Radio Mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

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Then came economic reverses and the wife started to work while the husband tramped the streets looking for a job, every day growing more crushed and despondent. They began to nag at each other. Their marriage, that had seemed so perfect, revealed its essential weakness. It could not stand up under adversity. Life together became intolerable — but the law would not grant them a divorce unless adultery were proved. The rich could get divorces through collusion; the poor could not. Alexander watched the gradual dissolution of the marriage, watched unhappiness come to two people who were very dear to him, felt his heart go out to them, held together by a law they did not have the money to break. "I could not understand why happiness should be a matter of dollars and cents," he told me. "Human beings should have an equal right to live under the law." Perhaps, he thought, the solution lay in religion, and he entered a theological school. But not for long. Prayer and study could not satisfy him. They were no more than another method of escape to him — and he could not escape. His need was action, not philosophical repose. He left the school and came to New York to find his vocation— some sort of pattern for his life which would satisfy his sense of justice. He wanted to mingle with others who felt as he did, gain their aid, actually do something. In the city the contrast between happiness and degradation struck him with stunning force. At night, the gay theatrical district pumped out streams of well-dressed people — while in dark doorways, anemic, down-at-heel beggars held out their hands for small coins. Food was wasted in hotels and night clubs — while outside a withered old woman was digging into a refuse can, smiling wanly when she found a dirty crust of bread. Scenes like this angered him; kept one question uppermost in his mind: WHAT can I, as one individual, do to prevent such suffering?" He turned to organized charity and social work, joining several philanthropic organizations — to be faced with further proof of the immensity of the problem. No sooner was one life helped than another was in need. One individual, even one organization, could only do so much. One morning on his way to work he saw a man knocked down by a truck. An ambulance came along and whisked him away to a public hospital. Everything would be done there to save the man's life, Alexander knew. But what of the poor souls who were alone, afraid, ignorant and hungry, hidden away from the knowledge of a forgetful world? Suddenly, Alexander saw what he could do. He could — he must — publicize cases of injustice and suffering. They must be brought to the attention of society! There it was, in a flash ... his purpose and his work. He no longer thought of man's inhumanity to man. It was not inhumanity, so much as it was forgetfulness and lack of knowledge. He began to make plans and to search for a medium through which he could tell the world of its neglect. "I was fascinated by radio," he told me. "Here was a powerful instrument being used only for entertainment purposes. Through it, I could get my message to a great number of people. I could talk to them, in their homes." Thus, eight years ago, Alexander visualized a new future for the networks. But at first he could find time only on a local station for what he wanted to do. On the Tom Noonan Chinatown Mission program, which originated in the slums, he gave three-minute introductions. Every Sunday for seven years he made it the pulpit for his ideas. Slowly, his talks gained a larger audience. People liked his philosophy and his courage. Letters poured in, revealing the tragedies of torn lives, asking advice. "I believe that people are drawn together by identical interests, understandings, and tragedies," he says. "Floods, wars, and droughts all reduce human beings to a common level, bring them to a community spirit. I only ask people not to wait for tragedy to strike — to help each other first!" LECTURES on the air, however, no mat' ter how important or significant, were soon forgotten. He realized at last that he must bring actual cases to the microphone, to bring home realities to the listeners. WMCA had conceived an idea for a program which was exactly suited to his needs. He put the first broadcast on the air April 5, 1935, making of it a legal and social clearing house to help unfortunates who were unable to help themselves. At first he had difficulty getting a legal adviser. He did not want a columnist, a psychologist, nor a propagandist, but someone who could give specific, practical advice — tell the helpless what rights they had and did not have. While still an announcer on a local station, he secured the support of public spirited magistrates who agreed to quote the law in human terms, stripped of technicalities. Too, many of the people were afraid to po before the mike and tell ' the things they had told him. For these reasons, the program was slow to start. Once on the air, however, it grew in popularity by leaps and bounds! The court itself is dramatic and full of human interest. It is starkest reality. Here you do not get a play, a bit of fiction, but actual people fighting real problems that you and your friends might be called upon to face. These people are not actors. They speak from the heart with sincerity that actors cannot imitate! Before the broadcast, Alexander interviews the people he has picked from some 1500 letters. In a few minutes he must determine an applicant's character, study his case, and decide whether or not he should go on the air. He must weed out the hysterical and the grudge bearers. Forty high strung, jittery people then file into the silent room and the air is tense with expectation. No one knows what will happen next and some look as though they expected to go through the third degree. You sit in your parlor and hear the broadcast but you cannot see the frightened faces staring fixedly at Alexander, the rigid bodies, perched on the edges of chairs. You cannot feel the breath-taking emotion that fills these trembling people as they bow their heads and bare their hearts in heart-rending confessionals. A small nervous woman, case 16432, steps cautiously up to the mike. She coughs. She starts to speak, but her voice is broken and the words trail off into a scarcely audible whisper. _ Alexander puts his arm about her reassuringly. She gulps, tries again. "He stole every cent I had. He threat