The City (1939)

[Music] I [Music] the [Music] [Music] a century or two ago we built our church and marked the common out we raised the town hall next so we could have our say about the taxes or whether we need another teacher for the school when town meeting comes around we know our rights and duties and no harm if we disagree in all that matters we neighbors hold together we work from Sun to dark if you can call just a job that helps make a body feel at peace while doing it or hum a bit with pleasure when it's done art isn't something foreign we look at in a showcase it's in the blankets that we've spun and woven right at home it's in the patchwork quilt sewn by our daughters at a quilting bee for someone's Bridal chest it's in the locks and hinges that the blacksmith shapes it's in the baskets that are woven in the neighborhood to fit our household needs from marketing to mending when water wheels are better fitted to do the work than human hands we rig up the machines to saw the wood or grind the corn for H grits and Johnny Cake a while ago that corn was on the stock above the pumpkins ripe and yellow one night the neighbors met to Shell the ears together they did the job in no time so they could clear the old barn floor and choose their favorite partners for the dancers there was lasting Harmony between the soil and what we built or planted there we used our hands and mastered what we laid our hands on working and living we found a balance the town was us and we were part of it we never let our cities grow too big for us to manage we never pushed the open land too far away we youngsters took it in the haying field the mill the daily chores were teachers we old ones had good years years of family life our own our children's mellow years before the ripe fruit fell as fruit will drop on windless Autumn days and that was peace the seed was ready for the Earth again ready to die ready once more to [Music] grow e [Music] la l [Music] la [Music] [Applause] machines inventions power black out the past forget the quiet cities bring in the Steam and steel the Iron Men the Giants open the throttle all aboard the promised land pillars of smoke by day pillars of Fire by Night pillars of progress machines to make machines production to expand production there's wood and wheat and kitchen sinks and Calico all readymade in tons and Carlo Lots enough for tens thousands millions millions faster and faster better and better [Music] it don't make us any happier to know there's Millions like us living here on top of it there's prisons where a guy sent up for Crime can get a better place to live in than we can give our children smoke makes Prosperity they tell you here smoke makes Prosperity no matter if you choke on it we got to face life in these shacks and alleys we got to let our children take us here with rickets FY TB or worse they draw a blank the kids they have no business here this no man's land this slag Heap wasn't meant for them there's poison in the air we breathe there's poison in the [Music] river don't tell us that this is who built this place what put us here and how do we get out out again we're asking just asking we might as well stay in the Mills and call that home they're just as fit to live in we mine the coal load the furnace roll the steel Drive the rivets we lock the bolt on the assembly line lucky if we have the chance to keep the job from day to day from month to month [Music] the dirty work alone don't get us down we're not ashamed to handle coal and iron all the way from M shafts to skyscrapers we turn out cars attractors we're Mighty proud of same as you but how does that make sense with this [Music] we never get the gritty feel out of our nose our eyes our lungs our guts we never get a chance to see how blue the sky be unless the Mills are all shut down smoke makes Prosperity they say does this mean that there's no way out for us there must be something better why can't we have it a decent home [Music] follow the crowd get the big money you make a pile and raise a pile that makes another pile for you follow the crowd we've reached a million 2 million 5 million watch us grow going up it's new it's automatic it dictates records seal steril Iz stamps and delivers in one operation without human hand what am I be what am I offered sold who's next the people yes follow the crowd to the Empire The Wonder City the windy city the Fashion City the people yes the people perhaps [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] very truly yours most sincerely we beg to remain yours most respectfully Dear Sir gentle to acknowledge matter [Music] [Music] [Music] Miss Smith who's on call Dr nichel is on call Dr niichel Dr nichel Crush put in the ward get Dr leben on second call another Street case compound fracture of the tibia can't locate Dr lean the eth floor compound fracture of the tibia crushed leg our here Supply toate above the [Music] kn e [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] turkey we down Swiss White Russian come again two combo ride M with BT down Western one up burn one oh [Music] [Music] internal from ruptured scen type is blood put him in syus yes Dr B [Music] the [Music] [Music] I [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I e [Music] the [Music] a [Music] e [Music] l science takes flight at last for human goals this new age builds a better kind of City close to the soil once more as molded to our human wants as planes are shaped for Speed new cities take form green cities they're built into the country Countryside they're ringed with trees and Fields and Gardens new cities are not allowed to grow an overcrowd beyond the size that makes them fit for living in the new city is organized to make cooperation possible between machines and men and nature each has his place the Sun and air and open green are part of the design Safe Streets and quiet neighborhoods are not just matters of good luck they're built into the pattern and built to stay there the motor Parkways weave together City and Countryside a million people spread in a dozen or two of open cities are free to move about much faster than if they Jam together in one overcrowded Center these towns highways go around the town not through it once started Nothing Stops you till you're there the traffic really flows along and 40 mph is faster here than 70 when it stop and go stop and go and stop [Music] science turns on new currents invisible forces carry speech and images we grapple with brute force and Chaos who shall be Master things or Men At Last men take command power flashes from piit heads or rapid streams across the region it flows from powerhouses to the sunlift factories and labor atories here science serves the worker and the work together making machines more automatic and the men who govern them more human factories are set apart from living quarters but close to rail and motor roads with space to spread about in light Industries are near at hand the heavy ones are set apart people can even walk to work and have their lunch at home sometimes just like the kids this is no suburb where the lucky people play at living in the country this kind of City spells cooperation wherever doing things together means cheapness or efficiency or Better Living each house is grouped with other houses close to the school the public meeting Hall the movies and the markets around these green communities a belt of public land preserves their shape forever the children need the Earth for playing and growing bringing the city into the country bringing the parks and Gardens back into the city Never Letting cities grow too big to manage never pushing The Meadows fields and woods too far away this works as well for modern living as once it did in Old New England towns [Music] the e [Music] [Music] p [Music] [Music] e e [Music] for [Music] for [Music] we get them taken in as quick as ever quicker than when living in confusion The Whole World's at our doorstep sometimes it's almost breathing in our ears we live a decent kind of life we fathers have a little time to watch our kids and play with them they see us in the daytime now the people who laid out this place didn't forget that air and Sun are what we need for growing whether it's flowers or babies just watch us grow the scales won't hold us soon you can't tell where the playing ends and where the work begins we mix them here we learn by living playground schools libraries are meant for everyone not just for a few who get the breakes the gardens are everywhere they're everybody's business too one doesn't have to be a farmer to like to get one's hands into the soil and make it gay with flowers even the washing needn't break a woman's back machines can take it and the wife needn't feel cooped up and lonely on washing day a little gossip or a friendly hand is good for the complexion the daily marketing is part of the fun in fact the Market's just an Annex to the kitchen another chance to chat about the children's measles or the weather or some new Wrinkle in the diet that Grandma never knew one thing is sure most of the greens brought in by truck from nearby Farm each morning are fresh and crisp and haven't lost their flavor or their youth these new communities rest for square on men and women their need for friendly faces their need to have a public world that's just as human as their private homes a different day begins once more the people work and find a balance walking to work or on the bus they use their Leisure for something better than making crossword puzzles last out a subway ride the way to work is through a country scene that's easy on the eyes not just a desert waste of dirty shacks and rubbish heaps [Music] they reach a factory where the work and all that's part of it adds up to something that makes a worker glad to be alive work and plenty of opportunity to get a change from it even the best of cities needs variety people meet and move and circulate over a bigger distance but they needn't tread upon each other's toes to get a step beyond their neighborhood with smaller cities planned for living we live within a bigger world [Music] here life comes first the means of life for second here all that's needed to wipe the dust off dull routine is waiting to be used machines at last serve men and set them free for other tasks and other Pleasures besides their [Music] work here men have used forethought and public funds to satisfy their common needs sound bodies and sound minds are cheaper than deform [Music] music and play help more in building up the Comm life than paved streets that lead from nowhere to Nowhere here teaching does as much as treatment to keep disease away the buildings themselves welcome man's oldest doctors fresh air the Sun and cleanliness in this new scheme of things the school becomes the center and the focus of activities here boys and girls live and relive the life around them getting the measure of our bigger world and shaping it a new city and school and land an active partnership provide the raw materials for life and growth here boys and girls achieve a balanced personality ready to build and meet a many-sided world facing the good and bad choosing doing the best [Music] you take your choice each one is real each one is possible shall we sink deeper sink deeper in Old grooves paying for blight with human misery or have we Vision have we courage shall we build and rebuild our cities clean again close to the Earth open to the sky can we afford a house a neighborhood a city as good as this for everyone maybe the question is can we afford all this disorder the hospitals the jails reformatories the wasted years of childhood Hood these are future citizens voters lawmakers mothers fathers if you are bent on having human beings grow up to human height alive in every nerve and muscle you have to make the city fit to grow them in you grow a garden well or build a city by taking thought day in and out it's not just luck and accident that makes the difference it's choice and willing it a spectacle of human power immense but misapplied disorder turned to steel and Stone a million mechanisms Almost Human superum in speed men and women losing their jobs losing their grip unless they imitate machines live like machines cities unrolling ticker tape instead of Life cities where people count the seconds and lose the days cities where Mr and Mrs zero cannot move or act until the million other zeros do cities where people are always getting ready to live some other time some other place getting ready never getting there you take your choice each one is real each one is possible order has come order and life together we've got the skill we found the way we've built the cities all that we know about machines and soils and raw materials and human ways of living is waiting we can reproduce the the pattern and better it a thousand times it's here the new city ready to serve a better age you and your children the choice is yours l [Applause]