MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON 1936, Columbia Pictures, Directed by Frank Capra, Screenplay by Sidney Buchman (00:00:55) ** NOSEY (into phone)...Senator Samuel Foley, dead. Yeah, yeah...died a minute ago, here at St. Vincent's. At the bedside was state political side-kick, Senator Joseph Paine. Yeah. PAINE (into phone) Hello, long distance? This is Senator Joseph Paine speaking, I want the Governor's residence at Jackson City. HUBERT Hello. Oh Joe. Oh, no! PAINE It couldn't have happened at a worst time. Call Jim Taylor, tell him I'm getting on a plane tonight for home. PAINE Yes, Joe. Yes. Yes, right away. EMMA What is it? HUBERT Sam Foley's dead. EMMA Great saints! HUBERT Of all times, of all times. Foley had to go and die on us. EMMA Whom are you calling, in the dead of night? HUBERT Taylor, my dear. TAYLOR What's up, Happy? HUBERT Sam Foley died tonight in Washington. TAYLOR Oh. That's too bad. Well don't get excited Happy. Is Paine coming? HUBERT Yes Jim. Yes Jim. Yes Jim! EMMA I'd suppose you'd drop dead if you'd ever said no to him. HUBERT Oh, now my dear. This is no time for jokes. I've got to appoint a new senator. SECRETARY The Governor will see all committees immediately. EDWARDS You tell the Governor for me that I won't wait here any longer. SECRETARY Yes, Mr. Edwards EDWARDS Probably got that guy, Taylor in there telling him what to do. HUBERT Oh, yes. Tell them to wait, I'll see them immediately, immediately! (to McGann) I've got to see those howling citizens. I can't put them off any longer. They all want something to say about who goes to the senate in Sam Foley's place. And Ten to one they've got a man. MCGANN*: *Relax, Happy. Stop havin' kittens. HUBERT*: *Now, you go in that room and tell Jim Taylor and Joe Paine that I'll give them just one more minute to make up their minds. MCGANN*: *You go tell Jim Taylor. HUBERT*: *I will tell him. It's high time I told Jim Taylor a thing or two. (to Jim) Now look here Jim...if you and Joe are gonna gab any longer about this appointment, I'm going ahead and see those committees. TAYLOR*: *You'll see those committees when we're finished. HUBERT*: *Yes, Jim. But hurry, will you. TAYLOR*: *Yes. We'll hurry. We'll hurry. MCGANN*: *That's tellin' him Happy, old boy. PAINE*: *Jim, in other words, with this Willet Creek Dam comin' up, the man who goes to the Senate and takes Sam Foley's place can't ask any questions or talk out of turn. We gotta be absolutely sure of him. TAYLOR*: *That's why I say Horace Miller. He'll take orders all right. PAINE*: *Jim, suppose we don't try to go through with this dam. Suppose we postpone it until next session of Congress...or drop it altogether. TAYLOR*: *Oh. That'd be a crime, Joe. After all the work we'd put in on it...getting it buried in this Deficiency Bill as nicely as you please. Having it approved, it's rolling along. It's like taking candy from a baby. PAINE*: *Is it worth the risk of a scandal now that a new man is going to the Senate? TAYLOR*: *Worth the risk? Say, what's the matter with you Joe? Where you're concerned, I wouldn't take the slightest risk, especially now that you've made such a great reputation for yourself and the Senate. And look, look at the campaign I've started for you in all of my papers. PAINE*: *It's a little obscure, isn't it Jim? TAYLOR*: *Well, I don't know, maybe. But after all, you're the logical man from the West with a, national picket. At the convention, anything can happen. PAINE*: *Jim, if what you say about the future is at all possible, why not do as I say and drop things like this dam? TAYLOR*: *We can't do it Joe. We've been quietly buying up all the land around that dam and holding it in dummy names. If we drop it now or even delay it, we bring about an investigation. The investigation will show that we're going to sell it to the State...under phony names. Now, it's my judgement, the smartest thing for us to do is to push this dam through just the way it's going and get it over with. PAINE*: *All right then Jim, appoint Miller. If you're sure he'll take orders. TAYLOR*: *Don't worry about Miller, he'll take orders. Come on. HUBERT*: *Just a minute. Just one more minute. TAYLOR*: *Happy, we've got your man. Horace Miller! HUBERT*: *Horace Miller! TAYLOR*: *Yeah. McGANN*: *A born stooge! Why, ole' Horace'll perform like a trained seal. TAYLOR*: *What'd I tell you Joe? HUBERT*: *But Jim, if I throw a party man like Horace Miller in the face of those angry people... TAYLOR*: *Happy, for reason I can't go into now, it's got to be Horace Miller! Do you understand? I've given you the man. Now make out your ticket. Come on, Chick. Come on, Joe. HUBERT*: *But Jim, I've got to see those angry committees first, feel them out a little, work for harmony Jim. Harmony. (to committee) In considering the candidates who might answer to the high qualifications of United States Senator, there was one name that shone out like a beacon, the Honorable Horace Miller. COMMITTEE*: *No! FEMALE MEMBER*: *A Taylor man! MALE MEMBER 1*: *A party man! He's Taylor's stooge! MALE MEMBER 2*: *The Veterans will have no part of him! HUBERT*: *Please. MALE MEMBER 3*: *The New Citizens Committee won't stand for Miller! HUBERT*: *Please. (00:05:07) ** TAYLOR*: *So, they named their own candidate, eh? Who? HUBERT*: *You won't like him Jim. TAYLOR*: *Come on, who? HUBERT*: *Henry Hill. TAYLOR*: *Henry Hill! That crackpot? That long-haired...! Why, you should have killed that so fast! HUBERT*: *I couldn't, Jim. I couldn't. Those men were... TAYLOR*: *Never mind what they want. You forget about 'em, see. HUBERT*: *Jim, that bunch is out for blood. If I throw Horace in their teeth now... TAYLOR*: *I said forget 'em! Horace Miller goes to the Senate and that settles it! HUBERT*: *I won't send Horace Miller! TAYLOR*: *Oh, you won't? HUBERT*: *No, I won't. I won't let you stand there callously and perhaps wreck my whole political future! TAYLOR*: *Your political future! Why, I bought it for you. I gave it to you as a present and I can grab it back so fast it'll make your head swim. You got a nerve to sit there and worry about your political future when we're in a spot like this! The man is Miller. PETER*: *Hello, Dad. KIDS*: *Hello, Dad. PETER*: *What's the matter Dad? Is it getting you down? HUBERT*: *Is what getting me down? JIMMIE*: *You're in a deuce of a pickle, aren't you, Pop? OTIS*: *Looks like Henry Hill or else, huh, Pop? PETER*: *No, it's Horace Miller, or else! HUBERT*: *Peter! JIMMIE*: *Gee, Dad. I wouldn't appoint an old twerp like Horace Miller. Taylor or no Taylor! HUBERT*: *Taylor! May I ask what Taylor has to do with this? JIMMIE*: *Well, he's still running the show, ain't he Pop? HUBERT*: *Emma! I will not have conversation of this sort carried on by the children at dinner! EMMA*: *Why don't you listen to your children for a change? HUBERT*: *No doubt my children could make this appointment for me, with the greatest ease! JIMMIE*: *That's easy, dad. Jefferson Smith. HUBERT*: *I beg your pardon? PETER*: *Jefferson Smith. He's the only Senator to have. OTIS*: *Sure. He ought to be President. JACKIE*: *I like Jeff Smith. JANE*: *Me, too. HUBERT*: *Oh, you too! Now everybody's been heard from. Well, forgive my abysmal ignorance but, I don't know Jefferson Smith from a hole in the ground. PETER*: *Gosh Dad, head of the Boy Rangers! HUBERT*: *Oh, a boy! JIMMIE*: *No, no, dad, Jeff's a man! Jeff Smith! Biggest expert we got on wild game and animals and rocks. PETER*: *Yeah, and right now he's the greatest hero we ever had. It's all over the headlines. JIMMIE*: *Sure. Didn't you see about the terrific forest fire all around Sweetwater? HUBERT*: *I did. What about it? PETER*: *Well, Jeff put that out himself. HUBERT*: *Himself! JIMMIE*: *Now, if you really want a Senator... HUBERT*: *I do not want a Senator. And I do not want any more of this nonsense! OTIS*: *He's the greatest American we got too, Dad. He can tell you what George Washington said, by heart. An' Boy's Stuff's' got the swellest stuff in it. HUBERT*: *What stuff? PETER*: *'Boy Stuff'. That's the name of Jeff's paper. He prints it. Look, here's one. Oh, it's great, everybody reads it. All the kids in the State, a million of 'em. Look, Pop, let me read one of these... HUBERT*: *Peter, I'm in no mood to listen to childish prattle! EVERYONE*: *Prattle! PETER*: *You're all wet, Pop! OTIS*: *No, sir! You couldn't do better, Dad. HUBERT*: *Do better than what? OTIS*: *Jeff for Senator. HUBERT*: *Emma! If you please? PETER*: *Want to get out of a pickle, don't you? OTIS*: *Always looking out for votes, aren't you? PETER*: *Yeah. An' here's fifty thousand kids with two folks apiece...and they vote! JIMMIE*: *If you want to do yourself some good in this State, Dad... OTIS*: *If you're ever going to stand up like a man some day and tell Taylor to go to... EMMA*: *Otis! HUBERT*: *That settles it! I will not be attacked and belittled by my own children in my own home! All my nerves are strained to the breaking point! EMMA*: *Oh, Hubert! HUBERT*: *Henry Hill - Horace Miller - Miller - Hill - Hill - Miller...Heads, Hill. Tails, Miller. HEADLINE READS*: *Grateful Citizens Pour Gratitude on Hero Jeff Smith. HUBERT*: *That's good enough for me. MA*: *Yes? Good evening. HUBERT*: *Oh, is Jefferson Smith at home? MA*: *Yes, won't you step in. HEADLINE READS*: *Governor Names Youth Leader to U.S. Senate. Mitch Appointment Political Surprise. TAYLOR*: *A boy ranger...a squirrel chaser to the United States Senate! HUBERT*: *Listen Jim, the simpleton of all times, a big-eyed patriot. Knows Lincoln and Washington by heart. Stands at attention in the Governor's presence. Even collects stray boys and cats. TAYLOR*: *He does what? HUBERT*: *Joe, you know what I'm talking about. A perfect man. Never in politics in his life. Wouldn't know what it was all about in two years, let alone two months. And the important thing...and this was the genius of the stroke... McGANN*: *Uh-oh. HUBERT*: *It means votes! The hero of fifty thousand boys and hundred thousand parents. Just look at all those congratulations that have been pouring in! I tell you, gentlemen, with this one statesman-like... TAYLOR*: *But you made this appointment without asking me... HUBERT*: *But Jim, when the lightning strike... TAYLOR*: *You didn't ask me! HUBERT*: *Oh, Jim! PAINE*: *Now, wait a minute Jim. Happy may have hit on something tremendous here. HUBERT*: *There, you see. (00:10:00) ** TAYLOR*: *Do you really think you can actually handle this, this whachama-call-him in Washington? Do you think it's all right? PAINE*: *I think it's all right. A young patriot? Recites Lincoln and Jefferson. Turned loose in our nation's capital? Yeah. I think it's all right. TAYLOR*: *Chick. Turn the ballyhoo boys loose. It's the greatest appointment ever made. Give a banquet and declare a holiday. HUBERT*: *A star-spangled banquet. McGANN*: *Wow! HUBERT*: *And how did your Governor confer that honor? Did he give it so some wealthy influential citizen merely to curry favor? CROWD*: *No! HUBERT*: *No! Did he give it to some unworthy political hireling? CROWD*: *No! HUBERT*: *No! What did he do? He went down among the people and there he found, a nugget! And it is in that spirit that we are gathered here tonight to acclaim and wish God speed to, Senator Jefferson Smith. JEFFERSON*: *Well, thank you. I, I...I, I, I, can't help feeling that there's been a big mistake somehow. Of cou...of course, I never could, uh, I never could see why we needed two senators from this state when we have a man like Joseph Harrison Paine representing us already. He probably doesn't remember me, he knew my father very well, Clayton Smith. They went to school together and very, very good friends and uh, so it's, it uh...to just to uh, sit here with him, is a very great honor for me b-because I, uh...remember Dad used to tell me that...Joe Paine was the finest man he ever knew. TAYLOR*: *Come on Joe, get up. Take a bow. JEFFERSON*: *I, I uh, don't think I'm gonna be much help to ya down there in Washington, Senator. I'll do my best. With all, with all my might. I can promise you one thing, I'll do nothing to disgrace the office of the United States Senate. JACKIE*: *Senator Jefferson Smith. The Boy Rangers are very proud to take this opportunit... PETER*: *Occasion! JACKIE*: *Uh, we are happy to take this opportunity, uh, uh... PETER*: *To present! JACKIE*: *...to present this uh, PETER*: *Small token. JACKIE*: *...small token of our affection and esteem. Uh, to the best... PETER*: *Friend. Friend! JACKIE*: *Ah, heck...it's a briefcase Jeff. MALE CHILD*: *All the kids pitched in, Jeff. JIMMIE*: *Yeah. It's for to carry your laws when you get to Washington. JEFFERSON*: *Thanks boys! JEFFERSON*: *Well, it isn't much but if you insist, there's this weeks. PAINE*: *Boys stuff. Why printers ink runs in your brains Jeff. Jeff, you're just like your father. JEFFERSON*: *Thank you, sir. PAINE*: *Even with the hat. Same old dreamer, too. You know, one look at you and I can see him. Back in his own rolltop desk, hat and all, getting out his paper. Always kept his hat on his head, so if he's ready to do battle. Clayton Smith; Editor and publisher and champion of lost causes. JEFFERSON*: *Well, Dad always used to say that the only causes worth fighting for were the lost causes. PAINE*: *You don't have to tell me Jeff. Now, we were a team. The two of us. Struggling editor and a struggling lawyer. "The twin champions of lost causes", they used to call us. JEFFERSON*: *Ma's told me about it a thousand times. (00:15:00) ** PAINE*: *Well, his last fight was the best, Jeff. He and his little four page paper. Against that mining syndicate. And all to defend the right of one small minor who stuck to his claim...and yet they tried everything. Bribery, intimidation and then... JEFFERSON*: *Yes, Ma found him slumped over his desk that morning. PAINE*: *Shot in the back. How is that! I can see him at that old, rolltop desk...still with his hat on. Still with his hat on. JEFFERSON*: *I know. I suppose Mr. Paine, when a fellow bucks up against a big organization like that...one man by himself can't get very far, can he? PAINE*: *No. JEFFERSON*: *Washington, huh? McGANN*: *Yes, Senator. For the fifth time, Washington. JEFFERSON*: *Aw, my pigeons, I'd better see about my pigeons. McGANN*: *The porter has 'em, they're comin' along. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, just a second, I'd better make sure. McGANN*: *Joe, my head's like a balloon. Two whole days, I never knew there was so much American history! JEFFERSON*: *I-I got them. They're all right! McGANN*: *That's fine. That ends that crisis. Come along now, Senator. SUSAN*: *Hello father! LADY 1*: *I saw him first LADY 2*: *He's mine. SUSAN*: *Oh, let me get to him, let me get to him. PAINE*: *Susan, this is Jeffers... SUSAN*: *Oh. D-dad, I don't care to meet anybody til' I get my money. Now, come on. LADY 3*: *Come on. LADY 4*: *Pay up. SUSAN*: *One dollar each please, for the milk fund. JEFFERSON*: *That's five dollars. LADIES*: *Yes! SUSAN*: *You've got five dollars, haven't you? JEFFERSON*: *Can't seem to find anything except keys. PAINE*: *Uh, Jeff. This is my daughter, Susan and her friends. SUSAN*: *Not the new senator. LADY 2*: *Oh. He's marvelous. LADY 3*: *He's wonderful. SUSAN*: *What have you got there, Senator? JEFFERSON*: *Oh, they're pigeons. McGANN*: *Yeah. Pigeons to carry messages back to Ma. JEFFERSON*: *It's all just for fun. You see, the one that makes it back home in the best time, I'm gonna enter in the nationals. COOK*: *Joe. GRIFFITH*: *Hello, Chick! McGANN*: *Hi Mac. GRIFFITH*: *Hello, Joe. How are you. PAINE*: *Hi! Glad to see you Bill. Here Jeff. Jeff, come here. Meet Mr. Cook and Mr. Griffith. Members of our state headquarters here. COOK*: *Great pleasure, Senator! Yes, sir. You'll do the old State proud. GRIFFITH*: *Welcome, Senator! The wild life around here is a little different from what you're used to. They wear high heels! SUSAN*: *We must see a lot of you, Senator. And your, little feathered friends. JEFFERSON*: *Thank you very much. SUSAN*: *Come on, father. PAINE*: *Huh? Oh, yeah, uh, uh...Chick. McGANN*: *I've got him Joe. He'll be along. LADY 2*: *Bye. LADY 3*: *Good luck, Senator. LADY 4*: *Good-bye. JEFFERSON*: *Things sure happen fast around here, don't they. McGANN*: *Yeah. You'll have to get yourself out of low gear, Senator. Well, let's get these bags and livestock together. GRIFFITH*: *Okay, Chick. JEFFERSON*: *Look! Look! There it is. McGANN*: *Who? What? JEFFERSON*: *The capital dome! GRIFFITH*: *Yes sir, big as life. Been there a long time now. McGANN*: *Yes, sir. This way, Senator. GRIFFITH*: *Say, we thought maybe we ought to meet him in short pants, or know...with hatchets. McGANN*: *Taxi! COOK*: *What's he bringing pigeons for? McGANN*: *What for? Suppose there's a storm. All the lines are down, how you gonna get messages back to Ma? This way, Senator. Well, where is he? Hey, Senator! Why, I told that cookie to...come on. Let's find him. Hey, Senator? Senator Smith? COOK*: *Positively not in the station. Gone! GRIFFITH*: *What happened to him? McGANN*: *Did you look in the... GRIFFITH*: *Yeah. I looked in the... McGANN*: *I'll brain that guy. Call Paine. Call Saunders. Call the Marines, call somebody. McGANN*: *Miss Saunders? McGann. Has Smith shown up at his office there, yet? What do you mean 'the slip'? What's so funny? SAUNDERS*: *Nothing. Why don't you try a butterfly net? McGANN*: *If he does show up there, Paine's waiting at the hotel with newspapermen. Let him know right away, you understand? SAUNDERS*: *Sure, sure. I'll hang a light in the bellfree. One if by land and two if by sea. SAUNDERS*: *Diz? DIZ*: *Yeah? SAUNDERS*: *What do you think? Daniel Boone's lost. DIZ*: *No! SAUNDERS*: *Lost in the wilds of Washington. DIZ*: *Well, if your boyfriends gonna blaze trials, I'm going over to the press club. SAUNDERS*: *Ah, stick around he might want to style to put on short pants and go out hiking. You wouldn't want to miss the exercise. DIZ*: *Everytime I think of exercise, I have to lie right down til' the feeling leaves me. Say, wouldn't it be funny if he was lost. SAUNDERS*: *The boy ranger? DIZ*: *Yeah. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, he'll show up. He must have a compass with him. McGANN*: *Oh, where would I go to if I was a boy ranger? COOK*: *Boy, am I tired. I'm all in. McGANN*: *Bill, call all the hospitals. Hurry up! COOK*: *All right. McGANN*: *And get me a bed while your at it. BAG CARRIER*: *Boss, will you hold this for a minute for me, please. Thank you, sir. (00:19:55) ** McGANN*: *Here, come back here. Why... BOY*: *"...and from these honored dead we have taken increased devotion with that cause for which they gave the last quote measure of devotion that we here highly... GRANDPA*: *Resolved. BOY*: *...resolved that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of... GRANDPA*: *Freedom. BOY*: *...freedom. And that Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." SAUNDERS*: *Why don't they try the police, call out some bloodhounds or Indian guides? PAINE*: *One place he knows in this city is the Senate office and you stay there and wait. It isn't that late. SAUNDERS*: *All right, Senator. Another half hour. Just one half hour. Goodbye. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, why don't I quit? DIZ*: *Eight to five, little boy blue's plastered. SAUNDERS*: *When Foley died, why didn't I clear out? How many times have you heard me say I was fed up with politics and...? Now I let 'em talk me into staying. Secretary to a leader of little squirts. Why? Because I need the job and a new suit of clothes. DIZ*: *Would you settle for a husband? SAUNDERS*: *Oh, I sure would. Huh? DIZ*: *You know my old standing offer, Diz Moore, poet of Washington Correspondents. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, that again. Yeah. DIZ*: *I'd cherish you and I'd stay sober. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, Diz. You're a wonderful egg. I don't know. Maybe if I saw you once with your hair combed or something I...No, I don't think even that would do it. DIZ*: *No point in combing my hair for nothing. SAUNDERS*: *Honorary appointment! You scratch this thing and you'll find they need a dope here for a couple of months. SAUNDERS*: *Yes! Yes! What do you want? JEFFERSON*: *Office of Jefferson Smith? SAUNDERS*: *No! JEFFERSON*: *The man downstairs... SAUNDERS*: *No! SAUNDERS*: *Yeah, they sure must have picked the prize dummy for...Say, wait a minute! That wouldn't be Daniel Boone! SAUNDERS*: *Say Mister. What's your name? JEFFERSON*: *Jefferson Smith. SAUNDERS*: *Oh-oh! Yes, please. Come right in Mr. Smith. Right this way. Now, hold it, everything. Stay right there. Now, don't move. (00:25:00) ** SAUNDERS*: *Helen, Helen, get me the Madison Senator Paine will you? JEFFERSON*: *Is anything the matter? SAUNDERS*: *Oh, no, no! My dear Senator. It may be customary out on the prairie to take French leave of people and not show up for five hours... JEFFERSON*: *Oh, well. I'm sorry about that, Miss Sau...Miss, you are Miss Saunders, aren't you? SAUNDERS*: *Yes, I'm Saunders and this is Mr. Moore, member of the press. Mr. Moore meet the Senator. JEFFERSON*: *I'm very happy to know you, sir. DIZ*: *Well, I see you've cut your way through that forest. JEFFERSON*: *Yeah. SAUNDERS*: *(into phone) Senator Paine. Yes, we've got him. He's right here. Came in under his own power and he's sober. That's the very next thing on the schedule...Now, I'll have him right over. JEFFERSON*: *Well, I'm awfully sorry. You see, It wasn't until I was fairly well along in the bus that I realized... SAUNDERS*: *Did you say bus? JEFFERSON*: *It was one of those sightseers and you know...Gosh, I've never been called absent-minded but, but there it was all of a sudden, staring right at me through one of the station doors. SAUNDERS*: *There what was? JEFFERSON*: *The dome, the Capitol Dome. Big as life, sparkling away there under the sun out there. And I, I started to go toward it and there was a bus outside and I, I just naturally got aboard. SAUNDERS*: *Most natural thing in the world! JEFFERSON*: *Yeah. I, I don't think I've ever been so thrilled in my whole life, and, and that Lincoln Memorial! Gee wiz! That Mr. Lincoln, there he is. He's just lookin' right straight at you as you come up those steps...just, just sitting there like he was waiting there for someone to come along. SAUNDERS*: *Yeah. Well he's got nothing on me. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, I'm sorry. SAUNDERS*: *Now, if you're ready Senator, we'll go off to the hotel. Senator Paine's waiting for you. JEFFERSON*: *Uh-huh. (to Diz) This my office? DIZ*: *Uh, uh, no! You, you have a private office, in there. JEFFERSON*: *Private office, huh? DIZ*: *Uh-huh. JEFFERSON*: *In there? Right in this door? SAUNDERS*: *All right now, Senator. Well, where is he? Has he gone out again? DIZ*: *Uh, no, no. He's in there. I'll see you later Saunders. I gotta go out and drink this over. JEFFERSON*: *Whose statue is that? SAUNDERS*: *I wouldn't know in the day time. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, look, look! The Capitol Dome! It's lighted up. Look at it. SAUNDERS*: *Um, you a, you better relax, Senator. You'll get yourself plumb wore out. JEFFERSON*: *Gee wiz! So many things happen all at once, I...Uh, Miss Saunders, what time does the Senate, uh-uh... SAUNDERS*: *Convene? JEFFERSON*: *Convene, convene, yeah...what time? SAUNDERS*: *Twelve, noon. JEFFERSON*: *Twelve, noon. Boy, oh-boy. That'll be something. You know what I better do in the morning? SAUNDERS*: *Uh, no, Mr. Smith. What had you better? JEFFERSON*: *Oh, I think I should go out to Mount Vernon. It'd be sort of a fine thing to do. Visit Washington's home before walking into the Senate for the first time, don't you think that'd be a good idea? SAUNDERS*: *Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. Put you right in the mood. JEFFERSON*: *Uh-huh. What's that, what's tha...oh. Movie house. DIZ*: *Hello, Saunders. SAUNDERS*: *I'm still asking myself, what is he? Animal, vegetable, or mineral. DIZ*: *Maybe he's an oyster. SAUNDERS*: *When I think of myself sitting around, playing straight for all that phony, patriotic chatter...me, carrying bibs for an infant with little flags in his fists. I, I can't take it, Diz. I, I quit, I'm through! DIZ*: *Oh, now, now. Take it easy. Simmer down, simmer down. Here, take this. SAUNDERS*: *You know what he's going to do tomorrow before taking that Senate seat? He's going up to Mount Vernon to get in the mood, a warm up! NOSEY*: *Who? Who? Your boss! A nut? A nut? I knew there was a story in that guy. I smelled it. SAUNDERS*: *Oh. Go away Nosey. DIZ*: *Go chase an ambulance. NOSEY*: *Oh, look Saunders, it's meat and drink...lemme at 'im! Five minutes. I'll make it right with you. SAUNDERS*: *What do you mean right? NOSEY*: *What do I mean? I'll tell you what I'll do. World series, a pass. A pass. In a month it'll be worth fifteen bucks. SAUNDERS*: *Well. DIZ*: *You're not talking to this guy! NOSEY*: *Ah, what do you say? DIZ*: *Nothing. Beat it! SAUNDERS*: *How would your pals like to get in on this? NOSEY*: *Hey, hey. I want a scoop. DIZ*: *Beat it! SAUNDERS*: *Well, that's out. Either it's lots of reporters and lots of tickets or...Now you better go and call 'em before I change my mind about the whole thing? NOSEY*: *Okay, okay. I'll see you right here. DIZ*: *What do you think you're gonna to do? SAUNDERS*: *I'm gonna get my whole fall outfit and quit this job in style. DIZ*: *Oh, now you've got more sense than to put Nosey onto that guy. REPORTERS*: *That's it. Come on. Open your eyes. Chin up. Open up your eyes. Big smile. Open up your eyes. That's a boy. REPORTER 1*: *Tell us about yourself, Senator! REPORTER 2*: *Hear you have a Boys' Club back home, Senator. NOSEY*: *Have you got any special ax to grind? JEFFERSON*: *Ax? NOSEY*: *Yeah! You know, pet ideas. Save the buffaloes, Pension Bill...you must have one idea you think would be good for the country, haven't you? JEFFERSON*: *Well, I have got one idea. REPORTERS*: *Well, break on to it, that's what we want. (00:30:00) ** JEFFERSON*: *Well, for the last couple years, I've thought it would be a wonderful idea to have a National Boys' Camp out in our state. REPORTERS*: *Boys' Camp. Yeah, sure, sure. Very good. JEFFERSON*: *You see, if we could just get the poor kids off the streets, out of the cities for a few months in the summer and...let them learn something about Nature and the American ideal. REPORTERS*: *Marvelous. Oh, I'd love it. NOSEY*: *What would you say this camp would set the Government back? JEFFERSON*: *Oh. Nothing, nothing at all. You see, my idea is that the Government just lends us the money for the camp and the boys' pay it back by sending pennies, nickels...nothing more than a dime. REPORTERS*: *Well, that's reasonable. All right. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, no, no. The Government's got enough on its hands already without... NOSEY*: *Well that's great. The Government putting too much dough in too many places now, boys. FEMALE REPORTER*: *Now, Senator, tell me. What do you think of the girls in this town. JEFFERSON*: *Gosh, I...down at the station, four of 'em came up and kissed me when I got off the train. FEMALE REPORTER*: *Were they pretty? JEFFERSON*: *Pretty? Huh, that Miss Susan Paine, she's about the prettiest girl I ever did see. REPORTERS*: *Senator, you've got a good eye. How about some more pictures, Senator. Yeah. You're a nature lover, How about it? Can you handle some of that sign language. JEFFERSON*: *Yeah, I can manage. If you... REPORTERS*: *What about some bird calls, Senator. You know any? JEFFERSON*: *Uh-huh. Sure. REPORTER*: *Can you make a sound like an eagle? How about a bob- white. JEFFERSON*: *Well, uh, here's one. I'm the only one in this state who knows this one. REPORTER*: *Well, we could use that. HEADLINE READS*: *"First Whiff of Washington" "Smith Demands More Common Sense, Less Law in Government; Pals Indian Sign on Congress." "Brings Own Axe to Grind" "Will Be Heard From" "Looks for Improvement" "Makes Fire to Put Heat on Congress" PAINE*: *"His First Whiff of Washington?" Do I actually see this? SUSAN*: *Uh, what is it? SAUNDERS*: *Did you want to see me, Senator? PAINE*: *What's this I hear about your quitting? SAUNDERS*: *Well, I'm not a registered nurse. PAINE*: *Well, now stop being funny. How did this happen? SAUNDERS*: *Oh, the ranger's notices? I haven't the slightest idea. PAINE*: *Yes you have. How'd it happen. SAUNDERS*: *Look, I merely took him home. I didn't tuck him in, give him his bottle. That's McGann's job. PAINE*: *McGann just phoned, out of his mind. Smith's gone again. Do you know where? SAUNDERS*: *Yes. He went up to Mount Vernon to give himself a patriotic address. PAINE*: *That's fine. Now then Saunders, you stop this nonsense, and go back to Smith's office and go to work and get him to the Senate by twelve o'clock. SAUNDERS*: *Look, Senator. I wasn't given a brain just to tell a Boy Ranger what time it is. PAINE*: *Don't be a fool, Saunders. If certain things happen, I'm taking everybody up with me and you'll get one of the biggest jobs in Washington. SAUNDERS*: *Look, when I came here, my eyes were big blue question marks. Now they're big, green dollar marks. PAINE*: *Oh, smart girl, huh? All right. Finish this job properly and you'll get a handsome bonus. And by properly I mean, keep Smith away from anything that smacks of politics. SAUNDERS*: *Including Willet Creek Dam? PAINE*: *Including Willet Creek Dam. Now go back to your work. SAUNDERS*: *This is it, Senator. JEFFERSON*: *The United States Senate. SAUNDERS*: *Uh-huh. Come on. SAUNDERS*: *Mr. Caushin, this is Senator Smith. JEFFERSON*: *How do you do, sir. CAUSHIN*: *How do you do, Senator. Page. Glad to see you. JEFFERSON*: *Thank you. CAUSHIN*: *Show Mr. Smith to his seat. PAGE BOY*: *Yes, sir. Right this way, sir. SAUNDERS*: *Well, good-bye. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, wish me luck. SAUNDERS*: *Sure. JEFFERSON*: *Bye. SAUNDERS*: *Bye. SENATOR*: *So that's the boy wonder, eh? SENATOR*: *I don't know what the Senate's comin' to. SAUNDERS*: *Hiya Diz. DIZ*: *Hello Saunders. SAUNDERS*: *Darrel, Sweemer. DIZ*: *I see you got Daniel Boone in all right. SAUNDERS*: *Yeah. Daniel in the lion's den. DIZ*: *Nice job you and the ambulance chasers did on the papers this morning. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, did you like it? DIZ*: *Great. PAGE BOY*: *Here you are Senator. Not a bad desk either. Daniel Webster used to use it. JEFFERSON*: *Daniel Webster sat here? Holy Mackrel. PAGE BOY*: *Give you something to shoot at, Senator. If you figure on doin' any talking. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, no. I'm just gonna sit around listen. PAGE BOY*: *That's the way to get re-elected. This is the calendar for the day. You'll find the Senate manual in here. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, yeah. PAGE BOY*: *Anything else you want, just snap for a page. JEFFERSON*: *Uh, well where's the majority leader? PAGE BOY*: *Majority leader? Right over there. Senator Agnew. And that's Senator Barnes, the minority leader. JEFFERSON*: *Senator Barnes...And where's the press gallery? Where's that? PAGE BOY*: *Right over there. Above the Vice President's chair. Fellows in the front row represent the big news services. ** JEFFERSON*: *What's, what's that up there. PAGE BOY*: *That corners reserved for guides and sight-seers who come in for five minutes at a time to rest their feet. And that section over there's reserved for the Senator's friends. Front row, the empty one, is for the President and White House guest. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, I see. PAGE BOY*: *Back there, over the clock is the diplomatic section. They and the page boys are the only real class we have in the place. JEFFERSON*: *Well, thanks ever so much. PAGE BOY*: *I'll take your hat in the cloak room, sir. (00:35:00) ** JEFFERSON*: *Say. I, I'd like to give you a Boy Ranger button. PAGE BOY*: *Swell. JEFFERSON*: *What's your name? PAGE BOY*: *Richard Jones. JEFFERSON*: *Well Dick, thanks ever so much. PAGE BOY*: *Well. Good luck, Senator. Keep your left up. FRIEND*: *See ya in the White House, Joe. PAINE*: *Yeah, you're not kidding. Jeff. JEFFERSON*: *Hello, Senator. PAINE*: *Sorry, I was in committee. JEFFERSON*: *That's all right, sir. PAINE*: *Well, I uh, see you had a little publicity. JEFFERSON*: *Hmm? PAINE*: *Uh, have you got you're credentials. JEFFERSON*: *Oh. Yeah. Saunders gave it to me. Is that right? PAINE*: *Yeah. That's a...yeah, that's fine. Now, when the Vice President calls you, just walk along here and I'll meet you in the center aisle. JEFFERSON*: *Center aisle, all right. PAINE*: *Good luck. JEFFERSON*: *This is Daniel Webster's desk. Did you know that? PAINE*: *Mmm-hmm. He won't mind. PRESIDENT*: *Well. Senate will come to order. Chaplain will pray. CHAPLAIN*: *O God, our heavenly father. In these critical days when our beloved country labors with such grave and disturbing problems, to the father we beseech thee and give us the light and the strength to be just and merciful, so that we may best serve our people and our fellow men everywhere. Amen. PRESIDENT*: *The clerk will read the... AGNEW*: *Mr. President. I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the journal be dispensed with, the journal stand approved. PRESIDENT*: *Is there an objection? The journal stands approved. BROWNELL*: *Mr. President. PRESIDENT*: *Senator Brownell. BROWNELL*: *I suggest the absence of a quorum. PRESIDENT*: *The clerk will call the roll. CLERK*: *Mr. Agnew. AGNEW*: *Here. CLERK*: *Mr. Albert. ALBERT*: *Here. CLERK*: *Mr. Alfred. PRESIDENT*: *Eighty-eight Senators have answered to their names. All is present. PAINE*: *Mr. President. PRESIDENT*: *Senator Paine. PAINE*: *I present the credentials of Honorable Jefferson Smith, who has just been appointed Senator by the Governor of my state. The Senator designate is present and I ask that the oath of office be administered to him at this time. PRESIDENT*: *If the Senator designate will present himself at the desk, the oath will be administered. SENATOR*: *Mr. President! I rise to a question of order! DIZ*: *Here it comes. SENATOR*: *I seek to ascertain if the gentleman about to be sworn in is fully aware of the responsibilities of his high office. I refer to his astounding and shameless performance for the newspapers. A versatile performance, I grant you. And one that his party, no doubt, will applaud. But one that brings his rank down to the level of a side-show entertainer and reflects on the sincerity, if not the sanity of the highest body of lawmakers in the land! I seek to learn if this is the gentleman's conception of the nature of his office. JEFFERSON*: *I don't, I don't understand... PRESIDENT*: *The Senator designate has no voice in this chamber until the oath of office has been administered. PAINE*: *Mr. President. I will answer the gentleman. My colleague was innocent in the matter referred to. He was completely misquoted. I know Jefferson Smith and I will personally vouch for him. He has the greatest possible respect for his office and for these gentlemen. SENATOR*: *Mr. President! PRESIDENT*: *The swearing in of the Senator designate is the order of business! The gentleman will raise his right hand: Do you solemnly swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic and that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely without mental reservation and purpose of evasion and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter? So help you God. JEFFERSON*: *I do. PRESIDENT*: *Senator, you can talk all you want to now. PAINE*: *Meet the Majority Leader, he'll be a good friend. He'll turn you around. JEFFERSON*: *How do you do, sir? AGNEW*: *How are you? Any friend of Joe's is a friend of mine. JEFFERSON*: *Thank you, sir. AGNEW*: *Good luck. PAINE*: *You don't have to worry about the others, they're just Senators, you know. McPHERSON*: *Mr. President. PRESIDENT*: *Senator McPherson. McPHERSON*: *The shameless way in which the Deficiency Bill has been delayed is nothing short of criminal. The country and government agencies are in desperate need of these funds. The prime business of this body is the immediate passage of the knowledge of... (00:40:11) ** DIZ*: *Hello Nosey. Who let you in here? SWEENEY*: *Why aren't you out chasing ambulances? NOSEY*: *That guy Smith is punching everybody he meets. I just got away from him. A-oh. Tarzan! Boys, meet Senator Smith. SWEENEY*: *You act like a man with something on our mind. JEFFERSON*: *Why don't you tell the people the truth for a change? REPORTERS*: *Oh, the truth! SUMMERS*: *The man wants the truth! DARRELL*: *The man wants the truth! DIZ*: *"What is the truth?" said Justine Pilot, and would not stay for an answer. SWEENEY*: *How do you want it Senator, dished out or in a bottle? JEFFERSON*: *When the people of this country pick up their papers and what do they read? DIZ*: *Well, this morning, they read that an incompetent clown had arrived in Washington parading like a member of the Senate. JEFFERSON*: *If you thought as much as being honest as you do of being smart! DIZ*: *Honest? Why we're the only ones who can afford to be honest in what we tell the voters. We don't have to be re- elected, like politicians. REPORTERS*: *Here, here. SWEENEY*: *For instance, we tell 'em when the phonies or crackpots come here to make their laws... DARRELL*: *If it's the truth you want, what are you doing in the Senate? FLOOD*: *What do you know about laws or making laws or what the people need? JEFFERSON*: *I don't pretend to know! DIZ*: *Then what are you doing in the Senate? SWEENEY*: *What's he doing? Why, honorary appointment! SUMMERS*: *When the country needs men up there who know and have courage as it never did before, he's just gonna to decorate a chair and get himself honored. DARRELL*: *Oh, but he'll vote! Sure. Just like his colleague tells him to. DIZ*: *"Yes, sir", like a Christmas tiger. He'll nod his head and vote... REPORTERS*: *"Yes". DIZ*: *You're not a Senator! You're an honorary stooge! You ought to be shown up! FLOOD*: *Have a drink, Senator! FARRELL*: *It'll taste better than the truth. DIZ*: *Hey, Senator. Don't let it get you down. A hundred years from now, nobody'll know the difference. JEFFERSON*: *The, the point is sir, they're right. I'm just sitting in the Senate, decorating a chair. Now, i-if I'm gonna vote I, at least ought to try to study some of the Bills that are coming. PAINE*: *The Bills? JEFFERSON*: *Well, yes sir. Otherwise I'm just a Christmas tiger. Like they said. PAINE*: *Jeff, these Bills are put together by legal minds, after long study. Why, I, I, I can't understand ha-half of them myself and I used to be a lawyer. Now, come on. Forget it. When the time comes, I'll advise you how to vote. JEFFERSON*: *Well, yes I know you will sir. But that's just the point. There's no reason for me to be here at all. PAINE*: *Jeff. Didn't you say something to the papers about wanting to create a National Boys' Camp? Now, you were earnest about that, weren't you? JEFFERSON*: *Yes I was. PAINE*: *Well, why don't you do it? Now, there's a job for you. Get a Bill started to accomplish it, present it to Congress. It'd be great experience for you. JEFFERSON*: *Senator Paine, If I...I've been aching to mention it to you. If I could just do that one thing while I'm here, that Boys Camp...I'd, I'd, I'd feel... PAINE*: *Well, what's to stop you? Saunders will help you with it. JEFFERSON*: *Well, I'll do it. I will! I knew that if anyone could help me, you could. And thank you for your time, sir. Good night. PAINE*: *Hey, where you running off to? JEFFERSON*: *Well, I'm sort of anxious to get back to the office. SUSAN*: *Father? Oh, the man on the front page. PAINE*: *He just dropped in for a minute, Susan. SUSAN*: *Oh, how nice. How do you do, Senator? JEFFERSON*: *How do you do, Miss Paine? I'm just on my way to the office. SUSAN*: *How are the pigeons? JEFFERSON*: *Oh, they're fine. SUSAN*: *Oh, I've missed the dear little things. JEFFERSON*: *Well, I released one this morning with a letter in it. He, he flew right up...flew right straight up to sort of get his bearings and then he went around the Capitol Dome once. And then he headed west like a bat out a...he, just like a rifle shot and I suppose, by about this time he, he's probably over Kentucky. SUSAN*: *Well, isn't that wonderful, Father? PAINE*: *Mmm-hmm. SUSAN*: *And was the letter to your girl? JEFFERSON*: *Oh, no. Oh, no. No, I, I don't have a girl. SUSAN*: *Don't you think I'd better hold this for you? JEFFERSON*: *No, I think I'd better go. Good night. Doggonnit! Sorry, sir, I... PAINE*: *That's all right, my boy. Don't bother. JEFFERSON*: *(mumbling) ...the shade. Gee, I'm sorry. Well, good night. PAINE*: *Good night. SUSAN*: *Good night. JEFFERSON*: *...this. SUSAN*: *Oh, Father. Oh, dear me. PAINE*: *Well, at the expense of some of the furniture, Susan, you've made another conquest. SUSAN*: *Not Ol' Honest Abe! PAINE*: *And with Honest Abe's ideals. A rare man these days, Susan. JEFFERSON*: *Yes, sir. We're going ahead with it. SAUNDERS*: *Going right ahead with what? JEFFERSON*: *The Bill. My Bill, for a National Boys Camp. Where's my briefcase? Oh, there it is. SAUNDERS*: *Just a moment. Do I understand that you're going to present a Bill? JEFFERSON*: *Yes, Senator Paine and I decided that the only way we could... SAUNDERS*: *Senator Paine decided this with you? JEFFERSON*: *Yes, it was his idea. Of course, I should have been the one to think of it. SAUNDERS*: *My dear Senator, have you the faintest idea of what it takes to get a Bill passed? JEFFERSON*: *No, no, you're going to help me. (00:45:00) ** SAUNDERS*: *If I were triplets, I could... JEFFERSON*: *Now Miss Saunders, Senator Paine said that you're going to help me. Now, what do we have to have? What books do we have to have and when we, how do we write them... SAUNDERS*: *Look, Senator. Do you mind if I give you a rough idea of what you're up against? JEFFERSON*: *Nope, no, no. Go ahead. SAUNDERS*: *Well, a Senator has a Bill in mind, like your camp, right? JEFFERSON*: *Right. SAUNDERS*: *Fine, now, what does he do? He's has to sit down first and write it up. The why, when, where, how and everything else. Now, that takes time. JEFFERSON*: *But, this one is so simple. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, I see. This one is simple. JEFFERSON*: *And with your help... SAUNDERS*: *Oh, I'm helping. Yeah. Simple and I'm helping. So we knock this off in record-breaking time of let's say three, four days... JEFFERSON*: *Oh, a day. SAUNDERS*: *A day. JEFFERSON*: *Yeah, just tonight. SAUNDERS*: *Tonight. I don't want to seem to be complaining, Senator...but in all civilized countries, there's an institution called dinner. JEFFERSON*: *Oh. Sorta hungry myself. Well, uh, couldn't we sort of have some stuff brought in on trays? You know, like big executives? SAUNDERS*: *Oh, sure. Well, dinner comes in on trays. We're big executives. We're light into this. JEFFERSON*: *And we finish the Bill before morning. SAUNDERS*: *Yeah. It's dawn. Your Bill is ready. You take it over there and you introduce it. JEFFERSON*: *How? SAUNDERS*: *You get to your feet in the Senate, take a long breathe and you start spouting. But not too loud because a couple of the Senators might want to sleep. Then a curly-headed pageboy takes it up to the desk where a long faced Clerk reads it and refers it to the right committee. JEFFERSON*: *Committee, huh? SAUNDERS*: *Committee. JEFFERSON*: *Why? SAUNDERS*: *Look, committees, small groups of Senators have to sift a Bill down, look into it, study it and report to the whole Senate. You can't take a Bill nobody even heard about and discuss it among ninety-six men. Where would you get? JEFFERSON*: *Yeah. I see that. Uh-huh. SAUNDERS*: *Good. Where are we? JEFFERSON*: *Some committee's got it. SAUNDERS*: *Yeah. Now, days are going by, Senator. Days, weeks. Finally, they think it's quite a Bill. It goes over to the House of Representatives for debate and a vote. But it's got to wait its turn on the calendar. JEFFERSON*: *Calendar, huh? SAUNDERS*: *Yeah. That's the order of business. Your Bill has to stand way back there in line unless the Steering Committee thinks it's important. JEFFERSON*: *What's that? SAUNDERS*: *What? JEFFERSON*: *The Steering Committee. SAUNDERS*: *Do you really think we're getting anywhere? JEFFERSON*: *Oh, yes. Miss Saunders. What's a Steering Committee? SAUNDERS*: *Committee of the majority party leaders. They decide when a Bill is important enough to be moved up toward the head of the list. JEFFERSON*: *Well, this is. SAUNDERS*: *Pardon me...this is. Where are we now? JEFFERSON*: *We're over in the House. SAUNDERS*: *Oh yeah. House. More amendments, more changes and the Bill goes back to the Senate. The Senate doesn't like what the House did to the Bill. They make more changes. The House doesn't like those changes. Stymie. JEFFERSON*: *So? SAUNDERS*: *So, they appoint men from each house to go into a huddle called a conference and they battle it out. Finally, if the Bill is live after all this vivisection, it comes to a vote. Yes, sir. The big day finally arrives. Then, Congress adjourns. Are you catching on, Senator? JEFFERSON*: *Uh-huh. Shall we start on it right away or order dinner first? SAUNDERS*: *Pardon me? JEFFERSON*: *I said, shall we get started now or... SAUNDERS*: *Oh, sure. Why not? Do you mind if I take the time to go and get a pencil? JEFFERSON*: *Oh, no. Go right ahead, Miss Saunders. SAUNDERS*: *Thank you very much. JEFFERSON*: *And lots of paper! Now, the a...doggonnit! Did you ever have so much to say about something you couldn't say it? SAUNDERS*: *Try sitting down. JEFFERSON*: *I did, and, and I got right up again. SAUNDERS*: *Now, look. Let's get down to particulars. How big is this thing? Where is it going to be? How many boys will it accommodate? You've got to have all that in it, you know. JEFFERSON*: *Yeah. Yeah. And something else, Miss Saunders. The a, spirit of it...the idea, the, the...how do you say it...That's what's got to be in it. SAUNDERS*: *What? JEFFERSON*: *The Capitol Dome! SAUNDERS*: *On paper? JEFFERSON*: *I want to make that come to life for every boy in this land. Yes, and lighted up like that too. You see, you see, boys forget what their country means by just reading 'the land of the free' in history books. and they get to be men and forget even more. Liberty is too precious to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them, every single day of their lives and say: 'I am free to think and speak. My ancestors couldn't. I can and my children will.' The boys ought to grow up remembering that. And that, that Steering Committee or whatever it is, they've got to see it like that. And I know Senator Paine will do all he can to help me because he's a wonderful man, isn't he Miss Saunders? You know, he knew my father very well. SAUNDERS*: *He did? JEFFERSON*: *Yeah. Yeah, we need a lot more like him, his kind of character...his ideals. SAUNDERS*: *Um, let's get on with this. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, yes. All right. SAUNDERS*: *This camp is going to be out in your state? JEFFERSON*: *About two hundred of the most beautiful acres that ever were! You've never been out in that country have you, Miss Saunders? SAUNDERS*: *No. JEFFERSON*: *I've been over every single foot of it. You could have no idea. You'd just have to see for yourself. I don't know the prairies, the wind leaning on the tall grass, lazy streams down in the meadows and angry little midgets of water up in the mountains. Cattle moving down the slope against the sun, campfires and snowdrifts. You know, everybody ought to have some of that some time in his life. My dad had the right idea. He had it all worked out. He used to say to me, "Son, don't miss the wonders that surround you. Because every tree and every rock, every ant-hill, every star is filled with the wonders of nature." And he used to say to me "Have you ever noticed how grateful you are to see daylight again after going through a dark tunnel? Well, he'd say, "Always try to see life around you as if you'd just come out of a tunnel." Where did you come from, Miss Saunders? (00:50:45) ** SAUNDERS*: *Well, I guess I've always lived in a tunnel. JEFFERSON*: *You mean, here? SAUNDERS*: *Baltimore. Pure city-dweller. JEFFERSON*: *Have you always had to work? SAUNDERS*: *Since I was about sixteen. JEFFERSON*: *I take it your, your parents couldn't uh... SAUNDERS*: *No, they couldn't. Father was a doctor. He thought more of ethics than he did of collections. Speaks well for Father, but it wasn't so...Now look, we better get back to this. JEFFERSON*: *It hasn't been easy, has it? SAUNDERS*: *No complaints. JEFFERSON*: *I mean, for a woman you've done awfully well... SAUNDERS*: *Have I? JEFFERSON*: *I've never known anyone as capable or intelligent. Gosh, I, I don't know where I'd be on this Bill of mine if it wasn't for your help. SAUNDERS*: *Well, I don't know where you are with it. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, yeah. Oh, yes, now. Gee wiz, we gotta get going with this, Miss Saunders. All right now, let's see. Say, everybody calls you just plain 'Saunders', why can't I? SAUNDERS*: *Go right ahead. JEFFERSON*: *Saunders. Oh, that's much better. Saunders. Hello, Saunders. Mornin' Saunders. How's the Bill coming, Saunders? SAUNDERS*: *Terrible, thank you. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, anyway, I've got that 'Saunders' business settled. That's probably the trouble all along. All right, now...I, what's your first name? SAUNDERS*: *Why? JEFFERSON*: *Well I, everybody calls you just plain Saunders? SAUNDERS*: *Well, I also answer to whistles. JEFFERSON*: *Well, you've got a first name, haven't you? SAUNDERS*: *Yes but, uh...you just better forget about it. JEFFERSON*: *All right. All right, okay. Uh, darn it, I was just curious. I, picture popped into my mind all of a pump without a handle or something. It's all right. Uh, of course I know what it is. Violet. SAUNDERS*: *No, it isn't. JEFFERSON*: *Abigail. SAUNDERS*: *No. JEFFERSON*: *Letitia. SAUNDERS*: *No! JEFFERSON*: *Lena. SAUNDERS*: *No. Now, stop it! JEFFERSON*: *You may as well tell me, I've got a lot more, you know. SAUNDERS*: *All right, you win. It's Clarissa. JEFFERSON*: *Clarissa, huh? All right, Saunders, let's go. SAUNDERS*: *Now, uh, Susan's an awfully pretty name isn't it. JEFFERSON*: *Susan! Susan Paine. Oh, that's beautiful. SAUNDERS*: *She's a beautiful woman, isn't she? JEFFERSON*: *Oh. Isn't she a beautiful girl? I, I think she's probably about the most beautiful girl I've ever...Oh now, Saunders now, we've gotta get started on this thing, now, we're never going to get finished. All right, now get all set 'cause I'm gonna talk faster'n you can write. All right, you ready? SAUNDERS*: *Yeah. JEFFERSON*: *Okay. The location of this camp. About two hundred acres uh, situated in Ambrose County, Terry Canyon. Running about a quarter of a mile on either side of Willet Creek. SAUNDERS*: *Ah, what? JEFFERSON*: *Willet Creek. W-I-L-L-E-T. It's just a little stream. SAUNDERS*: *In Terry Canyon? JEFFERSON*: *Well, yeah. Yeah. You don't know it, do you? SAUNDERS*: *No. JEFFERSON*: *Well, no you couldn't. You've never, nev...been out there, you said. SAUNDERS*: *You've discussed this with Senator Paine and everything? JEFFERSON*: *Well, no. Why? SAUNDERS*: *Oh. Nothing. It doesn't matter, there's no reason to talk it over with him. A quarter of a mile on either side of Willet Creek. JEFFERSON*: *...and the money to...the land to be bought by the contributions from the boys. The uh, money to be loaned to us by the government of the United States. DIZ*: *What did you get me outta bed for? SAUNDERS*: *Shh. Diz, sit tight. The show's about to commence. DIZ*: *Mind telling me what's going on around here? SAUNDERS*: *Certainly. Now there's the principal actor in our little play. Don Quixote Smith, man with bill. Over here, one of the supporting characters. DIZ*: *Who? SAUNDERS*: *That gorilla in man's clothing, McGann. DIZ*: *Oh, you mean 'Puss in Boots'? SAUNDERS*: *Yes. Mostly 'puss'. Ah-ha. Another prominent character in our little play. The silver Knight. Soul of Honor on a tight-rope. DIZ*: *You wouldn't be a little bit goofy, would you? SAUNDERS*: *Diz, Don Quixote with bill, will get to his feet in a minute and speak two important words, Willet Creek. When that happens, the Silver Knight will fall off his tight-rope and Puss will jump out of his boots. PRESIDENT*: *It's so ordered. Introduction of new bills and joint resolutions. JEFFERSON*: *Mr. President! PRESIDENT*: *The chair recognizes the rather strong-lunged Junior Senator, Mr. Smith. JEFFERSON*: *I'm very sorry, sir. I have a bill... (00:55:00) ** PRESIDENT*: *You may speak a little louder Senator. But, not too loud. JEFFERSON*: *I have a bill to propose, sir. PRESIDENT*: *Order, gentlemen! Our Junior Senator is about to make a speech. You may proceed, Senator. JEFFERSON*: *Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives that there be appropriated as a loan a sum sufficient to create a National Boys' Camp to be paid back to the United States Treasury by contributions from boys of America. This Camp to be situated on the land at and adjacent to the head waters of a stream known as Willet Creek in Terry Canyon for the purpose of bringing together boys of all walks of life from various parts of the country. Boys of all creeds, kinds and positions. To educate them in American ideals and to promote mutual understanding and to bring about a healthful life to the growing youth of this great and beautiful land! PRESIDENT*: *Our young Senator will make a good Honorary when his voice stops changing. McGANN*: *Listen Joe. I'm getting leery of this guy. We keep calling him dumb and he keeps winding up in our hair and I'm telling you, when he finds out that a dam's going up where he wants his Boys' Camp, he's gonna start asking questions six ways from Sunday. PAINE*: *Be quiet, Chick. I'm trying to think. This Deficiency Bill is going to be read in the Senate tomorrow. McGANN*: *Tomorrow! Why Joe, he'll hear the section on Willet Dam. He can't be there! PAINE*: *I know that. McGANN*: *Tomorrow, I'm taking him to see monuments even if I have to hit him over the head with a couple. PAINE*: *That won't work, Chick. This boy's honest, not stupid. McGANN*: *Susan! PAINE*: *My daughter isn't there to carry out assignments like that for anybody. MAN*: *Excuse me. JEFFERSON*: *Beg your pardon. REPORTERS*: *Mr. Senator. Oh. Senator Smith, if you let me handle your publicity... SAUNDERS*: *Down. Down, everybody. JEFFERSON*: *Miss Saunders. Who are all those people? SAUNDERS*: *Washington press, office-seekers, cranks. 'Get my son into West Point or outta West Point.' REPORTER*: *Senator, now this machine creates a fever ten miles away...it'll make your... SAUNDERS*: *Out, out. Some other time. Yeah. Long-distance fevers. Some, a woman out there's composed a hymn to replace the Star Spangled Banner. Do you want to hear it? JEFFERSON*: *No, not today! Boy, I feel like a house afire! Even went down to see Mr. Lincoln again. Saunders, how did I do? SAUNDERS*: *Ah, great. JEFFERSON*: *I, I don't know how I got it out. My heart was right up here all the time. What do you think Senator Paine thought of it? SAUNDERS*: *Oh, he'd been tickled pink. JEFFERSON*: *Boy, I hope so. What's all this? SAUNDERS*: *Contributions from boys who read about your camp. JEFFERSON*: *Already? All these let... SAUNDERS*: *Oh, those are only local. Wait 'till they start pouring in from all over the country. JEFFERSON*: *You mean all these...Look boys, we better open one up and see what...What they say here, look at the money, let's see..."Dear Senator Smith, I would like to come to your Boys' camp and I shine shoes at the station and here's nine cents." Oh, isn't that wonderful, and look he sent nine...and he signs it, "Yours truly, Stinky Moore." Isn't that marvelous? Well, look, look if there's money in each one of these...then how we...where SAUNDERS*: *Here you go Senator, here. JEFFERSON*: *A bank. That's perfect. Well, here. You can see how important this bill's gonna be. Hey, do I have any paper around here, any place? SAUNDERS*: *Second drawer. JEFFERSON*: *Second drawer. Oh, that's fine. I'm gonna be pretty busy tonight. SAUNDERS*: *Not another bill? JEFFERSON*: *Oh, no. No. Letters. I'm bustin' with news. I introduced a bill! Me, Jeff Smith. I got up and spoke in the Senate. SAUNDERS*: *Do you want to dictate them? JEFFERSON*: *Do I want...The letters? Oh, no I couldn't talk letters. I just have to sit here and scratch them down. Oh, and say, I'm gonna tell Ma all about you and if I tell it right, the first thing you know, you're going to get the best jar of preserves you ever tasted. SAUNDERS*: *Well, thank you very much. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, and Saunders. Gee wiz, I forgot to thank you. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, don't mention it. (01:00:02) ** JEFFERSON*: *No, no, without you I couldn't have, I, I mean, I... SAUNDERS*: *Hello? Who? SUSAN*: *Susan Paine. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, how do you do? Yes, I can talk, go right ahead. SUSAN*: *I'm sorry to bother you, Saunders, but you've got to help me. I'm elected to snatch Mr. Jefferson Smith from the Senate tomorrow... SAUNDERS*: *You're what? SUSAN*: *I'm to take him out and turn on my glamour for him. You sympathize, don't you Saunders? SAUNDERS*: *Awkward, isn't it? SUSAN*: *Take him out and buy him a suit of clothes that fits and a hat that he can hang on to...and, and A manicure and haircut wouldn't do any harm. As one woman to another, Saunders. That is, I hate to ask you to do this but... SAUNDERS*: *But as one woman to another, of course. SUSAN*: *Thanks Saunders. SAUNDERS*: *Just a minute. JEFFERSON*: *Miss Susan Paine? Susan Paine? She want to talk, talk with me? Holy mackerel, oh. Hello...Oh, hello Miss Paine, how are ya? Uh, yes. Uh, what? Wha-a...well escort you? Well, uh, yes I'd be delighted. Reception for a princess! She wants me to...goodbye, Miss Paine. Good-bye. What do you know about that? She wants me to go with her to a reception for a princess. Can you imagine her asking me? SAUNDERS*: *Get your hat, Senator. We've got a lot of shopping to do between now and tomorrow. JEFFERSON*: *Wow! DIZ*: *Where is your bitters? SAUNDERS*: *In the thing there, behind the sink. I don't mind who gets licked in a fair fight, Diz. It's these clouts below the belt I can't take. Sicking that horrible dame on him when he's goofy about her. DIZ*: *What dame? SAUNDERS*: *Paine. DIZ*: *Better be nice to that gal. Latest poll rates her old man the next party choice for the White House. She may be the next First Lady of the land. SAUNDERS*: *Imagine reading "My day" by Susan 'pain in the neck.' Isn't going to get hurt enough as it is. She has to twist a knife in him, too. The regal jackass! "I'll turn my glamour on him," she says. DIZ*: *Oh, forget it. What's it to you? SAUNDERS*: *Nothing. DIZ*: *Okay. Okay. Stop worrying. I told you, the dopes are gonna inherit the earth anyway. SAUNDERS*: *I've wondered, Diz...if maybe this Don Quixote hasn't got the jump on all of us. I wonder if it isn't a curse to go through life wised up like you and me. DIZ*: *Now, look kid, if we're gonna wonder let's go down and do it over a hunk of steak. Come on, snap out of it. Drink up. Here's to bigger and better dopes. SAUNDERS*: *And to Don Quixote! Do you know how I felt, Diz? DIZ*: *No. How'd you feel? Quick. SAUNDERS*: *I felt just like a mother, sending her kid off to school for the first time, watchin' the little feller toddling off in his best bib and tucker hoping he can stand up to the other kids. Say, who started this? DIZ*: *I'm just waiting for a street car. SAUNDERS*: *Well, cut it out. See? Who cares anyway? DIZ*: *I apologize. SAUNDERS*: *All right, then. After all, what's it to me? So they drop him out of a balloon. All I care is, I don't want to be around. See? I'm squeamish. See? That's what I am. No, sir. I don't have to take it. Won't be a party to no murder. I'm gonna quit. I'm through. DIZ*: *Again? It's a good idea. SAUNDERS*: *Uh, Diz DIZ*: *Yeah? SAUNDERS*: *Let's get married? DIZ*: *It's a good idea. When? SAUNDERS*: *Any time. DIZ*: *Tonight? SAUNDERS*: *Okay. You don't mind? DIZ*: *I'll cherish ya. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, gee. You're a good egg, Diz. DIZ*: *I know. SAUNDERS*: *Maybe we could clear out of this town, get to feel like people. Live like we...just got out of a tunnel. DIZ*: *Tunnel? SAUNDERS*: *A tunnel. You've never seen prairie grass with the wind leaning on it, have you Diz? DIZ*: *Does the wind get tired out there? SAUNDERS*: *Or angry little mountain streams or, or the sun moving against the cattle. You've never seen any of that, have you, Diz? (01:05:03) ** DIZ*: *No. Have you? SAUNDERS*: *No. DIZ*: *Well, do we have to? SAUNDERS*: *No! I can't think of anything more sappy! DIZ*: *Okay, then let's get going. SAUNDERS*: *Where? DIZ*: *We're gonna get married. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, yes. That's right. Diz... DIZ*: *What? SAUNDERS*: *In case you don't know, I want to give ya a chance to back out if you don't like it. DIZ*: *What? SAUNDERS*: *My first name's Clarissa. DIZ*: *Yeah, I know. That's okay. SAUNDERS*: *Oh. Don't say 'okay', Diz. Say you think it's beautiful. DIZ*: *Okay, I mean... SAUNDERS*: *You don't know a name offhand that you like better, do you Diz? DIZ*: *No, not offhand. SAUNDERS*: *Nothing like, uh, Susan or anything like that? DIZ*: *Susan? Nah! SAUNDER*: *I won't take it! See? I won't be a party to murder. See? Steering a poor dope up blind alleys for that grafting Taylor mob is low enough. But, helping that dame cut him up in little bits of pieces...nobody's gonna make me do that. No, sir. DIZ*: *You said it! SAUNDERS*: *No sir. I'm gonna, I'm gonna get out of there. Right now, Diz. Right now. Bonus or no bonus. I'm gonna clear outta that office, everything I own. My extra hat, everything. DIZ*: *Hey! Wait a minute. SAUNDERS*: *Right now, everything I own! DIZ*: *We're gettin' married! See you later. JEFFERSON*: *Saunders? Saunders! SAUNDERS*: *Whadaya want? JEFFERSON*: *Boy, you should of been there. SAUNDERS*: *I know. It was a wonderful party and your suit went over big. And she looked beautiful...and you left her, and she said, "Thank you, Mister Smith". But it was the way she said it. You nearly fell through the floor. Horseradish! Well, what are you lookin' at? You didn't think I was a lady, did you? You don't think a lady would be working for this outfit. Even I can't take it any more. I quit. There's a lot of things I can't take...I can't take a simple...Why don't you go home? Tell your little streams about your camp and the land of the free! This isn't no place for you. You're half-way decent. You don't belong here. Now go home. That's all I wanna tell you. That's all. Meet the man I'm going to marry. DIZ*: *Tha's me. SAUNDERS*: *Wait a minute! Why don't I get out of this right. So you want to be a Senator, huh? You're gonna build a camp on Willet Creek! See this? Deficiency Bill, section number forty. A dam going up where you think your camp's gonna be. Ever hear of it? No. They read all about it in the Senate today but you weren't supposed to hear. That's why that ritzy dame took you in tow. That's why they sent you here in the first place, because you don't know a dam from a bathtub! Go ahead, be a Senator. Try and mess up Mr. Taylor's little graft! But if you can't and you can't in nine million years, go home. Don't hang around here making people feel sorry for you! Come on, Diz. DIZ*: *This way. Come on, kid. We'll dig up a preacher. SAUNDERS*: *Huh? DIZ*: *We're gonna get married. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, yeah. DIZ*: *Okay, come on. I'll take you home. JEFFERSON*: *But that's the point, there are a hundred other places in the state that really need the water and besides, I talked to Kenneth Allen, who owns some of that land up there...he didn't say anything about a dam. No, sir. Now, doggonit! There's something wrong here I know there's something wrong and I'm not going to vote on that thing until I get some more questions answered. PAINE*: *Jeff, you're fighting windmills. JEFFERSON*: *I am? PAINE*: *Sure. You're trying to understand a project that took two years to set up, the reasons, the benefits. JEFFERSON*: *Yeah, the benefits. Who's Taylor? PAINE*: *What? JEFFERSON*: *Taylor, what's he got to do with this thing? McGANN*: *Well, what makes you think he's got anything to do with it? JEFFERSON*: *I've been told that this whole thing was his idea to get graft. PAINE*: *Jeff, do you know what you're saying? You're accusing me of helping to frame a bill for the benefit of one individual...of helping to put through a scheme for graft! McGANN*: *Long distance? Get me Mr. James Taylor, Jackson City. TAYLOR*: *Boy Ranger! Answer to a prayer. Manner from heaven! Didn't even know how to tell the time of day! HUBERT*: *Will you please tell me exactly what he's done? TAYLOR*: *Yeah. He's about to blow the whole machine to smithereens and you with it, Mr. Governor! HUBERT*: *Me, Jim? TAYLOR*: *Yeah! HUBERT*: *How? (01:10:00) ** TAYLOR*: *Well you wouldn't understand that. Listen to me Mr. Ten Thumbs, in about half an hour, I'll be on my way to Washington and no matter what happens, I'm all ready for that Boy Ranger of yours. Never mind how. You take your instructions from Ken Allen here. I wouldn't trust you to lick a postage stamp. You just use your high office to help Allen get things done. Do you understand? HUBERT*: *Y-yes, Jim. TAYLOR*: *I doubt it! Come on, Allen. McGANN*: *Honest Jim, I haven't been able to show him a single monument. Not even one that high. ASSOCIATE*: *Certainly not. He's been on our tail. Jim, you've got to keep this guy off of us. ASSOCIATE2*: *Ever since he found out we represent the Willet Creek district, he's been running us ragged. PAINE*: *Well, this is ridiculous Jim. I told you I'll handle him. I object to you coming here like this. McGANN*: *Yeah, you proved how you can handle him. You're the one who start him writing bills. TAYLOR*: *That's him Chick. Let him in. PAINE*: *Hey wait a minute, Jim. You didn't ask Smith him here. TAYLOR*: *What do you think? PAINE*: *Chick, don't open that door. Jim, you can't do this. TAYLOR*: *Let him in, Chick. PAINE*: *All right Jim, you can count me out. McGANN*: *Oh, good morning Senator. Come right in. TAYLOR*: *What did you mean when you said 'we could count you out'? PAINE*: *Jim, you can't come here and pull that steam-roller stuff. Your methods won't do here. This boys a Senator. How ever it happened, he's a Senator. This is Washington, Jim. TAYLOR*: *Steam roller stuff Joe? My methods don't go on in Washington? They've been pretty well by you, haven't they? PAINE*: *Oh, Jim. This boy's different. He's honest. Besides he thinks the world of me, we can't do this to him. TAYLOR*: *Well, what do you want me to do? Stand around like you chumps and let that drooling infant wrap that Willet Creek Dam appropriation around my neck? Not me. Either he falls in line with us and behaves himself or I'll break him so wide open they'll never be able to find the pieces. PAINE*: *Jim, I won't stand for it. TAYLOR*: *You won't stand for it? PAINE*: *I don't want any part of crucifying this boy. TAYLOR*: *Oh, I see. Our steam-roller methods are getting to hard for your sensitive soul. Is that it? The Silver Knight is getting too big for us. My methods have been all right for the past twenty years, Joe. Since I picked you out of a fly-specked hole in the wall and blew you up to look like a Senator, and now you can't stand it. Well, maybe you don't have to stand it, Joe. Maybe we could fix it so you and the Boy Ranger can go home together. PAINE*: *Oh, Jim. Now you don't have to... TAYLOR*: *Oh, it's all right. It's all right. Seems a shame though to part company like this after all these years. Especially now with a National Convention coming up. Joe, I put everything I have behind you and so did all of our friends. Well, I guess we'll survive. We just gotta find somebody else who's got a little more sense, that's all. In the meantime, you go in and explain to Mr. Smith about Willet Dam. It's your bill, it's your reputation and if he can't find enough facts to break you with, you just send it to me and I'll give him a couple of good ones. I'm taking the next plane home, Joe. So long. PAINE*: *Jim? TAYLOR*: *Yeah? PAINE*: *Come here, will you. Jim, it's just that I like the kid. I don't want to see you get too rough on him. TAYLOR*: *I'm glad to see you've come to your senses. You had me scared there for a minute though. You go back to your office. I'll call you as soon as I get through with Smith. PAINE*: *Okay. TAYLOR*: *Huh. The Silver Knight. Hello, Senator. I was just passing through, I thought I'd like to meet you. Sit down. You met all the boys here, I suppose. JEFFERSON*: *Yes, sir. TAYLOR*: *They tell me you've been right on your toes since you've got here. Well, that's fine. You know, some people told me that you were dumb. I think that you're smart. In fact, I think You're smart enough to understand a situation when it's explained to you... JEFFERSON*: *Like what, sir? TAYLOR*: *Well, for instance, building a dam on Willet Creek. JEFFERSON*: *And just what's your interest in this, Mr. Taylor? TAYLOR*: *What's my interest...Well, well, anything that benefits the state is mighty important to me, owning a lot of it's industry, newspapers and other odds and ends. Now, if I felt that you had the welfare of the state at heart, like I have, I'd say you were a man to watch. Now, what do you like? Business? If you like business, you can pick any job in the state and go right to the top. Or politics, huh? If you like being a Senator there's no reason why you can't come back to that Senate and stay there as long as you want to...if you're smart. Now you take the boys here, or Joe Paine. They're doin' all right. They don't have to worry about being re-elected or anything else. They're smart. They take my advice. (01:15:08) ** JEFFERSON*: *You mean you tell these men and Senator Paine what to do? TAYLOR*: *Well yes. Joe Paine has been taking my advice for the past twenty years. JEFFERSON*: *You're a liar. JEFFERSON*: *Carmichael, I've got to see Senator Paine, is he in? CARMICHAEL*: *Senator Paine is out of town. JEFFERSON*: *Out of town? He couldn't be. PAINE*: *Hello Jim, come on in. Well, have a talk with Taylor? JEFFERSON*: *He said he'd been telling you what to do for twenty years. I called him a liar. PAINE*: *Listen son, come over here and sit down. JEFFERSON*: *You know, I don't feel like sitting down. PAINE*: *Well, I know how you feel, Jeff. I was hoping you could be spared all this. I was hoping that you'd see the sights, absorb a lot of history and go back to your boys. Now, you've been living in a boy's world, Jeff and for heavens sake, stay there. This is a man's world, it's a brutal world Jeff, and you've no place in it. You'll only get hurt. Now, take my advice, forget Taylor and what he said. Forget you ever heard of the Willet Creek dam. JEFFERSON*: *But you still haven't answered me, sir. Can a man like Taylor tell you and those other men what to do? PAINE*: *Now, listen Jeff, please. And, and try to understand. I know it's tough to run head-on into facts but, well, as I said, this is a man's world, Jeff and you gotta to check your ideals outside the door, like you do your rubbers. Now, thirty years ago, I had your ideals. I was you. I had to make the same decision you were asked to make today. And I made it. I compromised, yes! So that all those years I could sit in that Senate and serve the people in a thousand honest ways! You've got to face facts Jeff. I've served our state well, haven't I? We have the lowest unemployment and the highest Federal Grants. But, well, I've had to compromise. I've had to play ball. You can't count on people voting. Half the time they don't vote anyway. That's how states and empires have been built since time began, don't you understand? Well, Jeff, you can take my word for it, that's how things are. Now, I've told you all this because, well, I've grown very fond of you. About like a son, in fact. And I don't want to see you get hurt. Now, when that Deficiency Bill comes up in the Senate tomorrow, you stay away from it, don't say a word. Great powers are behind it and they'll destroy you even before you get started. For your own sake Jeff, and for the sake of my friendship with your father...Please, don't say a word. PRESIDENT*: *According to the urgency of the Deficiency Bill, there is a unanimouse consent agreement, that no Senator will speak more than once, or longer than five minutes on any section of the bill. The clerk will read. CLERK*: *A bill providing for deficiency appropriations for the fiscal year. Section One. For emergency relief to create the erect public improvements on rivers, harbors and roadways, a hundred and fifty billion dollars. Section Forty: An appropriation for diverting and impounding the headwaters of Willet's Creek in the natural basin of Terry Canyon. Five million dollars. JEFFERSON*: *Mr. President! PRESIDENT*: *Does Senator Smith desire to be heard on Section Forty? JEFFERSON*: *I do, sir. PRESIDENT*: *Does the Senator understands he is limited to five minutes? JEFFERSON*: *Yes, sir. PRESIDENT*: *You may proceed. JEFFERSON*: *Mr. President, this section of the bill, this dam on Willet Creek is nothing but a... PAINE*: *Mr. President! PRESIDENT*: *Does Senator Smith wish to yield to his colleague Senator Paine? JEFFERSON*: *Why, yes sir. PRESIDENT*: *You may proceed, Senator. PAINE*: *Mr. President. I have risen to a difficult task...to say that, out of evidence that has come to my attention, I consider Senator Smith unworthy to address this body! ASSIST*: *Boys, go out and get the Senators. PAGEBOYS*: *Yes, sir. REPORTER*: *Something goin' on inside, come on! REPORTERS*: *What is it? Let's go, let's go. Come on. PRESIDENT*: *The Senate will please suspend until order is restored in the chamber. PAGEBOYS*: *All are wanted on the floor, please. (01:19:52) ** SWEENEY*: *What's going on, Joe? DIZ*: *I don't know. PRESIDENT*: *You may proceed, Senator. PAINE*: *I refer to the bill he has introduced in this chamber to create a National Boys' Camp. He named a certain portion of land to be dedicated for that purpose and to be bought by contributions from boys all over America. Senators, I have conclusive evidence to prove that my colleague owns the very land described in his bill! He bought it the day following his appointment to the Senate! And is holding it, using this body and his privileged office for his own personal profit. PRESIDENT*: *Order. Order! SWEENEY*: *The Boy Ranger had a reck. DIZ*: *This doesn't make sense. PAINE*: *Accordingly, I offer a resolution. On the immediate inquiry by the Committee of Privilege and elections as for the fitness of my colleague to continue to sit in this chamber. JEFFERSON*: *Mr. President, I... PRESIDENT*: *Order. Order! The chair will clear the gallery unless order is restored. REPORTER*: *Flash. Ranger Senator branded by colleague, Senator Paine. DIZ*: *Flash. Senator Paine brings charges to expel Senator Smith. REPORTER*: *Hey Diz, where's Saunders? SWEENEY*: *Yeah. She ought to have a low down on this. DIZ*: *I wish I knew. She packed up and left town in that Jallopee of hers. (into phone) Hey Joe, Senator Paine accuses Senator Smith of introducing a Boys' Camp bill for his own profit. Yeah. (to Secretary) Give me a cigarette. (into phone) Paine's asked for a hearing before the Committee of Privileges and Elections. HUBERT*: *Well frankly, my dear Senators, the morning Mr. Kenneth Allen burst into my office bringing proof that Jefferson Smith owned the deed to that campsite, I was dumbfounded! CHAIRMAN*: *Pardon me, Governor. What did you do when Mr. Allen brought this to your attention? HUBERT*: *Well, I consulted at once with the Head of Department of Records, Mr. Arthur Kim. CHAIRMAN*: *Mr. Kim, do you remember recording such a deed? KIM*: *Yes, on the date set forth here, Mr. Kenneth Allen came before me to record this deed, uh, setting over these two hundred acres in the name of Jefferson Smith. CHAIRMAN*: *How long have you known Sentor Smith, Mr. Allen? ALLEN*: *Oh, a good many years. He used to use my land up around Willet Creek every summer for his Boy Rangers. Seemed like a mighty nice fellow. And one day he made a proposition. Said he had a great chance to sell that land for a least five hundred an acre. I'd be glad to get twenty-five for it. So, we set it up like this. I deeded him the land and he gave me a contract guaranteeing me half what he got if he made the sale. Mind you now, the whole thing sounded fishy at the time. CHAIRMAN*: *Uh, that contract you mentioned, have you got that document? ALLEN*: *That land wouldn't be in his name if I didn't have, yes sir. Signed and delivered. JEFFERSON*: *I never signed any such contract. ALLEN*: *He certainly did. CHAIRMAN*: *Just a moment, please. EXPERT 1*: *After a long study of this signature, it is my professional opinion that it is definitely in Jefferson Smith's own handwriting. EXPERT 2*: *As an expert on handwriting, I'd say that the name of Jefferson Smith on this contract has been forged. EXPERT 3*: *I would stake my whole twenty-year professional career on the fact that this is not a forgery, but is Mr. Smith's own signature. PAINE*: *This is a very painful duty for me. This boy is the son of my very best friend. I sponsered him in the Senate. I helped him frame his bill and on the day he presented it, I went over to congratulate him. But I pointed out that a dam was already going up on the very sight in which he'd chosen for his camp. There are hundred equally good camp sights nearby, so I suggested he choose another. He became furious. He said, "Move the dam!" I was amazed at his violent reactions. I couldn't understand it until the evidence came to me that he owned those very two-hundred acres. And, as you've heard, carefully laid plans to make an enormous profit out of the nickles and dimes scraped together by the boys of this country. Based on that, regardless for my personal feelings for the boy, my sense of duty told me that his expulsion from the Senate was the only possible answer. DIZ*: *Beautiful, that Taylor machine. CHAIRMAN*: *Senator Smith, please. Will you take the chair, please? The committee is ready to hear you now, Senator Smith. Keep your seats, gentleman. The committee has not adjourned yet. Quiet. Freeze! McGANN*: *Well, see, the funniest thing you ever saw, that Ranger never knew what hit him when Jim Taylor opened up on him. (01:24:50) ** TAYLOR*: *Well, which one of you girls wants this? Well, do you want it? JEFFERSON*: *Oh. SAUNDERS*: *Hello. JEFFERSON*: *Hello, Saunders. SAUNDERS*: *You know, I had a hunch I'd find you here. When you weren't any place else. JEFFERSON*: *How've you been Saunders? SAUNDERS*: *Oh. All right. JEFFERSON*: *Your husband, how's he? SAUNDERS*: *What? Oh, ole' Diz, well we're not married. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, right. SAUNDERS*: *You know, it's a good thing I got back to, when I did. You know what I found waiting for me? JEFFERSON*: *No. SAUNDERS*: *A jar of preserves from your mother. JEFFERSON*: *Oh, you did. Huh? SAUNDERS*: *Yeah. JEFFERSON*: *Well, was it strawberry? SAUNDERS*: *Uh-huh. JEFFERSON*: *Yeah, that's, it's the best kind. SAUNDERS*: *Well, I, uh, I see by the papers, you certainly got to be a Senator. JEFFERSON*: *You sure had the right idea about me, Saunders. You told me to go back home, keep filling those kids full of hope, eh? Yeah. Just a simple guy you said, still wet behind the ears. A lot of junk about American ideals. Yeah, it's certainly a lot of junk, all right. SAUNDERS*: *Now, look Senator. JEFFERSON*: *I don't know. This is a whole new world to me. What are you gonna believe in when a man like Paine, Senator Joseph Paine gets up and swears that I've been robbing kids of nickels and dimes. A man I've admired and worshipped all my life. Yeah, a lot of fancy words around this town. Some of 'em are carved in stone, some of 'em...guess the Taylor's and Paine's put 'em up there so that suckers like me could read them. Then, when you find out what men actually do, I'm getting out of this town so fast...away from all the words, and the monuments and the whole rotten show. SAUNDERS*: *I see. When you get home, what are you gonna tell those kids? JEFFERSON*: *I'll tell them the truth, they might as well find it out now than later. SAUNDERS*: *I don't think they'll believe you, Jeff. You know, they're libel to look up at you with hurt faces and say, Jeff, what did you do? Quit? Didn't you do something about it? JEFFERSON*: *Well, what do you expect me to do? An honorary stooge like me, gives the Taylor's and Paine's and machines and lies... SAUNDERS*: *You're friend Mr. Lincoln had his Taylor's and Paine's...so did every other man who tried to lift his thought up off the ground. Odds against him didn't stop those men, they were fools that way. All the good that ever came in this world came from fools with faith like that, you know that Jeff. You can't quit now, not you. They aren't all Taylor's and Paine's in Washington. That kind just throw big shadows, that's all. You didn't just have faith in Paine or any other living man, you had faith in something bigger than that. You had plain, decent, everyday common rightness and this country could use some of that. Yeah. So could the whole cock-eyed world right now, a lot of it! Remember the first day you got here, remember what you said about Mr. Lincoln? You said, "he was sitting up there, waiting for someone to come along..." you were right. He was waiting for a man who could see his job and sail into it. That's what he was waiting for. A man who could tear into the Taylor's and rule 'em out into the open. I think he was waiting for you, Jeff. He knows you can do it, so do I. JEFFERSON*: *What? Do what Saunders? SAUNDERS*: *You just make up your mind your not going to quit and I'll tell you what. I've been thinking about it all the way back here. It's a forty foot dive into a tub of water but, I think you can do it. (01:30:00) ** JEFFERSON*: *Clarissa. Where can we get a drink? SAUNDERS*: *Now you're talking. Come on over to my place. CLERK*: *Mr. Dearborn? DEARBORN*: *Here. CLERK*: *Mr. Drenall? DRENALL*: *Here. CLERK*: *Mr. Dwight? DWIGHT*: *Here. CLERK*: *Mr. Erlich? SWEENEY*: *No sight of Smith today? Where's the drums? Where's the guillotine? In fact, where's Smith? DIZ*: *Smith hasn't stopped running since he left that Committee room. CLERK*: *Mr. Singleton? SINGLETON*: *Here. CLERK*: *Mr. Smith? JEFFERSON*: *Here. DIZ*: *You know, that guys batty. PRESIDENT*: *The clerk will continue with the roll call. CLERK*: *Mr. Williams? WILLIAMS*: *Here. CLERK*: *Mr. Wilson? DIZ*: *Here comes Saunders. Hi. Is this some of your shananigan? SAUNDERS*: *Shh. DIZ*: *What's the matter? SAUNDERS*: *Pray, Diz. If you know how. DIZ*: *Did you have anything to do with bringing that guy in here? Are you crazy? PRESIDENT*: *Ninety Senators have answered to their names. Quorum is present. Proceeding now to the regular order. McPHERSON*: *Mr. President! PRESIDENT*: *Senator McPhereson. McPHERSON*: *I desire to call up the report of the Committee on Privileges and Elections on the expulsion of Jefferson Smith. PRESIDENT*: *The clerk will read the report. CLERK*: *The Committee on Privileges and Elections reports that it appears to the satisfaction of the committee, after hearing a number of witnesses, that justice to the Senate requires that Jefferson Smith no longer continue a member of this body. They therefore, report this resolution with the recommendation that the same do pass. Resolved, that Jefferson Smith be expelled from his seat in the Senate. AGNEW*: *Mr. President. I move for the immediate adoption of the resolution. JEFFERSON*: *Mr. President! MARTIN*: *Mr. President! JEFFERSON*: *I addressed the chair first, sir! MARTIN*: *I am about to ask for a roll call on the passage of the resolution without further delay. JEFFERSON*: *Mr. President! MARTIN*: *The Senator can have nothing to say at this time that would not be either in bad grace or... PRESIDENT*: *However, Senator Smith is still a member of this body and as such, has equal claim on the attention of this chair. JEFFERSON*: *You were about to recognize me, sir. PRESIDENT*: *That is merely your impression, Senator. SAUNDERS*: *Let him speak! PRESIDENT*: *Order! Before proceeding, I should like to remind the visitors in the galley that they are here as guests and should conduct themselves such. And I might add that their sentiment will in no way affect the judgement of this chair. The chair recognizes, Senator Smith. JEFFERSON*: *Thank you, sir. SAUNDERS*: *Diz, here we go. JEFFERSON*: *Well, the gentlemen are in a pretty tall hurry to get me outta here. And the way the evidence is piled up against me, I can't say that I blame them much. And I'm willing to go, sir...when they vote it that way. But, before that happens, I've got a few things I want to say to this body. I tried to say them once before and I got stopped colder than a mackerel. Well, I'd like to get them said this time, sir. And as a matter of fact, I'm not going to leave this body until I do get them said. PAINE*: *Mr. President! Will the Senator yield? PRESIDENT*: *Will Senator Smith yield to... JEFFERSON*: *No, sir! I'm afraid not! No sir, I yielded the floor once before, if you can remember and was practically never heard of again. No, sir. And we might as well get on this yielding business right off the bat now. I had some pretty good coaching last night and I find that if I yield for only a question or a point of order or a personal privilege, I find that I can hold this floor almost until doomsday. In other words, I've got a piece to speak and blow hot or cold, I'm gonna speak it. PAINE*: *Will the Senator yield? PRESIDENT*: *Will Senator Smith yield to... JEFFERSON*: *Yield how, sir? PAINE*: *Yield for a question. JEFFERSON*: *For a question, all right. PAINE*: *I wish to ask my junior colleague this 'piece' he intends to speak, does it concern Section Forty of that bill or dam or Willet Creek? JEFFERSON*: *It does! PAINE*: *Every aspect of this matter, the gentleman's attack on that section, everything was dealt with in Committee hearing. JEFFERSON*: *Mr. President? PAINE*: *I wish to ask my distinguished colleague, has he one scrap of evidence to add now, to the defense he did not give and could not give at that same hearing? JEFFERSON*: *I have no defense against forged papers. PAINE*: *Committee ruled otherwise. The gentleman stands guilty, as charged. And I believe I speak for every member when I say that no one cares to hear what a man with his condemned character has to say about any section of any legislation before this house. SENATORS*: *Yeah! Right you are. PRESIDENT*: *Order, gentlemem. JEFFERSON*: *Mr. President. I stand guilty as framed! Because Section Forty is graft. And I was ready to say so. I was ready to tell you, that a certain man in my state...a Mr. James Taylor wanted to put through this dam for his own profit. A man who controls a political machine and controls everything else worth controlling in my state. Yes, and a man even powerful enough to control congressmen and I saw three of 'em in his room, the day I went up to see him. (01:35:08) ** PAINE*: *Will the Senator yield? JEFFERSON*: *No sir, I will not yield. And this same man, Mr. James Taylor came down here and offered me a seat in this Senate for the next twenty years if I voted for a dam that he knew, and I knew was a fraud. But if I dared to open my mouth against that dam, he promised to break me in two. All right, I got up here and started to open my mouth and the long and powerful arm of Mr. James Taylor reached into this sacred chamber and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck... PAINE*: *Mr. President? A point of order. JEFFERSON*: *Mr. President. PRESIDENT*: *Senator Paine will state it. PAINE*: *It was I who rose in this chamber to accuse him. He's saying that I was cutting out criminal orders on falsified evidence. JEFFERSON*: *No, Mr. President. PAINE*: *He has imputed to make conduct unworthy a Senator. And I demand that he be made to yield the floor. JEFFERSON*: *Mr. President I did not say that Senator Paine was one of the congressmen in that room. PAINE*: *I was in that room! PRESIDENT*: *Order gentlemen. PAINE*: *I accuse this man, by his tone, by his careful denials, he is deliberately trying to plant damaging impressions of my conduct. I'll tell you why we were in that room. Because Mr. Taylor, a respected citizen of our state, had brought with him the evidence against this man, and we were urging him to resign. Why? To avoid bringing disgrace upon a clean and honorable state. But he refused. JEFFERSON*: *Mr. President, have I the floor? PAINE*: *We knew there was only one answer to a man like him. The truth. Which I rose and gave to this body. Mr. President, he is trying to blackmail this Senate as he tried to blackmail me. To prevent his expulsion he'll probably even try to hold up this deficiency bill, vital to the whole country which must be passed immediately, today. JEFFERSON*: *Have I the floor? PAINE*: *Gentlemen, I have lost all patience with this brazen character. I apologize to this body for his appointment. I forget I ever knew him. I am sick and tired of this contemptual young man and I refuse to stay here and listen to him any longer. I hope every member of this body feels as I do. SENATORS*: *Yield the floor. PRESIDENT*: *Gentlemen. Gentlemen. Please address the chair. AGNEW*: *Mr. President, what does the gentleman want with this body? JEFFERSON*: *I'll tell you what I want, sir. I want a chance to talk to people who will believe me. The people of my state. They know me and they know Mr. Taylor. And when they hear my story they'll rise up and they'll kick Mr. Taylor's machine to kingdom come. Now I want one week to go back there and bring you proof that I am right. And in the mean time, I want the Senate's promise that I will not be expelled and that the Deficiency Bill will not be passed. AGNEW*: *Will the Senator yield? JEFFERSON*: *For a question. AGNEW*: *Has the gentleman the affrontery to stand there convicted and in disgrace and try to force postponement of the Deficiency Bill? JEFFERSON*: *For one week. SENATOR 1*: *Mr. President, I appeal to the Senator. Is he fully aware that this bill has been months in both houses, delayed and delayed. Why, millions will be without food and shelter, public works will be at a standstill. SENATOR 2*: *Are we gonna keep relief from the country? JEFFERSON*: *The people of my state need permanent relief from crooked men riding their backs. SENATOR 3*: *Mr. President, if the Senate yields to this sort of blackmail at this time, from this man, it'll become a laughing stock. AGNEW*: *It is an insult to this body to have to listen. An insult to out colleague, Senator Paine. I for one, will follow the Senator's example, and refuse to remain in this chamber as long as that man holds the floor. PRESIDENT*: *Order gentlemen. JEFFERSON*: *Alright sir, I guess I'll just have to speak to the people of my state from right here. And I'll tell your one thing, that wild horses aren't gonna drag me off this floor until those people have heard everything I have got to say, even if it takes all winter. PRESS*: *Filibuster. JEFFERSON*: *Well, Mr. President, we seem to be alone. I-I'm not complaining for social reasons, it's just I-I think it'd be a pity if these gentlemen missed any of this and...and uh...I-I call the chairs attention to...rule five of the Standing Rules of the Senate, Section Three. If it shall be found that a quorum is not present, a majority of the Senators present, and that looks like me, uh-uh, may direct the Sargeant at Arms to request and if necessary compell the attendance of the absence Senators. Well, Mr. President, I so direct. PRESIDENT*: *The absence of a quorum being suggested, ring the call to quorum. (01:40:00) ** CAUSHIN*: *Call to quorum. PAGEBOYS*: *Quorum call. Calling quorum. JEFFERSON*: *It's no hurry Mr. Presdient. I've got plenty of time. PAGEBOYS*: *Quorum call. All Senators wanted on the floor. PRESIDENT*: *Clerk will call the roll. CLERK*: *Mr. Agnew. AGNEW*: *Here. CLERK*: *Mr. Albert. ALBERT*: *Here. CLERK*: *Mr. Alford. ALFORD*: *Here. CLERK*: *Mr. Ashpin. ASHPIN*: *Here. DIZ*: *Hello, Joe. Yeah, get this. Smith got the floor and is holding it. Yeah, just as they were about to kick him out. SAUNDERS*: *He did it, Diz! He did it! It's wonderful. DIZ*: *Isn't it terrific! A filibuster. This is the miracle I wanted. What a... SAUNDERS*: *Darrel, just get everything he's saying back to that home state, will ya'. DARREL*: *Honey, it's my pleasure. DIZ*: *Sweetheart, they're going to hear this in Patagonia. In protest, the whole Senate body rose and walked out. SAUNDERS*: *No, not that straight stuff. Now listen. Kick it up. Get on his side. Fight for him. Understand? DIZ*: *You love this monkey, don't ya'? SAUNDERS*: *What do you think? Now listen, go to work and do as I tell you. DIZ*: *Okay. Throw out that last, take this. This is the most Titanic battle of modern times. A David without even a slingshot rises to do battle against the mighty Goliath, the Taylor machine, allegedly crooked inside and out. Yeah, and for my money you can cut out the allegedly. TAYLOR ASSISTANT*: *We're bringing everybody up from state headquarters. TAYLOR*: *Alright, where are they? Come on get these telefaxes moving. Did you get Hendricks? TAYLOR ASSISTANT 2*: *They're looking for him. TAYLOR*: *They're looking for him, an editor. Why isn't he at his desk, where he belongs? Joe, don't you think you'd better go back into that Senate? PAINE*: *Jim, the boy's talking to that straight. If he can raise public opinion against us, if any part of this sticks... TAYLOR*: *Nah, he'll never get started. I'll make public opinion out there within five hours. I've done it all of my life. I'll blacken this punk so, that he'll...You leave public opinion to me. Now Joe, I think you better go back into the Senate and keep those Senators lined up. PAINE*: *I hit him from the floor with everything I knew. Besides I haven't got the stomach for it anymore. TAYLOR*: *If he even starts to convince those Senators you might as well blow your brains out, you know that, don't ya'? This is the works, Joe. Either we're out of business or we're bigger than we ever were before. We can't miss a trick. We can't stop at anything until we've smashed this yokel and buried him alive... TAYLOR ASSISTANT*: *...Jackson City, Hendricks on the phone. TAYOR*: *Go ahead back to the Senate, will you Joe. Hello, Hendricks. Well, the chips are down. I want you to keep everything that Smith says or any other pro-Smith stuff coming from Washington out of all of our newspapers, do you understand? And out of all the others you can line up in the state. Yeah. And those broken-down opposition papers, that cockeyed crusading bunch that don't want to play ball with us, I want you to tie up for twenty-four hours. Uh, stall their deliveries, push 'em off the streets, I don't care what you do, just bury 'em for twenty- four hours. That'll give me plenty of time. And you? Well you defend the machine, hit this guy. Oh, the usual thing. Criminal and blocking a relief bill and starving the people. Joe, will you get back into that Senate. Hendricks, get the hoipaloi excited, have 'em send protests, letters, wires, anything you like. And buy up every minute you can get get of every two-bit radio station you can get in the state and keep them spouting against Smith. I don't care what it costs, pay out! Come on, get moving! Get the whole state moving! HEADLINES READ*: *Smith Disgraces State...in vicious attack on beloved Senator Paine Smith stops relief, Blocks Deficiency Bill. Jailbird Defies Nation, The Poor Starve... RADIO ANNOUNCER 1*: *This filibuster is a cowardly attempt to turn you attention from the true facts which have been established beyond question. RADIO ANNOUNCER 2*: *Jefferson Smith was caught red-handed, stealing from boys. RADIO ANNOUNCER 3*: *Relief will be stopped. Men will be thrown out of jobs. SENATOR 1*: *I've seen filibustering but... AGNEW*: *Ah, Smith can't go on, it's ridiculous. SENATOR 2*: *Henry, we've got to get this man off the floor. PRESIDENT*: *Boys, as long as Mr. Smith holds that floor legitimately he's gonna continue to hold it. If you ask me, that young fella is making a whole lotta sense. PAINE*: *Sense? You call blackmail "sense", Henry? MARTIN*: *Now look, Joe, I didn't like this boy from the beginning. But most of us feel that no man who wasn't sincere could stage a fight like this, against these impossible odds. PAINE*: *Well, I'm very glad to know that Martin. After twenty years work with you fellas I am very glad to know that your ready to take his word against mine. That's fine. MARTIN*: *Oh, ridiculous. PAINE*: *Oh yes, that's what it means. If he is justthat much right then I am wrong. SENATOR 3*: *Joe, listen. Can't we work out some deal to pull that Willet Dam out and let the Deficiency Bill go through? PAINE*: *It isn't a question of Willet Dam. It's a question of my honor an reputation. And the integrity of the Committee on Priviledges and Elections. The integrity of the Senate itself. If you want to throw out Section 40, go ahead. I'll resign, we'll have the whole thing over with. SENATORS*: *Wait a minute. SENATOR 4*: *Wait, wait, wait a minute. This is a lot of nonsense. Joe is right. A deal is impossible. We've go to go on as we've been doing and break him. Keep him talking, no relief, maintain a quorum in relays. Is that how you feel, John? JOHN*: *For once I agree with you. Gentlemen, it's time to relieve the men on the floor. SENATOR*: *How a man as green as that knows as much as he does... SENATOR*: *It can't go on much longer. JEFFERSON*: *...and they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights and that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of...it looks like the night shift is coming on. PRESIDENT*: *The Senate will please suspend until order is restored in the chamber. (01:45:06) ** H.B.COLTONBOR*: *This is H.B. Coltonbor speaking. Half of official Washington is here to see democracy's finest Joe, a filibuster. The right to talk your head off. The American priviledge of free speech in its most dramatic form. The least man in that chamber, once he gets and holds that floor by the rules, can hold it, and talk as long as he can stand on his feet. Providing always, first that he does not sit down, second that he does not leave the chamber or stop talking. The galleries are packed. In the diplomatic gallery are the envoys of two dictator powers, they have come here to see what they can't see at home- Democracy in action. JEFFERSON*: *...Ah, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. And to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the government, and whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. How am I doing? TAYLOR*: *Now quit stalling and move. TAYLOR ASSISTANT 1*: *Phone, Jim. TAYLOR*: *Hello. TAYLOR ASSISTANT 2*: *Mr. Taylor. TAYLOR*: *Wait a minute. Well, talk to Paine about it. TAYLOR ASSISTANT 2*: *Yes, sir. TAYLOR*: *Hello, Clark. This is Jim Taylor in Washington. Now, about this Smith filibuster. Your chain of nespapers in the Southwest must realize that this bill he is trying to block will affect your section as well as any. It's the patriotic duty of every newspaper in the country. Hello, wait a minute. Yes? SECRETARY*: *Jackson city calling. TAYLOR*: *Hold 'em. We've got to keep Henry at this man until we smash him. JEFFERSON*: *I always get a great kick out of that part of the Declaration of Independence. Now, your not gonna a country that can make these kinds of rules work, if you haven't got men that have learned to tell human rights from a punch in the nose. DIZ*: *That's good for a headline. JEFFERSON*: *It's the funny thing about men, ya' know. They all start life being boys. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some of these Senators were boys once. That's why it seemed like a pretty good idea to me to get the boys out of crowded cities, and stuffy basements for a couple of months out of the year. And build their bodies and minds for man size jobs because those boys are gonna be bhind these desks some of these days. It seemed like a pretty good idea. Getting boys from all over the country, boys of all nationalities and ways of living. Getting them together. Let them find out what makes different people tick the way they do. Because I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules if behind them they didn't have a little bit of plain, ordinary everyday kindness and a little looking out for the other fellow, too. That's pretty important, all that. It's just the blood and bone and sinew of this democracy that some great men handed down to the human race, that's all. But of course, if you've got to build a dam where that boys camp ought to be, to get some graft to pay off some political army or something, well that's a different thing. Oh no, if you think I'm going back there and tell those boys in my state, and say, "Look, now fellas forget about it, forget all this stuff I've been telling you about this land you live in, is a lot of hooey. this isn't your country, it belongs to a lot of James Taylors". Oh, no. Not me. And anybody here that thinks I'm gonna do that they got another thing coming. That's alright, I just wanted to find out whether you still had faces. I'm sorry gentlemen, I know I'm being disrespectful to this honorable body, I know that, I...a guy like me should never be allowed to get in here in the first place, I know that. And I hate to stand here and try your patience like this but... either I'm dead right or I'm crazy. SENATOR 1*: *You wouldn't car to put that to a vote, would you Senator? SENATOR 2*: *Would the Senator yield for a question? JEFFERSON*: *I yield. SENATOR 2*: *In view of the gentleman's touching concern for the Senators, and in view of the fact that he has been talking for seven and one half hours and must be very, very tired, would he permit a motion to recess until the morning? At which time, he may be better able to continue with his profound babblings. SAUNDERS*: *No, no, don't. Don't. Ask him. Ask, ask him. JEFFERSON*: *Uh, Mr. President, what happens to me in the morning? I mean about my having this floor, to go on with my babblings? PRESIDENT*: *If the Senator permits this motion for recess, he won't have the floor in the morning to babble with or anything else. Unless he is recognized first. JEFFERSON*: *Uh, huh. As I was saying gentlemen, I'm either dead right or I'm crazy. And I feel fine. What do ya' got, Dick? DICK*: *Miss Saunders. JEFFERSON*: *Oh. (01:50:00) ** BOOK INSCRIPTION Jeff- You're wonderful. Press boys all with you - Read them Constitution next very slow. Diz says I'm in love with you. He's right. SENATOR*: *Is the Senator yielding the floor? JEFFERSON*: *Yield the... Oh no, oh no. Hey, I feel fine. The Constitution of the United States. Page one, top left hand corner. We the People of the United States in order to form a more perfect union... TAYLOR*: *Yeah, well buy it or wreck it. DIZ*: *...column two! Holy smokes. SAUNDERS*: *What's the matter Diz? DIZ*: *You're kidding. This is murder. You gotta call him off. He's getting nowhere. SAUNDERS*: *What are you talking about? DIZ*: *Not one word of what he's saying is being printed in that state. SAUNDERS*: *Oh, no Diz. DIZ*: *Taylor has practically every paper in the state lined up and he's feeding them doctored up junk. SAUNDERS*: *One man muzzling a whole state? DIZ*: *And how? SAUNDERS*: *Freedom of the press. Wait a minute. I've got an idea. Come on. Jeff has a paper there, Boys Stuff, right? DIZ*: *Terrific. SAUNDERS*: *Well, look. They aren't letting what Jeff says get printed in the state. Now if I give you a raft of it over the phone right now,(To Diz)Write me a front page raft, will ya' Diz, can you print it up and spread a billion copies of it? Swell. Get ready to take it down, will ya' Mrs. Smith? Alright. MRS.SMITH*: *Boys, everything about Jeff, get pencils and paper quick. SAUNDERS*: *Alright, here we go. MRS.SMITH*: *All ready, Clarissa. SAUNDERS*: *She called me Clarissa. Okay, Ma. Jeff Tells Truth. Shows Up Taylor. TAYLOR*: *I want the whole morning edition. A blast to push him off the floor. ...campaign for protest. Yeah, wire it. SAUNDERS*: *Willet Dam is a fraud to line the pockets of the Taylor machines. TAYLOR*: *Here's your front page editorial, wait a minute. A convicted thief representing you, holds the floor of the United States Senate. MRS. SMITH*: *Alright boys, hurry up. BOYS*: *Come on! BOY 1*: *Come on, bring on the bacon. JEFFERSON*: *...charity, wanteth not itself, is not puffed up. And now, abide us faith, hope charity. Of these three, the greatest of these is ""charity". BOY 2*: *Read about Jeff. BOY 3*: *...Jell, maam. TAYLOR WORKER*: *Boyscout circulation. Peddled by nine million kids. MCGANN*: *What are you standing there for? Get the boys out. Kill it. TAYLOR WORKER*: *Yes, sir. BOY 4*: *Jeff'll never stop fellas. TAYLOR WORKER*: *Come on boys, get these papers out of here. NEWSPAPER PEDDLER*: *Read all about it. Jeff Smith lies in Senate. TAYLOR PUBLICITY ANNOUNCER*: *Wire Congress. Wire Congress. Wire Congress. Wire Congress. Wire Congress. Wire Congress. KENNETH ALLEN*: *Are we gonna let a man like that murder Joe Paine? CONSTITUENTS*: *No! KENNETH ALLEN*: *Are you for Joe Paine? CONSTITUENTS*: *Yes! BOY 5*: *Hurray for Jeff Smith! (01:55:10) ** MRS. SMITH*: *Children hurt all over the city. Tell Jeff to stop! SAUNDERS*: *Yes. Yes, alright. Yes, goodbye. H.B. COLTONBOR*: *Senator Smith has now talked for twenty three hours and sixteen minutes. It is the most unusual and spectacular thing in the Senate anals. One lone and simple American holding the greatest floor in the land. What he lacked in experience, he's made up in fight. But those tired, Boy Ranger legs are buckling, bleary eyed, voice gone, he can't go on much longer. And all official Washington is here to be in on the kill. JEFFERSON*: *There's no compromise with truth. That's all I got up from this floor to say. When was it? A year ago it seems like. SAUNDERS*: *Diz, I'm afraid terrible things are happening, I've got to stop it. DIZ*: *They are listening to him. Anything might happen now. JEFFERSON*: *Just get up off the ground. That's all I ask. Get up there with that lady that's up on top of this capital dome. That lady that stands for Liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something. And you won't just see scenery. You'll see the whole parade of what man's carved out for himself after centuries of fighting. And fighting for something better than just jungle law. Fighting so he can stand on his own two feet, free and decent. Like it was created. No matter what his race, color or creed. That's what you'd see. There's no place out there for graft, or greed or lies. Or compromise with human liberties. If that's what the grownups have done with this world that was given to them, then we'd better get those boys camps started fast and see what the kids can do. And it's not too late. Because this country is bigger than the Taylors, or you or me or anything else. Great priciples don't get lost once they come to light. They are right here. You just have to see them again. PAINE*: *Mr. President. Will the Senator yield for a question? PRESIDENT*: *Will Senator Smith yield to his colleague? JEFFERSON*: *I yield for a question. PAINE*: *The Senator has said repeatedly that he is speaking to the people of his state. He has been waiting, as he so fancifully puts it, for them to come marching here in droves. Would the gentleman be interested in knowing what those people have to say? SAUNDERS*: *Here it comes, Diz. JEFFERSON*: *Yes, sir. You bet I would. PAINE*: *Mr. President. Have I permission to bring into this chamber evidence of the response from my state? MR. PRESDENT*: *Is there objection? You may proceed, Senator. PAINE*: *Pageboys. SENATOR*: *Come on boys. On your feet. All of you. SAUNDERS*: *I can't stand it, Diz. I can't stand to see him hurt like this. JOURNALIST*: *Public opinion-made to order. DIZ*: *Yeah, Taylor-made. PAINE*: *There it is. There's the gentleman's answer. Telegrams. Fifty thousand of them. Demanding that he yield this floor. I invite the Senate to read them. I invite my colleague to read them. The people's answer to Mr. Jefferson Smith. SAUNDERS*: *Stop Jeff! Stop! (02:00:12) ** JEFFERSON*: *I guess this is just another lost cause, Mr. Paine. All you people don't know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for. And he fought for them once. For the only reason any man ever fights for them. Because of just one plain, simple rule. Love thy neighbor. And in this world today, full of hatred, a man who knows that one rule has a great trust. You know that rule Mr. Paine. And I loved you for it just as my father did. And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than any for any others. Yes, you even die for them. Like a man we both knew, Mr. Paine. You think I'm licked. You all think I'm licked. Well I'm not licked and I'm gonna stay right here and fight for this lost cause. Even if this room gets filled with lies like these. And the Taylor's and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody'll listen to me. Some... SAUNDERS*: *Oh, Jeff. SENATOR*: *He's okay. He just fainted. DICK*: *Okay. PAINE*: *Let me go. SENATOR*: *What's the matter? PAINE*: *I'm not fit to be a Senator. I'm not fit to live. It's for me. It's for me, not him. Willet Dam is a fraud. It's a crime against the people who sent me here. And I committed it. Every word that boy said is the truth. Every word about Taylor, and me and graft. And the rotten political corruption in my state. Every word of it is true. I'm not fit for office. I'm not fit for any place of honor or trust. SENATORS*: *No. No. PAINE*: *It's for me. It's for me. SAUNDERS*: *Hooray, we did it. DIZ*: *...I've got to...I've got to write this story.. MR. PRESIDENT*: *Order gentlemen. Please. SAUNDERS*: *Hooray, he did it! DIZ*: *Let go of me. SAUNDERS*: *Yipee! THE END