Original subtitles

Do you solemnly swear that you will faithfully execute the office of

of the United States and will, to the best of your ability, preserve, protect,

and defend the Constitution of the United States?

I do.

Congratulations, Mr. President.

Good night, Mr. President. The inauguration went off with a bang. Yes,

was pretty wet.

That's more than I can say for this punch.

Good night, Mr.

President. Good night, Mr. President.

Don't you worry about Paris. I'm not. It's Oklahoma that I'm worried about.

Good night, Mr.

President. Good night, Senator.

Glad to have you in the Capitol. Well, it's better than being a lame duck.

Good night, Mr. President.

Hope you sleep well.

When did a vice president ever do anything else?

Judd, one of your constituents outside is very anxious to see you.

Oh, I don't want to see anybody. My hand is worn out now.

Well, you better see this fellow.

He's insistent and he's armed.

Hello, Jim.

He insisted on coming to your reception, Mr. President. That's all right, Miss

Knight. Beatman, he's the only person that can see the President at any time

without an appointment.

Jim? I want you to meet the gentleman who made your uncle the President of the

United States. Hello, Jim. I've got a speech. You've got a speech? All right,

let's hear the speech.

I love my Uncle Judd because he's going to cure the Depression and make all the

people rich again.

That's very good.

I see your nephew is inclined to the military.

What's that?

Are you going to be a soldier, Jim?

No, I'm going to be a gangster.

Oh, that gets us more profitable at that.

nephew, Mr. President.

You should know I'm not a policeman by looking at my feet.

Well, you better run along home now, Jim.

Gangsters need some rest, you know.

Good night, Jim. Good night,

Mr. President. I hope you have a different opinion of me than your

Good night. Good night.

Good night.

Good night.

Did I keep my promise, Jed? Well, I'm in the White House.

and considerably worried.

Why? When I think of all the promises I made the people to get elected.

You had to make some promises.

By the time they realize you're not going to keep them, your term will be

Oh, thanks for those unexpected votes from Alabama.

Wait till you get...

Good luck, Chief.

Senator Langham, if you run the Senate like I'm going to run the White House,

won't need any luck.

Good night.

Jasper, I can't tell you how grateful I am.

Don't mention it.

You'll make the best president the party ever had.

Good night.

Good night, Jasper.

White House.

But a big place for a bachelor present.

I think I'll look the place over.

No, I feel a good deal like a puppy. I have to turn around three or four times

before I lie down.

I hope I never have to shake hands again the rest of my life.

Is there anything else I've got to do? Well, there are a lot of cablegrams up

your study.

Well, I suppose I should read those. Anything else?

Well, I'd like you to know how much I appreciate this opportunity of serving

country. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Serving your country, yes.

Now, Beekman, do you realize that you're the youngest secretary a president ever

had? I appreciate the honor, sir. Well, we need young blood around here.

Beekman's rather a long name.

Do you mind if I call you Beek? Not at all, sir. All right.

I'll call you Beek, and you call me Major, okay?

Oh, Mr. Beekman.

Mr. Beekman is the president's secretary.

Miss Malloy, is that correct?

Miss Pendula Malloy.

Miss Malloy, the president's had rather a trying day.

Yes, I know. Inaugurations are very trying.

Lord, may I ask what it is you wish to see the president about?

About Miss Pendula Malloy.

Yes, of course.

Well... If you will have a seat, I'll notify the president you're here.

You're so kind.

Here's some more of them telegrams, Major. Hello, Sebastian.

How do you like your new home?

The show am a big place, sir. Red rooms, blue rooms, green rooms. In times like

these, the president needs lots of room. Yes, sir.

Sebastian, I never knew there were so many kings in the world. And neither did

I, sir. His Majesty desires to convey to you and all the American people his

felicitations of the birth of a new political era.

Mr. President.

Where is Siam?

Siam?

It's just north of the Mele Peninsula, just south of China.

That's fine. Mr. President, there's a... Just a minute, Beak. If I'm going to

call you Beak, you've got to refer to me as Major.

Very well, Major.

Oh, Beak.

When I told you today there was only one person that could see the President at

any time, I was wrong.

There are two.

Will you come with me, please?

You're my first official duty.

How flattering.

Miss Malloy, Major.

So nice seeing you here, Mr. President. Nice being here, Miss Malloy. You two

have gotten acquainted by this time, I suppose.

Yes, indeed.

Beak, this is Miss Malloy. How do you do, Miss Malloy?

Miss Malloy is going to be your assistant.

You don't mind, do you?

Not at all. He's very rigid, but I like him.

Anything else, Major? You may call me Pendy if I may call you B.

Of course.

Good night, B.

Good night, Pendy.

Good night.

In this terrible hour of crisis, America must look to its president with an

unshakable confidence.

My attitude is one of complete optimism.

With the help of such patriotic and idealistic men as yourselves.

I plan to carry this nation from the depths of despondency to the unsullied

sunny heights of prosperity.

I count on you, journalists, for inspiration and support.

In the future, all questions will have to be submitted in writing 24 hours

before these meetings.

Today, however, the President has very generously consented to answer a few

questions directly.

Mr. President. Mr. Patterson.

Does the President intend to grant John Bronson an interview?

The President didn't catch the name.

John Bronson, the leader of all the unemployed.

The president considers John Bronson a dangerous anarchist. If he comes near

White House, he will be arrested.

The president hasn't forgotten that Bronson heads a million men who are

and unemployed.

In the last count, there were 270 camps of these men in the public parks of our

largest cities.

The president considers the whole question of unemployment a local

Is the administration going to take any action on the racketeering that's

rampant in the country?

Are notorious gangsters like Nick Diamond going to get away with it?

My party also regards Nick Diamond and all racketeers as local problems.

We choose to believe that bootlegging and all forms of racketeering will

disappear as soon as the public become educated to respect the 18th Amendment.

Mr. Thiessen. Mr. President.

My paper's indictment against the government is a staggering one.

Starvation and want is everywhere.

From coast to coast and from Canada to Mexico.

Millions of dollars are poured into new battleships.

Farmers burn corn and wheat.

Food is thrown away into the sea while men and women are begging for bread.

Men are freezing without coats while cotton rots in the fields.

Thousands of homeless.

Millions of vacant homes.

Over 5 ,000 gangland murders last year. Yet only five gangsters in prison.

Not for killing, but for income tax violations.

What does the new administration say to this?

What answer?

What definite plan has the government to this indictment?

This tale of misery and horror. Of lost hope.

of broken faith, of the collapse of the American democracy.

Young man, I shall answer you directly.

And through you, I shall speak to all of my countrymen.

America will weather this depression as she has weathered other depressions.

Through the spirit of Valley Forge, the spirit of Gettysburg, and the spirit of

the Argonne, the American people have risen before, and they will rise again.

Gentlemen, remember, our party promises a return to prosperity.

May the president be quoted? The president may not be quoted.

If you don't stop asking questions, we won't have any place to sleep for the

next four years.

Hello, boys. Can I be of any further service to you? I want a glass of beer.

Boy, remember, this is the White House. That's right. I thought it was the

Senate.

You know, I enjoyed the president's speech. It was straightforward and to

point. Well, sure.

Prosperity is just around the corner. America will rise again.

Sure, when she rises, wake me up and we'll all rise together.

Do you mind if I use your desk for our game of solitaire?

Go ahead.

Get a load of Thiessen.

Hey, Thiessen, take the world off your shoulders. You're beginning to look like

Atlas.

Oh, yes, Senator. That's all taken care of.

Yes.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Beekman, the President would like to see you.

Well?

Miss Malloy is the President's confidential secretary.

Confidential or personal? What are her duties? And what's home without a woman?

Maybe she'll bring back beer.

Gentlemen, the president.

Hi, Jeff.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Sit down, please. No need to be informal just because I'm the president.

Well, what's the order of the day?

I saw Hargrave this morning, and he's pretty sore.

What have we done to him?

Well, he feels as though he's sort of been left out of the picture.

Straighten that out. What would you suggest?

Ambassador to Greece.

What do you say?

It's all right with the boys. It's all right with me.

All right,

Ambassador DeGrease.

That's one way to get rid of him.

I hope he has good -looking legs. If he hasn't, he certainly will look funny in

those short pants they have to wear over there when they appear at court.

Big guns, what are these?

Puppets to be signed.

Potential for the American consulate in Shanghai.

Pointing for postmasters at Loon Lake. She sells a lot of stamps.

Stalling a sewer system in Puerto Rico.

Well, here goes.

Where'd this come from?

It's a present for you.

What is it?

Springfield Memorial Society.

Meaning by that, what?

Lincoln freed the slaves with that pen.

Yeah?

Well, here goes for Puerto Rico garbage.

You could do important things with that pen if you wanted to.

For instance?

Well, you're president, aren't you?

Penny, I'm afraid you're an idealist.

There's a lot of things you don't understand.

A lot of things that people don't understand and don't want to.

Don't they?

No. You see, Penny, the party has a plan.

I'm just a member of the party.

Of course.

You have just five minutes before your car leaves for Annapolis.

And I couldn't get your detective magazine.

It won't be out until noon tomorrow in New York.

Well, we'll get the War Department to fly it down an army plane.

We're the President of the United States, aren't we?

You know, Judd, it's turning quite cold.

Be careful, won't you?

Look out for that throat.

Uncle Judd! Hello, Uncle Judd! Oh, Jim, how are you? Where have you been all

day? You rascal, you!

Straighten up your tie.

Saucer, fellas.

Goodbye, Mr. President.

Goodbye, Miss Malloy.

Have a nice trip, sir.

Yes, you're tickled to death to get a day off. Glad to get rid of me, aren't

you?

Of course, Mr. President.

Now, you sit there.

Don't you look around, either.

We shall now switch you by remote control.

to the camp of the unemployed in Central Park, New York City, from which you

will hear John Bronson, the leader of America's unemployed army, address an

letter to the people of America.

People of America, this is John Bronson speaking, not for himself, but for over

a million men who are out of work, who cannot earn money to buy food because

those responsible for providing work have failed in their obligations.

We ask no more than that which every citizen of the United States should be

ensured, the right to live, the right to put food in the mouths of our wives and

children. Our underlying purpose is not revolutionary.

We are not influenced by militant leaders.

None of us are Reds. We merely want work, and we believe this great United

States of America, under proper leadership, can provide work for

I have appealed to the President for an interview, and the President says he

will not deal with us because we are dangerous anarchists. We are not.

We are citizens of America with full confidence in the American democracy.

If it is properly administered, you people of America are hopelessly

it. They overcoat the president of the United States all these words when he

goes to the United States Naval Academy. I ask your president now if he's ever

read the Constitution of the United States, as it was laid out by those

men that day in Philadelphia long ago, a document which guarantees the American

people the rights of life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness.

All we ask is to be given those rights.

This country is sound.

The right man in the White House can bring us out of despair into prosperity

again. We ask him at least to try. Mr.

Beekman said this is the Annapolis coat.

We shall now put you back to the main studio, from which you will be

by a half an hour of popular music, furnished by the courtesy of the

Outfitting Company.

The first cousin of the United States to drive his own car. If the motorcycle

cops don't step on the gas, I'll climb right up on their tape.

What are we doing, 95?

98, sir.

Just received a news flash from Washington.

President Hammond has been injured in an automobile accident.

Beak.

Beak, will he die?

They can't tell me the truth.

Dr. Eastman speaking.

He'll tell you nothing at this time.

Well, Doctor, what is your opinion?

I'd say it's merely a matter of hours.

Do you concur in that opinion, Doctor? I'm afraid it's beyond any human help.

Thank you.

Goodbye. Goodbye.

Is the Major going to be all right?

He'll be all right, but he must have quiet.

Did you ring, Miss Bright? Why, no, Doctor.

But the bell in the study rang.

Why, the bell in the study is.

I rang, Eastman.

Mr. President.

I heard what you said, but the doctors are wrong.

Judd Hammond isn't going to die.

What is the lowdown, Dr. Eastman?

We're all going crazy.

You'll be accused of assassination the first thing you know.

The president is still unconscious.

Oh, we've printed that one line for weeks. No one believes it. I was here

Wilson was sick and Harding, too, and no one ever dared hide the news from us.

The president is still in a coma. That's all I can tell you.

Oh, come on. Gentlemen.

Beekman, you've got to tell us something new, even if you have to lie about it.

Has he talked?

What does he look like? What does he eat? Tell us something. Where is he?

We're all going to be fired, Beekman. We have to write something. And until we

get the truth, the stories are going to get wilder and wilder. That's right.

Nobody's got to run this country or we'll have anarchy.

I know as little as you do.

Dr. Eastman and the valet are the only two people who've seen the president

since his accident.

Now that's all.

Now that's all.

I don't think we've heard that before.

There's something going on here that doesn't quite jive. I think we're

I'm sorry.

I've told you all I know.

I think the whole thing is preposterous.

Doctor, I can't stand it any longer.

You've got to let me see him.

Miss Malloy, Mr. Bigman, this situation is getting too much for me.

If I'm going on with this, I've got to have help.

I've got to have somebody to share the burden with me. What burden?

President Hammond has been perfectly well for two weeks.

What? You know what you're saying, Doctor. That is, he seems physically

But sometimes concussion can produce results that transcend all the laws of

medicine.

You must prepare yourselves for a shock.

The President is not the Judd Hammond that I've treated for 15 years.

But your bulletin. The President's orders.

Why?

Two weeks ago, I advised him to get up and reminded him that he had been

conscious for 24 hours.

He told me that he had been entirely conscious for a week, but that he wanted

time to think.

What did he say?

What did he talk to you about?

He says nothing.

He sits there silently, reading or thinking, like a gaunt, grey ghost with

burning eyes that seemed to see right down into you.

I can't stand it.

I'm going to see him. Miss Malloy, please.

Please be reasonable.

If you insist on seeing the president, it must be on your own responsibility.

All right.

Doctor, I'll assume responsibility for Miss Malloy's action.

Very well.

Judd, why have you shut us out?

That's the trouble, Miss Malloy. You seem upset about something.

But, dear, don't you know how worried we've been?

Miss Malloy, I want all available information on John Bronson and the Army

the Unemployed.

Facts. On prejudiced reports.

The truth, you understand?

Yes. That is all, Miss Malloy.

Tell Mr. Beekman I would like to see him at once.

That is all, Miss Malloy.

Yes, sir.

What is it, Penty?

Something's happened.

Something I can't understand.

His eyes are so strange.

His voice is different.

And old Beek, he called me Miss Malloy.

You poor kid.

Mr. Beekman, instruct the members of my cabinet to meet me in one hour.

Mr. President, an hour is hardly time. Expect every member to be present in one

hour. Yes, sir.

Am I late? No, you're not. What's all the rush about? I don't know myself.

Well, why didn't he see us before?

We've been waiting for him for two weeks. Don't forget, Judd's been a sick

Now, boys.

Let me handle this situation.

I've known Judd longer than any of you.

He's been a very sick man, and we've got to humor him. Yes, but we've got to

think of the party.

Well, no matter what happens, the party comes first.

Please admit

all condolences.

Conserve your sympathy for the people of the United States who are in dire need

of it.

Sit down, gentlemen.

We're confronted with an ugly situation, Judd.

A lot of things have come up since your accident. Yes, I know.

I mean the army of the unemployed.

Bronson and his gang. Yes, I know. They're getting ready to march on

a million strong.

We didn't think you knew. Naturally.

I call on you as commander -in -chief of the Army and Navy.

Give me authority to mobilize and keep these ruffians in their camps.

You want to declare war?

You've got to uphold the law. What law?

Something must be done at once or this armed mob will descend on us. Run riot

all over Washington.

Every citizen of the United States should be ensured the elementary

for keeping life within his body. This cabinet, every member of Congress, each

officeholder is answerable directly to the public conscience.

Gentlemen. I refuse to call out the army against the people of the United

States. And I refuse to accept that. Discussion on this subject is closed.

Now, be careful. I might resign on you. Your resignation is accepted.

Oh, well, now, wait a minute, Judge. I was only suggesting... Your resignation

is accepted.

You have my permission to withdraw.

Gentlemen, I suggest you read the Constitution of the United States.

You'll find the President has some power.

Well, I'll be... Mr.

President... May I ask why Secretary of State Brooks resigned?

He didn't resign. I fired him.

Exactly, Mr. President. Why did you fire Secretary Brooks?

I fired him because he's an old -fashioned politician incapable of being

Secretary of State. Furthermore, he insists upon calling out the Army to

the unemployed from marching on Washington.

That's fine. Straight talk, Mr. President.

Too bad the President cannot be quoted.

This President can be quoted. This President wants to be quoted.

The president's scared, Alice.

He's hoping we'll stay away.

Well, we start tomorrow.

Are you John Bronson?

Yeah. Could I see you alone for a minute?

Certainly.

Be right back, honey.

It's an interesting commentary on our social system, Inspector, that the

of youth should prove so embarrassing at maturity.

Sure.

I'm much better looking now than I was then.

Especially the, uh, profile.

Don't you think?

You're filled out a bit.

Cigarette, Inspector?

Thanks.

I'll smoke it after dinner if you don't mind.

Not at all.

Inspector, haven't you forgotten something?

Oh, yes, the negative.

You might want some trench made up for Christmas cards.

Hello, Bronson.

It's nice of you to have dropped in on me.

Thanks for the escort.

Oh, that's all right.

Won't you sit down?

No, thank you.

Well, the unemployment situation doesn't seem to have affected you any.

Life has been pretty good to me, Bronson.

That's a terrible thing, these men of yours.

Millions of American citizens starving and homeless.

Yes, it is.

I'd like to do something for those not so fortunate.

Keep your men in their camps, and I'll see they're taken care of.

I'll have them fed.

Clothed and housed?

Lots easier for you if they stay in their camps, isn't it?

You're not only a patriot, Bronson. You're a very astute man.

Your profits are much bigger since the police of the big cities have been lined

up outside our camps, praying that we don't start something.

That's right.

I don't want anything to take them away from their prayers.

We're going to Washington, and you won't stop us.

You can't get anything in Washington.

The American government is...

Like the American people, just a bunch of boobs.

We're going to Washington to look into this government that lets decent men

starve and fosters a lot of vultures.

I get you, Diamond.

But you can't put a million men on the spot.

We're leaving for Washington tonight.

Well, that's fine. Just thought I'd have a talk with you and get your viewpoint.

Oh, I think I can find my way back alone if it's all right with you.

Perfectly all right. No hard feelings.

But don't be too hasty.

I should give the matter a little more thought if I were you.

Bronson.

Cigarette?

That ain't my brand.

Mr. President, the Secretary of War would like to see you immediately.

He seems very much disturbed.

Yes, I thought he would be.

Show him in.

Mr. President.

Oh, splendid, Mr. President.

The General's told you my plans?

All I need is your authority to mobilize the army and disperse these unemployed

vagrants when they reach Baltimore.

Mr. Secretary, the War Department will supply food, shelter, and medical

requirements to these men in their camp tonight.

Mr. President, are you out of your mind? In 1918, we forced four million men to

accept the hospitality of the government.

But that was war. This is war. And the enemy is starvation.

At one time or other, we gave millions of tons of food to the starving

the starving Chinese, and the starving Belgians.

Now we can feed our own people.

As president of these United States, my first duty is to the people. But if you

encourage these ruffians, they'll... I haven't the time or inclination for

argument. Resign or get on with your job.

Tons of food rotten.

Millions of people starving.

What's to prevent us from putting this food into the mouths of the hungry?

Mr. Beekman, will you please make arrangements for me to leave for

early in the morning?

He mustn't go and face that mob. There's no telling what might happen to him.

I thought you said a simple, honest man could solve everything.

I'm beginning to have a faith in him I never had before.

I know, but he's way ahead of me.

The way he thinks is so simple and honest that it sounds... It sounds a

crazy.

He's doing the things you wanted.

And if he's mad, it's a divine madness.

Look at the chaos and catastrophe the sane men of this world have brought

Mr. President, I'm responsible for your personal safety, and I refuse to let you

go alone into that camp. Floden, you heard what happened to Secretary of

Brooks.

This is Alice Bronson.

My poor child, I am with you in your grief.

I pay tribute to the martyr John Bronson, who gave his life in this

arouse the stupid, lazy people of the United States to force their government

do something before everybody slowly starves to death.

It is not fitting for citizens of America to come on weary feet to seek

president. It is rather for their president to seek them out and to bring

them freely the last full measure of protection and help. And so I come to

I feel certain the last thing you men want is charity, money for idleness, and

the demoralization which follows in its wake. Seventeen years ago, the

government put guns and bayonets in our hands and told us to bring back peace.

We did.

Now put shovels and picks in our hands.

And we'll really bring back prosperity.

We want work!

We want work!

We want work!

We want work! We want work!

We want work!

We want work! Exactly.

Exactly.

You have been told there is no chance of getting work.

But I say there is work.

Necessary work waiting to be done. I'm going to make you a proposition.

You've been called the...

arts of war, but in the greater arts of peace, trained not to destroy, but to

build up if someone will give you a job.

I propose, therefore, to create an army to be known as the Army of

Constructions. You'll be enlisted, subject to military discipline.

You'll receive army rates of pay.

You'll be fed, clothed, and housed as we did our wartime armies.

You'll be put to work, each one of you, in your own field, from baking loaves of

bread to building great dams.

industry begin to turn, stimulated by these efforts, you will gradually be

retired from this construction army back into private industry as rapidly as

industry can absorb you. That's all very well, Mr. President, but what's

Congress going to say to all this?

I have called a special session of Congress for tomorrow.

I shall ask them for funds to carry out my plans for the rehabilitation of

America. If they give me these funds tomorrow, I shall immediately open the

first construction army recruiting station here in Baltimore.

And you shall be my first... First soldiers.

Mr.

President, your address to Congress on the construction army.

My address to Congress?

What's this? Who wrote this?

Why, you did, Mr. President.

Oh, no, Miss Martin.

I never saw...

Oh, yes, yes. My address to Congress.

Me.

Me.

What's the matter, Pendy?

I've just seen something.

He didn't know his own words, Beak.

What? And then he lifted his head for all the world as if he were listening.

There was something in the room that made me shiver.

And then he just smiled and said, yes, of course.

What do you think it means?

Well, we felt from the beginning that the president was really two men.

But I became aware somehow tonight of a third being.

I know that sounds impossible.

I'm not a very religious person, Bea, but does it seem too fanciful to believe

that God might have sent the angel Gabriel to do for Judd Hammond what he

for Daniel? Gabriel? I thought he was a messenger of wrath.

Not always.

To some, he was the angel of revelations.

Sent as a messenger from God to men

Hmm

Gabriel over the White House

that you're not to let Hammond suspect that you're against him.

Not by word or attitude.

Not even that we've had this meeting here tonight.

Come in.

President's secretary is here.

Well,

Beatman? A communication for you, Mr. Cummings.

One for you, sir.

Mr. Lockhart?

Mr. Boone?

Mr. Perry?

Mr. Fox?

And one for each of you, gentlemen, if you'd be kind enough to pass them down.

What is this all about? How did Hammond know we were here?

Very strange. The next thing to do is go there.

That settles it. We'll take this to Congress.

We've got a big enough majority to throw them out.

We'll show this lunatic who's boss.

I speak for the majority of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Assured that President Hammond has been a traitor to his party.

false to the principles on which he was elected.

I propose to demand from the House the impeachment, the immediate removal of

President of the United States.

of the United States.

May the rules be suspended?

I would like to dispense with all red tape so I can answer questions directly

while I have the floor.

Unless there is objection, the rules of this Congress will be suspended.

I'm here as a representative of the American people, and there are of

despair. A plant cannot be made to grow by watering the top alone and letting

the roots go dry.

The people of this country are the roots of the nation and the sturdy trunk and

the branches, too.

You have spent $4 billion only to aggravate adversity.

I ask for $4 billion to restore buying power, stimulate purchases, restore

prosperity. You have wasted precious days and weeks and years in futile

discussion. We need action, immediate and effective action.

Mr. President, there is a movement in Congress for your impeachment.

Hardly the time for making any requests, however small.

Very well.

I shall withdraw that request, but I would like to substitute another.

I ask you, gentlemen, to declare a state of national emergency.

And to adjourn this Congress...

until normal conditions are restored.

During the period of that adjournment, I shall assume full responsibility for

the government.

Mr. President, this is dictatorship.

Senator Langham, words do not frighten me. But the United States of America is

democracy. We are not yet ready to give up the government of our time.

You've closed your ears to the appeals of the people.

You've been traitors to the concepts of democracy upon which this government was

founded. I believe in democracy as Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln

in democracy.

And if what I plan to do in the name of the people makes me a dictator, then it

is a dictatorship based on Jefferson's definition of democracy.

A government for the greatest good of the greatest number.

I think, gentlemen, you forget that I am still the President of these United

States.

And as Commander -in -Chief of the Army and Navy, it is within the rights of the

President to declare the country under martial law.

Hello, countrymen.

Your overwhelming support of my emergency acts has enabled me to move

rapidly than I had dared hope.

I do not say that the unemployment problem is solved, but we are at least

hundreds of thousands of men into an organized life of food, shelter, and

clothing. If you could realize the staggering facts I face, the appalling

of your money in America's deplorable condition, I feel sure that you would

support me in the things I plan to do in your behalf.

I propose to safeguard the homes of American citizens by a law to prevent

foreclosure of mortgages until the average American workman has had a

go to work.

I propose a national banking law which will protect our people's money in the

banks.

I propose immediately to give direct aid to the 55 million American people who

depend entirely upon agriculture without whose prosperity there can be no real

prosperity in the United States.

But our next task is a return to law and order.

I do not propose to mince words.

This primarily means the question of that cesspool known as the 18th

This has fostered the evil force, the greatest enemy of law and order America

has ever known, the racketeer, a malignant cancerous growth eating at the

spiritual health of the American people, public enemies. I refer to men of the

type of Nick Diamond, arch enemies of these United States.

Men who are bleeding the people of America by illegal racketeering in every

industry from bootleg whiskey to baby's milk. The enemies of every honest

citizen. The enemies of our nation. The United States of America.

Just a big shot. Congress has voted to repeal the 18th Amendment.

This, however, requires millions of dollars and months of time to be made

effective by the ratification of the several states.

And it'll take three years. But my patience is exhausted with these

these racketeers, and these kidnappers. I serve warning.

These evil forces must be, shall be eliminated, so that our citizen,

his peaceful way, will be no longer forced to conduct his business in the

of extortion and debt.

Good night.

Good night!

You suppose he was talking about us?

Oh, you look so tired.

Why don't you call it a day and get some rest?

Tired? I'm as fresh as a daisy. You're the one that looks tired.

Besides, I've got some figures to go over.

Our European debts.

I didn't know there was that much money.

Good night, sir.

Just a moment, please.

Well, do the president's guests always receive this attention?

Well, that's all right. There's nothing there.

May I keep this?

This way, please.

Is this the proper outfit?

Well, this is a nice place you have here.

All right, all right, keep your seat.

The old custom of arising, when the president enters the room, I abolish

the new administration.

Nice of you to come here on my invitation, Mr. Diamond.

I've been pretty busy lately, almost as busy as you are.

Yes, I guess you and I are the only Americans who have any business left.

You needn't look me up. I've paid my income tax. Yes, I'm sure you have. No,

this is just your biography.

You don't mind a little intimate discussion?

The story of an immigrant boy who became the most famous man in America.

Well, there are some good deeds here.

You've at least rid the country of a number of your own kind.

It's something I'm grateful for.

But you're a menace to this country, Mr. Diamond.

And the most inexpensive way to get rid of you would be for you to eliminate

yourself.

Return to your own country. Why?

I'm what I am today by public approval.

The people want something, I give it to them. We're in the same boat.

I, too, exist only by the will of the people.

Exactly. Then why should I give up a good business until I have to?

May I ask just what you had in mind when you asked me to come here?

I thought we'd talk over this bootleg situation.

Yes, on my trucks it's bootleg. On the Silver Train Park Avenue it's

hospitality.

Mr. Diamond, we are two of the most notorious men in America for notoriously

different reasons.

I had hoped that we might make a bargain, but you seem to have different

The bootlegging business involves yearly a sum of money aggregating several

hundred millions of dollars.

The American people need that money.

I warn you, Diamond, the government is going to muscle in on your racket.

I thought I was guaranteed there'd be no frame -up.

Diamond, I don't think you're quite ready for framing.

Gentlemen, you'll see that Mr. Diamond is escorted safely to his car.

Would you mind standing there just a moment, Miss Malloy? And why, sir? I

want to look at you.

Mr. Beekman, you're a fool.

I'm a fool about you.

Beekman, can I speak to your mother, please?

Yes, Mr. President.

Beekman? One hour after our first federal liquor store was opened, it was

out for the most dastardly demonstration of gangster defiance in the history of

this country.

Nick Diamond has declared war on the United States.

Still here, B?

Still here.

Must be tired.

I'll never rest till you get well.

You love me a lot, don't you?

B?

What?

I didn't feel any pain at all.

Just a delicious sense of gratitude, peacefulness. I'm glad,

Wendy.

And then...

I had a terrific feeling of loneliness.

Of being terribly, completely alone.

Yes, I know.

I wanted you.

I think I feel well enough to be kissed.

Beekman, you're fired.

I've got a better job for you.

It's only a temporary one.

I'm forming a mobile unit of the United States Army to be known as the Federal

Police to eliminate gangsters.

I want you to head that unit.

Yes, sir. I need a man who has suffered a terrible personal hurt. A man whose

energy and efficiency will be at white heat. A man ruthless and merciless.

That is, of course, if you're willing to postpone your wedding for a while.

Me?

You don't mind about us?

With no Congress to interfere, we might be able to arrange a wedding at the

White House.

Diamond? In the name of the United States of America, I call on you to

surrender. Boss, this is the Army.

Oh, this is just another pig.

My lawyer will have this our corpus out of that district attorney's office in

ten minutes.

Boys, let's give them a round to show them we are hard to get.

All right, Cassidy. Be at work.

Well, Diamond, you're in a bad way.

Charging firearms with the federal police doesn't help either.

I believe I'm still entitled to have a lawyer. Sure, sure. You can have any

lawyer you want.

And Uncle Sam will pay the bill.

But don't forget, this isn't going to be a court trial. It's going to be a court

-martial.

Nick Diamond, racketeer, murderer, kidnapper.

It is the finding of this court -martial that you and your men are guilty.

This court is convinced that you have, as part of your racketeering and

extortion, committed some 23 homicides.

Murders. With your own hands.

You have instigated dozens more.

Yet by bribery, by technicalities of the law, you've escaped all punishment.

You're the last of the racketeers, Diamond. And why?

Because we have in the White House a man who's enabled us to cut the red tape of

legal procedures and get back to first principles.

An eye for an eye, Nick Diamond.

A tooth for a tooth.

A life for a life.

Gentlemen, from the newspapers I gather, there is quite some sentiment to the

effect that the President is to be out general by crafty European politicians.

And once again, America will walk out of conference rooms with empty pockets.

You may allay those fears.

America is through with conferences in rooms.

The International Debt Conference, scheduled to be held tomorrow at the

House, will be held instead on a private yacht.

The delegates to the Debt Conference will thus be my guests at a naval

which, quite by coincidence, I assure you, will consist of the largest

concentration of naval strength in the history of this nation.

Are we to infer that the President expects the debt conference will end in

America's favor? Those debts have got to be paid. The President intends to

collect by force? Those debts have got to be paid.

Is the United States prepared to wage war against 15 leading nations? Those

debts have got to be paid.

That's all, gentlemen.

Wait a minute. The President doesn't intend to go to war.

You heard what the president had to say. The United States won't stand for war,

even from Judd Hammond. That's right.

Gentlemen, you will bear with me a moment while the radio is being

But, Mr. President, we did not understand that this conference would be

broadcast. No, I have no question.

We will speak more advisedly if we know the people of the world are listening

in. One of the reasons that we entered the Great War was to secure the end of

secret diplomacy, to establish throughout the world a fixed policy of

covenants, openly arrived at.

Gentlemen, we are at least today fulfilling this great purpose.

We are taking the world into our confidence.

I will open this conference on the question of war debts with a brief

of America's side of the controversy.

These debts were incurred to save the debtor nations from destruction.

The money they received, they pledged their honor to repay.

Then the debtor pleaded poverty.

The United States compromised the debts by half.

This remaining half, debtor nations solemnly signed agreements to pay.

Gentlemen, are you prepared to pay those debts?

For Germany to pay her debts means more taxes on her half -star people.

They may burst into open revolution.

Do you think little Belgium, neutral, unoffending little Belgium, would sever

the ravages of invasion again for ten times the money she owes you?

Who helped the little American colonies when they fought for their freedom? Who

helped them with money?

Yes, France, you helped us.

And America has cherished an affection for France ever since.

But we paid you back.

And rightly, too.

A cosmopolitan nation like the United States has reason to cherish affection

all nations of the world, whom she properly considers her forebearers.

Yet, the inescapable consequences of the debt are, someone must pay it.

And if your nations cannot pay the debt you contracted to save yourselves from

destruction, They will have to be paid by the American taxpayer himself.

And the burden on the American taxpayer for sharing his part of the war is too

heavy. He cannot pay his own debts and yours, too.

Gentlemen, are you prepared to pay your debts?

But, Mr. President, we can't discuss matters of such great importance here

now. We must have further conferences.

I have never seen the American eagle go into one of these conferences that it

did not come out plucked to its pin valleys.

There will be no further conferences.

We paid when we could, but we're no longer able to pay.

We loan billions ourselves and have not received one penny in return.

Very well. I hereby repudiate one of our past conferences.

I refer to the Naval Limitations Agreement.

As a result of that agreement, America destroyed battleships while European

countries destroyed blueprints.

And from now on, America refuses to allow European nations or Asiatic

to dictate how many ships and what kind of ships America shall have in the Navy

which defends her lands and her people.

But, Mr. President, you can't repudiate the signature of your country.

It is you who have repudiated signatures, destroyed credit and

nations, made solemnly signed agreements nothing more than scraps of paper.

If you can repudiate the debts you owe the American taxpayer... Encourage to

save your own people from destruction. There are no standards of ethics left.

You have gone into moral bankruptcy.

I can repudiate anything.

Gentlemen, I would like to have your attention over here for a few moments.

I want you to take a last look at America's small navy. At America's

and hampered navy.

A last look at an American navy controlled by foreign powers.

But when I get through with America's new navy, America's own navy, it'll make

all your navies look like a lot of toy ships in a bathtub.

Is the President of the United States going to plunge the world into another

war? No, the United States must have the greatest navy in the world because we

want peace.

Mr. President, you leave us no alternative.

We'll gladly pay our debts if you'll show us how we can do so.

I've been waiting for someone to ask me how.

Gentlemen, I'm going to tell you how.

People of the United States, nations of the world.

It is not my intention to go to war to collect the debts. We want peace.

But in order to have peace, while the nations of the world are preparing to

spring at each other's throats, we must be able to command peace.

Peace and a return to prosperity go hand in hand only through one agency.

While hundreds of thousands of families are wondering where the next meal is

coming from, while I am vainly trying to balance the budget, We spent last year

nearly $360 million on battleships. Why?

Because the other nations of the world do. And you, Great Britain, you spent

last year nearly $1 ,000 million on armaments.

And you, France, last year you spent on your armaments over $1 ,000 million more

than the small payment you were supposed to make us, but defaulted. And you,

Italy, over $500 million.

And you are the nations in proportion.

And yet, people of the world, we wonder where the money is coming from to save

our nations from financial collapse.

I'll tell you.

When I think of the billions spent on these glorified, antiquated pieces of

scrap iron, it makes me despair of humanity.

Antiquated, I said.

And I propose to prove it to you. At the same time, I will show you a method

whereby the world may be saved from international bankruptcy.

Commander Jones, you may proceed.

Over there, there are two battleships.

Those ships cost our taxpayers $40 million.

Today they are pronounced obsolete. Why?

Because fools throughout the world are working out new designs, new ships, new

futilities, which render yesterday's work useless.

Those ships are radio -controlled.

They contain not a single human being.

Major Dawson, you may proceed.

Just what is the purpose of this demonstration?

Mr. President, what is your object of it?

People of the United States, nations of the world,

the world will not learn without bitter lessons.

The next war will be a terrible story of the failure of antiquated machinery and

antiquated methods, of the horrifying destructiveness of the modern agencies

arms. Armies and navies will be destroyed from the air. And as these

destroy armies and navies, they will destroy cities. They will destroy

populations.

Peace and faith are necessary among men, not merely for the welfare of nations,

but for the very existence of nations.

The next war will depopulate the earth.

Invisible poison gases.

inconceivably devastating explosives, annihilating death rays, will sweep

a destruction, not only the men, but the children who would constitute another

generation and the mothers who bear them.

Unless man's God -given faculty for utilizing the forces of nature for

beneficent purposes shall surpass their vicious genius for destruction, the race

of man shall perish from the earth, and the earth shall be left to the less

cruel, the less destructive, and the less stupid wild animals.

People of the world, I speak to you. Shall we save this world?

Shall we restore it to a condition where it can truly be said that there is

peace on earth, goodwill toward men?

Shall the United States of America build such a navy to force peace?

Or shall the other nations agree to eliminate their armaments, balance their

budgets, restore honor among nations? The United States would be glad to fall

line with such a movement, but only after the other nations have proven

good faith by convincing action.

The very fate of our civilization rests here and now, where it belongs, in the

hands of the people of the world.

Here we are, ladies and gentlemen, in the East Room of the White House, the

important day in the peace and prosperity of the world.

The Washington Covenant has already been signed by most of the foreign powers,

and Baron Kenzo Furumoto, Prime Minister of Japan, is about to sign the

covenant. President Hammond has not yet appeared.

The Great Japanese Empire, along with the world, will follow President

lead in the peace treaty.

for the peoples of the world.

With this document, this covenant of Washington, the world takes its first

step to prevent our civilization from tottering, as did the forgotten

civilizations before us.

Thank you.

Be careful, boys. Yep.

Who's in this building?

Get me some water. Yes, sir.

All right, boys. Thanks.

Here's the water, Doctor. Put it over there.

It's his heart.

We'd better make some statement to the delegates.

Anything to allay their fears. Yes, sir.

Hello, Pendy, old girl.

Here, Mr. President, take this.

There's nothing you can do for me, Easton.

Does the President of the United States meet with your approval?

He's proved himself one of the greatest men who ever lived.

Hold my hand, Wendy.

The President of the United States sends you his heartfelt gratitude for your

magnificent accomplishment in achieving this Washington covenant.

His only thought being that the millennium of peace on Earth be

forever for the peoples of the world.

Gentlemen, the President of the United States is dead.