“Great Days in Dayton”

 

Reproduced on these pages is the full script of a “Great Days in Dayton” broadcast. All music and sound effect “cues” are indicated just as they appear on the working scripts used by the cast. The sponsor hopes that you will find interesting these dramatized episodes from the life story of your city.

 

“Great Days in Dayton” is a Presentation Sponsored by

SCRIPT No. 15 – “INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS”

 

MUSIC

[Theme. Starts fortissimo, then fades behind . . .]

ANNOUNCER: “Great Days in Dayton!”

[MUSIC : Swells and fades behind . . . ]

ANNOUNCER:  Voices from the past speak to us again today in another dramatization of Dayton’s history. Again we witness long-ago events which had an important effect on civic growth and progress. We saw Dayton first as a tiny settlement in the wilderness. We have seen it grow into a thriving town. And always our story has been one of community advancement. There have been delays, failures, even tragedies, in the long march of Dayton’s development; but always there has been in our citizenry a determination to overcome obstacles, a will to advance the best interests of the community. It is the hope of our sponsors, The Dayton Power and Light Company, that the presentation of these historical dramas will still further enrich the promise for Dayton’s future. (PAUSE.) And now for today’s play, which will be introduced by your master of ceremonies, Mr. Charles McLean.

MUSIC : [Swells and fades behind . . . ]

NARRATOR: Our recent dramas have dealt with the middle years of the Nineteenth Century, when tides of national conflict reached their crest in the Civil War, leaving serious problems of community reconstruction when they receded. Yet during those same years other events of importance were taking place. Dayton was becoming a manufacturing town, laying the foundation on which our great industrial city of today is built. By 1850 the town could boast of five iron foundries, four flour mills, and other mills for the making of paper and cloth. Other Dayton factories were already shipping to the markets of the whole country a wide variety of products . . . railway cars, agricultural implements, carriages and wagons, furniture, stoves and many other articles. Gradually these activities produced wealth in which the whole community shared, and so the community itself was ripe for new improvements. Our play opens with the start of such an undertaking. The time is early February, 1848.

MUSIC: [Fades out.]

MACY: Come in, gentlemen. How are you, Mr. Stout . . . Mr. Winters . . . Mr. Steele? You all know Colonel Newcom, of course.

VOICES: [Cordial.] Why, Colonel Newcom, this is a great pleasure! . . . How are you, Colonel?  . . . It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, sir.

NEWCOM: you’d see more of me, but young Dr. Reeve won’t let me get out much . . . says I need rest and quiet. All nonsense, I say. I’m only eighty-one years old. (PAUSE.) But you’re not here to visit with me. You listen to Frank Macy.

MACY: Gentlemen, I’ve asked you to come to my office tonight to show you a very simple thing. There it is on the table.

WINTERS: Is this a joke, Frank? Did you get us up here to show us a candle burning?

STEELE: What are you getting at?

MACY: Gas.

WINTERS: Gas? That’s nothing new. Thomas Clegg gave a demonstration of gas lighting in Dayton twenty years ago.

MACY: And we’re still getting along with candles and a few oil lamps . . . just as we’ve been getting along without railroads.

STEELE: But we’ll have railroads in a year or two.

MACY: Yes, and meanwhile Eliam Barney and Preserved Smith are building railroad cars in Dayton and shipping them by canal-boat to Cincinnati, where there are rails to run on. That is a joke, and it’s on Dayton.

WINTERS: I know Cincinnati and some other Ohio towns have gas lights, but I’m not sure Dayton people would take up with the idea.

MACY: How about that, Colonel Newcom?

NEWCOM: Lots of them won’t; I can tell you that. Just like they wouldn’t take up with the idea of window glass in our log cabins fifty years ago . . . or with the idea of having stage coaches coming to Dayton . . . or a canal . . . or a railroad. There’s always folks like that. We fought them in the early days to get what the town needed . . . Dan Cooper and Sam Thompson and Ben Van Cleve and I. Others have been fighting ever since. And now you young fellows have to take it up . . . you, Dave Winters, and you, Bob Steele, and the rest of you, along with Frank Macy here. You won’t find it as hard as we did in the old days. Folks are more used to accepting new ideas. But you’ll have some persuading to do. Get out and interest everyone you can. Then form a stock company, raise the necessary money and . . . [Fade out and in.]

---------------------------

MACY: Gentlemen, it’s been just a year since we launched our project to supply gas lighting to Dayton. And I think we can be proud of the progress we’ve made. Let me read from an editorial in this morning’s Journal. [Reads.] Last evening the splendid light made by gas was brought into use in Dayton. The City Hall was handsomely lighted by some thirteen burners, which are there are permanent fixtures.  A splendid chandelier with eight burners was suspended near the entrance of the Hall for exhibition. It would be a magnificent and useful ornament for a room with a finish to correspond. Many persons who now, perhaps, have no intention of using gas will soon by persuaded by the proof of its utility.

WINTERS: That’s all right. Now, Frank, what does the town council say about lighting the streets?

MACY: That will take time, Dave. The Council has no authority to levy taxes for the purpose, but we’ve laid a mile of pipe in the center of town, and the Council is willing to put up light posts if the property owners on any street will pay for the gas. J. D. Phillips has agreed to do that, putting a light at Third and Main Streets. James Perrine will put another at Second and Jefferson. And the Dayton Bank will have burners in front of its building.

STEELE: I’m afraid it’s too expensive for private homes. People won’t be willing to pay ten dollars a thousand feet.

MACY: Not many of them, at first, though we have three orders now for piping gas into homes. We’ll get more later, and then we’ll be able to reduce the rate. I’m for going ahead this year and laying at least two more miles of pipe.

VOICES: So am I . . . That sounds like sense to me. [Music : Fades in and behind . . . ]

--------------------------

NARRATOR: This earliest venture in gas lighting for Dayton almost failed when it was found that the cost of manufacture was excessively high. But the founders of the company had the courage to invest more money, and with the introduction of coal as a source of gas, success was assured. By 1863 Dayton was using 8,000,000 feet of gas a year. Two hundred and ninety lamps lined the streets of the city, and eight hundred meters were in operation. The rate was four dollars and a half per thousand feet. Still later, in the Eighties, natural gas was brought to Dayton. By 1890 Daytonians were rejoicing that they could use gas in their homes for only a dollar and fifteen cents a thousand feet. With these lower costs in effect, gas soon swept candles and oil lamps from many homes and from almost all places of business. (PAUSE.) Yet, even before this change was completed, another and still greater one was under way . . . a revolutionary change which was to have a profound effect on the private and industrial life of all America. It manifested itself for the first time in Dayton during the early part of 1882. We see that manifestation in company with George Logan, a Dayton manufacturer, and his son Carl. [Music : Fades out . . . ]

-----------------------

CARL: Come on, Father, it’s not far to walk . . . just down below Ludlow Street, near the railroad.

GEORGE: I don’t mind the walk, but I’m not sure this whole idea isn’t completely impractical.

CARL: Well, come and see it, anyway.

GEORGE: All right, all right. [Door opens and closes.] (PAUSE.) [Crowd sound.]

CARL: Look at the crowd! There are a lot of Dayton people who want to see this.

GEORGE: A lot of them turned out last summer to see the bearded lady and the snake charmer. But that didn’t do the town any good. [Crowd sound up.]

-------------------------

VOICE: [Off.] Ladies and gentlemen! In just a moment you are going to see the newest wonder of the world . . . electric lights. Think of it, ladies and gentlemen, electric lights . . . for your homes, for your places of business, for your streets here in Dayton.

GEORGE: Hump! I don’t see anything yet.

CARL: You will, Father. Just wait a minute.

VOICE: [Off.] Now, you see here a small stream engine, connected with this machine, which we call a dynamo. And from the dynamo wires run to these glass globes, carrying the electricity much as pipes carry water. (PAUSE.) Now! I start the steam engine. [Engine puffs, increasing speed.] The dynamo begins to turn, and as the speed increases you see the lights begin to glow. (PAUSE.) Now, they’re brighter . . . brighter, I’m sure, than any oil or gas light you’ve ever seen.

VOICES: [Excited.] Look at that! . . . Why, it does make light! . . . [skeptical.] I’ll bet there’s some trick to it. You can’t tell me that anything will run through solid wires the way water runs through a pipe.

CARL: What do you think of it, Father?

GEORGE: Well, it seems to work . . . right here and now, that is. (PAUSE.)There’s Henry Carroll, over on the far side of the crowd. I’d like to know what he thinks of it.

CARL: Henry Carroll? Oh, yes, and there’s Mary with him. Let’s go over and see them. (PAUSE.)

GEORGE: Henry, I’m surprised to see you here.

HENRY: Hello, George. I see curiosity got the better of you, too.

CARL: Hello, Mary.

MARY: Hello, Carl.

CARL: What do you think of it?

MARY: I think the lights are wonderful; they’re so bright.

CARL: Yes, aren’t they? They whole thing . . . electricity, I mean . . . fascinates me. I can’t think of anything else.

HENRY: Now, now, young man, what’s this? You don’t take this electrical exhibition seriously, do you?

CARL: Yes, Mr. Carroll, I do. I think electric light is the coming thing. Mr. Edison says that it will take a century to find out even a part of the things electricity can do for us . . . light, power, heat and a hundred other things.

HENRY: Edison? Yes, I’ve heard of him. He’s cracked, like all inventors.

GEORGE: I’m not so sure he was cracked when he invented this thing, Henry. The more I look at those lights, the better I like them. And what did you say about power, Carl?

CARL: Well, sir, you see, a dynamo can be a motor, too. When you run the dynamo with the steam engine, you make electricity. But you also run electricity through the dynamo, and it will turn, giving you power. It sounds a little complicated, but . . .

HENRY: It certainly does, young man. Complicated, indeed . . . if true. (PAUSE.) Well, I’ve seen enough of this. Suppose we go along. Come, daughter.

CARL: We may as well go, too, Father.

GEORGE: I thought you were so anxious to find out all about this.

CARL: Well, I am, but I can come back later.

GEORGE: I see. (PAUSE.) Henry, on the way home [Voice recedes.] we can talk over the question of what the bank is going to do . . .

MARY: Carl, are you sure you’re right about electricity . . . that it’s the coming thing?
CARL: Of course, I am, Mary.

MARY: Papa says that it’s only a toy . . . that it’s not practical.

CARL: That’s about what Father thinks, though he’s beginning to change his mind now. Still, he doesn’t want me to take up any kind of electrical work. He wants me to stay on with him at the factory.

MARY: Do you think you should go against his judgment, Carl?

CARL: I’m afraid I won’t be able to help myself. I see such tremendous possibilities in this thing that I know I’ll not be able to stay away from it.

MARY: That may make it unpleasant for both of us.

CARL: Why? Haven’t you any faith in me, Mary?
MARY: Y-e-s, Carl. But, you see, Papa . . . [Fade out and in.]

---------------------------

[Table sounds.]

 

HENRY: A little more of that pie, if you please. (PAUSE.) Thank you. Now, Martha . . . and you, too, Mary . . . I want one thing distinctly understood. The Carrolls and the Logans have been close friends for two generations. And I wouldn’t do anything to disturb that friendship. But . . . are you listening, young lady?

MARY: Yes, Papa.

HENRY: I don’t want your feeling for young Carl Logan to go beyond mere friendship.

MARTHA: Why, Henry, why should you say that? Carl Logan is a nice boy . . . very nice.

HENRY: He’s more than a boy, Martha. He’s twenty-one years old. But I’m afraid he hasn’t very good judgment. He seems to have lost his head over all this foolish talk about electricity.

MARY: But Carl doesn’t think it’s foolish, Papa?

HENRY: I am aware of that Mary. But I do.

MARTHA: Just why are you opposed to electricity, Henry?

HENRY: It will never amount to anything, not in any practical way. It’s one thing to set up a few lights and attract a crowd, as you would at the county fair. But it’s another thing to put electricity on a sound dollars-and-cents basis.

MARTHA: Yes, I suppose there are difficulties.

HENRY: Difficulties? There are impossibilities.

MARY: Carl doesn’t think so. He says . . .

HENRY: Carl says, Carl says! Do you see how far this has gone, Martha? Mary does nothing but quote this young visionary, who believes that Benjamin Franklin’s sparks of lightning are going to revolutionize our world. Why can’t he follow in his father’s footsteps? George Logan has one of the best furniture factories in the state. Good business, good profit and a sure profit. Why can’t Carl take his place with his father, instead of following this will-‘o-the-wisp, this . . .

MARTHA: Henry, I’m sure you’d like some more coffee. [Fade out and in.]

-----------------------

CARL:  Did you see this story in the Journal, Father? It says that the Dayton Electric Light Company has been organized to give electric service to Dayton. And here are the directors . . . Valentine Winters, J. E. Lowes, T. S. Babbitt, R. D. Hughes, H. C. Kiefaber, Ezra Bimm and W. A. Barnett.

GEORGE: Yes, Son, and they’ll all good, substantial citizens. But remember that they also have money to invest . . . or perhaps I should say risk, in this case.

HELEN: Carl, dear, wouldn’t you be wiser to follow your father’s judgment and wishes? I know you’re very much interested in electricity, but I think you’d be better off if you gave all your time and thought to the family business. It will be yours some day, you know.

GEORGE: That’s the way I feel, Helen. The Logan Manufacturing Company is something that Carl can be sure of. You’ll be better off, Son, if you follow the path I’ve laid out for you.

CARL: I’m sorry, Father, and perhaps I don’t know what’s good for me, but I can’t help believing that, somehow, the electric business offers me the biggest opportunity I could have. It’s new, and young, and undeveloped, but I can see it growing until it’s one of the biggest things in the country. Why, Mr. Edison says . . . [Fade out and in.] [Buzz of conversation.]

------------------------------

VOICE: The Board of Directors of the Dayton Electric Light Company will please come to order. We will hear from Mr. Lowes.

LOWES: Our plans are about completed, gentlemen. We have a perpetual water-power lease on the Dayton View Hydraulic. Our powerhouse is under construction there now, and will contain, when finished, four turbine water wheels, a steam engine for emergencies, and six dynamos with a total capacity of one hundred and sixty-nine lights. We also have a partial commitment from the City Council . . . a thirty-day trial of fifty street lights, with the prospect of installing one hundred more if those prove satisfactory.

WINTERS: That sounds all right, Joe. But I think we should look beyond the immediate prospect of street lighting.

HUGHES: So do I, Val. I can see the day when nearly every home in Dayton will be lighted by electricity.

LOWES: I’m afraid that’s going too far, Bob. But I can’t see why we shouldn’t expect some of the stores in the center of town to use our lights.

WINTERS: And how about the factories . . . the Buckeye Iron and Brass Company, the Aughe Plow Works, John Rouzer’s lumber mill and all the rest of them?
LOWES: We’d have to have another power plant to do all that. The one we’re building now will have all it can do to furnish the current we’ve already agreed to supply.

HUGHES: Then let’s begin to plan for it now. There’s a piece of ground up on East Fourth Street that we can buy reasonably. It’s large enough, and its central location would save us money in putting up wires.

LOWES: We wouldn’t have water power available there.

HUGHES: All right, we’ll use steam; it’s better, anyway. I think we should get figures on the cost of a new plant right away.

VOICES: So do I . . . That’s right.

LOWES: Very well, we’ll do that. Now, here’s another thing. Young Carl Logan, George Logan’s son, wants to get into our company.

WINTERS: Do you mean that his father wants to invest some money and put him into the company as one of the officers?
LOWES: Not at all. This is the boy’s own idea. He wants to start as a workman, start in our power plant, and learn all there is to know about electricity.

HUGHES: Why does he want to do that? He has a good job now at his father’s factory.

LOWES: He says that after he’s learned about electricity, he wants to go out and sell it.

WINTERS: Sell it? Like you’d sell clothes or furniture in a store?
HUGHES: But people will by electricity if they want it, just as they buy other things. And we’ll have to sell it.

LOWES: That’s not young Logan’s idea. He thinks he can persuade people to put in electricity . . . factories, stores, even homes.

WINTERS: He might start on Henry Carroll. Henry is sure electricity will never work . . . says he wouldn’t think of having it in his paper mill or his home.

LOWES: And there are plenty of others who feel the same way. Perhaps young Logan can act as . . . as a sort of missionary.

HUGHES: How much money does he want?

LOWES: He says he’ll work for anything . . . two or three dollars a week, if he has to.

WINTERS: Let’s try him.

HUGHES: If he’s really anxious to learn about electricity, he might develop into a good plant superintendent.

LOWES: Yes, he wants to do that, but he wants to go further. I tell you, he thinks he can sell electric current.

WINTERS: Well, it’s a funny idea, but I don’t’ see any harm in letting him try it. [Music ; Fades in and out.]

------------------------------

MARY: Carl, I can’t help it. I do wish you had stayed in your father’s business.

CARL: So does Father, Mary . . . and Mother, too.

MARY: You should hear Papa. He says it’s disgraceful that a young man like you, with a good business opportunity open to him, should work as an ordinary laborer.

CARL: He worked as a laborer. I mean at first, before he built the Carroll Paper Company up to what it is now.

MARY: Yes, and I reminded him of it. Of course, he didn’t like that. He said that he had to do it, but that there was no sense in your doing it.

CARL: I know. I could walk right back into a good job at Father’s factory . . . sit in an office, wear good clothes, and be paid more than I’m worth. But I don’t want that. I want to do what I’m interested in. The rest of it will come later, if I do a good job now.

MARY: But, Carl, what you are doing now is keeping us apart. Papa says that as long as you insist on keeping this job, he won’t even let us see each other.

CARL: We’re seeing each other now. And we’ll go on. Besides, I’ve about finished the work I’m doing at the power house. Pretty soon I’ll be able to wear good clothes again . . . going out and selling electricity. Maybe that will satisfy your father.

MARY: He says electricity can’t be sold.

CARL: He does? Well, he’s one of those I’m going to sell it to.

MARY: Carl, the way he feels about you now, he wouldn’t even see you at the mill.

CARL: He’ll see me, all right. [Music: Fades in and out.]

---------------------------

[Rumble of machinery.]

 

CARL: Where’s Mr. Carroll’s office?

VOICE: At the end of this building and up that flight of stairs.

CARL: Thanks. [Footsteps.] Is Mr. Carroll in his office?

VOICE: Yes, but he can’t be disturbed now. I’m the bookkeeper. Is there anything I can do for you?
CARL: That’s his office over there, isn’t it?
VOICE: Yes, but you can’t go in now. Mr. Carroll is . . . [Door opens and closes.]

CARL: Good morning, Mr. Carroll.

HENRY: [Absently.] Good morning. [Alert.] Oh! What are you doing here?
CARL: I want to talk to you.

HENRY: I’m busy. How did you get in here?

CARL: Mr. Carroll, I know you don’t approve of me, or of what I’ve been doing. But I’m sure you’re interested in anything that will help your own business.

HENRY: If you mean electricity, I’m not . . . not at all interested.

CARL: Listen, Mr. Carroll. Electricity isn’t an experiment any more. It’s an established success, a business success.

HENRY: Humph!

CARL: It is! When our company started in business, we supplied fifty street lights. That was all. Today the city has a hundred and fifty lights of its own and there are fifty more paid for my private property owners.

HENRY: Yes, yes, I know all about that.

CARL: There are electric lights in nearly forty homes in Dayton. I had a hard time getting people to put them in, but today you couldn’t get one of them to take them out.

HENRY: Yes, but . . .

CARL: And take the stores along Main Street. Almost every one of them has electric light now, though at first they thought they didn’t want it at all.

HENRY: Then why did they put it in?

CARL: Because I convinced them it would be a good thing for business. Electricity makes a brighter, cleaner light. It shows merchandise better. It helps to sell things.

HENRY: Maybe, maybe. But I’m running a paper mill, not a dry goods store.

CARL: Your mill works twenty-four hours a day, doesn’t it?

HENRY: Of course. A paper mill has to.

CARL: And when do you have most trouble with your runs? I’ll tell you. You have it at night, when the light’s poor. Now, if you had electric light all over the mill . . .

HENRY: [Shouts.] How dare you come in here and tell me what’s wrong with my business? I tell you, once and for all . . . I’ll have nothing to do with electricity, either here at the mill or in my home. I’ll have you understand, young man . . . [Fade out and in.]

-------------------------

LOWES: I told you you’d never persuade Henry Carroll, Carl. He’s dead set against electricity, and nothing will change him.

CARL: He’ll change, Mr. Lowes. It will take a lot of time and work, but we’ll do it. We’re getting more and more factories all the time, and in doing that we’re building up some figures and arguments that Henry Carroll won’t be able to deny.

LOWES: You saw Mr. John Patterson today, didn’t you?

CARL: Yes, and I wish they were all like him. It took him just two minutes to make up his mind that his factory space in the Callahan building needs electric light. The only trouble is that he wants the lights in and burning by Monday. That’s only two days, and the job would take a week normally.

LOWES: That’s a strange business Patterson is in . . . making machines that count and record money. What is it he calls them?
CARL: Cash registers.

LOWES: Well, I don’t see how he sells them. They’re expensive, and all they do is replace a simple cash drawer under the merchant’s counter.

CARL: They do more than that. They keep a record of every cent that’s taken in or paid out. And he’s selling them. The company is hundreds of machines behind in deliveries now.

LOWES: So you think he’ll make a success of it?
CARL: I’m sure he will. He’s talking now about building a big factory of his own. [Music: Fades in and out.]

----------------------------

GEORGE: Son, I’ve always been one to admit it when I’m wrong. When you insisted on leaving the factory and going with the electric company, I felt that you were making a great mistake. I don’t think so now.

HELEN: Oh, George, I’m so glad you feel that way. I’ve felt all this time that we’d almost lost Carl . . . that he wasn’t really a member of the family any more.

CARL: Mother, you never really felt that.

HELEN: Well, almost.

GEORGE: I think you did the right thing, Carl. I think you’re where you should be. And Mr. Lowes tells me you’re doing fine work. [Chuckles.] He’s not the only one, either. It seems to me that half the merchants and manufacturers in Dayton have told me how you’ve made them put in electricity. Made them . . . that’s what they say. Most of them say they had no idea of doing it, or were actually opposed to it, but that after you had talked to them they suddenly discovered that they had electric lights, without knowing just how it happened.

CARL: They weren’t all that easy, I can tell you.

GEORGE: Is Henry Carroll still holding out?
CARL: Yes.

GEORGE: The trouble is that Henry’s stubborn . . . doesn’t want to admit that he’s wrong about anything. Still, it took me a year or so to find out that we needed electricity at the factory.

CARL: But it’s been a good thing, hasn’t it?

GEORGE: It certainly has. We’re turning out more work and better work than ever before. And, Carl . . . we’re making more money.

CARL: Yes, I know that a lot of factories in Dayton are doing better since they put in electricity.

GEORGE: So do I. We make patterns for the foundries, and woodwork for nearly all the factories, and the ones who are using electricity are better customers than they’ve ever been.

CARL: I’ll let both of you in on a secret.

HELEN: Carl, what is it?

CARL: Quite a few of the factories have been using electric power for some time. But the whole town is going to see it in use before long.

GEORGE: How is that, Son?
CARL: Dayton is going to have electric street cars.

HELEN: Street cars?

GEORGE: You mean they’re going to do away with the horse cars?
CARL: Not all at once, of course. But they’ll go fast enough, once the electric cars are running. The White Line will be the first. The cars are being built now, and they’ll start putting up the trolley wires next week. [Music : Fades in and out.] [Crowd sound.]

----------------------------

VOICE: Come right this way, ladies and gentlemen. (PAUSE.) Now . . . there it is, the first electric street car in Dayton. I can tell you that the White Line is very proud to be the pioneer in electric car service. We feel that it’s the biggest step forward Dayton has made in a long time. And so we’re celebrating this occasion by inviting all of you, as a party of special guests, to ride on the first trip. [Excited chatter.]

---------------------------

MARTHA: Henry, you will go, won’t you?

HENRY: As long as we’ve come all the way out here to the car barn, I suppose I might as well.

MARTHA: Oh, good morning, Mrs. Logan.

HELEN: Good morning, Mrs. Carroll.

VOICE: [Off.] Now, ladies and gentlemen, if you’ll all get aboard . . . (PAUSE.) That’s it, you’ll find plenty of seats. (PAUSE.) Now, I guess we’re ready. [Bell clangs. Car starts. Continues rolling behind . . . ]

GEORGE: Henry, I never expected to see you here. I thought you didn’t believe in electricity.

HENRY: I don’t, George. But, confound it, it’s getting so that I stumble over it every place I go.

GEORGE: Has Carl been to see you lately?
HENRY: Yes, he has, and I resent it. Walked into my office just yesterday . . . without knocking, as usual . . . and began telling me all about my own business.

GEORGE: He did?

HENRY: Yes, and the worst of it was, he knew what he was talking about. He had the production, cost and sales figures for all the mills up and down the valley, including mine. And those figures proved that the mills which are using electricity are the ones that are making real profits.

GEORGE: Well?

HENRY: Well, don’t you see, it means that I’ve got to put in electricity, and after all I’ve said against it. That’s what makes me so mad. (PAUSE.)

MARTHA: Well, it’s taken Henry long enough to come to his senses. But he finally has. From the way he’s been talking lately, I wasn’t surprised when he said he was going to put electricity in at the mill. But he’s going to put it in our house, too.

HELEN: I’m so glad. George held off the same way for a long time. But he gave in at last, too. And you’ve no idea how much cleaner and brighter you’ll find electric light in your home.

MARTHA: Henry’s breaking down about something else, too. You can see that he has a lot of respect for Carl’s business ability, so now he’s perfectly willing for Mary to see him. He won’t say so in so many words, but I can tell.

HELEN: I’m awfully glad, because I know it’s going to mean happiness for both of them. [Crowd sound, cheers, off.]

MARTHA: Good heavens, just look at the crowds along Main Street. [Crowd sound and cheers up. Bell clangs. Car rumbles. All fade out.] [Music : Fades in and out.]

----------------------------

CHAIRMAN: As chairman of this first meeting of the Dayton Board of Trade, it is my pleasure to introduce a young man who has been largely responsible for bringing about wide-spread enjoyment of the convenience and utility of electricity in Dayton. Mr. Carl Logan, of the Dayton Electric Light Company. [Applause.]

CARL: We are gathered here tonight to celebrate ten years of excellent business and industrial progress in Dayton. Our city has grown tremendously during those years, thanks to the initiative of our business men and manufacturers. We have attracted new citizens by the thousands, citizens who will henceforth call Dayton their home. And it is both our duty and privilege to acquaint these new citizens with the spirit which motivates our city, and to instill in them a measure of that spirit. (PAUSE.) But this meeting is to be devoted especially to industry, and for that reason I want to yield the floor to a Dayton citizen whose gaze has traveled far beyond the limits of our city, and who sees Dayton in a role which I think few us appreciate.  [Applause.]

CHAIRMAN: I am pleased to call on Mr. John H. Patterson. [Applause.]

PATTERSON: All of us, I am sure, can take great pride in what Dayton has done within and for herself. As Mr. Logan said, our city has grown rapidly during these last ten years. But it has grown in more than population; it has grown in the strength of its institutions . . . its government, its schools, its churches and its charitable organizations. These, however, are matters of local pride. Dayton has grown in another way, too. During the past few years it has been my duty to travel widely over this country in the course of establishing sales outlets for our business. And I have observed a striking fact. Wherever I go, I find products that have been made in Dayton. There are a great many of them, as you know. But what is more important is that they are good products . . . made with skill, made carefully, made honestly, made to give the best possible service at the lowest cost. The phrase, “Made in Dayton,’ has come to have a special significance throughout the country. It has become a guaranty of quality, an assurance of value and service to the purchaser of any Dayton-made product. There, I tell you, is something in which we can take an honest pride. We have won a reputation for superior products. We hold that reputation today. And we shall do well to guard it jealously. [Applause.] [Music : Fades in and behind . . . ]

-----------------------------

NARRATOR: And so we leave the Dayton of fifty years ago. We have seen today how even at that remote time a consciousness of high industrial standards permeated our community. We have seen the birth of a phrase which has stronger meaning in today’s world markets than ever before. “Made in Dayton,’ now, as formerly, is an assurance of high quality and value. [Music : Swells and fades behind . . . ]

--------------------------

ANNOUNCER: “Great Days in Dayton” is brought to you each Sunday at this time by The Dayton Power and Light Company. It is the purpose of our sponsors, in presenting these historical plays, to remind all of us of the great force of civic spirit in the advancement of our community, to show how it has shaped Dayton’s destiny in the past, and how it may continue to do so in the future. (PAUSE.) May we remind you that we would like to have you, your family and your friends as our guests at a “Great Days in Dayton” broadcast, held in the auditorium of the Dayton Art Institute. Tickets are free. You may have as many as you need by calling at the main offices of The Dayton Power and Light Company, ground floor, Gas and Electric Building, 25 North Main Street. (PAUSE.) All dramatic roles in these productions are played by members of the Dayton Civic Theatre professional company. Your narrator has been Charles McLean. Your announcer is Morton DaCosta. Be sure to tune in next Sunday afternoon at five o’clock, over Station WHIO for . . . “Great Days in Dayton!”

 

Return to "Great Days in Dayton" Home Page