The Innocent Years Part 1

[Music] [Applause] oh a [Music] la [Music] Liberty lifts her lamp beside the golden door give me you're tired you're poor she and now as the 20th century Begins the homeless the tempest toss come as never before searching for a new life a new world in a new century [Music] through New York's golden door they come white men come and black men Brown men and yellow men come the broken and The Unbroken the tame and the wild they find a Roar and rockus City bustling and bursting with vitality and growth like the nation of 67 Millions whose Metropolis it is here in the Melting Pot The Immigrant and the native merge into the American New York in the early 1900s Baghdad on the subway Oh Henry calls it the wonderful cruel enchanting bewildering fatal great City [Music] n [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] but the biggest news story as the new century begins does not break in the biggest city but 500 miles away from it on September 15th in the year 191 historic news comes from Buffalo New York the president of the United States William McKinley is dead William McKinley shot by an anarchist at the Pan-American Exposition the first citizen begins his last journey home home to his of [Music] Ohio one bullet and the pattern of History changes instantaneously the high place left vacant by the murder of the mild McKinley is filled by yesterday's vice president today's explosive chief executive Theodore Roosevelt of Sagamore Hill the capital of the nation has moved to Sagamore Hill according to the newspapers the Roosevelt house at Oyster Bay Long Island becomes a new executive Mansion a Placid rustic background for the dynamic human being whose personality will mark an age in American Life [Music] to enter the house is to know the man many-sided colorful unconventional a lieutenant colonel of his own Rough Riders in the Spanish American war and hero of the assault on San Juan Hill Harvard graduate and Dakota Cowboy naturalist and Big Game Hunter formerly Police Commissioner of New York City governor of New York State assistant Secretary of the Navy a man with a love of life love of people love of action and now by a fluke of Fortune 26th president of the United States Theodore Roosevelt sets a brand new style for president he urges his fellow citizens to live the strenuous life and Scorn the slothful ease of the Molly cotle a newspaper poet gleefully notes that at Sagamore Hill the president runs at large and plays like a boy let loose for the [Music] holidays down there by the bay he gets his rest in a strenuous way with all my heart I believe in the joy of living says Theodore roselt he has what he calls a rattling good time being present just being Theodore Roosevelt a Yankee Doodle Dandy and millions share the fun of it with him he's Teddy TR the colonel and his countrymen use his own favorite word to describe him [Music] bully all through the Roosevelt years much of the nation's business is run from Sagamore Hills between horseback rides with his son Archie as unofficial assistant the president issues statements forms policy and keeps his finger on the pulse of a country as Restless energetic self-confident as he but the country with the enormous expansion of industry is rapidly turning from the rural way of life Factory towns are springing up absorbing the torrent of immigrants but that is not enough the machines must recruit additional help from the Farms the full dinner pale is a republican slogan and there are more full dinner pales than ever before but the rising tide of new jobs new products New National wealth exacts its cruel toll in child labor and backbreaking hours in underpaid women the abuse and degradation of human beings by the machine America begins to sit in judgment on herself with the spread of mass production comes a crusading cry from writers from labor from politicians from all enlightened leaders for social justice and reform to keep Pace with the increasing mechanization that is revolutionizing American life and living [Music] the energy and initiative that Americans once poured into pioneering now go into the development of business and industry into new inventions that will set the 20th century apart from all others for the scope and swiftness of the changes it brings and profound change comes with the development of the internal combustion engine the internal combustion engine mounted on Wheels to form a portable Fountain of energy the Horseless Carriage the gas buggy the [Music] automobile more than a mechanism a challenge an adventure a Hardy new American aristocracy Springs up the a mobility and a punishment to man and Beast it begins as a play thing of the Rich and sociologists roundly denounce it as a picture of the arrogance of wealth but others recognize it as man's new servant which miraculously modifies time and distance what had been 10 mil becomes one what had been an hour becomes 10 minutes with the automobility come new Styles goggles linen dusters motoring veils you've heard the old familiar line the cart before the horse but now it has changed to suit the time the cart without a horse some say that autoists who tear along at 15 and sometimes even 20 mph should be locked up but says Mr douly the comic philosopher of the day don't you think a man who owns an automobile is punished enough he'd have to get under get out and get under to fix his little machine [Music] it was not an American who invented the automobile but it is the Americans who make it into one of the most significant inventions of all time by means of the assembly line interchangeable parts mass production from a single Factory in a single day come 1,000 efficient cheap machines a revolution in daily life spreads through all levels of society as the automobile becomes available to every man in City town and Farm what n [Music] [Applause] [Music] never before such a profusion of wealth and goods in a single nation never before such a diffusion of wealth and goods among its people on Broad Street in New York the curb exchange is handling Securities the conservative Stock Exchange declines to list Brokers on the street receive orders by hand signal from their telephone clerks inside business is big and getting bigger too big many fear it is a time of industrial Zars like John D Rockefeller of oil Andrew carnegi of Steel JP Morgan of Wall Street against what Theodore Roosevelt Brands as the tyranny of plutocracy he trumpets a crusade and becomes Teddy the trustbuster reelected by a land slide no longer a political accident the president continues to stir and stimulate the people with his fighting oratory says Mr douly a reproof from him is the same thing as a compound fracture a word of caution will lay a man up for a week and a Severe reprimand will send him through life with a wooden [Music] leg it isn't all oratory he expands the powers of the presidency he builds the Panama Canal he battles for the conservation of America's natural resources es and among his followers from cow hands to Scholars to Boy Scouts he Kindles an enthusiasm that leads one of them to write I'm glad I lived when he was [Music] president the hostess of Sagamore Hill first lady of the land Edith Kermit Roosevelt the strenuous life includes strenuous freewheeling diplomacy and in 195 TR strides onto the world stage as mediator of the Russo Japanese war aboard the presidential yacht Mayflower in Oyster Bay he brings Together High delegates from Russia and Japan and lays the basis for the peace treaty which will end the conflict and win him a Nobel Peace Prize for all his International dealings the president has a motto speak softly and carry a big stick and he has a big stick the Great White Fleet he helped create ready as its Admiral says for a fight or a Frolic in 197 the president sends the fleet on its first round the world Cruise which he considers his most important contribution to peace since the Spanish American war a decade ago the United States has had overseas possessions to protect the ships serve notice America has become a world power even the library at Sagamore Hill reflects the drive and scope of Theodore Roosevelt's personality the first president to go down in a submarine the USS plunger in Oyster Bay the first president to test the Wright brothers fantastic invention the airplane an adventurer in all things Roosevelt is restless and eager in mind as well as body here in his private sanctum he makes his mental Explorations ranging through the literature of his time and adding to it with works of his own the winning of the West Ranch life and hunting Trail and many another volume no contemporary author of significance escapes him Booth Talkington Henry James Edith Wharton here he touches Minds with them all but in the literature of the time and perhaps in the literature of all time one American stands out from the rest Mark Twain [Music] Samuel Langhorn Clemens whom all the world knows as Mark Twain creator of Huckleberry Finn and Tom soy now the grand old man of American literature takes tea quietly with his two daughters but around him hovers the aura of an earlier earthier America when he piloted steamboats on the Mississippi the great days of Mark Twain's River are fading now but the old Cry of steam to come in still survives as part of the American Pageant [Music] [Applause] another American Pageant survives and flourishes the annual circus parade that Heralds the arrival of a stupendous dazzling magnificent spectacular educational and or inspiring conglomeration of marbles there'll be a hot time in the old town tonight la [Music] PA [Music] la [Applause] no is too good for the American people says a complacent slogan of a complacent day and the people pleased with the present Fearless of the future see little reason to doubt it in the good old summertime in a mood of national Serenity America enjoys the innocent pleasures of innocent years oh [Music] n [Music] a young writer named Theodore drer could scarcely believe his eyes at his first sight of mixed bathing at an ocean beach it seemed to me that the Fable days of the Greeks had returned these were nymphs NAD sirens in truth old Triton might well have raised his head above the blue Waves and sounded his spiral horn [Applause] more Leisure more freedom more fun and more and more people escape by the new electric trolley by the new Subway by the new automobile from town and tenement to new places of excitement and exhilaration [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] la for