SECRET FIGHT ON THEATRE MEN IS SEEN
Secret Fight On Theatre Men Is Seen Paramoiuit«PuMR Said To Be Building Up a Non-Union Personnel ADRIVE against the theatre workers, the International Alliance of Theatrical and...
...Reporters AO for Thomas Now Viola is signalling frantically from the rear of the room I that it is time to make the next j jump, and Thomas makes his | smashing climax and comes down j off the platform to a fresh thunder j of applause, and we are out in the 1 night again, bound for a meeting three miles away...
...who are either dupes or also traitors that the powers that be feel they can rely on...
...Thomas is more informal...
...Before you move the big handle on top of the machine, make sure that you have voted right If you i have made a mistake, all you do is move the pointers back to the original position and bring down the pointers you want to vote...
...Gilman's contribution to the fund above to $600, and Bakes it the second largest to come from any one individual...
...He has never had any labor difficulties, and his staff of technicians is largely a staff of union men...
...The cops blow whistles...
...T. and T. has always been strongly opposed to organized labor and never recognized unions...
...If we so set Improve ear conception of the dignity ef bnu life, we ¦hail bead ttnigtU tar —ether warM war.—Telia Galswertay...
...Many other duplicate contributions were received during the past week, totalling more than $300 tram individuals Who had already mbecribed to the fund before...
...Traffic lights blink red...
...Not that he indulges in any of the usual back-slapping, cigar-giving, antics of the old-line candidate...
...Cars swing hastily towards the curb...
...A. T. & T. Seen At Work The wages and conditions of work enjoyed by the theatre employees as the fruit of many hard battles in the past have naturally aroused much resentment that has hitherto been voiceless because it has been helpless...
...Pittsburgh, according to •D indications, will lead all other *iee in the amount raised, with exception of New York, which ¦u raised about $8,000...
...Other cities have asked that arrangements be made to bold dinners for the benefit of the drive, the request being for prominent speakers who can be assigned without incurring the expense of sending them long distances...
...When their talking picture subsidiary came into contact with the highly organized theatre field a great deal of friction was generated...
...d the amounts...
...The line-up as seen by one wellinformed observer is described as follows: "A...
...For with the motorcycle cop ahead, sounding his siren, all speed laws are off and you dodge in and out of elevated pillars, under the noses of suddenly" halted trucks, and through red lights at a speed that varies from forty to fifty miles an hour...
...Polls will be open from 6 a.into 8 p.m., but voters who are at the polling place and In line at 6 p.m...
...But the charm of this man is all sturdiness, and sincerity...
...The events of the night are talked over, and then the party breaks up, remembering that Thomas must be up by half-past seven to start another day's grind...
...Even the cops who are detailed to his meetings, stalwart Tammanyites though1 they be, are Thomas enthusiasts...
...Requests addressed by Lewis to nrtous branches and language federations for information concerning the prospects of receiving funds en subscription lists during the first few weeks in November brought encouraging replies...
...It Is difficult to set down in black on white just what it is in Norman's speeches that so grips people...
...Determined that there shall be « let-up hi the drive as it nears the home stretch, Lewis and his *** sre examining the returns from each of the cities with a view *f submitting to the Socialist party •Seials in each city a list of their "••dents who have contributed...
...Prominent among the older Publix officials is Harry Rubin, member of I. A. Local 306...
...But you go away from a talk by Thomas, not only armed with solid fact, but also aware that you have been in the presence of that elusive thing called charm...
...Kate Crane Gartz, of California...
...The new line-up, with Its expensive duplicate payrolls and fantastic salaries, is regarded as the first step, the necessary step of making themselves independent of union executives, on the part of theatre magnates following up their recent temporary victory over Equity in Hollywood...
...Don't use force, don't let anybody else use force on it, and do not permit anyone to enter inside curtain...
...Immediately there comes to rushing reality, the dream of every small New Yorker, namely, some day to ride on a fire-engine...
...Tied up with It are a few union underlings, necessary for the present...
...The complete rehabilitation of the International Ladies^ Garment Workers' Union following the successful cloak strike of last July was revealed in Mr...
...This is written a full week before Election Day, and I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, so I am not making any predictions as to the vote that Thomas and his colleagues will get...
...A. T. and T. money is behind the recent Fox expansion to the extent of something like $50,000,000...
...You not only are sure that you have voted, but that no repeater or floater will vote for you, which is often the case when the voter is late...
...One such man, named Smith, had his pay raised from $60 to $160 a week overnight, when he left A. T. and T. to build for LaPorte in the South, where a union man named Porter is at present in charge...
...A Union worker named Orr has been in executive charge of stage work for Publix-Paramount for many years, with a Union organization under him...
...martyr, do act knew that the spirit of liberty rsnne* be i en flans' with chain**—Waiter Hart...
...The $500,000 remaining funds will be obtained through a tax of the union's general membership if the General Executive Board's recommendation is adopted at the union's convention in Cleveland, opening December 2. The dress strike in New York will come almost simultaneously with a series of cloak and dress strikes throughout the country and Canada, affecting a total of 80,000 workers, including the New York dressmakers...
...sometimes he condescends to ramble a bit...
...The moving spirits of the new movement are said to be all Chicago men acting under the direction of one of their number, a Mr...
...I am here, however, to say this: That I have covered Socialist campaigns from 1917 on, and that with the exception of that first I have never seen a city campaign which equalled this in genuine enthusiasm, and real educational value...
...beienri to the (store, aad u a saattcr which ¦—tin it/ alow* eaa decide.—Xetr Bardiespeialist fund Nears 40,000 Mark gggr Are Giving to |50,000 Drive for the Second Time, Lewis Says —4tTIH many contributor* to Mr th» United Socialist Drive -—i-s^-r their contributions to 0gfttt» the J50.0O0 fund, the which is scheduled to end on Member 1, is certain to reach 0t psssibly pass the $40,000 mark aha anal reports and remittances 0f received from several hundred sjekBst party branches and locals are awaiting the return of ay subscriptions lists they put I4» circulation when Ue drive been as August 1. jit fund is reported to exceed A* 05.000 mark, accoidlng to the (isolation made as the New L»v!m roes to press...
...Similar action is taking place with regard to stage executives...
...But to avoid mistakes, move down all pointers or levers in the third row from top (Section C...
...At the sight of that looming figure in a dark sack suit, men, women and children jump up, stamping, yelling and clapping, and they keep up the din until Thomas stretches out his hand, and smiling, says: "It's fine for you to greet me this way, but my Boss here—" pointing at Eddie Le Vinson—"says that I have only 20 minutes, and the longer you applaud the less time there is for me to tell you what there is on my mind...
...The date of the Newark dinner is to be decided upon by a committee elected for that purpose by the Socialist branches there...
...are entitled to vote...
...Bow to Vote on a Voting Machine After you have been found to be a qualified voter, you will be admitted inside the railing...
...Omaha, Nebraska...
...The additional subscription Msgs Mrs...
...Five more stops, and finally, after midnight, a tired crew turns into East 18th street, there to be welcomed by the hospitable Mrs...
...A Mr...
...Minneapolis, Minn., and Duluth are among the cities from which these requests have come...
...Just before their tie-up with the Paramount chain, of which they are now in charge, B. and K. took a nasty beating at the hands of organized Chicago theatre workers, and had to like it...
...Every great and iieinniindler more¦MBt tn the annals ef the world is the trliapk ef seme enthusiasm.— ElaMTsWla* The peer feels who fetter the limb, ef freedom...
...If when you are ready to move the big (red) handle on top of machine handle does not move, don't get excited, and don't permit anybody to enter inside the curtain of the voting machine...
...and Supervisor of Projection and Sound for the circuit, a Paramount employee since the company* inception...
...Any inspector or other person entering Inside the curtain of a voting machine is guilty of a felony...
...Be sure to vote the third row (Section C) as indicated on this ballot, and do not permit any one to enter inside the curtain at any time...
...The vote followed a report by SecretaryTreasurer Abraham Baroff and was put by Acting President David Dubinsky, in the absence of President Schlesslnger who is slowly recovering from a severe illness...
...If the machine is not in use, the curtain around the machine is open, you enter Inside of the curtain, surrounding the voting machine, on the top of the left of the voting machine is a large handle, take that handle with your right hand and swing it from the left to the right of the machine...
...When you are sure that you have voted right, take the big handle on top of machine (red handle) and move it back from right to left...
...In one night, you go at this head-long pace from a meeting at the tip end of the Bronx clear down to where cold winds are blowing along Coney Island's boardwalk...
...Chicago, where the Jewish Socialist Verband is making a **rial drive, may still take its Pkce ahead or immediately follower Pittsburgh...
...LaPorte, of Chicago, has been assigned by Greenberg to replace Rubin in the day of trouble...
...The number of contributions coming now from individuals who auwcribed earlier in the drive pew during the last week...
...When the big handle at the top of the machine is moved to right it closes the curtain around the voter, so that no one can see how the voter votes...
...In spite of the fact that many 3f them are working over-time on this political assignment, they ask their superiors if they cannot cover Thomas regularly...
...The response to this appeal will help determine how Bseh nearer the drive is to the J50,000 goal than can be estimated os the basis of present reports...
...All the while he is speaking you say to yourself, "This is courage in the flesh...
...Of course this is a courtesy extended to all the candidates, nevertheless it gives you a wonderful sense of superiority to be riding in a Socialist automobile past indignant Rolls Royces and Packard*, waved to one side by the majestic arm of the law ahead...
...Just ask the inspector to release the pin holding the machine...
...Baroff's report...
...Thomas with hot tea and coffee...
...One of the features of this campaign has been the almost unique adulation which the newspaper men have shown Cowards the Socialist candidate...
...Whatever the outcome, rest assured that Thomas and Solomon and Lee, bave made New York City Socialist-conscious...
...These workers have been transferred to the company's studios in Long Island City and a new, non-union group moved into their offices in the Paramount Theatre...
...Be sure you have voted all levers on third row before you move main ! handle on top of machine from [ right to left of machine...
...Secret Fight On Theatre Men Is Seen Paramoiuit«PuMR Said To Be Building Up a Non-Union Personnel ADRIVE against the theatre workers, the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stag* Employees, is forecast by elaborate and expensive changes hi lineup now actively under way by •ones of the largest corporations n the entertainment industry...
...The Facts About The Voting Machine QUALIFIED voters who have , registered during one of the days of registration and have not moved since are entitled to vote...
...Whether all this has or has not anything to do with the present situation the fact would seem to be that the present drive is being prepared by the competing Publix chain, but largely with the aid of men lent or recently 'resigned' from the ranks of A. T. and T." Substitute* Ready The Publix end of the story, where the active ground-work is now going on, ties up with the experience of the Balaban and Katz group In Chicago a few years ago...
...In Pittsburgh, where, as a result a* the organization which Jane Tut was able to create for the wising of funds, the amount raised through the Socialist organisation will exceed $1,300...
...A T. and T., for the first time in Its career, found itself helpless before organized labor...
...At the same time, the lists are •** gone over for the purpose * requesting those who have sub**n*d, but who have not remlt¦* M yet, to make either total * partial payment, so that as *** money as possible may be ¦** available as soon as possible participating groups...
...Hillquit holds them fascinated as he proceeds step by logical step to his inevitable conclusion...
...Baltimore, Maxy*H where the publication of s ¦* weekly has been decided on, ¦d Buffalo, N. Y„ where a full ?** organizer has been employed *\»mong the cities that have rereceived advances on the **»ta to which they are enIJ**tag the past week definite rj^efeinents have been concluded ?**o more drive dinners, one in N. J., where Morris Hffl-' quit will be the guest of honor, and at Cincinnati, Ohio...
...Ray for Norman Thomas...
...Thomas Campaign Makes New York Socialist-Conscious Reporters, Cops Warm to Socialist As He Makes Nightly Long Speaking Rounds By McAlister Coleman TIE siren on the motorcycle of the policeman up ahead gives a loud "whoooeee...
...This does r ot lactose contributions received durtg the last three preceding days, pgr (mounts collected through the jtwish Socialist Verband, which is eeaiacting a drive among Work¦Stfi Circle branches...
...A Typical Night Come along with us on a typical Thomas campaign night...
...Be sure to move all levers in the third row (Section C) down...
...The process of voting: Go to the polling place where you registered, and get in line with the voters waiting to vote...
...This registers your vote, j opens the curtain around the machine, and the voter Is through...
...This is a facsimile of the face of the voting machine, except that the lever for the referendum is way on top of the face of the voting machine and the handle that operates the whole machine is on top at left over the machine...
...LaPorte has been allotted ample funds for building an unnecessary parallel organization—unnecessary at present, that is—and is drawing many of his men from A. T. and T., paying them fantastic salaries...
...Orr and his co-workers are still in charge of theatre operations, via long distance, but will probably be assigned to "building sets on the Long Island lot when the new group have got their hands in, that being work which can better stand delay in the event of trouble...
...That *ul be $200 more than was raised it the dinner held in Pittsburgh, « September 22, when the total mbacrlbed to the drive fund was tU5S...
...A Yipsel cheering squad in the school yard explodes boisterously and out of the official car steps a smiling sixfooter to have his hand pumped by the committeemen in charge of the meeting and to be charged at by a inob of youngsters anxious to get as near their hero as possible...
...Cope Like Assignment A friend of mine in the pressroom of one of the largest morning papers, tells me that practically every man there is^wearing a Thomas button, and I know that if a poll of the newspaper men of the town were taken, and they had the final say, Thomas would be our next Mayor...
...The unusual procedure of floating a bond issue to finance a strike, believed to be the first in the history of labor unionism in America, was unanimously endorsed by the union's executive board...
...The (5.000 sjessjsry to bring the fund above tht J40.000 mark will be raised, jtirx Lewis, drive collector, predfcts, before the final report is ajda The question whether the effort to raise the remaining 110.000, if ft a found that as much as that wH.be required to complete the fnad, should be continued, even though the drive will have officially mded en November 1 win be considered early next week by a subjgsunittee elected at the last meethg of the national executive comsuttee to decide...
...Several dinners that are being arranged are sure to yield between 0,000 and $3,000 of the remainhg $10,000 Lewis declared...
...I have never seen Thomas slap anyone on the back, for that matter, and would drop dead of heart trouble the day I did...
...Final decision as to what can be done in these cities will be mads when the question of the next meeting of the National Executive Committee is to be held is acted upon, as it is expected that an arrangement which will enable the committee members to speak in those cities Is contemplated...
...The new executive line-up is said to be composed largely of those men who have been least voiceless in their resentment...
...Helen B. Gfflnum, of Massachusetts, who inhKribed $500 to the fund when the drive began...
...For as all New York, and most of the rest of the country knows, Norman Thomas has ridden out again...
...Paramount-PubUx group, whose executives in charge of union personnel have always been chosen from union ranks and retained their union cards, are quietly building up a duplicate organization of non-union people, at much larger salaries and with only duplicate activities—for the present In not a few instances the human timber for the new executive organizations has come from a subsidiary of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company dealing with talking pictures...
...When the handle on the top is moved to the right and the curiam is 'closed, the machine is ready for voting...
...The dinner in Cincinnati will take place on November 10, and a prominent Socialist speaker will be assigned to attend that dinner...
...In front of the big school-house, little boys shout exultantly, "Here he comes...
...And even if the voter has not moved a single voting pointer, the vote is registered, and the voter is through, and cannot operate the machine again...
...Charm sometimes has about it a rather soft connotation...
...VOTE EARLY...
...I have said that this was unusual because newspaper men are a hardboiled lot, for whom idealistic concepts mean very little...
...Finance Dress Strike $250,000 of $750,000 Fund Will Be Sought From the General Public A strike chest of $750,000, of which $250,000 will be raised by floating a bond issue to the general public, has been voted by the General Executive Board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, meeting at the Hotel Governor Clinton, to finance the general strike of 45,000 New York dressmakers, December 31...
...But they know a man when they see him, and they know that in Norman Thomas they see a man...
...Te dormatise aboat the fens which the Socialist state shall take I* te slay the foeL That I* a matter with wbJeh we have Bethins whatever te do...
...Six hundred thousand dollars in dues, initiation- fees and taxes have been received by New York local unions and the Joint Board within the last three months, in contrast with only $200 for the corresponding period in 1928...
...One sf them came from Mrs...
...To prevent any lull in activities asadtDg s decision by the subcom¦jKtae, Lewis made a last minute sspeal to several thousand individuals and branches affiliated with lyapsthstic organizations to make hair contributions to the remaning $10,000...
...Others trace the ominous preparations to the revanche of the Balaban and Katz group and still others see the fine Italian hand of A. T. and T. discreetly in the background...
...Many *** bave already received some * the money to which they are •titled under the arrangement **Pped out by the national execu™» committee...
...Just say, "Inspector, I am ready...
...To vote the Socialist ticket move the pointers in the third row downward...
...Once the voter has moved the red handle on top of the machine from right to left, the voter Is through, as that registers a vote...
...The safest way is to vote early...
...Gilasa declares, in a letter to Norman Thomas, national drive chairass...
...If the big handle on top of machine does not work, just ask the Inspector to release the pin holding the machine...
...Tea have done so remarkably wen hi this drive that I subscribe (100 more to the fund," Mrs...
...If the handle does not move, don't force it, but ask the inspector who is at the machine, to lift the pin locking the machine...
...Union to Float Loan...
...Do not permit any one to enter Inside the curtain of the machine until the handle on top of machine is moved over to left of machine...
...And now he comes to the end of another red-hot, hell-forleather campaign as jaunty and full of fire as ever, the one candidate to emerge from this fantastic New York Mayoralty campaign with integrity, dignity and the respect of the voters of the greatest city in the world all safe in his pocket...
...Frank Sullivan of the New York World, says "The newspaper men of New York are divided into two parts—those on Democratic newspapers who are going to vote for Norman Thomas, sad those on Republican newspapers who are going to vote for Norman Thomas...
...He makes asides...
...It is seven o'clock in the evening and already' there are gathering in front of the old-fashioned Thomas house on East Eighteenth street just beyond the thunder of the Third avenue elevated, reporters, the police escort, the ubiquitous and ever-faithful Eddie LeVinson, Joe Viola, who drives a car as Kreisler plays a violin, and a Yipsel or two hoping to find a vacant place somewhere in the procession By seven-thirty we are off...
...Some inspectors may attempt to enter inside the curtain of the voting machine, on the excuse that the machine is out of order...
...He even dares make al-~ lusions, literary and historical, which certainly must be lost on the majority of his audiences...
...And...
...Release machine, please...
...Instantly there is silence, and people lean forward in their seats, while Norman in simple, incisive, language, talks to them about their common problems of rent, housing, transit, and the like...
...No Time for Applause Arrived at the meeting place, you follow the plunging form of Thomas up a flight of stairs to an auditorium packed to the eaves...
...When you reach the Inspectors at the table, give your name and address, then sign the voters' register, the inspector will compare your signature with that of registration...
...Green berg, Director of Theatre Operations for the Publix chain...
...The Ingest, $1,000, came from Mrs...
...With Debs, of course, it was sheer personality and the traditions that had gathered around that beloved lank form...
...Boston «ad Philadelphia run close to Fittsbarga...
...The machine is very easy to operate, cannot gst out of order, except by force, and is almost foolproof and crookproof...
...It may be advisable for voters who have not used the voting machine to practice on the little dummy that la on exhibition at each polling place or at the district headquarters of the Socialist Party...
...It is believed jkst party officials, by going over Usts, will be able to determine whether there are any others •no would be likely to contribute " approached by them personally...
Vol. 9 • November 1929 • No. 13
