All weekend, American History tv is featuring portland, maine. 50s stephen king is a native of maine. Learn about portland all weekend long. Portland is an important part of maines economy. We struggle often because we have lost all of our manufacturing business. We used to make shoes and fabrics and paper, and it has been a struggle, but it has started to fill in with this resurgence in the world economy. Fishing, we are the largest fishing lobster fishing in the country. Hours taste the best. Change in thel sophistication of the farmer and the consumer, and it has raised demand to the point that organic food is a 40 billion business and our country. We are building an important market that did not used to west on the policy side, have to do a lot more to make this possible for other farmers, particularly ones that want to transition into it in places all over the country. We want to make it easier for them to get into this market. You are paid better. You dont have to handle toxic chemicals. It is a winwin on all levels. I live in a town of about 400 people. When my kids were growing up, i decided i wanted to get involved in local politics to have a say in my community. Someone i knew suggested i should run for the state legislature, and i just got interested in the idea of being engaged in the participant in the democratic process in the 1990s. Ran. Wild idea, i in 1992, i want. I love every minute of it. I love the backandforth on tough issues to work for things i care about. Here it is 25 years later, and i am still there. Thatss that i just learned if you have a great opportunity to work on a career in your life, like agriculture, and also be on the policymaking side, it is truly the best of both worlds. Portland is a wonderful city. Anytime you have a relatively affordable city that has a great creative food scene, a lot of young people, but also the history we have, you find creative people saying that is where i want to live. We are a very safe state. We are a friendly state. We just have a real feel of authenticity. It is beautiful views. Very historic, cobblestone streets, brick buildings, it makes you feel like you are in new england in the 1700s. You are always right up against history here. It makes people feel like it is an unusual place to live, not just to vacation, but to stay. Our cities tour staff recently traveled to portland, maine, to learn about its rich history. Learn more about portland and other stops on our tour at cspan. Org citiestour. You are watching American History tv, all weekend every weekend on cspan3. Tonight on real america, we look back 50 years as opposition to the vietnam war was mounting. Abc posted a weekly series called abcs go. Abc scope. One of the largest peace demonstrations in history was held last october. More than 50,000 people took part, and thousands marched on the pentagon to protest the war. A leader of that demonstration was jerry rubin, a radical activist of the socalled new left. We asked him his view of the limits of dissent. Lyndon johnson is a common murdere. There are no limits to dissent. The Peace Movement should have the anger of the vietnamese woman whose child was murdered by napalm dropped by a u. S. Plane. The Peace Movement has to use the tactic of disruption because the American People are drunk with apathy. They dont care. Our country is in the situation that germany was in the 1940s. They are committing mass murder. His views on the limitations of dissent. Students who raise money for the viet cong communists and send it overseas to be used against american servicemen, and victoryo call for the of the communism, if i were president , the first thing i would do is have my attorney general drag some of these before a grand jury and indict them and send them off to prison for what they are, traders. They are traitors. I am not talking about honest dissent. Many good people in this audience probably and throughout this country honestly dissent about our country being in vietnam. Maybe you think we should not be there because it is not in our interest to be there. Many members of congress feel the same way. There is a difference between honest dissent and treason and giving aid to the enemy. The vietnam war, how much onest dissent heirs tonight American History tv on cspan3. All weekend, American History tv is featuring portland, maine. Cspan cities tour staff recently visited many sites showcasing its history. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and stephen king are natives of portland. Learn all about portland all weekend on American History tv. Welcome to the main Historical Society. Gallery inur main the center of the new exhibition, creative maine. In 2010, the main Historical Society with six other museums were able to save these arrayed banners from auction and reserved them. We wanted to share them with the public. These are real treasures for maine, for the nation. This is the first time all 17 have been on display together. They help us better understand our creative history, industrial history, and the crafts that really started our state and helped build the economy. These were made in 1841 by members of the maine charitable Mechanics Association. They were doing a parade through the streets of downtown portland. They used the banners in their parade to explain the importance of their trade. There are actually 17 banners, but they represent 54 trades. They actually paraded through downtown portland. They stopped to make speeches. They held a celebration afterwards where there were lots of toasts and more speeches and good food. Their purpose was to remind the citizens of portland of the importance of wellcrafted, sk illed products. If you wanted things that were made well and to last, you needed to have skilled craftspeople that were welltrained, had years of practice. They were concerned that with the coming Industrial Revolution that the appreciation for good quality, skilled craftsmanship was disappearing. More things were being massproduced, and unskilled people were working in factories to just churn out more products. They wanted to remind people that when you want good quality products, you need the skilled craftsman to do it. The first banner i want to show you is this one for cabinetmakers or furniture makers. They represented people who were making furniture that people would buy to put in their homes. This is a lovely piece. What i love about it is the saying, our cabinet, well composed of different materials is too strongly cemented to be easily separated. They were reminding people that you cannot divide them as craftspeople. This is a must the start of an early union. These were individual tradespeople who wanted to Work Together and make sure each other thrived. With this manner, we are nner, we areba actually able to show a historic example. The chair was made by a member of the maine mechanics charitable organization. He could make a few chairs in a week. He realized the potential and ended up building a factory and training people to produce many more. He hired a lot of women to do the painting on the chairs. It became a rather large business. The walter cori chair manufacturing was a rather large business. Furniture is still being made in maine. We have a lot of amazing craftspeople, including this one. This was made by a furniture maker named christian betsport. He works out of new gloucester, maine. He is a oneman show. The quality because he takes the time to do it is extraordinary. Absolutely beautiful. They become family heirlooms. One of the most popular parade banners in this series is actually this one because it is so wonderfully visual, but it must also because of the saying on it. He who does not pay the shoemaker is not worthy of a sol e. They were not getting paid on time. They were not getting paid enough. People were skipping out on the bill altogether. They wanted to make sure their message was heard. I think that is absolutely wonderful. The shoe industry used to be a large industry in maine. A lot of those factories have left. We still have some shoe manufacturers in the state. New balance sneakers and the very popular l. L. Bean boot is made here in new brunswick, maine. Cobblers hammer. You would not need this for an l. L. Bean boot. You needed this in the 1800s, and this was actually used by a family who were a member of the main mechanics charitable organization. Maine is known for our shipbuilding industry. We have built a lot of ships over the years. What is not necessarily as well known for the support industries for building those ships. This parade banner actually represented some of those support industries, rope makers, mass makers mast makers. They combined together to show that you also needed them to make a successful ship. What i love about this banner is the detailed of the people on the ship, working along the ground, but also that it is called temperance. The Temperance Movement was very important to the maine charitable mechanics organization. They were a dry organization. They did not want their members to be drinking, and certainly did not serve alcohol at any of their conscience. It is something they tried functions. It is something they tried to remind people of. The historic objects we have associated with that, we actually have a rope from the ship. What is amazing is these ropes would actually build what is called a rope walk. They would build very long buildings where you could stretch out the material and wind them together. Portland, even though we are a big city now, we actually had four rope walks along the waterfront. Bagsve a bag from the sea company. While we still make sails, it is difficult to show a large sai l. I wanted to show a product of someone recycling old sails. They make them into bags. As sailors need to replace their sails, they will repurpose them. The last one i wanted to show you is this one for painters, brush makers. This is representing several artisticot only painters, but sign painters. Companies and tradespeople making brushes. This banner is supposed to represent all of them. This was painted by the man who painted 15 of the 17 parade banners. He was well known around town for his sign painting. You can see a lot of evidence that in these parade banners. When we look closely, you can see the pencil lines he left as he was laying things out. Some of the banners he changed his designer just a little bit. It was fine for a sign painter to leave those. Assigned his far away. Youll not get close enough to see details like that. Today toderful for us see a better understanding of how he made these. With the banner, we partnered this Landscape Painting by john hudson. He was a member. He was a fine painter but also a landscape painter. He painted simmons and co. , which was in the portland area in the 1870s. We dont know a lot about him, but we do know at one point he was dismissed from the Mechanics Association for unknown reason. The Landscape Painting is beautiful. We also wanted to show that sign painting, original hand sign painting is still being done in maine. This painting was done by Anthony Taylor of taylor designs. That is all handpainted. You still get that quality and advertising sense in maine today. What i am hoping visitors take away from this exhibit is an nesrstanding of how mai economy started. Maine has always thrived on the creativity of its residents to really grow. There are still amazing craftspeople that are building thriving businesses and making these same products in the state. Our cities tour staff recently traveled to portland, maine, to learn about its rich history. To learn more about portland and other stops at our tour, cspan. Org citiestour. You are watching American History tv on cspan3. Now, we return live