't don't you lie to me let go of me now listen you i wait a minute wait a minute mister what makes you so sure he knew one way or another huh because i've been watching this place that's why oh you must be charles thompson huh that's right who are you my name isn't important but what i'm going to say to you is it's about that crusade you got going i left you alone up till now figured it would soon burn itself out what do you mean by we you're beginning to stir up too much dust it's beginning to hurt business and we're getting just a little bit tired of it you keep referring to we who do you mean by that that's none of your business all right what do you want better stop trying to stir up trouble mister you're liable to stir up more than your bargain for you listen to me you killed my daughter you murdered her and you've got the gall to stand there and threaten me mr thompson if you know what's good for you you're just why call up two-bit tin horn bum you can't intimidate me you can't scare a man after you've taken everything away in his life that's worth living for [Music] charles i want to talk to you okay i'm listening about this crusade of yours what about it don't you think maybe you're going just a little bit overboard how can you say a thing like that well you you're gone all hours of the night you you've let things slide at the office it's becoming an obsession with you frankly i'm worried worried about what what happened in that bar this afternoon after you're telling me how can i help but be worried charles i want you to stop this before it's too late it's just getting all out of balance oh no it isn't oh no no it's all imbalance margaret listen to me there's only one thing that matters to me that's to find the man responsible for what happened to betty now margaret i'm going to find him if it's the last thing i ever do it might well be charles don't you see life has to go on you you can't just live in the one dimension of revenge life has to go on you sir why what's the purpose no no if it wasn't for you i i'd have no reason to go on living there's nothing left for you and me margaret no child no chance of having grandchildren well somebody's gonna pay for what they've done to us i'll get it oh good evening pastor good evening margaret charles hall yes he's right here thank you good evening charles good evening pastor if you'll excuse me i have a cake in the oven certainly in the meantime why don't you tell charles about your sermon last sunday yes margaret tells me you preached a wonderful sermon last sunday you know charles one of these days you're gonna have to start listening to my sermons yourself after all the warmed over sermon is seldom appetizing but seriously i stopped by to see if you could join me tomorrow morning so some of the members of the church are getting together for a special breakfast meeting they want to discuss this problem you can certainly count on me good well what do you think pastor we making progress well we are aren't we oh i i don't think there's any doubt in it yes even chief buyer admits that we've almost stopped the sale of alcohol or miners are you completely satisfied with what we've done to date i'll never be satisfied until i get my hands on the man i'm looking for do you mind if i say something quite frankly you know go ahead charles it's one thing to want to do good works because we want a better world or because we have a desire to serve god in any way we possibly can but it's quite another thing when a man dresses his desires for personal revenge in the robes of community righteousness it's a very dangerous thing when a man desires to play god just who desires to play god now charles i'm sure that in the eyes of the community you're doing a good job i'm just afraid that in the eyes of god you're sowing from bitterness it might be well to pay attention to what the bible tells us be not deceived god is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap this is the word of god charles and in this unpredictable world of ours it's an unshakeable truth pastor remember what you said about warmed over sermons sermon or not it's still the truth uh i'm afraid it's getting a little late i better be running along oh do you have to go past it i'm afraid i do margaret charles i'll see you at the breakfast tomorrow i'll pick you up at 7 30. i'll be running good night charles good night a good night pastor bell good night margaret it's a wonderful man pastor bill yeah i think he gets a little too personal someday huh he was just telling me that even though i am doing good work it doesn't count i don't have the right motives and you don't know what he meant all right margaret i'm sorry yes maybe i do know what he means let me tell you something i just wish that some guy just a year ago could have got up on his ear and started a campaign like this our daughter might still be alive today charles is that the right way to look at it shouldn't we just accept it as god's will and go on from there margaret honey it it's been a rough day let's not make it any worse you know i think i'd like a drink is there any mixer in the refrigerator i don't know i see [Music] foreign [Music] what is it charles what happened dear dad surprise bud and i are going to celebrate tonight we took a bottle of your private stock i hope you won't mind love betty [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is the answer is brought to you with a sincere desire that it will make a contribution to your spiritual life and to this cause is dedicated to the glory of god this booklet contains the bible's answers to some of life's most perplexing questions it will prove to be an invaluable guide to you as you seek to live a more abundant life for your free copy write to this is the answer fort worth texas this is the answer fort worth texas and now here's a preview of next week's presentation i wish you'd told them no right away they're being an editor of the newspapers well it's a great trust 25 000 is a lot of money you know a lot of people 25 000 to be the chance of a lifetime and you can't forget that a great editor like mr todd couldn't make a go of this paper who knows maybe they don't want a better city maybe we've mortgaged our home and spent our savings for for what this series is being presented by the baptist churches of north america as a part of their jubilee advanced celebration heralding a heritage of 150 years of organized baptist witness in america to the saving power of christ [Music] so [Music] you