Roeder Poeder

funny

“It was more like art, painting those dials. We were artists.”

“I’m not really the one you should be talking to. Von Sochocky. He’s the one you should talk to.”

“Now, Arthur. You know he won’t talk to us.”

“It was his process.”

“Tell me about that process, Arthur. You used a powder…”

“We used a powder. The girls mixed it with an adhesive to make the paint. And that business with the brushes—I didn't invent that. They were doing that when I started there.”

“But you knew about it.”

“We all knew about it. We just didn’t realize what it meant.”

“Mr. Roeder. Perhaps you have some words for the girls? Mrs. MacNeil?”

“Well. Girls. This paint you’ve been playing with. It’s very expensive. You realize this? It takes several tons of ore to produce a single gram of radium. That’s a lot of work—hard work for the men in the extraction plant. But they do this work gladly. You understand why? Why they work so hard? What are we all working for?”

“The war?”

“That’s right. The war. The dials you paint save lives, girls. Our boys in the field depend on them. To read them in the dark, no mistaking what they see. Otherwise… some of those boys won’t be coming home. So, girls. If you play around and don’t take the work seriously… well, you’re playing into the hands of the Kaiser. And we don’t want that, do we?”

“No sir.. Oh, no! Etc.”

“So let’s get back to work now and leave the tomfoolery to home.”

“Mr. Roeder? I just—I just wanted to say. I—I am sorry. I won’t do nothin’ like this ever again.”

“Well, dear. Just keep this in mind: If you do right by us, we’ll do right by you.” (End of Scene 1)

“…where President Harding will present the gift—of one gram of radium!”

“You see that, Charlie? That is a marketing opportunity! Let’s send her one of our customer’s watches. Courtesy, the United States Radium Corporation!”

“We’ll need a press release.”

“Radium isn’t just for scientists to study. The average American can share in its glory every night. Luminous watches, luminous clocks! Anyone who thinks these are just novelties, consider all the other advances that have taken place in the past 50 years—the electric light. The telegraph—”

“The telephone!”

“The automobile! Inventions all once dismissed as novelties—as toys—”

“—are now essentials to modern life. Got it. That ought to sell some watches.”

“Watches, absolutely. But that’s not where the growth is now, Charlie. You heard the lady, it’s the medical market.”

“And Standard Chemical owns it.”

“Only because Von Sochocky lets them take it. But if we wanted to, we could get half their business. It’s just a matter of positioning.”

“Standard Chemical publishes its own journal. Sends it out monthly—to twelve thousand doctors. We could do something similar.”

“Something scholarly. That the doctors would respect.”

“A bibliography. Listing every article ever published on radium…”

“But with Capsule reports—to save the doctors time. They’d get the information, find it fast—”

“And have us to thank for it.”

“We’ll send it to every doctor in the U.S. Radium Society.”

“Every doctor in the American Medical Association.”

“That’s the spirit, Charlie. Advertising. That’s the wave of the future. It’s not just the product—it’s about the way you promote it. (End of Scene 2)

“Girls, girls! Your attention, please. The gentlemen are here to make an announcement.”

“Thank you, Mrs. MacNeil. Girls, we are here to put a few rumors to rest.”

“—and to explain some changes, ja?”

“Yes. as some of you may have heard by now, Dr. Von Sochocky is stepping down—and he wanted to take this opportunity—”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

“Yes, thank you, Doctor. Now, girls. The doctor is a busy man and must be on his way. So let’s wish him the best of luck in his new business ventures! Very good, then, girls—”

“To the plate he steps as your new company president! Our congratulations to you.”

“Thank you.”

“When Mr. Roeder came four years ago to us, I saw in him a young man of great enterprise—”

“Thank you—”

“And great ambition!”

“Yes, thank—”

“One of the things that makes this country great is the opportunity it presents to a young man… and his friends.”

“And so, girls—”

“With the slowdown in dialpainting—”

“Now, Doctor—”

“And business moving into the medical market, there’s going to be lots of changes, ja?”

“What the doctor is referring to… some of our larger customers are setting up their own dialpainting studios.

“Which means less work for our girls here.”

“In the short run. Things may be slower here. However, the Waterbury Clock Company in Connecticut will need help setting up its new studio. We were intending to make an announcement next week. We’ll make it now. Mrs. MacNeil?”

“Uh. Well. We’ll be askin’ some of you girls to go on up there.”

“The work is supervisory in nature, which means more pay. You have some girls in mind?”

“I have the entire list downstairs. I’ll post it today?”

“Fine. There you have it, girls. As we are all on the clock… we’ll leave you to your work.” (End of Scene 3)

“Only by virtue of employment.”

“Except she’s got a good lawyer.”

“Left six months ago.”

“This makes four now.”

“Three.”

“Four if you count the Maggia girl.”

“I wouldn’t include her.”

“She worked here.”

“She also worked other places. And what she died from— you couldn’t pick it up here. At least, I don’t think you can.

“That’s not funny, Charlie. Besides, that’s just idle talk.”

“Three, then. And how many dead?”

“Only Miss Maggia. But I haven’t heard from her people.”

“It’s too late for them anyway. The statute of limitations is two years. But Miss Kuser is another story. She’s in a position to make some trouble now.”

“In all the time I’ve worked here, nobody has so much as slipped on the floor. And now this.”

“We’re talking about four girls. Out of how many hundreds that we’ve employed?”

“Six, seven hundred. Over the years.”

“And some of them were sick when they got here." One girl you hired was a complete cripple. Couldn’t even climb the stairs. Her father carried her up to the studio every morning.”

“It didn’t make any difference to me how she got up the stairs—she was a fast worker and a very sweet little girl.”

“But she was in poor health.”

“She needed the work.”

“Arthur, Charlie.”

“And not just the money. To feel productive. To have a purpose. That’s what work does, Charlie. It gives us a purpose. I don’t see any reason why we should stop hiring girls like that.”

“When they get sick and try to blame us for it—you might want to reconsider that policy.”

“Let’s see what Dr. Drinker has to say.”

“Some professor at the Harvard School of Industrial Hygiene.”

“He chairs the department. And he’s agreed to take a look at our operations.”

“Don’t you think we’re jumping the gun quite a bit, hiring him?”

“We’ve had six girls quit this week. And Mrs. MacNeil tells me there could be more.”

“Girls come and go all the time.”

“It’s never been like this. These girls are terrified. We’ve got to do something to calm them.”

“Letting Drinker examine them? That sounds to me like a recipe for mass hysteria.”

“We’ll tell them it’s a routine physical. Edward?”

“Companies give physicals all the time.”

“Then Drinker will start next month.”

“In the meantime, I recommend we make an offer to Miss Kuser.”

“Settle?”

“You think this will affect the stock offering?” “Don’t you?”

“Wonderful. We’ll open at thirty and close at ten.”

“Maybe we better do it.”

“Suppose that lawyer has a racket going? He finds sick girls and talks them into making suits. Then we reward him for his larceny.”

“From the sound of that letter, I don’t think the girl has long to live anyway.”

“So it would be a gesture of decency, then.”

“Exactly.”

“What do you think we should offer?” (End of Scene 5)

“There he is! Papa! Papa!”

“Harriet!”

“Papa! I can see clear to the church!”

“Can you? Do you see your grandfather?”

“You think this is funny?”

“She’s enjoying herself.”

“HARRIET!”

“Tell you what. If she has no one to shout to… she won’t shout.”

“They can hear her all over the neighborhood.”

“Can they?”

“When she comes down, I want you to speak to her.”

“She’s nine years old, Diane.”

“I’m trying to raise a daughter, not a son.”

“Time is on your side. In another year or two, she’ll lose all interest in trees… and develops a fascination with boys."

“That’s supposed to scare me.”

“And when that day comes, you’ll be frantic. Because she no longer wants to climb trees.”

“What’s this?”

“Something to give you vitality.”

“You think I need vitality?”

“That’s what it says on the bottle.”

“Is it pure?”

“We’re his supplier. Want to try it?”

“If it will give me vitality—how could I refuse? Your father came by to see me today.”

“Another hard-luck case.”

“Four children at home. All under the age of six.”

“Let me guess—wife in the hospital with cancer.”

“Yes.”

“And the husband’s been laid off from, let’s see—the brickyard.”

“Yes!”

“Through no fault of his own.”

“How did you know?”

“Dad was around to see me yesterday. It’s never enough with him. Just to have ordinary ambitions. You have to have a mission in life.”

“And you do.”

“No, I have a business plan.”

“You can’t tell me you wouldn’t help this man if you could.”

“If I could. But I can’t give him a job that doesn’t exist.”

“What about Dan Lehman?”

“Dan?”

“Maybe he could use some help?”

“In the laboratory? Dan needs trained technicians—not a bricklayer. Why don’t you send him to Mrs. Middleton. Don’t you women have a social club for things like this?

“You mean the Women’s Club civics committee?”

“Right.”

“Yes, the club takes an investment in such cases. But we’re not an employment service, either. Which is why I thought you could help him.”

“Oh, you do love being married to the company president.”

“It has its advantages.”

“Ever think of trading it in?”

“Do you?”

“I got my shoes shined this morning. And while I sat there and watched the boy work, I thought: this is quite an enterprise. The work walks in, the work walks out. No inventory, no warehouse, no health inspectors, no stock price—”

“And you’ll trade all of it in for your own shoeshine stand!”

“Fewer headaches that way.”

“So you’re in one of those moods again! What is it this time? It can’t be the market. It went up today!”

“Now you’re reading the financial pages.”

“I have to entertain myself somehow. So what happened today? You’re being very strange.”

“Am I? I’m sorry.”

“You can tell me, you know.”

“Nothing to tell. Really. This is going to be our best year ever.”

“So it’s the prospect of success that you find so disheartening.”

“I’ll get my checkbook.”

“What for?”

“Your bricklayer.”

“Artie! He needs a job, not charity. What is it your father says? A working man needs to work. It wears—”

“It wears on his soul not to work. Well. If it’s a matter of his soul. That’s different. All right. I’ll have him talk to Dan.”

“Artie!”

“But I make no promises, Diane.”

“No promises.”

“To your health.” (End of Scene 8)

“To Mr. Arthur Roeder. U.S. Radium Corporation. From Cecil Drinker, Harvard University. Enclosed is our report.”

“Finally!”

“We believe the trouble in your plant is due to the radium.”

“Radium?”

“I—it can’t be as bad as all that.”

“This can’t be.”

“Once they see what kinda shape yer in…”

“This is impossible!”

“But in the view of the material in the literature…”

“It’s a mistake.”

“They can work through me, just pay my bills directly.” “You think they’d do that?”

“CHARLIE!”

“We’ll do it right now. I’ll get some paper.”

“He has to be wrong, that’s all. He’s wrong.” (Enter Charlie) “Charlie. He has to be wrong.”

“He must have overlooked something.”

“If we’re suffering from a new ailment caused by radium it should occur generally throughout the plant.”

“One would expect.”

“Several hundred milligrams are in solution at all times in the big vats, several hundred milligrams in the ore, several hundred in crystallizing.”

“The entire back yard is filled with tailings.”

“Radium is present in good amounts all over the property.”

“If it’s the radium, then the incidence of illness should be highest in the laboratory.”

“And no one there is sick.”

“Then perhaps it’s some combination of the radium with the zinc.”

“Or something peculiar to our plant alone.”

“Some kind of bacteria, perhaps? In the brushes?”

“There are dozens of application plants across the country. And none has ever reported anything like this.”

“The Department of Labor wants to see the report.”

“Yes I’m aware.”

“What are we going to do? This tears us to pieces. How do we answer them?”

“They want to see the report. We’ll send them this.”

“One page?”

“The most important page.”