Your Town: A Story of America (1940)

la [Music] [Music] [Music] w [Music] hello there Mr Robinson hello Mike got something for you Jerry what's happened my shuts grandpa I didn't I mean I was just there at this place and well just a minute now Mike you tell me what happened just a little Ruckus down near the Manson Factory one of those Soap Box fellas gets up and starts hollering down with this and down with that and down with capitalism and down with old man Manson then some guy threw something and the fight started boy was it swell I dare say there was Jerry in the middle of it all so I took him into protective custody of my say oh gosh grandpa I wasn't doing anything anyway I thought I better bring him home before he got into more trouble and I'm Mighty glad you did Mike thanks a lot oh TW anything with them six boys of mine they in a Min pieace anywhere so it was fun hey son oh sure Gramps boy bet om man Manson saw when he finds out he thinks he's the most important guy in town well guess we showed him wait a minute Jerry old man Manson may not be any more important than a lot of men but you life that Manson's Factory is pretty near the most important thing in this town what do you mean Gramps let's take a walk now I'll tell you it's like this son some people can say a lot of crazy things and make a lot of rumpus I suppose it seems like fun to you well sounded like a good idea at the time I suppose so well there are a lot of people who seem to think that it's smart to criticize and esta lished institution like the factory but you want to remember this son anybody can criticize anybody can be destructive but you want to know what it is you're talking about before you talk ah the men on the Soap Box explained everything now he said yes I know what he said but you weren't there Gramps no but I've been there before I've heard these Terror downers and I know the one thing that man didn't tell you was the truth about the Manson Factory what do you mean well son that factory isn't just a building of bricks and steel it's more than that farore it's your town My Town well gee how do you figure that ar your paper Mr Robinson oh thanks Bobby let's sit down here now I'll tell you something about this town of ours Jerry it all began a long time ago when I was Young and the town was young and there wasn't anything to it but one straggling Street and a few struggling Farms round about soil was all right but there just wasn't anybody around to sell the crops to but the town did have one thing there was a man who had a dream he had an idea and his name was Manson and he knew a man who had some money to invest that was how it started at first it was just a little Factory and then son things began to happen in this town I was there and I know I turned the first lathe in that factory and as the factory grew new folks moved to town and brought their wives and families the town began to grow Homes and Gardens began to spring up all around Mr Smith enlarged the old General Store and a couple of new stores were open I know son I was part of it all I was part of that factory and it was the factory payroll that brought all those people and all that business to our town as a matter of fact you were part of it all too but you didn't know it at the time me I didn't work at the factory the very night you came into this world you became a part of it the hospital where you were born was here because the factory was here you see son the factory brought people here and the people needed doctors and lawyers and dentists who were paid out of the money put into circulation by the factory payroll and as the factory prospered the whole town grew and prospered wages went higher and hours of work grew less which meant that we had more leisure time to enjoy the comfort that we were now able to buy by this time the success of practically every family in the town depended directly or indirectly on the success of the Manson plant now wait a second grants you don't mean everybody in town do you I certainly do see this newspaper son mhm you wouldn't think the Manson plant had much to do with a newspaper would you know no I can't see that it does well let's look at it this way yeah see this advertisement well lit's advertises to sell goods and it sells its goods to the people in our town who have money and the money where does the money come from the good big part of it starts out in the Manson payroll and finds its way through the grosser the butcher The Filling Station and all the rest Finds Its way to levit store Levits advertises to attract those dollars and their advertising is what pays the expenses of this newspaper and they're the dollars that pay the reporters and the printers and all the other guys that work on the paper that's it son and that's only one example but you can trace most everything you see in this town right straight back to the Manson plant there are our fine schools they grew out of a little one room country schoolhouse look at our Police Department the best in the state and the fire department too you can't remember the old volunteer Bucket Brigade but I was a member of it it was all we had to depend on of course a lot of folks think that all these things just happened by themselves or that the town was responsible and of course it was in one way but the factory paid most of the taxes that made them possible yeah I can see all that Gramps I I can see what the Manson plant means to us in our town but now you take those Farmers you were talking about what goods Manson's Factory to them that's a fair question and the answer is that it isn't only in the town where you'll find improvements that can be traced to the factory those few poor Farms that we started out with in the township have grown into scores of modern Farms that are needed to feed this community now and don't forget the fact is calling more and more upon the farms for raw materials as industry finds new uses for the farmers products and all this came about because of that man named Manson and his dream long years ago well son a lot of folks think it would be fun to destroy all that the factory stands for but you see that factory made your town and when you're work working against that factory you're working against your own best interests G Gramps I never thought of it that way before why when you try to tear down industry you're working against the very scheme of things that built a thousand or 10,000 towns like ours and made this country what it is you mean even places that don't have factories I certainly do whether a town has grown up around one Factory like ours or whether it hasn't any factories or 50 factories the principle is the same Jerry the well-being of all our people depends on some productive Enterprise somewhere everybody's welfare can be traced back to manufacturing and Industry storekeepers clerks Bank presidents lawyers stenographers Housewives mechanics teachers school boys in the last analysis their livelihood depends on the steady circulation of industrial payroll dollars and that's why I say to you Jerry look around you the story of your town is the story of America and America well America is progress with liberty and democracy and peace these are the blessings of peace and Industry that belong to all of us and to our children and our children's children and we should guard them and thank God for them for America every day we [Music] live with [Music] CHR