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)

2372 MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES I want to say also that Sorrell pictured me as an individual, in his own Avords, as being the most unpopular man in Hollywood; that I had never been elected to any office; that no member of the alliance had ever voted for me. That is the impression which he gave. I want to say in response to that charge that I earned a reputation in the labor movement in America before I ever held an official position with the international alliance. With the exception of one special assignment which was given me in 1944, I held no official position with the international alliance until 1945. The major portion of my history as a labor representative was earned in the State of Nebraska, where I lived from the time I was born until 1943, when I moved to Washington to take a position with the Federal Government. I was a president of the State branch of the American Federation of Labor for 8 years. I was elected to that office every year that I served. With the exception of the first time I ran I had never had an opponent and was elected by the unanimous action of the convention of the State federation of labor, which embraced all branches of unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. I came into this industry as a projectionist. I started as a projectionist when I was' 16 vears old. I joined the lATSE when I was 17. The following year I was elected an officer of the State federation of labor. I have constantly held an official position in some American Federation of Labor union since that time, with the exec])tion of the period when I served in the War Production Board in Washington during the years of 1943 to 1945. At the time I was appointed I was the secretary of the ninth district, which is a suborganization of the lATSE. The lATSE is divided into districts. Each of the districts elects its officers. I was the elected officer of the ninth district of the lATSE, elected in 1940, elected in 1942, elected again in 1944. I was elected by a substantial majority the first time in 1940, and without opposition in 194'i and 1944. That is one of the largest districts in the alliance. It embraces nine of the Midwestern States, including the States of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, all of them together comprising one of the largest areas in the alliance. So that the impression which Mr. Sorrell gave that because I at this moment happen to occupy a position which traditionally has been an appointive position, that I was an interloper is a completely false one. My whole life since I was 17 years old has been spent as a member of the alliance and has been spent in some official capacity with the labor movement of this country, with the exceptions that I have noted. I might also say in view of these charges that so far as I know I was the youngest man ever to be elected to the presidency of a State federation of labor, when I was elected at 23, in 1923, to the office of president of the Nebraska State Federation of Labor. So as I say, my reputation so far as the American labor movement is concerned, was earned and I think it was a good reputation that I will challenge anybody to deny, and before I ever went to Hollywood in 1945. I knew when I went to Hollywood that these charges would be made, but I had lived in my organization long enough and I had a high