It is good to be back on the air again and greet our many friends of the\u00a0radio audience. Except for one quick trip to Connecticut, I haven’t been out~\u00a0side of Maine all summer. Although I have been at Ifff office a part of nearly\u00a0every week-day, I have had a lot of leisure time and a very enjoyable July and\u00a0August. When peop Ie ask me why I d I dn It take a month’s vacation far away from\u00a0Maine, I think the answer of the proper Bostonian lady on Beacon HI II fits my\u00a0case very well. ”Why should I travel?” she asked. “I am already here.” Yes,\u00a0Why indeed should a Maine man go away from Vacationland In the summer? The time\u00a0for us to take our vacations Is In the winter or spring. That’s what I did when\u00a0I went to Wi II iamsburg last April.<\/p>\n
What a lot of griping we heard all summar about our Watervi lie streets. The\u00a0sidewalk superintendents who were sure they could do the reconstruction faster\u00a0than it was done were numerous and vociferous. But Mayor Squire and his city go-\u00a0. vernment gave clear and unanswerab Ie exp lanati ons of the seeming de lay. The\u00a0trouble with many of us is that we want the things we want without Inconvenience.\u00a0Then when once we get those things, we forget all about the inconvenience. What\u00a0a comfort it is to ride over Charles street or Getchell Street or up North Main\u00a0Street today.. Now. really, wasn It it worth wai tlng for? Some day we I II be\u00a0ab Ie to say the same about Pleasant Street, Boul8 lie and Rooseve I t Avenues.<\/p>\n
I hope many of you had a chance to atl8nd the Lakewood lJ:teafe~ffi\u00b7i5 summer.\u00a0It was one of Lakewood’s most successful seasons. Apart fran the guest stars,\u00a0who a I ways add I uster to the various plays, the regu lar co~any was the best\u00a0si nee the days of Arthur Byron, Thurston Ha” and Jessamine Newcomb. But I wonder how many agree with me that, In sp i te of good act ing, the plays themse I vas,\u00a0by and large, aren’t so good as were the plays of twenty years ago. As drama,\u00a0today’s plays are too often frivolous and inconsequential, and sometimes outright\u00a0boresome. The outstanding production of this Lakewood season was “Miss\u00a0Mabel”. It was not solely the superb acting of Li II ian Gish that delighted\u00a0the huge aud ience, but qui te as much the fact that R. C. Sherrl ff had gi ven\u00a0Miss Gish a real drama in which to reveal her talents. The psychological problem posed by that play Is one that the professors of ethics can quarrel about for\u00a0some time. Is intention to murder justi fied, if murder is the on Iy way to accomplish\u00a0a known good which Is completely unselfish and can in no way benefit the\u00a0perpetrator? Many a person who saw that p lay at Lakewood must have asked hi,”,”\u00a0self, what would I have done In Miss Mabel’s place?<\/p>\n
Mrs. Thomas Burleigh of Roosevelt Avenue has shown me a prized copy of the\u00a0Watervi lie Journal of September 23, 1834, publ ished by Mr. Burleigh’s ancestor,\u00a0John Burleigh. The Journal was one of Watervi lie’s earliest newspapers, a weekly,\u00a0and this particular copy Is No. 40 of Volume One. John Burleigh had evidently\u00a0got enough of the newspaper game in Waterville, for he published in his paper\u00a0the following announcement:<\/p>\n
“Printing establishment for sale. The subscriber, wishing to close his business\u00a0in this vi I lage, the ensuing winter, and knowing from experience that It\u00a0requl res a long time to sett Ie newsplaper bills, offers for sa Ie the prJ ntlng office of th’l!s paper. Possession will be given at any time. Also for sale, the\u00a0house he occupies; it being large and near the Academy, is well sl tuated for a\u00a0boarding house. (Signed) John Burleigh.”<\/p>\n
Mrs. Burleigh has a lot of information about the old shipyard at Vassalboro.\u00a0The most famous ship ever bui It there was said to be the Ocean Bi rd, a brig\u00a0launched In 1848. It was the only ocean ship ever to leave Vassalboro, and\u00a0throngs of peop Ie congregated to see her start on her mal den voyage. She was\u00a0owned by John D. Lang, grandfather of Miss Sarah Lang, Watervt lie’s beloved\u00a0school teacher who died only a few months ago. The ship’s master was Captain\u00a0Gustavus Dickman. Mrs. Burleigh has a copy of the articles of agreement by\u00a0wh I ch the crew signed on. Pa rt of i t reads as fo I lows: “I t i sagreed between\u00a0the master, seamen or mariners of the Brig Ocean Bird of Vassalboro, whereof\u00a0Gustavus Dickman Is the present master, now bound from the Port of New York to\u00a0the morih of the Zambia River In Africa, from thence on a general freighting and\u00a0trading voyage of the term of six calendar months, that no sheath knives or profane\u00a0language shall be allowed on board.”<\/p>\n
For wages the second mate got $20 a month; the seamen $.15 a month. On the\u00a0return voyage the log showed that a negro boy agreed to serve on the Ocean BI rd\u00a0for one year at a month Iy wa!!J8 of 25 cents. That return cargo I nc I udad 8,000\u00a0bushels of peanuts, said to have been the first peanuts ever brought to the Unlted States.<\/p>\n
I recent I y encountered a curi ous Item ina copy of the Bangor News prJ nted\u00a0more than fi fty years ago. Let me read you tbat I tern: “Probab Iy there Is not\u00a0another case in the history of our state simi lar to one that occurred recently\u00a0in Bangor. There a woman married a widower with three chi Idren. The man is one\u00a0who never worries over his debts; in fact he is Inclined to take his ease and\u00a0let some other fellow do the rushing around. When he married the second time,\u00a0he stl II owed the undertaker for his first wife’s funeral. The new wife did not\u00a0like the idea of that long unpaid bill. So she found work washing clothes at\u00a0the unde rtake r’ s home, unt I I she had worked off the fu II amount of the b I II. We\u00a0wonder If in all Maine there Is another case where a second wife paid fora\u00a0fl rst wi fe’s funera I.”<\/p>\n
The most talked about incident of the summer did not take place in Washington\u00a0or Korea, In Berll n or I ran, or even I n San Francisco, but at a quiet p lacs\u00a0on the west bank of the Hudson above New York. Lots of we II knCMn un J ve rs I ti es\u00a0— VI rginla and Stanford .. for instance — have the honor system, whereby students\u00a0pledge themselves neither to give nor receive assistance in examinatloos,\u00a0and to report to the honor commi ttee of fe II ow students any vi 0 I at Ions .. they see.<\/p>\n
ViolaTions do occur .. and the student honor committees do dismiss fellow students,\u00a0but The newspapers never hear of It.\u00a0Whether i t w~s because so many a total of ninety — were involved .. or be cause high pressure football played apart, or for some other reason, the auth\u00a0oritles at West Point decided to make public the violation of the cadets’ own\u00a0system of honor code. A I most at once every man on every\u00b7 Mal n Street fn Amarica\u00a0felt free to express his unlnfonned opinion. Some of the most asinine remarks\u00a0about the Incident were voiced on the floors of Congress.\u00a0For rmt part, I refuse to argue whether West Point should or should not have\u00a0an honor \u00b7system, or whaT Its penalNes should be. I want merely to set the re\u00a0cord straight by pointing out a few facts. First, the honor system at West Point\u00a0: ‘\\.\u00a0is nOT something Imposed by superior authority. It exists through no order from\u00a0the Pentagon .and through no choice of the commandant of the Academy and his staff.\u00a0It was created by the Cadet Corps I tse If, and has been carried on wi th the full\u00a0consent and enthusiastic approval of each succeeding generation of cadets. Second,\u00a0although nhiety is a large number to be Involved In the vlolatioo, let’s give\u00a0some of our attention to the two thousand mdets who we re not I nvol ved. And\u00a0third, there Is strong significance In the action taken unanimously by the honor\u00a0board of the cadets themselves, who Insisted that they so strongly believed in\u00a0the worth and efficiency of the honor system that they woul d themse Ives resign\u00a0from West Point In a body unless the violators of the code left the Academy.<\/p>\n
Many people are telling us that the incident at West Point is Just a sample\u00a0of the moral break-dOltn in our whole nation, and there is much to support that\u00a0view. The b ri bi ng of p layers by the gangsters of the betting fraternity has\u00a0done irreputable damage to intercollegiate basketball. The Kefauver Committee,\u00a0about whose work I want to talk to you some night, has revealed not only the\u00a0suspected I Inks between crime and government, but an unsuspected tie between\u00a0crime and legitimate business.\u00a0It is Indeed proper that, when we think of the West Point cadets, we remember\u00a0that they attend a government school, whose conmanding offi cer Is responsible\u00a0to the Secretary of the Army, who in tum Is responsible to the Secretary\u00a0of Defense, who finally has responsibility directly to the President of the United\u00a0States. It is equally proper that we consider what kind of example is set\u00a0those West Po J nt cadets by the Wh I te House and the Pentagon. ‘n the Wh ite House\u00a0the President directs an institution that can set the tone for the nation. Now\u00a0in that same Wh I te House Is MaJ. Gen. Harry Vaughan, the Pres I dent’s mi Ii tary\u00a0aide, concerning whom there Is recorded testimony that he helped friends who\u00a0wanted government favors. He helped them get priority flights to Europe, per ..\u00a0mits to bui Id race tracks, to import molasses. He received gifts of deep freezers,\u00a0which he passed on to members of the cabinet. Only John Snyder of the\u00a0Treasury Department refused the Vaughan gifts.<\/p>\n
One of Gen. Vaughan’s friends was the notorious John Maragon who was convicted\u00a0of perjury in connection with the disclosures of Vaughan’S favors. Maragon\u00a0went to jai I, but Vaughan went up the ladder from Brigadier General to\u00a0MaJ or Gene ra I \u2022\u00a0The President’s aide on matters of appointments is one Donald Dawson. U. S.\u00a0News and Wor I d Report for August 17 poi nts out that Dawson has tw ice spent rentfree\u00a0vacat i ons ina $30 a day Flori da hote I — a hote I that rece fved a big loan\u00a0from the reconstruction Finance Corporation.\u00a0Everybody wonders how Mrs. Merl Young, the White House stenographer, got her\u00a0royal pastel mink coat, worth $9,500. They know only that while Mr. YOLWlg ostensib\u00a0Iy bought the coat for $8,540 from a New York furrier who also borrowed\u00a0from the RFC, the price was charged to an associate who also had dealings with\u00a0the RFC. But nobody wonders about General Davi d Crawford ~t the Detroi t Tank\u00a0Arsenal, who al lowed a defense contractor to pay his Washington hotel bill and\u00a0hand him expensive gifts, or about General Feldman, head of the Army Quartermaster\u00a0Corps, who was involved with the notorious five percenter, James Hunt. No–\u00a0body wonders, because Generals Crawford and Feldman are back In their old posts\u00a0wi th the same high rank.\u00a0Occasionally th Is moral de I inquencv f sso flagrant that not ewn the highest influence can cover it up. General Bennett Myers, deputy chief of Army\u00a0AI r Force Procurement, was caught awarding contracts to a fl rm that he owned\u00a0himself. He served a sentence for inducing a wliness to comnlt perjury, and he\u00a0now faces charges of I ncome tax evas Ion.<\/p>\n
Now the point I want to make Is not the obvious one you are expecting. For\u00a0you expect me to say, what can we look for In the behavior of West Point 08-\u00a0dats, when responsible officials In the very government that runs West Point\u00a0act as we have Just described? Isn’t It In the whole American air today to say,\u00a0“Anyth I n9 goes I f you can get away with It?”\u00a0No, that is not my point at all. What I want to say Is this. I f we beIleve our nat ion Is I n danger of mora I decay, if we want to see less of trimmingand corruption and deceit In high places, let us thank our lucky American ,stars\u00a0that we have left in th Is Ameri ca at least one p lace where a man ‘sword Is stl II\u00a0his bond, where honor is placed above gain, and where violation of man’s own\u00a0agreed codewf II not be tolerated. More power to that great institution — the\u00a0U. s. Military Academy at West Point!<\/p>\n
Year: 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #114, broadcast on September 16, 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}