Freedom and Power (1952)

[Music] the weather was fine that morning in April the winter had been warm already the blossoms were out and in the fields plowing had begun but the farmers were not at their plows that day they had taken their muskets and formed a line on the Green in the village of [Music] Lexington dispers ye Rebels why don't she lay down your arms and disperse stand your ground don't fire unless fired on but if they mean to have a war let it begin [Music] here the butt of Freedom had been swelling for a long time and on the 19th of April ail 17775 it burst into bloom at Lexington and conquered in [Music] Massachusetts what were the freedoms these men were fighting for freedom to govern themselves freedom to elect the representatives who would Levy their taxes personal Liberty an air of Freedom that would soon nurture a driving urge to build and grow in nearly 200 years since the colonies began there had been settled only a narrow strip along the coast the new United States was a long thin country with an unplumbed continent at her back but then that driving urge came welling up in the heavy air of Freedom it could not be contained beyond the the old Frontier there was a world of top soil waiting for the under the rolling bulge of the land laid deep layers of [Music] minerals forests of lumber the people filled their lungs with the air of freedom and went to work to do the job they had the strength of their backs the strength of their backs the muscles of their animals and the force of falling water water power to turn the Grist Mills to run the saws and the Looms I come from Alabama with B on my KNE and to californ Sea it rained all night day I the WEA it was so to don't you cry oh oh don't you cry me I'm to C oh don't for me I'm going to [Applause] californ my true finally they discovered new power in water steam power and the continent was spanned by a steel High Road [Music] in just about 100 years they had given the country a new spacious shape we have vanquished the frontier we stand on the Pinnacle of guess a century after Lexington the Sunday orators could get rhetorical about the way things had turned burned out they thought the job was practically done that pioneering was just about over others suggested that the patent office be closed since everything had already been invented but they were wrong all this time through all this Empire building another kind of pioneering had been going on it began 25 years before the Battle of Lexington and was not concerned with muskets and Ox wagons but with some odds and ends like a salt seller a vinegar crw a pump handle which belonged to one Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia he was experimenting with a phenomenon he called electric fire and he made his apparatus out of whatever household goods came to [Music] hand everyone knows how he made a silken kite and flew it in a thunderstorm to prove that lightning and electricity were one and the same but he also made the first electric battery he discovered the positive and negative properties of electricity his writings which contained the original language of electricity were translated into German French and Italian he was celebrated everywhere as the world's first electrical scientist but the growing struggle for Liberty claimed his attention he laid aside his bottles and jars and turned to the cause of Freedom his pen in editing Jefferson's or origal words gave the Declaration of Independence its final form down the expanding years here and abroad new experimenters picked up where Franklin had left off these men too were Pioneers thriving on the air of freedom from Samuel Morse inventor of the telegraph tapping out his first message what hath God rot to another great Pioneer exploring an unknown Frontier year amid the well settled surroundings of Meno Park New Jersey Thomas a Edison after more than 6,000 individual experiments had finally developed an incandescent lamp that would burn for 40 hours this arduous and costly Enterprise was supported from the very beginning by still other Pioneers a group of investors who in October 1878 actually formed a company to to invent an electric light like all the other accomplishments since Lexington day this one too was nurtured by the atmosphere of freedom and it was destined to expand and multiply our freedoms beyond all imagining here was a light that was to show the way to one of the most significant single developments the world had ever seen the electrification of nearly all human endeavor even after the light would work it was no more than a curiosity unless people could somehow get electricity to use it Edison envisioned a central Generating Station to manufacture electricity and a network of wires to deliver it to customers to bring his dream to life there had to be created in one stroke the whole Foundation of our electrical age generators cables switches junction boxes conduits meters the birth of modern Electric Power Systems took place in 1882 the dynamos started in the Pearl Street Steam Station in New York City and in the midwest hydroelectric stations had their Beginnings no longer would light heat and power have to originate at the points where they were to be used they could be delivered by wire from Central Power stations for electricity as Benjamin Franklin knew was heat and power as well as lights many other Pioneers already saw the power possibilities and they were developing a device called the electric motor here was the strength of men's backs the muscles of their animals and the power of the water wheel in one package now there were companies manufacturing something that no one had ever made and sold before they were manufacturing the most versatile power of all time Electric power and delivering it through wires no bigger than your fingers here was courage to build and grow but courage also to back progress up with cash a pioneering Spirit on the part of people everywhere the bank cashier the harness maker the shoe clerk the school teacher the ordinary everyday people who invested their savings and gave the young power industry strength to expand they the share owners as much as the inventors and Engineers brought about a great Revolution when a world that had plotted down the centuries suddenly found out how to use a force that had waited to go to work since before the Daybreak of history now in one lifespan the future came rushing in like an avalanche here was power unbelievable versatile power titanically muscle power leaping to any task incredibly delicate power responding with instant Precision to the tiniest signal hot power melting infusing metals or gently warming a sleeping child magic power soaring through space to link man with man brilliant power lighting the way to a better world above all here was power for Freedom power to expand existing freedoms power to create new freedoms add new freedom to enjoy contact with a wider world and all it had to offer greater freedom for social contact New Freedom of the [Music] Mind add a revolutionary new freedom freedom from drudgery with the birth of the electrical age a nation's standard of living surged forward the nerve center of the new way of life is the dispatcher center of the utility that serves your community this is where they root the power where they plot the day's power requirements for everything from making toast or Brewing the morning coffee to running Factory assembly lines and turning on the light over the operating table in the hospital you see the product these men handle can't be stored it has to be manufactured transported and used by customers all in the same instant the heart of the system the heart of the age your community lives in the generating plant it is still the old principle of the water mill turn a wheel and produce power power that can be carried by wire hydroelectric plants use falling water to turn the wheels in country where Mountain Lakes can be harnessed but the biggest percentage of United States power comes from superheated Steam driving turbine generators electricity is is produced at 13,800 volt Transformers step it up as high as 23,000 or more volts and it speeds over the transmission lines wires connecting the turbine generator with factories stores homes throughout the [Music] community [Music] happy birthday to you happy birthday to you birthday happy birthday it I'm 75 today birthday you're getting every day what the same Hill is this it's a reading lamp for your room Grandpa well isn't that something the first lamp I used to read by burned coal oil were you about my age then grandpa just about honey from here I'll show you give me that hour the old that's me would you believe it Su yes little Fred Wilson studied his lessons by the light of a kerosene lamp he didn't know that a new Agee had already begun at Meno Park that during his lifetime electricity would bring the greatest Revolution that had ever come over the human world Fred was a farm boy there were more people on farms in those days there had to be because living muscle did most of the work of raising food for the country from the days of the Minute Men Who were farmers themselves the biggest percentage of Americans were tilling the soil within a few years Edison's wonderful dynamos would change even [Music] that when Jud Grandpa's oldest son was big enough to help on the place the farm was one of the first in the country to be connected with wires from the local utility and the miraculous power began to help with the [Music] chores John himself has the farm now and he alone does more work than Grandpa could have done with a dozen Hired [Music] Hands volume production through electric power has freed Amer America from the soil more people can go to work producing Goods because it takes less people working on farms to supply food for themselves and the rest of the nation it is freedom to industrialize an agricultural country that change had already begun to take place when Bill Wilson Grandpa's youngest son left the farm as a young man to work in the factory in town when he got his first job industry was not yet fully converted to the new Power he spent his days in a jungle of steam-driven line shafts but before long they had made the switch to electric power and cumbersome blind shafts were replaced by individual Motors on each machine bill has seen the great progress made through electric power now there is less effort and more pay greater production and better working conditions both Jud and Bill to say nothing of grandpa had a tough time staying in school they had to go to work at an early age but Jimmy Bill's son will not only finish high school he expects to go to college and the school he attends is a far cry from the one his dad went to it's a different world than Grandpa knew as a boy the change has reached away beyond the home farm and school business and commerce too have been streamlined by electric power Jun who is perhaps Grandpa's favorite has electricity to speed her work at the [Music] bank when she goes home from work she rides on a silent gliding trolley bus almost to her own door the house is much the same shape as the houses the minut men lived in but the door leads to a different way of life here light heat and energy to help with the housework come in by wire electric powers performing other unseen jobs the water faucets are connected with a modern electrically operated Water Treatment Plant the garbage disposal to an electrically operated sewage plant the amazing part of it all is the fact that the electric power they use in their home costs less than it did when Bill and Ella were married back in 1920 all in a man's lifetime electric power has changed the world but what about the world that Fred Wilson's granddaughter will see the World of Tomorrow Tomorrow will bring Innovations like the heat pump which electrically Heats your house in winter and cools it in summer even in Winter there is always heat in the air the soil and the water below ground level during the cold months the heat pump withdraws warmth from outside to heat your home in summer it operates much like your electric refrigerator withdrawing and expelling heat from the inside air to provide cooling comfort and what of atomic energy chances are there will never be a handy home siiz Atomic Pile in your basement but experiments are already underway that point to Atomic power plants like this the intense heat generated in an atomic pile produces steam to drive a battery of turbin generators thus the mysterious force of nuclear fision is converted into the familiar flexible electric power beyond atomic energy there is another Limitless undeveloped source of power the energy in sunlight falling on the US daily is more than enough to supply all our requirements for food heat and light to power our transportation and Manufacturing today we use sunlight stored in coal once lush green vegetation or the force of falling water whose cycle is motivated by the Sun but locked in every growing plant is a mysterious process known as photosynthesis Nature's Way of turning light into chemical energy science is patiently unlocking the secrets of photosynthesis and we may well see an era wherein solar energy like atomic energy may be put to work as electric power but there are electrical Innovations long past the experimental stage look already it is tomorrow welcome to to an electrical home of the future A New Concept for living whose elements are all practical possibilities now come in here is a living room with no wasted [Music] space for centuries the fireplace has been the center of Attraction so here we have Incorporated the Modern Age point of Interest the television set this room like the rest of the house is light conditioned carefully planned lighting based on research and installed with a relay operated remote control wiring system this inexpensive system permits starting breakfast coffee by pressing a bedside switch turning off the radio with a switch near the [Music] telephone lights can be turned on ahead and turned off behind you as you walk through the rooms just off the living room is the electric kitchen organized to save steps time and energy the combination soda fountain and snack bar adjoins the electric laundry where clothes can be washed rinsed dried and [Music] ironed Incorporated in the snack bar is the electric sink with a disposal and dishwasher here there is greater freedom from drudgery than ever before indoor weather of this new world home is provided by the heat pump a concept of living for the future yes but all components of this dream home are being manufactured today tomorrow they can be part of your home too but for us the wonders of tomorrow and the way of life we have achieved depend on free freedom to build and grow on the personal Liberty that inspired the men of Lexington but now our freedoms are threatened by forces that would crush our liberties and tyrannize the minds of men against these forces we have the weapons of Freedom courage faith and the creative spirit and we have the tool that built our way of life productivity America with only 6% of the world's population produces over 40% of the world's Goods how can such a small percentage of the world's people produce so much here is one important reason every worker has at his command an invisible Battalion who are they listen a one horsepower motor can do the muscle work of 17 men in 1940 the average American worker had four horsepower of electrical energy or the equivalent of nearly 70 invisible workers at his command by 1950 10 short years later this number had more than doubled there were on the job with him over 150 unseen workers and the ranks of these invisible battalions keep growing we with this productivity we can add to our freedoms and defend them for the future the challenge is clear we must keep building our productivity to strengthen Freedom at home and halt The Tyranny abroad if we are now able to multiply the efforts of every Workman 150 times with only 8 horsepower of electric power why not still more horsepower why not 200 300 500 invisible workers on the job as the Minute Men laid down their plows and took up their guns at the first alarm we too must guard for ourselves and for future Generations the Liberties that enabled us to build and grow today freedom and power are woven together the invisible battalions of electric power turn out autos and airplanes household goods and guided missiles to preserve our freedoms for the greater world to come but we are not a nation of Destroyers we are Builders Builders of new freedoms and more power for a new age we stand on the edge of that new age even now and the pioneering Spirit flowering in the air of Freedom will dream and build new ways to put electric power to work then in time we may come to know that the men of Lexington set off a chain reaction burgeoning down the years to make this world a Freer World For All Mankind oh