The Meadville Patriot. (1943)

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey Doc, got a move on this Place looks like a cyclone. Pivot. >> Now don't you go ordering me around, Willie Cuckle. I don't owe your bank any money. >> I don't know how you keep this place so dirty. Why don't you go down and meet the new editor at the station instead of fussing around here like a little old woman? It's too late. He's probably on his way here by now. The train's been in more than 10 minutes. Anyway, I have to go and pick up my wife. She wants to meet this Anderson seller, your wife. How come she'll let you out by yourself today? Why you little Cockro is the name. William Coil, trustee for the paper. Nelson wrote me about you. You'll like it here. Do our best to make you happy. You are Anderson, aren't you? >> That's right, Jim Anderson. Well, I I have to go and pick up my wife. She wants to meet you. See you in a little while. >> Hey, where can a fellow get a room around here? >> You don't need no room. The whole floor upstairs is yours. Furnished and everything. >> Where do you sleep? >> On that cot in the back. Got a gas plate right alongside. Do my own cooking and I'm a pretty good cook. >> Better get another knife and fork. >> Here she comes. [Music] Agatha. This is Jim Anderson, the new editor. Jim, this is Mrs. Cochro. >> How do you do, Mr. Cockro? >> Pleasure to know you, Mr. Anderson. Meadville has long been in need of an intelligent young man who can form the opinion of people on public matters. You look like the type who might do it. I wish you luck. >> Thank you very much. Even though I'm more interested in reporting the opinions of people than forming them. >> Well, be that as it may, Mr. Anderson, still I welcome you to Meville. I hope you cup tea at my house as soon as you're settled. >> Be glad to. >> Goodbye, Mr. Anderson. Come, will you? Goodbye to him. We want to see a lot of you. >> Thanks. >> Goodbye. Thanks a lot, Captain. >> Here it is. Huddle off the press. >> Our first edition. Two weeks ago, you were only a dream. Now look at you. Course you haven't got any comic strip or crossword puzzle, but you're all mine and I love you. >> Come on, Doc. Smile. This is my big day. Smoke [Applause] is supposed to be at Mrs. Cochrils at 4:00. See you later. >> Have you arranged for the printing of the pamplet yet? No, I haven't. It's still being revised. Oh, well, perhaps we can have Mr. Anderson do it for us. I'll ask him about it now. >> Come right in, Jim. Glad to see you. >> Glad to see you. >> How do you do, Mr. Anderson? >> Ladies, I want you to meet Mr. Anderson, the new editor of the Patriots. I'm so sorry, Mr. Black. Mr. Anderson, >> how do you do, sir? I'm glad to have this chance to thank you for your ad in my first edition. It was very encouraging. >> Not at all, my boy. I think I see a great future for the paper with you as editor. Thank you, sir. >> Uh, won't you sit down, Mr. Addison? >> Thank you. >> Would you care for a cup of tea? This is my daughter, Sandra. >> Well, how do you do? >> Hello. You will have some tea. >> Tea? Oh, yes, please. >> I just waited to say hello, Jim. Uh, if you'll excuse me, I I got a date at the bank. >> Surely, >> I must confess, Mr. Anderson, that there was a purpose in having you here at this meeting this afternoon. You see, these ladies and Mr. Black and I represent the Prohibition League in this community. Since you are new here, we'd like to find out how you stand on the subject of prohibition and to call to your attention how the better people of the county feel on the liquor question. >> Well, from what I have learned in the past few weeks, I found out that the people of this county have always stood for personal liberty on this question. >> Times do change. However, young man, do you drink? >> No, madam, but >> Oh, praise be. A mighty young leader for our call. >> Just a minute, ladies. My personal behavior isn't the issue. It's the policy of the patriot. >> How splendid. A young editor who doesn't drink. Your example and influence will be a tremendous help. >> Mr. Black, there's one thing that I've learned since I've been here. that the patriot has always stood for moderation and tolerance in line with the majority opinion of the county. That isn't something that one changes. >> Here's your tea. >> Thank you. I've been reading a lot of Sam McDonald's old editorials. He preferred education to a steamroller. He fought all attempts to reform the people by force. And I proposed to continue his policy. >> Sugar. Sam McDonald dr dragged. So he was biased against our reawakened moral cause. We tolerated many things from Sam McDonald, but we needn't from a stranger. This is your opportunity to join up with a better element of this town. >> Was prohibition ever a moral cause? As for me, Bill's better element. Well, in my humble opinion, it's acting like any other pressure group. >> Well, that case is no point in asking you to carry the announcement of our new drive. You refuse to print it. Of course, >> on the contrary, Mrs. Cochwell, I'll be happy to print it. >> Cover any of the league's activities as legitimate news with complete fairness, but the policy of the patriot remains unchanged. Good day, ladies. Yeah. >> All the smug nervy. The better element. >> But the mayor, they put something in your tea this afternoon. >> Prohibition of all things. Well, what do you want? >> What's so funny? >> Your face. >> What? Oh, excuse me. Hello, Dot. >> Ellen, girl, you sure are a sight for these old eyes. I certainly missed you. >> I missed you in this old place, too. Do I love the smell of printers, Inc.? Tell me something, Doc. What sort of a fellow is he? >> Anderson. Fine as they come. And a heck of a good editor, too. Your uncle, old Sam, would have been proud of him. That >> water sure cooled me off quickly. Sorry, I almost bit your head off before. >> Jim, this is Ellen, Sam McDonald's niece. >> Well, I'm sure glad to know you. >> A swell girl. >> How'd you happen to come in? >> Well, I I missed the old place. I used to live upstairs with my uncle when he was still alive. Then, too, I I wanted to meet his successor. Thirdly, I wanted you to sign me. dry petition. You >> all the league members are circulating them. >> Sit down. >> Just what do you expect to accomplish with this petition? >> What do we accomplish? [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Must be late about the petition. >> The petition. Oh. Oh, yes. You better come back tomorrow night and tell me about that. Maybe the night after. The night after that. Good night. >> Good night. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. Uncle Sam told me dad used to say dot would have learned that arpeggio in 50 years. >> Never talked about your dad before. >> My father drank. He died of it when I was 8 years old. You never did sign that petition. >> You're not serious about that. >> Very serious. Drink is a curse. What more proof do I need than my own case? >> Sam never taught you that. >> No. Some of the women who took care of me taught me that. And I believe it. My father was a drunkard and the whole town knows it. I've had to bear their pity ever since I was a kid. Isn't that enough? >> No, it's not enough. You'd have been a little older. You'd have had a natural sense of loyalty to your father that nothing could warp. >> So, you can't believe it. Children everywhere are suffering because men. Yes. Because alcohol is a poison that crushes souls. The throne's reason. Wet the murderer's knife. Because one drink can make a drunkard. Because strong drink is a a cancer that must be rooted out before we all become its victims. >> Why? A job of well poisoning they did on your mind. Look, how is your petition going to stop drinking? Cinch to get a drink or make one. Cross the county line. >> We'll dry up every county in the state. >> 47 other states, honey. And >> we'll dry them up, too. >> Tried that once before when you were just a kid. For 13 years, corruption and crime were American nightmares. Prohibition was a good thing. Stubborn people like you ruined it. Those who were supposed to enforce the law didn't. They were wicked, too. >> Prohibition bred crooks. All right. But they weren't all crooks. Thousands of honest law enforcement officials from the present on down failed. It caused the experiment. Noble in purpose proved uninforceable. Laws aren't mysterious inspirations. They're made by people just like you and me. remember >> deriving their just powers from the consent of the governor. Consent. Consent of the government. But when you trick a law through against the will of most of us, just as it was done in the First World War behind the backs of the men who went to war. And no matter what kind of false face you put on it, it's bound to be ignored. >> Don't you honestly believe that drink is a curse? That weak people must be saved from themselves? >> How? By making criminals of 45 million decent people who are moderate drinkers. I don't drink, but does that give me any right to force my views on others that do? Or to consider myself a better man than Sam was, or old and carry back then? I'm going to bring in that petition tomorrow. >> Don't do it, honey. That means compulsion to me. I'll fight anything that pushes people around. >> I've defended you to all my friends without saying a word. But the one time I asked you, you who could be such a powerful good to stand up for a principle I've been raised on, let me down. I've got a few principles myself, honey, and they weren't forced on me. I thought them out and I fought them out for myself. >> I thought you were a good man, Jim. >> I don't think so anymore. The paper and you were all that mattered to me. Please. [Music] [Music] What was >> Ellen's father liked? Salt of the earth. >> Drink wife died when Ellen was born. Never the same after he lost her. Every so often you'd hear crazy music all the night through. After a while, we learned a wild fiddle meant a bottle of bootleg and a bender. Never say a word. Just get plastered and disappear. Sam go and fetch him. Always the same place. Sitting beside his wife's grave holding his fiddle. Went there once too often. Snowed, stormed all night through. Doc called it pneumonia. Sam, he said his heart was broke. Yes, he always meant to tell Ellen, but never got round to it. I suppose that's the way it is sometimes, Jim. >> Yeah, the way it is. [Music] Yes. Yes. This is Anderson. What's that, Captain? You bet. I will be there in about 20 minutes. Oh, is that hot news? Sheriff of Blandon County, shot by bootleggers. Blandon County, the first dry county in the States. Huh? Hot news. We don't go to press for 3 days. It sure is tough on the peace officers. They're on the level when the county votes dry. >> First time I've been over this way. What's it like? >> Same as all the other dry counties. Full of bootleggers, poison boots, and racketeers. Votes four to one dry and lives 8 to one wet. Boys, he's gone. Was a good guy. A very good guy. And I think I know where we'll find the rats that killed him. Come on, boys. Let's go. Want to come along, Anderson? Don't stamp that thing till you hear the hood of the owl. Anderson's been shot. >> I hear he's dying. >> Someone told me he's dead. They say he won't live. >> Oh, thank God you're all right. They said you were dying dead. As Mark Twain said, the report of my death is grossly exaggerated. They got me right in a flashb. It's not a very vital spot. I'm glad you came, honey. When I leave here, I want you to go someplace with me. >> Where? >> The county attorney's promised me some figures that I need for a series of articles on dry law violations. You're my yard stick for all of Meville. If I can change your viewpoint without treading on your affection, I'll know how to reach all the other sincere but misguided people. >> Oh, please. Come on. Give me the chance, will you? >> All right. >> There's the last item, my boy. And the whole story boils down to this. Whenever we vote legal sales out, we vote the bootleger in. The history of prohibition, federal, state, and local, is one of complete failure. >> We should tell Jim how crime and alcoholism dropped with prohibition. Our chairwoman showed us figures, too. >> Well, that just isn't so. The United States Census report shows that the population death rate from alcoholism has decreased more than 50% from its peak in the prohibition era. That is in 1928. Today, it is less than 1 in 50,000. In the United States Army, cases of alcoholism have dropped 76% since their peak in the prohibition era. Bootleg seizures are down 73%. Arrest by federal agents are down 61% according to FBI reports. And the FBI also reports a definite decrease in the crime rate throughout the nation. The National Safety Council reports that deaths from traffic accidents have dropped 33% per miles traveled since their prohibition peak. Public finances are a problem now in city, state, and nation. And beer alone pays more than well, more than a million and a half dollars a day in taxes and licenses. >> Well, I've been taught that the money spent on drink could run the country and pay the national debt. >> Did they teach you the price of prohibition? It cost the government a billion dollars a year in revenue alone. It's been estimated that a million dollars a day went to corrupt officials as grafted. And the harvest of the bootleggers in only 10 prohibition years was $36 billion. But perhaps the blackest spot was this. The Department of Justice was obliged to conduct 600,000 prohibition prosecutions. A law had suddenly made us a nation of criminals. Now, you can quote me if you want to. I'm quoting unquestioned authorities. What a slimy trail it left. Gangsters, rackets, poison booze, criminal politicians. >> Oh, the good people of the country will know how to take care of all that this time. >> Good people, eh? Remember, honest and able federal officials never were able to get the big shot racketeers for bootlegging. Had to jail them eventually for income tax evasion. One beer and two lemonade. >> I brought you here because I want you to see a typical working man's bar. This isn't what you might call a fashionable place, but nevertheless, it's just as well conducted as the best place in town, as a restaurant where we had lunch, for example. It has to be. Where you have legal regulation, there are many conditions which every place must live up to. The few that don't are eventually put out of business. See that man at the end of the bar? >> I was hoping he'd be here. He's one of the brewing industry men who worked with law enforcement officers. His sole job is to see whether places where beer is sold are properly conducted. To the bartender, he's just another customer. But if he were to find the slightest thing shady or off color here, the proprietor would be given a warning. And if it was not promptly heated, the beer industry would file a complaint with the authorities. >> You mean to say that the brewers have the slightest interest in where or how their product is sold, or that they do anything to hurt their business? >> They're not hurting it. They're safeguarding it. It's to their interest to see that the few wrongly operated places are closed up before anyone has a chance to complain. Now, there's another place about 20 minutes from here. You ought to see it, Kim. May give you a new slant on these articles. May be very enlightening for you, too, Mr. McDonald. >> Well, all right. I'll go. Heat. Heat. [Music] rice, scotch, bourbon. That's 30 smackers, Randy. What do you have, gent? Scotch, rye, or bourbon? >> Two beers. >> No beers. >> I'll let you know later. >> No beer. Why? The brewer wouldn't allow any. It would have to be bootlegged. Just like that stuff. And beer is too hard to boot. There's your wet county saloon foil. Those boys and girls were children. Certainly not out of high school. >> Well, that was a bit of cunning on my part. Come over here. I want to show you something. This county has been dry since 1937. >> Somebody once circulated petitions here, too, to bring the bootleger back. That's who we're really fighting. The criminal and the bootleger. Truly good people. The really better element. We're all on the same side. Damn, I forgot to darn your socks. >> Heck of a wife you'll make. >> Did you hear that, Mr. Castleman? >> I most certainly did. >> You see, you've got to marry me now. I'm a county attorney for a witness. >> Well, it certainly didn't take her long the way she's been chasing him. H. So, she married him. They're just two of a kind. I hope they'll be very happy. It'll probably grow up to be a drunkard like her father. >> Can I help you, darling? >> No, never mind. I'm just about finished. You've been looking so worried lately, dear. What is it? >> Oh, they got me down, Ellen. I put the pressure on. Circulation's been going down steadily for months, and last night, George Black even canceled his advertising. We're not reaching the people anymore. >> Sure. Must have threatened everybody in town. >> We'll get along, darling. That county printing will tide this over and then we >> we haven't got that anymore, Ellen. They got to somebody. I don't know where or how, but it's all over. Now, if you really want the clincher to this melodrama, the notes are due. >> Mr. Cole could let you have more time. He's been wonderful to us. >> Mr. Cole's been wonderful, but Mrs. Cochel holds the notes now. She made him give them to her. was part of the pressure campaign. Oh, it's no use, Ellen. Big city editor, dismal flop at small town job, tangles with misguided minority and loses shirt. But now with the baby coming and doctor bills and hospital bills, >> I suppose the worst does happen. Suppose we lost the paper. You can always call Mr. Nelson and get your old job back in a minute. I could stay with Aunt Miriam till the baby comes and then I could meet you in New York City. Not that I hate being run out of my hometown. Boy, would I love to tell those people off before I go. Dear workers with a will, I who I'm about to leave salute you. >> Give it to him, honey. You never tried to hurt me until I learned that the endless fight against intolerance was my fight, too. >> Bravo, that's driving it home. Look, I'm going over to Middletown for a few hours, and when I come back, I'm going in to see Billy Cochro. I'm going to make him stand up to that wife of his. Don't worry, everything's going to be all right, darling. >> What? >> Surely, darling. Better throw out George Black's adopt. Seems he's left our happy little family. It's >> getting cozier every day, ain't it? >> Pretty soon we'll be publishing just the weather report. I'll be at Kako's office about 3. If you want me, you tell her, do that. [Applause] Well, better be getting the pest. >> So, wait a minute, Doc. Goodbye then, to the steeple of our church that a very young child once thought held up the sky. To all the catfish in Brown's Creek that a certain tomboy never caught. To the memories of golden crimson sunsets behind our hills. It started a young girl's dream. Goodbye to those sincerely misguided folks who are dry by policy and wet by social practice. or the hypocritical gentry. Never in town over a weekend and always billious on Mondays. >> But never as a beverage, only as a tonic. It saddens me to know how many good people have been run down so many years. Ladies, that's a direct attack upon us of all the insulting pieces of filthy journalism. To think that Ellen McDonald, that ungrateful, miserable girl, after all we've done for her, she's nothing more than a traitor. A traitor to us and everything we stand for. Ladies, come with me. We'll show that little hubby that she can't insult us and get away with it. >> Yes. What's the matter, Ellen? >> I don't know. I guess I felt a little shaky. I'll be all right. >> I'll run down to the drug store and get you some by carb. That ought to fix you up. >> Thanks. You wrote this? >> Yes, I did. >> You befoul the calls we raised to him. >> Dirty little sneak. >> I fed you, you ungrateful little wafer, and now you bite my hand. >> Bl sinner. >> You threw away your principles. You're a wanton. No, >> you're a wanted >> against your own people. >> No, no, no. >> A traitor. >> Your own people. >> You're a want. >> Well, what can you expect from the daughter of a drunkard? >> Jim, >> like father, like daughter. >> Yes. Violet. Jim. Jim, where is he? Why couldn't you talk to her? She's trying to ruin me just because we don't think alike. God, man. Haven't you got any spying? You knew why she wanted those notes. Why couldn't you refuse to turn them over to her? >> Oh, my wife has a very forceful character, but she's a good woman. >> Forceful? It's the only method she knows. >> Oh, the telephone. Jim, excuse me. Hello. Yes, he's here. Just a minute. It's for you, Jim. >> Yes. What's the matter, doc? Helen's in the hospital. I'll be right there soon as I can get there. Ellen's in the hospital. Farms found her unconscious after a visit from your wife to the shop. That good woman. >> Oh, wait, Jim. Wait. I'll go with you. >> Maybe we shouldn't have spoken so strongly as we did after all. Nonsense. She got nothing more than she deserves. >> Well, ladies, I imagine we've about finished. I'll see you all at the meeting. >> Just a minute, ladies. I've got something to say to you before you go. >> Oh, William, it's late. >> Will you sit down? I've got plenty to say to you. I've just come from the hospital where I saw Ellen Anderson. Yes. Ellen had her baby right after you left, and she's mighty sick. Yes, you can very well squirm, all of you, because if anything happens to either one of them, it'll be on your heads. You all consider yourselves to be fine, righteous people, don't you? Yet when one young brave girl stops agreeing with your almighty views, you set upon her like a pack of wolves. >> Dear dear, >> here I am, darling. >> I don't care if we do lose the paper today, Jim. D, I still got you and a baby. >> Hold on there, honey. You skipped a little time somewhere. Baby is almost a week old, and we didn't lose a thing. >> The paper. >> He's almost as healthy as our first son. Mrs. Anderson, >> the notes with you. What happened? Well, it seems that the man in Billy Cochro finally overcame the mouse. Took his notes back from his wife and renewed them. That's all. >> And Mr. and Mrs. Cochro calling. >> Show them in, please. Called me this morning and said that Mrs. Cochro had something to say to us. I just came in to see how you were. Now, having assured myself that I've never seen you more radiant, I leave my wife to you and her conscience. I I just don't know how to say this. I'm a very obstinate old woman and it's very hard for me to admit that I was wrong. Not in principle, mind you, but in method. It was wrong of me, Jim, to try and ride rough shard over your views just because they happen not to agree with mine. They still don't. But at least now I've learned the meaning of powerfulness. All I can say is that I I hope you'd accept my apology, my sincerest apologies for the way I've been acting. You know, Jim, I can't help but think what a wonderful world it would be if everyone would only remember that little word, tolerance. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]