Jurisdictional disputes in the motion-picture Industry : hearings before a special subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first-session, pursuant to H. Res. 111 (1948)

MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES 309 Mr. McCann. All right. Mr. Birthright. I telegraphed Mr. Murphy Mr. McCann. That is why you telegraphed Mr. Murphy? Mr. Birthright. We quoted the original, the final. Mr. McCann. I see. Thank you, sir. I have just three or four questions, Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask and then questions from counsel around the table. Mr. Doherty. Before you proceed into that phase, Mr. Chairman, if I may, in behalf of our A. F. of L. committee I made a request this morning which was promptly denied. I repeat that request now. That the A. F. of L. committee will submit itself to cross-examination by any of the witnesses who have previously testified or who will hereafter testify, providing our A. F. of L. committee is given equal opportunity to cross-examine witnesses. I now request that concession or consideration for authorization by the subcommittee. Mr. Kearns. Mr. Doherty, I hope you will bear with me on this. We have a procedure here that we must follow, which is typical of congressional investigations. If this was the first one I was on, it woukl be different, but I have been on four or five of these throughout the country, and we have made it a rule that counsel of any group, or you as an individual, may write out the questions and submit them to the counsel of this committee and the questions will be asked of anyone that you deem wise to answer the question. If they have not been on the stand, I will be glad to swear them in and put them on the stand. But I hope that you can bear with the idea that we could not have just a free-for-all examination of everybody we put on the stand by the various groups here. We could not control the situation. Mr. Doherty. Your answer is no, Mr. Chairman ? Mr. Kearns. It will have to be no, Mr. Doherty. I must have it processed through the counsel, and we have not had the question come up until the arrival of you gentlemen, and we have processed this hearing here, and counsel of all the groups have sat around the table and no one has been denied a right to ask a question through the counsel. I have rolled that several of them were not the type of question that should be asked, but other than that we have had no controversy here. So I can see no reason why I should discontinue the procedure we have been following. Mr. Doherty. Mr. Chairman, I made my request this morning for the same reason that I made it this afternoon. There are here in this room many people who do not understand all phases of this situation, who are either directly or indirectly identified with the motion-picture industry, and because of that fact I thought that they ought to hear everything, and my colleagues concur in that thought. Mr, Kearns. There is no objection to everybody hearing everything. That is what we are here for. INIr. Doherty. However, Mr. Chairman, yesterday general counsel called me into the anteroom. I asked him if I could bring my two colleagues in and he said "No." Since that time there have been several .recesses. At each time general counsel takes a select few and takes them off into the anteroom. What he concocts in there I don't know. Mr. Kearns. Now, wait a minute. I take exception to that statement, Mr. Doherty. There has been no favoritism shown anybody here.