- 12 years ago
Unrated | 31min | Documentary, Drama, Short, History | 4 February 1938 (USA)
This short Depression-era documentary describes the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States. It laments the environmental destruction committed in the name of progress, particularly farming and timber practices which cause massive erosion and result in vast amounts of top soil being washed down the river into the Gulf of Mexico. The film focuses especially on the impact this has had on impoverished farmers. It ends on a very upbeat note, however, with a celebration of the TVA, "modern" farming technology, and the use of dams to control the river and prevent flooding.
Director: Pare Lorentz
Writer: Pare Lorentz
Narrator: Thomas Chalmers
This short Depression-era documentary describes the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States. It laments the environmental destruction committed in the name of progress, particularly farming and timber practices which cause massive erosion and result in vast amounts of top soil being washed down the river into the Gulf of Mexico. The film focuses especially on the impact this has had on impoverished farmers. It ends on a very upbeat note, however, with a celebration of the TVA, "modern" farming technology, and the use of dams to control the river and prevent flooding.
Director: Pare Lorentz
Writer: Pare Lorentz
Narrator: Thomas Chalmers
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00♪♪
00:24From as far west as Idaho, down from the glacier peaks of the Rockies.
00:29♪♪
00:33From as far east as Pennsylvania, down from the turkey ridges of the Alleghenies.
00:38♪♪
00:41Down from Minnesota, 2,500 miles, the Mississippi River runs to the Gulf.
00:47Carrying every drop of water that flows down two-thirds the continent.
00:51♪♪
00:53Carrying every brook and rill, rivulet and creek.
00:58Carrying all the rivers that run down two-thirds the continent.
01:02The Mississippi runs to the Gulf of Mexico.
01:05♪♪
01:15Down the Yellowstone, the Milk, the White, and Cheyenne.
01:18The Cannonball, the Mussel Shell, the James, and the Sue.
01:22Down the Judith, the Grand, the Osage, and the Platte.
01:25The Skunk, the Salt, the Black, and Minnesota.
01:29Down the Rock, the Illinois, and the Kankakee.
01:31The Allegheny, the Monongahela, Kanawha, and Muskingum.
01:35Down the Miami, the Wabash, the Licking, and the Green.
01:38The Cumberland, the Kentucky, and the Tennessee.
01:40Down the Ouachita, the Wichita, the Red, and Yazoo.
01:43♪♪
01:48Down the Missouri, 3,000 miles from the Rockies.
01:53Down the Ohio, 1,000 miles from the Alleghenies.
01:58Down the Arkansas, 1,500 miles from the Great Divide.
02:03Down the Red, 1,000 miles from Texas.
02:07Down the Great Valley, 2,500 miles from Minnesota.
02:12Carrying every rivulet and brook, creek and rill.
02:16Carrying all the rivers that run down two-thirds the continent,
02:20the Mississippi runs to the goal.
02:22♪♪
02:32♪♪
02:37New Orleans to Baton Rouge.
02:40Baton Rouge to Natchez.
02:43Natchez to Vicksburg.
02:46Vicksburg to Memphis.
02:49Memphis to Cairo.
02:51We built a dike 1,000 miles long.
02:55Men and mules, mules and mud.
02:59Mules and mud 1,000 miles up the Mississippi.
03:03A century before we bought the Great Western River,
03:06the Spanish and the French built dikes to keep the Mississippi out of New Orleans at flood stage.
03:12In 40 years, we continued the levee the entire length of the Great Alluvial Delta.
03:17That mud plain that extends from the Gulf of Mexico clear to the mouth of the Ohio.
03:23The ancient valley built up for centuries by the old river spilling her floods across the bottom of the continent.
03:30A mud delta of 40,000 square miles.
03:34Men and mules, mules and mud.
03:37New Orleans to Baton Rouge.
03:39Natchez to Vicksburg.
03:40Memphis to Cairo.
03:421,000 miles up the river.
03:46And the planters brought their blacks and their plows and their cotton over to the river.
03:51Down through the boom train.
03:53Down through Cumberland Gap.
03:56Over from Georgia and South Carolina.
03:58Over from the Tidewells.
04:00Over from the old cotton land west to the big river.
04:04West to the steamboat highway.
04:07Down the highway to the sea.
04:10♪♪
04:25Corn and oats down the Missouri.
04:27Tobacco and whiskey down the Ohio.
04:30Down from Pittsburgh, down from St. Louis.
04:33Hemp and potatoes, pork and flour.
04:36We sent our commerce to the sea.
04:38♪♪
04:51We made cotton king.
04:53We rolled a million bales down the river for Liverpool and Lee.
04:571860, we rolled four million bales down the river.
05:02Rolled them off Alabama.
05:04Rolled them off Mississippi.
05:06Rolled them off Louisiana.
05:09♪♪
05:37♪♪
05:44♪♪
06:14♪♪
06:31♪♪
06:43We fought a war.
06:45We fought a war and kept the west bank of the river free of slavery forever.
06:50But we left the old south impoverished and stricken.
06:55Doubly stricken.
06:57Because besides the tragedy of war,
07:00already the frenzied cotton cultivation of a quarter of a century
07:04had taken toll of the land.
07:07We mined the soil for cotton until it would yield no more.
07:11And then moved west.
07:14We fought a war.
07:16But there was a double tragedy.
07:18The tragedy of land twice impoverished.
07:21♪♪
07:41Black spruce and Norway pine.
07:44Douglas fir and red cedar.
07:47Scarlet oak and shag bark hickory.
07:50Hemlock and aspen.
07:53There was lumber in the north.
07:55The war impoverished the old south.
07:58The railroads killed the steamboats.
08:01But there was lumber in the north.
08:04Heads up, lumber on the upper river.
08:06Heads up.
08:08Lumber enough to cover all Europe.
08:11♪♪
08:20Down from Minnesota and Wisconsin.
08:23Down to St. Paul.
08:25Down to St. Louis and St. Joe.
08:27Lumber for the new continent of the west.
08:30Lumber for the new mill.
08:31♪♪
09:01♪♪
09:14♪♪
09:27♪♪
09:53♪♪
10:04There was lumber in the north.
10:06Coal in the hill.
10:08Iron and coal down the Monongahela.
10:11Iron and coal down the Ohio.
10:13Down to Pittsburgh.
10:15Down to Wheeling.
10:17Iron and coal for the steel mill.
10:19For the railroads driving west and south.
10:21For the new cities of the great valley.
10:23♪♪
10:53♪♪
11:23We built new machinery and cleared new land in the west.
11:27Ten million bales down to the Gulf.
11:30Cotton for the spools of England and France.
11:32Fifteen million bales down to the Gulf.
11:35Cotton for the spools of Italy and Germany.
11:37♪♪
11:53We built a hundred cities and a thousand towns.
11:56St. Paul in Minneapolis.
11:58Davenport in Keokuk.
12:00Moline in Quincy.
12:02Cincinnati in St. Louis.
12:04Omaha in Kansas City.
12:05Across to the Rockies and down from Minnesota,
12:082,500 miles to New Orleans.
12:10We built a new continent.
12:12We built a new continent.
12:13♪♪
12:26♪♪
12:48Black spruce and Norway pine.
12:51Douglas fir and red cedar.
12:53Scarlet oak and shag bark hickory.
12:58We built a hundred cities and a thousand towns,
13:03but at what a cost.
13:06We cut the top off the Alleghenies
13:09and sent it down the river.
13:12We cut the top off Minnesota
13:14and sent it down the river.
13:17We cut the top off Wisconsin
13:20and sent it down the river.
13:24We left the mountains and the hills slashed and burned
13:29and moved on.
13:30♪♪
13:51♪♪
14:08For the water comes downhill,
14:10spring and fall,
14:12down from the cut over mountains,
14:15down from the plowed off slopes.
14:17♪♪
14:20From as far west as Idaho
14:22and as far east as Pennsylvania,
14:26down every brook and rill,
14:29rivulet and creek,
14:32carrying every drop of water
14:35that flows down two-thirds the continent.
14:37Nineteen-three.
14:40Nineteen-seven.
14:43Nineteen-thirteen.
14:44Nineteen-sixteen.
14:47Nineteen-twenty-two.
14:50Nineteen-twenty-seven.
14:53Nineteen-thirty-six.
14:55Nineteen-thirty-seven.
15:02Down from Pennsylvania and Ohio,
15:05Kentucky and West Virginia,
15:07Missouri and Illinois,
15:09down from North Carolina and Tennessee,
15:11down the Judith, the Grand,
15:12the Osage and the Platte,
15:14the Rock, the Salt,
15:16the Black in Minnesota,
15:18down the Monongahela,
15:20the Allegheny, Chenoa and Muskingum,
15:22the Miami, the Wabash,
15:24the Licking and the Green,
15:26the White, the Wolf,
15:28the Cash and the Black,
15:30down the Corn, Kaskaskia,
15:32the Red and Yazoo,
15:34down the Cumberland, Kentucky
15:36and the Tennessee,
15:38down the Ohio a thousand miles from Pittsburgh,
15:40down the Arkansas a thousand miles
15:42from Texas,
15:44down to the Mississippi.
16:13New Orleans to Baton Rouge.
16:15Baton Rouge to Natchez.
16:17Natchez to Vicksburg.
16:19Vicksburg to Memphis.
16:21Memphis to Cairo.
16:23A thousand miles down the levee,
16:25the long vigil starts.
16:29Thirty-eight feet at Baton Rouge,
16:31river rising.
16:33A thousand miles down the levee,
16:35the long vigil starts.
16:37Thirty-eight feet at Baton Rouge,
16:39river rising.
16:40River rising.
16:42Miller, river rising.
16:45Memphis, river rising.
16:49Cairo, river rising.
16:52A thousand miles to go.
16:54A thousand miles of levee to hold.
16:57Coast Guard patrol needed at Paducah.
17:00Coast Guard patrol needed at Paducah.
17:04Two hundred boats wanted at Hickman.
17:07Two hundred boats wanted at Hickman.
17:11Levee patrol, men to Blytheville.
17:15Levee patrol, men to Blytheville.
17:25Two thousand men wanted at Cairo.
17:28Two thousand men wanted at Cairo.
17:36A hundred thousand men to fight the old river.
17:38A hundred thousand men to fight the old river.
17:40We sent every branch of the service down the river
17:42to help the sleepless engineers
17:44fight a battle on a two thousand mile front.
17:47The Army and the Navy,
17:49the Coast Guard and the Marine Corps,
17:51the CCC and the WPA,
17:53the Red Cross and the Health Service
17:55fought night and day to hold the old river off the valley.
18:08♪♪♪
18:24Food and water needed at Louisville.
18:26Five hundred dead, five thousand ill.
18:29Food and water needed at Cincinnati.
18:33Food and medicine needed at Lawrenceburg.
18:35Thirty-five thousand homeless in Evansville.
18:38Food and medicine needed in Aurora.
18:41Food and medicine and shelter and clothing.
18:44Seven hundred and fifty thousand down in the valley.
18:47♪♪♪
18:55Last time we held the levee.
18:57The Mississippi claimed her valley.
19:00She backed into Tennessee and Arkansas
19:02and Illinois and Missouri.
19:03She spread her arms over thousands of acres of land
19:07and she left farms ruined,
19:09stocked ground,
19:11houses torn loose.
19:12Nineteen-three,
19:14nineteen-seven,
19:16nineteen-thirteen,
19:18nineteen-sixteen,
19:20nineteen-twenty-two,
19:22nineteen-thirty-seven.
19:24We built a hundred cities and a thousand towns.
19:28But at what a cost.
19:31Nineteen-thirty-seven,
19:33we built a hundred cities and a thousand towns.
19:37But at what a cost.
19:40♪♪♪
19:52Nineteen-thirty-seven, the entire nation
19:54sent help to the stricken people of the valley.
19:57Congress appropriated millions
20:00to flooded cities and villages
20:02and to rehabilitate the flood victims.
20:05♪♪♪
20:11But spring and fall, the water comes down.
20:14And for years, the old river has taken a toll from the valley,
20:18more serious than ever she does in flood times.
20:21Year in, year out,
20:24the water comes down.
20:26Down from a thousand hillsides,
20:28washing the top off the valley.
20:32For fifty years, we dug for cotton
20:35and moved west when the land gave out.
20:39For fifty years, we plowed for corn
20:42and moved on when the land gave out.
20:45We planted and plowed with no regard for the future.
20:49And four hundred million tons of topsoil,
20:52four hundred million tons of our most valuable natural resource
20:55have been washed into the Gulf of Mexico every year.
20:59♪♪♪
21:05♪♪♪
21:10♪♪♪
21:19♪♪♪
21:29♪♪♪
21:38And poor land makes poor people.
21:42Poor people make poor land.
21:45For a quarter of a century,
21:48we have been forcing more and more farmers into tenancy.
21:52Today, forty percent of all the farmers in the Great Valley are tenants.
21:57Ten percent are sharecroppers,
21:59down on their knees in the valley.
22:02The share of the crop, their only security.
22:04No home, no land of their own.
22:08Aimless, footloose, and impoverished.
22:12Unable to eat even from the land,
22:15because their cash crop is their only livelihood.
22:19Credit at the store, their only reserve.
22:21♪♪♪
22:31♪♪♪
22:51♪♪♪
23:01And a generation growing up with no new land in the West.
23:05No new continent to build.
23:08A generation whose people knew Kings Mountain and Shiloh.
23:13A generation whose people knew Fremont and Custer.
23:17But a generation facing a life of debt and poverty,
23:21disease and drudgery.
23:24Growing up without proper food, medical care or schooling.
23:30Ill-clad, ill-housed, and ill-fed.
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