Twelve Boy Scouts of American arrive at the White House to visit President John Kennedy and report on scout activities, coinciding with the 53rd anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America movement. They give a Boy Scout handbook and a membership card to President Kennedy, along with a plaque. Robert Kennedy is rewarded for making a 50 mile hike. Narrator comments that Kennedy had heard about a 50 mile hike challenge that President Theodore Roosevelt had directed for troops via Executive Order, and President Kennedy then advocated for hiking, too. View of U.S. Marines in uniform hiking in response to the President's challenge. View of a group of teenage high school students in Marin County, California, hiking on roads during their 50 mile hike challenge. The teenage boys and girls sprint at the finish of their hike. View of Diane Condon, the first student to finish the hike, in 12 hours and 8 minutes. She is seen sitting and soaking her feet.
View at Amateur Athletic Union men's swim meet in Chicago. View of swimmers diving in pool. Don Schollander, a California high school student wins the 200 meter free style with a new record of 1:59. Close view of Don Schollander. He also wins the 400 and loses the 1500 by three-tenths of a second. View of candidates of Olympic Games diving from the 10-meter board. Lieutenant Tom Gompf, a fighter pilot jumping from the board.
Contains mix of vintage still images, 1970s interview footage, and a small amount of vintage film footage. Images of an old signs, in Europe, advertising land and promoting the virtues of various of the United states, including: Iowa, Nebraska, California, Kansas, and Dakota. One says "room for millions of immigrants." One cites "free homes." One contains a cartoon image of a grim "old World,"opposite a smiling "New World." Poster for steamship line, Norddeutscher Lloyd, of Bremen. Poster for railroad company. Poster for steamships from Liverpool to New York citing fares from 12 to 30 pounds sterling for "Saloon Passage"; 8 to 10 pounds for Second cabins; and 4 pounds for steerage passage. A Polish publication expressing concern over the "epidemic" of immigration to America. Articles calling for measures to restrict this immigration. Documents in cyrillic that narrator describes as mail from America that Russian officials censor. Samples of letters to relatives back home, from immigrants in America, enclosing steamship tickets, railroad tickets, and the like, that the narrator states "never arrived." Animated map showing the flow of immigrants from interior of Europe to ports of Hamburg, Bremen, and Rotterdam, noting that Hull and Liverpool also prospered on immigrant trade. Note on map states that between 1870 and 1880, two and three quarters of a million American immigrants came from Europe and by 1890, five and a quarter million more had crossed the Atlantic. View of immigrants waiting to be processed by government officials before departure at a port in Europe. People crowded in a long line outside, waiting to enter the office. Views of shanties in a town. A woman is seen describing immigrants' circumstances. Pictures of men women and children traveling by horse-drawn wagons. Actual vintage moving image footage of an old railroad steam locomotive pulling a passenger train into a European train station area circa 1900-1910. View of train station at a European port city. Huge number of people from all over Europe, standing in the courtyard of a train station. A man is seen describing these people as like "coming from another world." A barracks-like housing arrangement for immigrants waiting to pass health screening by the steamship companies, which included carefully examining their hair. A woman who experienced this described her embarrassment at the health examinations.
Lyndon B. Johnson at mike addresses the nation. People go to polls and cast votes. Road sign 'Johnson City - Home Town of Lyndon B. Johnson'. Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife arrive to cast their votes. Cameramen and newsmen record the polls. Senator Barry Goldwater arrives to cast his vote in Arizona. Crowds and newsmen surround him outside. Traffic on a road in New York at night. Crowds and newsmen at New York Republican State Committee. Senator Robert Kennedy with other men at speaker's stand. Crowd cheers. Picture of Robert Kennedy. Edward Kennedy arrives home after injured in a plane crash. Edward Kennedy with his wife and children pose for the photographer. G.O.P candidate George Murphy in California becomes the Senator. Capitol in Washington DC. People go to cast their Presidential ballot. People cast votes. President Lyndon Johnson arrives at the speaker's stand.
Foreign students at the International House of University of California, Berkeley, converse with each other while dining in a dining area. Brazilian student hosts the newcomers. He is recounting is time in New York. Scene shifts to New York City. A foreign student walks on the sidewalk and stops at a coffee shop in New York. Student finds it difficult to place an order while he converses with the waiter. An old friend joins him. Friends chat. Friends leave the coffee shop and stroll through the streets. Views of pedestrians and traffic with Washington Square Arch in the background. Students visit an art show in New York's Greenwich Village. They look at the paintings along the wall and converse with an artist on the roadside. Artist shows his product. Back at Bekeley in the dining room, a student lights up his cigarettes. Students dine.
Scenes filmed from attacking Japanese aircraft during the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. View from Japanese aircraft strafing and bombing U.S. aircraft and hangars on the ground at Ford Island. Japanese Nakajima B5N (Kate) tail number 229, seen flying past the camera plane. Smoke rising from the ground below. White plumes erupt from torpedoes striking U.S. ships on opposite side of Ford Island. Japanese-captioned still photographs: Of heavy black smoke rising from bombed fuel tanks; Of a torpedo hitting the USS West Virginia; of other ships on battleship row, including the USS Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Maryland, and California. (World War II period).