The Thirties
 By
mid-decade, Benet found himself torn between the financial
necessity of turning out commercial stories that that paid
the rent and the more serious writing that he preferred.
In spite of the almost constant pain of arthritis, his output
was impressive and highly regarded. His April, 1935 article
on “The Professor’s Punch” (published
in Pictorial Review) received an O. Henry Memorial
Prize. So did “The Devil and Daniel Webster,”
published a year later in the Saturday Evening Post.
Then there was a third O. Henry Prize for “Johnny
Pye and the Headless Horseman” (published in the Saturday
Evening Post) in March, 1937. In that same year, Benet
collaborated with his fellow Yale graduate and good friend,
Douglas Moore, on an operetta The Headless Horseman.
In 1939, the two collaborated again in The Devil and Daniel
Webster. Here Benet wrote the libretto for an operetta composed
by Douglas Moore. A year later, Benet received a fourth
O. Henry Prize for “Freedom’s a Hard-Bought
Thing” (published by the Saturday Evening Post)
in May, 1940.
In the National Service
And it was at this time that
Benet started his work on Power and the Land. While
the details of the arrangements for this work are not known,
Benet obviously looked forward to working again with his
close friend Douglas Moore. And this REA film seems to have
fit in with Benet’s politics. Benet was a strong support
of what he called liberal democracy – as reflected
by F.D.R’s New Deal. Indeed, Benet had been alarmed
by what he considered the intolerance of some anti-FDR forces
at home and the threat of fascist aggression abroad. Benet
became a strong supporter of the New Deal and devoted much
of his time in the late thirties in an effort to alert Americans
to the threat, at home and abroad, to democracy as he saw
it. In June, 1940, France had fallen to the Nazi’s.
And only an extraordinary and heroic evacuation effort by
the British, civilians and military alike, had rescued their
Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk. These events shocked the
complacency of many Americans. And to Benet, as evidenced
in his 1940 article on “Freedom’s a Hard-Bought
Thing,” great issues were at stake
 This
context suggests that Benet’s commentary in Power
and the Land is not just about rural electrification.
The American people, Benet undoubtedly believed, would soon
be facing their greatest trial. Were the American up to
it? Judging by the following excerpt from the commentary,
Benet obviously thought so. And he may have hoped that the
American people thought so too.
(Commentary from Power and the Land)
The knives are cutting
The load piled high
The sun beats down from the August sky
We built our freedom and strength this way
From Mississippi to Iowa (I oh way)
From Oregon to the rocks of Maine
We’re building it still together
When we get together
We’re hard to stop
We can raise the crop
And harvest the crop
We can get the power and get the light
We can get the things we want today
With neighbors working the self same way
Working together to cut the corn
Benet’s willingness to work with his
good friend Douglas Moore in writing the script for Power
and the Land is part, it could be suggested, of his
devotion to public service in the coming war years. Benet’s
father and grandfather were regular army. And he seems to
have felt the call of duty. At least in part, it appears
that his narration for Power and the Land may have
been designed to reassure Americans that they, like the
Parkinsons and other farmers portrayed in Power and the
Land, could accomplish anything if they just worked together
for the general good.
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