Introduction | Essay | Script | Lessons | Resources
ACT I, SCENE TWELVE (Propaganda)
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CHARACTERS
- LOUDSPEAKER
TWELVE A—EDITORS
- MAN, Utilities representative
EDITOR, Small-town paper
J. L. MURPHY, Representative of Georgia Railway and Power Company
TWELVE B—UTILITIES INFORMATION
- WILLARD COPE, Executive Secretary of Georgia Utilities Information Committee
ROBERT E. HEALY, Counsel Federal Trade Commission
M. H. AYLESWORTH
TWELVE C—COLLEGE PROFESSORS
- SIX COLLEGE PROFESSORS
TWELVE D—SENATOR GEORGE W. NORRIS
- SENATOR GEORGE W. NORRIS OF NEBRASKA
LOUDSPEAKER: According to the Federal Trade Commission Report, the public utilities spend twenty-five million dollars every year on propaganda and publicity. Twenty-five million dollars! [Federal Trade Commission Report, Vol. 71-A, p. 60.]
(Lights up on small-town EDITOR and utilities representative, left. Desk, two chairs, etc. Projection of presses.)
MAN: [Fictional character, scene based on report of Federal Trade Commission.] Your paper's a darn good one, Mr. Bigbee, and honest, too. And the farmers in four counties around here swear by it like they do the Bible. And by the way... (He stops and points to paper spread out on desk) ... there's a letter in here some place about electric rates being too high and that the Government ought to do something about it....
EDITOR: [Ibid.] Yeah, that's from Joe Bailey. He's one of our subscribers. He's hepped on the subject of Government ownership.
MAN: Of course what he says is just plain silly. He doesn't know the facts in the case at all. But we're going to answer it just the same.
EDITOR: I'll be glad to print a letter from you, Mr. Crane.
MAN: My company doesn't write letters, Mr. Bigbee. We're going to answer that with a full page ad!
EDITOR (happily): A full page ad!
MAN (rises): That's right, a full page. I'll have the copy over here tomorrow.
EDITOR: I certainly do appreciate this, Mr. Crane. [Fictitious name.]
MAN: Forget it. (Starts off, stops) Oh, by the way. Since we're paying out so much money to answer that letter, anything you publish in the future should be in the form of paid advertisements, too; they pay to squawk and we pay to answer 'em. That's only fair, isn't it?
EDITOR: It seems fair, only...
MAN: There'll be a clause to that effect in our contract.
EDITOR: But people like Joe Bailey haven't got any money. They can't afford to pay for an ad!
MAN: Can't they?
EDITOR: And then their letters won't appear at all!
MAN: Won't they? (Pause, as he regards him significantly) So long, Mr. Bigbee.
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LOUDSPEAKER: According to the Federal Trade Commission Report, Mr. J. L. Murphy, of the Georgia Railway and Power Company, says...
(Lights come up on MURPHY down right.)
MURPHY: The result of our efforts is that out of two hundred and fifty newspapers in Georgia, only four will publish anything at all from the public ownership people! [Raushenbush, H. S., High Power Propaganda, p. 11.]
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SCENE TWELVE—B (Utilities Information)
LOUDSPEAKER: Mr. Willard Cope, Executive Secretary of the Georgia Utilities Information Committee, is interrogated by the Federal Trade Commission. Counsel, Robert E. Healy...[New York Times, May 11, 1928.]
(Lights come up on COPE seated in chair. Beside him stands HEALY. Behind them is projected a heavily draped window, with the capitol dome showing in the distance.)
HEALY: Mr. Cope, why were the records we asked for destroyed?
COPE (unruffled, a hit debonair): Oh, we just didn't want them kicking around the office, that's all.
HEALY: Now in reference to this propaganda and information...
COPE (breaking in): Mr. Commissioner, my organization has done nothing in the six years I have been with it that can be called propaganda for the utilities or anybody else!
HEALY: Then how do you explain this voucher showing that you paid for subscriptions to the Columbus Enquirer-Sun of Columbus, Georgia, a newspaper which has consistently upheld the utilities and attacked any form of Government supervision or control? Now, isn't it true, Mr. Cope, that these subscriptions were sent by you to a great number of consumers of electricity? (A pause, as COPE doesn't answer) Well, Mr. Cope, have you no answer to this charge?
COPE (painfully): I — I — did it in order to raise the general level of the intelligence of the State! That's all!
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LOUDSPEAKER: At a meeting of the Public Relations Section of the Southeast Division of the National Electric Light Association, M. H. Aylesworth, Managing Director, remarked...
(Lights come up on AYLESWORTH, right.)
AYLESWORTH: All the money being spent is worth while. Don't be afraid of the expense. The public pays! [Federal Trade Commission Report, Vol. 71-A, p. 60.]
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SCENE TWELVE—C (College Professors)
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LOUDSPEAKER: In the colleges.... The following members of a notoriously underpaid profession find extra-curricular employment as lecturers, editors, and advisers for public utility corporations....
(General lighting on whole stage in blue. Projection is a light bulb with mortar-board cap. The PROFESSORS, as their colleges are called, enter, one by one. Each wears a cap and gown, and is reading a book, greatly absorbed. They do not stop, but continue walking. As they enter, left and right, they cross each other. As the entrances are made from various depths of the stage, a formation is achieved of lines crisscrossing. Special music with a college flavor adds to effectiveness of this scene.)
LOUDSPEAKER: A professor from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — eight thousand dollars; a professor from Yale — eight thousand one hundred and seven dollars and twenty-five cents; Professor E. T., unattached — five thousand dollars; a professor from Texas A. and M., three thousand three hundred dollars; a professor from Louisiana State University — ten thousand dollars; a dean from Ohio State University — fifteen thousand dollars.... These among hundreds of others were reported by the Federal Trade Commission Investigation. [Federal Trade Commission Report, Vol. 71-A, pp. 426-37.] It is also reported that thirty-five million dollars of Harvard funds are invested in utilities securities.... [Federal Trade Commission Report, Vol. 71-A, pp. 174-75.] Now these men are entrusted with the education of a nation. Will they tell the whole story to their students, and jeopardize their incomes and their university endowments? Let's ask them.... Gentlemen ... (They all stop still and close their books)... gentlemen — what do you think of the doctrine of municipal ownership? (In unison, mournfully, they all shake their heads, indicating that they consider it entirely hopeless. LOUDSPEAKER, continuing:) What do you think of Government supervision and control of the abuses we have shown to exist in the public utilities? (Again they shake their heads) What do you think of a nice juicy steak smothered in onions? (The PROFESSORS nod their heads energetically, with broad grins on their faces and very much interested.)
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SCENE TWELVE—D (Senator George W. Norris)
LOUDSPEAKER— Senator Norris
(Lights come up on NORRIS, center. Behind him is projected a view of the Senate.)
SENATOR NORRIS: They have undertaken to control legislatures, public service commissions, members of Congress, school boards, municipal authorities, commercial clubs, secret societies, women's clubs — even Boy Scout organizations.... No one would find fault if these influences were operating in public — out in the open! But these emissaries were not known by the people who heard them — or read them..... [The Nation, September 18, 1929.]
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Introduction | Essay | Script | Lessons | Resources