Wagon Train (TV Series)

The Sam Elder Story (1961)

Everett Sloane: Sam Elder

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Quotes 

• Sam Elder : Well, it's not a question of courage but one of necessity. Thousands, tens of thousands of boys lost their fathers in the war. Most of them had mothers, friends, kin of some kind to take care of them. These boys had nobody. Their fathers were all killed in battle, Shiloh, St Petersburg, Running Springs.

  Bill Hawks : There must be some place they can be taken care of.

  Sam Elder : Oh, yes. Orphanges, workhouses, poor farms. Most of them understaffed and overcrowded. little better than prison camps. No, Mr Hawks, when a nation robs a boy of his birthright, he's entitled to a little more than that.

• Sam Elder : A man can teach only what he knows. I don't want them to grow up to be professional soldiers. That's not my aim. I just want to make sure they have a chance to grow up at all.

• Ben Allen : Around here Mr Hawks makes the decisions. Who are you to change them?

  Sam Elder : I'm in charge of these men and I intend to see my orders are enforced.

  Ben Allen : How? By putting guns in the hands of youngsters?

  Sam Elder : The rifle is not loaded.

  Ben Allen : [He scoffs]  That makes about as much sense as everything else you've done since you joined this train.

• Ben Allen : Oh, no, Captain or whatever you call yourself. Those are just a lot of highfalutin words for what men like you really want. Power. Authority. Blind Obedience to Will even if it's wrong.

  Sam Elder : Yes, we make mistakes. I don't deny that. But the good officer, the good soldier, never asks another man to do something he wouldn't do himself. And when we give orders it's not because we worship ourselves but because it's the most expedient way to get the job done.