THE BRAND OF CAIN
Hughes, Rupert
On the Would-be Literary Monopolists: THE BKAKII OF CAIN Reasons for the Opposition of A WA to AAA By Rupert Hughes Distinguished Screen-writer, Novelist, and Journalist ISN'T there something...
...And for what purpose...
...Of course...
...They have otlice hours and work in groups...
...They met some sympathy and some opposition...
...It kills freedom first...
...In our republic there are thousands who adore him and his methods and would import them...
...We do not Jjced the names of authors In the American Writers Association to show that we represent true Americanism ami the high, free spirit of the lovers of liberty and the fighters for it...
...But the idea was so revolting to certain writers that they sent out a cry like the call for the minute men of Lexington and Concord...
...If they ever gained control in the United States, they would start shooting, and organize a Siberia and slave camps...
...Srwaaper hrailinc Is bias on the downgrade, Is bias on ths wane...
...Th" Authoritarians, like the Bolshevikx, have their Plan...
...Non-Communist union leaders hava few illusions about this new maneuver...
...These people demand it, conspire for it, will continue to conspire for it...
...in fact, shortages in most things became worse...
...Australians who, while absorbed in the intricacies of Cricket Test Match and preparations for Davis Cup final, arc nevertheless worried about the prospect of no gas for Christmas, no milk or no coal or "no nothing" now and again would not always share this view...
...Soma were lost to Communists...
...He can be stubborn like anything, he can also be tough...
...lie was not to live to see victory, for which he gave and did so much...
...It is this writer's firm opinion that the moment was significantly inopportune for greatly reducing the working capacity of the nation by reducing the work-week or even by increasing wages in most industries...
...It Is to the credit of the voters that they remain incorruptible...
...In respect to other goods, price control operates by fixing profit margins for manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers...
...We do not call meetings of conspirators agai/ist the freedom and dignity of men and women who want to write what they want to write...
...A subscription was opened to raise funds by selling shares in a new Communist venture into daily press, but its results were appallingly poor...
...It proposed a slush fund with ''a tough mugg" at the head and a lobby in Washington...
...Their spirit is that of the Declaration of Independence—the gospel of the individual...
...Bacon said: "All Authority must If) out of a man's self-either upon an art or upon a man...
...Prices of the bare necessities of life are still near 1939 levels and so are rents...
...They have organized a Labor Party industrial group which is quickly stepping out into new fields...
...Isn't there something sinister and ominous about writers who would want to take authority oyer all other writers...
...The American Writers Association 1* a high and free assembly of those who do not want to be led by the nose, even though the ring be of gold...
...Itotne frit...
...but the writers of the rest of America do not work for salaries...
...Communists were losing their "Russia first" capital...
...Gradually, the Screen Writers'Guild Was invaded by the flood < f Communistic influence that crept up during the Wi through all forms of American activity in the fields of the theatre, literature, painting and the criticism of them...
...And so w» come to the conclusion: nuisance value of Communist-provoked strikes, economic background behind present-day turmoil, planned economy of full employment of the Australian l,abor Government combine to lay foundations under the new, troubled Australia...
...Communism is a scarlet fever, a red revel of hatred...
...In Russia the powers simply suppress magazines and writers and artists who are not pleasing to the powers...
...Its roster of volunteers contains an amazing and a most heartening number of free, spirits, many of them eminent and famous...
...The unions ajked for fl ($3.26 per week...
...The eco-iomic line of the present Australian Government is quite simple...
...Above all things, he must fight against any authority over his spirit or that of his fellow writer* a/id artists...
...A definite stand has been taken several times by the Sydnpr Trades and Labor Council, which has suddenly found its spine...
...AUSTRALIA has been the motherland of Employer-Employee Arbitration for many years...
...The American Writers Association was hastily formed, and hundreds on hundreds flocked to it...
...Shakes|icai e, who said everything, had a word for this AAA: "Man, poor man, drest in a little authority . , . like an angry ape, playn such fantastic tricks before high heaven at make the angels weep," And he might hsve almost foreseen these devotees of the Russian bear when he wrote: "And though authority b« n stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold...
...Wherever the Communists go they spread hatred, hatred of employers, of publishers, and especially of associates, of fellow members who resist compulsion...
...cite this limply to prove that 1 am not against organisation...
...The very Guildsters who bewailed their poverty and the theft of their hard-earned pennies were earning —correction, were being paid—sums of mo...
...They earn all sorts of wages, and the $3,50O-a-week men and women never dream ot uniform pay for the same hours and perhaps the same quality of work as the lowly ones who earn a mere $150 a week...
...One can also say, with all due respect to all concerned, that quite a few troubles over here are man-made and not very justified at that...
...Remember that the Bolsheviks took over Russia's millions under the leadership of a small minority...
...And much less, if the ring he made of that brum with whi"h the AAA is so richly endowed...
...There ran be hardly any doubt that victory over Japan came much too quickly as far as inter-Allied plans were concerned...
...A quite efficient system has been evolved, even "if slow at times, to adjudicate- any "conflicts, estimate the best wages that a given industry can afford to pay and the best conditions it can afford to give its employees...
...It demanded the complete surrender into its hands of every author's copyright...
...As usual, they shouted down the handful of old-fashioned Americans who dared to oppose it...
...Of all things, the writer must have freedom, individual freedom, isolation, the inspiration that conies from lonely hours and mat it' hours...
...They believe In domination and obedience—two words that are altogether un-American except in emergencies, when liberty must be sacrificed temporarily to save it...
...The gilded factory-hands of the Screen Writers Guild can call strikes and joiu in sttikes...
...Difference in temperament soon became apparent...
...ey never before dreamed of by the most successful geniuses., Third-rate hacks rode in limousines...
...Tfce Screen Writers Guild BlIT the Screen Writers Guild is a strange combination of individual talenU and factory hands...
...He is the one, and they all are his...
...The American Communists would do the same here...
...They howl for tha suppression of anyone who dares criticize thqir Saint Joe...
...The American Authors Authority aimed at first to take over complete domination of all writers in all fields...
...Veterans had a bit of money to live on for a while, so they did not hurry to go to work...
...Clamoring that the rise was insufficient, that prices were exorbitant, that there were no houses, Communists tried to extend over a wider field the same tactics of deception they unsuccessfully attempted on the backs of English squatters...
...On the other hand, the labor market did not improve with demobilization...
...Richard Armour...
...Any resemblance to settlement of any...
...So far so good, but very heavy twatlon still remains an important obstacle to economic recovery...
...In addition, the reins of Government pasted into the untried hand* of Joseph Benedict Chifly'PM,he erstwhile err* gine driver and homespun philosopher...
...There was never any idea of dominating authors or shutting out those who did not conform...
...Yet one can safely say that, with all due regard to shortages and shortcomings experienced here, we live in an almost norma) place...
...They know the handbooks and they know most of the answers...
...Will bias no mors try us, Oh, did you ae* it pit in ? I-ook once mere, very closely...
...For this slavery it promised to secure for a+r* authors certain mysterious sumj lost because authors usually sold moving-picture rights outright instead of leasing them...
...WE'LL BIAS A DRINK Bias Seen On Wane By Mrs...
...Any writer who would accept authority over other writers is unlit to have it...
...Increased production did not materialize...
...The first manifestation of Communism in the Screen Writers Guild was the rise of a amall group that loved to call and attend meetings, draw up rules and disciplines, and denounce their employers only a little less violently than they reviled fellow screen writers who did not like to meet night after night and did not like to make rules for other authors...
...The Communists in the United States revile Americanism and Americans as if they were mere echoes of Pravda and Tast...
...It might be done, too...
...The American Writers Association ia an army of those who oppose everything the AAA stands for...
...I was one of the founders of the original Screen Writers Guild, as of the Authors League and the Dramatists Guild...
...We do not ask that they turn over to us their copyrights or any other rights, under fraudulent, promises of extra pelf in return for a percentage of their royalties and their independence...
...The Authors Guild of the Authors League has not accepted it, though a numerous and noisy minority demands what they call "action...
...Its real purpose is to gather all authors of every sort into chain gangs and slavo mobs to work under the whips of other writers—of writers with an itch to rule...
...This much was pretty obvious and was The Government played for time...
...The arbitration machinery is, naturally, hampered by wage-pegging regulations...
...It is, therefore, necessary to keep the defenders of it alert and ready and able for defense of all we writers hold holy...
...Communists, whose avowed aim is to discredit and break the Arbitration Courts—and, indeed, the remarkable arbitration system—are not letting their propaganda die...
...In , the mind of a- layman in economic affairs one could say that the Government is purposely maintaining a very high income-tax rate even on lower income groups...
...You can tell them by their refusal to admit that Russia Is ever wrong in anything, or America ever right In anything opposed by Russia...
...The Communists try to cover their ignominous defeat at the last General Elections here, when inns of their candidates lost their deposits and where they polled half ths votes they secured in 1943...
...The Prime Minister himself remained unmoved by pleas of supporters and sneers of opposition and stubbornly refused to promise any income-tax" relief...
...As prices are controlled and wages and salaries have been pegged since 1942, the Australian economic system is much more stabilized than, say, America's or even Canada's...
...I/ook long, oh plesso, and late, Then if It still Is waning, Left all go celebrate...
...Nevertheless, the Government's inflexible resolve seems to be to leave tHe arbitration process not interfered with—if it can be helped—too drastically, even if slight '.'streamlining" would be called for and introduced in the near future...
...It is very hard to find anyone who will openly admit that he Is one though the sprawling world known as Hollywood Is lousy with holders of card* and their side-kicks...
...And that Russia's 200 millions arc ruled now by a Stalin who out-Tsars the Tsars and makes a bloody mockery of the old line: One for all, and all for one...
...Several union executives were returned to Labor, including tho Sydney branch of the Wharflaborers...
...Allegedly, to make a little more money for them, to align them a little more solidly against their publishers and employers...
...The fact that the Arbitration Court, both in Federal and State sphere, had been given all powers of the judiciary, made it quite independent and respected in the country...
...Some of then) have done fairly well without benefit of the Authority...
...Then he strikes and becomes the savior, that is If he is successful...
...plan for review and revision...
...Now, even the Hollywood Kremlin of the Screen Writers Guild has recalled the...
...The wise'influence of John Curtin was no more...
...Not everything was quite ready yet, manpower problems were far from being solved, and legislative machinery was not quite set for reconversion...
...Seeing more clearly than most unionists -the dangers ahead, yet not game to oppose the working men and women who are at the basis pf their election success, the Government gave in, even If, very reluctantly...
...While Curtin was very earnest and, often, explosive, the pipesmoking "Chif" Is very calm, unassuming but very shrewd...
...But we organized to protect authors from their own Ignorance and from the wiles of swindlers...
...On the Would-be Literary Monopolists: THE BKAKII OF CAIN Reasons for the Opposition of A WA to AAA By Rupert Hughes Distinguished Screen-writer, Novelist, and Journalist ISN'T there something suspicious, repulsive snd un-American about the very name, American Authors Authority...
...Reduced production and higher wages, while production I* still greatly under prewar levels of consumption, .would certainly not benefit the working class of Australia...
...I saw it coming long ago...
...Thus, also the planners of the Australian Government were, so to say, caught napping...
...Overseas ReportAustralki in Turmoil By Richard Krygier New l.eadci Correspondent in Australia SEVERAL well-trained observers who traveled to and from Australia and to and from the United States, Britain and Western Europe, are all of the opinion that Australia at present is the most normal place in the world...
...Opinion polls prove that the anti-Soviet trend was very marked lately, while executives of the AustraliaRussia Friendship League are complaining about the very marked fall of its magazine circulation...
...Of course, authors who had the power had been making excellent contracts for many years without benefit of the Authority...
...The American Authors Authority was bo insolent anil ambitious in its first ukases that it met serious rebuffs...
...thing in the very important sphere of industrial relations caused deep dissatisfaction...
...and also, to secure for authors, new and old, all the advantages the traffic would bear...
...The missionaries for the AAA sped to New York to take over all the other Guilds...
...The Government probably intends to drain the market of ready cash to combat inflationary tendencies and to amass sufficient money, while the going is good, to subsidize prices and, if emergency arises, to finance extensive public works as a means of stemming unemployment...
...And the Cricket Test Match drew to Sydney the full Cabinet and 51,000 other guests...
...This amazing outbreak of a literary Bdshevism for America had its start in the Screen Writers Guild, which has been for many years a hotbed ot Communistic activity with the usual bullying, intolerant tyranny of Communists, who, as usual, demand free speech for themselves while trying to crush it in others...
...The aim of high production was not fulfilled...
...The American Authors Authority is scotched for a time but, like a snake, it draws back its head to strike again...
...and youth, the very important factor—as regards the Australian labor market—came in in depleted figures owing to the decreased birth-rate during the depression of the 30's...
...Activities and Ukases IhE Screen Writers Guild put .over the so-called Cain plan with an overwhelming vote...
...The danger of a return of the sleepless foes of American individualism is everlasting...
...The Dramatists Guild rejected it...
...And if anybody is ever to be an individualist, surely the writer must be...
...There is, of course, little to be done when inferior goods are being substituted for good ones, but comparison of general price levels between Australia and the outside world will undoubtedly favor this country...
...Wage-pegging regulations were relaxed/ Government supported the hearing of the 44-hour case before" the Arbitration Court and induced the court to mate an interim increase in the basic wage of 7 shillings (about $1.10) per week...
...Actually, to gain control over them, to take all American authorship under the dictatorship of a vicious few...
...The Cain plan bears the brand of Cain though he himself is not a Commui.ist...
...Thousands of girls left their jobs in factories and offices to get married...
...TlIE Chifly Labor Government won easily the last Parliamentary elections...
...His favorite method, however, is to sit tight, doing nothing, until the situation becomes intolerable...
...Real Purpose of AAA CoMMUNISM does not belong in the world of free art and free writing...
Vol. 30 • February 1947 • No. 7
