Radio Script #242
Little Talks On Common Things
November 28, 1954
The pilots of the U. S. Air Force have made us familiar with the phrase “Breaking through the Barrier”. Every jet pi lot tells us iT is an awesome., unprecedented experience when for the fi rst time his p lane exceeds the speed of sound. At the precise moment when that happens, they cal I it “breaking through the sound barrier”.
All around us, as we go through life, we encounter barriers very difficult to break through. One of the toughest of these is prejudice. Recently we have seen not mere Iy arguments and protest, but vi 0 lence and rioTs, because of race prejudice. Day after day we see deplorable instances of religious prejudice.
And we have just been through a season when political prejudice explains many a cheap act i on that decent men wou I d like to forget.
How many of us can overcome our own prejudices? Can a factory employee see management’s side of a tough wage p rob I em? Can an execut i ve see the human needs of a labor force? I think we are making gains in thaT area where so long prejudice on both sides has held sway. We see a greater wi Ilingness for disputants to sit around a table and come to a reasonable conclusion. But in that area, as in many others, we sti II have a long way to go. Let us, as individuals keep asking ourselves the question: can we, like the jet pi lots, have the courage to break through the barrier?
How long have brand names been attached to commodities? In that early 19th century store down in AugusTa, where the merchant’s most frequently charged items we re rum and 9 i nge rb read, b rand names we re unheard 0 f • A I though they did not come into general use unti I after the Civi I War, a few appeared earlier.
Ge ra I d Carson, a Wash i ngton adve rti sing man who has done a lot of research on the subject, assures us that the fi rst product ever marked with the maker’s name was Burnett’s Vanilla in 1845. Do you remember those little cans of Babbitt’s Poi-ash and Lye? Carson says they first appeared in 1855. The firsT ciqar-and the word was then spe lied “seegarH — the first to carry a trade name was the Robert Burns cigar in 1857. But ten years earl ier appeared a trade name si-i II nationally famous, for in 1847 there came on the market Rogers Brothers silver.
Eagle Brand Mi Ik went on the grocer’s shelves in 1858, but it was not unti I the end of the Ci vi I War that any soap appeared with a brand name, and that was a soap that our older listeners remember very well. It was American Fami Iy soap, fi rst sold in 1866. The fi rst floating soap — Ivory — is much older than I had supposed. I thought it came in about 1900, but it was aCTually first ma rketed in 1879.
I t was a fte r the Ci vi I War, indeed, that b rand names became n ume rous. Fletcher’s Castoria came in 1870, None Such Mince ~1Jeat in 1871, Chase and San~ born Coffee in 1872, and Quaker Oats in 1877.
How many of you remember the names of some of the cereals which flooded the market in the early 1900’s and whose names have long since disappeared? There we re Zest, ~~a I ta Vi ta, Eli j ah ‘s Manor and Force with its vi brant Sunny Jim. Can you reca II any others?
Everyone knows it was the automobile that ki lied the old country stores.
No one could forsee it in 1891, the year when I was born. But it was in that year that Frank Duryea ran his homemade 8utomobile in the streets of Springfield, Massachusetts. The next year, 1892, saw the first hard surface rural road — six mi les in Ohio. The year I graduated from high school, 1909, saw the production of the first r-1odel T Ford. Nine short years later, when World \Var I ended in 1918, there were six million automobiles regis1ered in the United States. In 1920 the great Studebaker Company stopped maki ng carri ages.
What The coming of the automobile meanT to rural areas is i Ilustrate<1 by a story. A cl ty vi s i tor on a farm asked The housewl fe, “Why don’t you get a bathtub? You’ve got an auto. I should think you’d want to have a bathtub first. ” “Oh, no”, the woman rep I led, “you can’t go to town I n a bathtub. I!
When we get down to 1954 and take a look at the changes from the horse and buggy days ” we can see some reason for the answer gi ven by a seven year 0 I din a recent Sunday School Class. The teacher was telling them about Noah’s Ark and how a pair of every kind of animal was Taken in it to preserve the species from the. comi ng flood. “Now th i nk carefu Ily”, the teacher sal d. “I s there any animal today that you think man could have done without?” One seven year old was prompT with his reply. “Sure”, he said, “the horse”.
In 1853 stoves for cooki ng were Just begi nni ng to rep I ace the old bri ck ovens and the open f i rep I ace utens i Is. You may reca II that I t was about thaT time when Edl tor Drew of the Rural I nte II i gencer, pub I i shed in Augusta, launched his bitter attack on stoves as unhealthful, dangerous contrivances.
Apparently Editor Cummings of the ChriSTian Mirror, a Portland contemporaryof Drew’s Augusta paper, In his issue of September 6,1853, felt more klnd- 1y toward The new Invention. At least he published an ad for a stove. Under a drawing, showing what the stove looked like — and I assure you it was quite unlike any sTove you or I ever saw — appear these words:
”We wish to ca II the attenti on of the pub I I c to the most des I rab Ie cook i ng range ever offered in these parts. ·It Is the Elevated Side Oven Range with a rotary top for the boilers. The oven is elevated and brought out di rect Iy in front, so That it requires no stooping or reaching. This range Is made In the most subSTantial manner, and the plates nearest the fire are very heavy and well fastened.”
Mrs. Russe II Weeks of Benton remi nds me that one of the most i nteresti ng events which brought changes to Fai rfield Vi Ilage was the marriage of an inland born girl, Jennie Flood, to a famous sea captain, Wi I II am Kreger. Because of that marriage, several schooners, sloops and ships, bui It at Maine yards, were given the names of Fairfield girls. Out on the broad Atlantic were spread the sai Is of the ~Jjary L. Newhall and the Cami lIa Page. Up and down the coast sailed the Addie Lawrence and the Alice Lawrence, and perhaps greatest pride of a II in the eyes of her captai n was the Jennie Flood Kreger. At least two of the vessels were named for Fairfield boys, rather than girls: the Edward J. Lawrence and the Hen ry Kreger.
Year: 1954