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ACT I
Scene One
“A Rare Character”
I
must say that I am honored
to be here in this grand building tonight.
When Mr. Tilton moved here from Ohio a few years ago with the idea to
build this great hall, I
remember thinking what a tremendous undertaking this was going to be.
And just look at what we have now! It
is certainly a wonderful thing for this town of ours.
You know, when
I came to Marlinton as a boy there were just a small number of farms here.
Colonel John McGraw came later
and established a village; a town – which, by the way was built on land that
had been owned by my ancestors. The
people voted to move the county seat to
this new thriving town. And I’m
sure that this is why the Pocahontas Times moved from Huntersville.
It would have been just the thing to do.
Then in Nineteen-O-One we decided to build a new printing
office and do some fixing up. Times were good because the railroad had come to
town just the year before.
And then came the boom!
Timbering!
ACT I
Scene Two
“Calvin Takes Inventory”
The politics of state government is the most curious topic
on any given day.
The legislature will be at work soon enough and, being a
hunter and trapper myself, I hold to the hope that they will repeal that
Russian-like law requiring passports for hunting and fishing.
The right to hunt and fish on wild un-enclosed land is a
common law right.
Always has been.
Too often the city man writes the laws of the hills and
then there is trouble. I say
let the man in town enjoy and control the moving pictures, and let the hill man
say what’s best for the forests and streams.
ACT I Scene
Three
“The Power of Bunk”
It’s always good to come
down to the settlement – and what better reason than to speak to my fellow
Democrats here in Greenbrier county! And
there certainly is gobs of harmony here tonight!
Another
election has passed and the planet’s still plunging through space.
I don’t where we’re going, but we’re on our way.
Nowadays the world is full of sin and misery and Republicans.
One
of the things that makes the thought of heaven so attractive is that there will
be no politics there.
ACT I
Scene Four
“Bugs, Bats
and Creeping Things”
It
was nice for you to have me here today. I
hope my poor speech won’t stand in the way of another invitation in the
future. Besides,
I’d rather make a poor speech than listen to a good one any day.
I’ve
been making the rounds these days visiting with the fine students in our county
high schools, and make no mistake, when I see all of you bright boys and girls
I’m more sure than ever that Pocahontas County has really
got something to be proud of!
Our
people were always for
the schools!
The
schools are good
… and we’ve appreciated them
right straight through.
ACT I Scene
Five
“A True
Conservator”
I
was delighted to get the invitation to speak to you tonight.
I don’t get up to Clarksburg as often as I like, so when they mentioned
that there would be a fish fry, well, I was ready to hit the road.
Before
I get into my subject, I want to praise the work being done in our own
Monongahela National Forest which attracted almost as many visitors last year as
the two million who visited Yellowstone National Park.
And they saw scenery unrivaled in this nation.
Our
own mountains may not compare with the Alps in height, and our rough streams are
smaller than the Rhine. But for
those who seek beauty and ruggedness and romance, cool air, cold
water, bright skies … why, they
can find all they seek among our
West Virginia hills.
Now,
everyone here tonight knows that we’re working hard to get a program going for
the national control of wildlife. This
new organization of ours is The National Wildlife Federation.
The only trouble is that it’s as lean as the running gear of a katydid.
They tried to start it up before, but it just wouldn’t take.
ACT II Scene One
“We the People”
Then come last Sunday afternoon - leg much improved - and I
was humped up in the chimney corner, with my shoes off before the fire.
I was a wondering in my mind if duty was not calling for the sacrifice of
a pleasant six mile walk in the woods. I
was needing to check up on the birds, beasts and varmints, to consult the nut
eaters for a long range forecast on the snow storm that the crackle of the fire
sure said was brewing.
As I pondered to make believe that there was
satisfaction in the conceit of having been a powerful man in my day, the
telephone jangled to break the silence of the sour hour.
It was New York.
"We The People" was calling to know whether I could catch the
next train out to the big town, for to be an exhibit on the popular
coast-to-coast radio broadcast which advertised Sanka Coffee. It seemed a
typical country editor was wanted, and would I be their huckleberry?
So, in the words of the truth in an advertising sign of an
old time merchant, I said - "go
no further to get cheated, I will be on hand.”
For seven generations my people have trekked the Seneca
Trail - sometimes before and sometimes after the Indians - but none of the breed
ever went that long trail a-winding with greater trepidation of heart.
ACT II Scene
Two
“This Thing Called Journalism”
One of my favorite trips every year is the one I make
here to the University for our annual newspaper get-together.
And I was sitting here during dinner talking to my friend, Editor Blake,
about a very curious thing – and that is
that custom of assigning some one day in the year to some peculiar saint.
The result is that the days of the year run out long
before the supply of saints is barely touched.
Modern America is doing the ancients seven times better by setting up a
whole week to memorialize some good cause or other. There are so many special weeks now, that the idea, no matter
how good in the beginning, is now and ever shall be ineffective.
ACT
II Scene Three
“The Throne of Grace”
You know, there was a time that women were not allowed full
membership in our churches, and yet with all the disrespect that was shown them,
the time has come when the church would be nothing without them.
I can’t help but notice that some people’s conception
of a woman is that she is one better than a dog, but not quite as good as a
horse.
And those same people believe that a woman will deserve a
small place in heaven only if she has served well her father, her husband or her
son.
- - -
You might remember that
back in 1940 we were faced with the question of how we were going to help the
suffering people of Finland.
For four hundred years,
people have been coming across the waters to America to escape being
boiled in the cauldron of sin and selfishness and man’s inhumanity to man.
At the beginning of this very decade the devil’s brew
again surged over, to sear in consuming fire the lives of millions of
people as innocent and void of offense as we, their American cousins.
ACT II Scene
Four
“Jay Bird Stuff”
I’m still a believer
that the country and the world needed President Truman, if for no other
reason than he has never flinched in the face of duty.
America had never let such a champion down, and I certainly
didn’t think for a moment that they would begin with Truman.
-
- -
I see in the daily paper that a friend of mine at the
Conservation Office may have doubt as to the existence of panthers in the Black
Forest even after the infallible proofs I have been able to rake up to
back up my positive belief they are there in numbers.
Now, I have a sporting proposition to put up.
And this is my banter:
Let the Conservation Commission put up a bounty of $100 on
each panther killed this year in West Virginia. If no panthers are
killed … they still have their money!
If panthers are killed
… their ridence will be
cheap at any price!
ACT
II Scene Five
“Sinfully Proud”
You
know the old saying that every dog has his day, and cats, their nights.
This
old saw may apply to a country editor once in a blue moon.
I
am touched more deeply by the naming and dedicating of the Calvin W. Price State
Forest than I can ever express.
- - -
I have always maintained that I own my land right down to
where I meet the Chinese coming through …
and that it’s my responsibility.
We have to continue what Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford
Pinchot started at the beginning of the century.
The job is up to you – to save the land and the forest
for the next generations
or let it all wash down to the Gulf of Mexico.
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