Valley Town (1940)

[Music] [Applause] the the [Applause] the [Music] [Music] years and years there was always smoke over these houses fine mornings good times I've been mayor here for 20 years 20 years in March I've lived on the hill where I could watch the people men and women who lived by machines and bought machine-made goods and slept and were awakened to go to the machines [Music] [Music] [Music] I remember when those factories were built we were pretty happy about it concrete and glass and steel why it was like money in the bank more machines more jobs 36 million more Men at Work in the last 70 years 18 new Industries in the country millions of new jobs automobiles gas radio men wanted men want it well what about the men that's a complicated question sometimes the change was slow Machinery didn't always disturb Our Lives the old jobs went there was trouble but we got new jobs take Russell for example used to make carriages live next door to me a good many years he took to making parts for engines a man with skilled hands like Tom can turn them to another trade if the work is not too far different even the older men had not so much trouble as you'd think some machines needed skilled men almost as many as before and this work was easier on the back or Bill Johansson used to be a Breakman on the railroad that ran from the function across to our town now there's a bus runs right alongside the old track he was out of work about 6 months now he's turning out parts for diesel engines same engines that helped put him out of his job that's the way it was and machines like this machine looms came in pretty gradually everybody knew they were coming times were good men had a chance to look around move to another state move into our town because they heard about our new luck the steel Rolling Mill 3,000 jobs had to have skill had to have strong arms and hard nerves there it was money for 3,000 families the machines brought life to our town [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] Good Times make good Christmas big pay rolls from the steel mill the engine plant the weaving Mill plenty of money in town and it went to buy food and clothes the same all over the country machines making cheaper goods and more of them and new kinds of products quite a few new stores too A lot of the young people got selling jobs in those stores and cler jobs in the offices not so long ago either my own youngest daughter got married a Christmas marriage rang all the church bells in town we thought Prosperity would last forever we were able to buy good products shipped from other industrial towns from everywhere in the US and we shipped our Goods in return the wheels kept going around n [Music] [Music] and then the wheel stopped [Music] [Music] we thought Prosperity would last forever now it was over we hoped it would return but the machines were idle a long time so were the men it wasn't a fault of the machines we can't blame them for depression in fact machines had often created jobs but now there was depression I never thought I'd see it snow on those rollers 2/3 of the town on relief then when recovery began when there were orders for steel again The Old Mill stayed shut the years had brought a new method a new machine automatic high-speed strip Mill for every 30 men who worked before now there is one no more strain on the back and shoulders no more work for 3,000 families automatic high speed powerful accurate never gets tired never get sick [Music] [Music] what am I going home for [Music] what the devil am I going home for just to walk in the door and say no job again is that what for there he is the Old South he used to have a job Mrs kavani and Jack kavani way out in Pittsburgh trying to land a job there well I'm here I'm trying to keep a home together here home nice home we got to get out of this dump soon Pete and Joe we used to hang around together working at the Mill and now now I can't stand a look at their faces they're thinking and I'm thinking when is that Mill going to open again when do we work there's nothing wrong with me I can still work I'm okay walk in the door tell her the same old thing tell her that again see that look in her eyes again I don't want to go home what am I going home for what the devil am I going home for for me and my kids 60 cents for his lunch another 25 cents that makes 85 then there's milk for the baby I knew it all right don't let him see nothing sit down give him his dinner this ain't anything sudden it happens every day and if I said today it'll be different today you come back and tell me oh well forget it where was I 85 and 20 from a11 leaves what does it leave you add off the pennies finding there's just not enough so far you can eat and over your head is some kind of room and then you ask yourself how what happens after all you who saved is gone is he scared to look how soft are his hands from not working so [Music] long oh far away there's a place with work and joy and Che far away oh far away from here in my dream some fine day will go away from here some find but not now the dream in end Som with never he or now [Music] [Music] I hear that they tell you we're living in a wonderful age the age of machines and gadgets and things an age to wonder at all right I'm wondering I'm wondering how much I you can't do no more than try [Laughter] [Music] is [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] as long as the Old Mill was there we'd kept on hoping we'd kept our eyes on it maybe they'll reopen maybe next month but when they cut those Smoke Stacks out of the sky we had nothing to look at anymore decent fine workmen every one of them their hands were trained but now that training is no good they're no more than unskilled men until they learned a new skill but why we're all good men here and we know our jobs why are we finished because the strip Mills can make the steel cheaper they can make it cheaper but they can't make it as good they can make it as good and cheaper and faster that's what these new machines are like but what good are the machines if they throw us out of work labor saving machines can make more goods for more people but the machines have come so fast that the displaced workers have not been able to learn new skills and find other jobs why should these men be thrown away as if they were obsolete as if they were broken machines I'm only 25 years old I'm not obsolete maybe we could get him to bring some new factories into the city I'm a steel worker I worked in a mill 20 years I couldn't go to work making radios or refrigerators if I did get a job it's the same way with millions of trained men it hit our town hard and sudden but it's not a local problem not these days Our Town by itself can't feed these men can't AFF forward to retrain them it's a bigger thing than one mayor in one town can possibly handle it's a national problem a man may be through at his old occupation but he still can be trained for another job in the last 10 years we've let our reservoir of skill run seriously low millions of workers have been idle in each of these 10 years that means millions of man years of work experience lost of skills Ed to rust we've needed a retraining program for a long time Industries need machinists mechanics skilled workers of every kind methods change all right let's train the men for new jobs let's teach them versatile skills it's taken an emergency to get us started on a nationwide scale but what we learned this year about the problem about teaching new skills to displ placed workers can help a peacetime economy as well as National Defense we need trained men more than ever today schools in our town and hundreds of others are training men for new jobs the men who worked in the old steel mill can learn to handle laths and drills the men who knew one operation can be trained for a wider usefulness we're meeting a crisis now government and Industry are working together together to retrain these men when the crisis has passed let's remember what we've learned new automatic processes will keep on coming we need them but let's keep the workers up to date let's keep their skills as modern as the new machines [Music]