Motion Picture Herald (May-Jun 1948)

1^ PROTECT RIGHT TO WORK'-DeMILLE Tells House Committee Congress Should Enact Law to Back Principle Washington Bureau The right to work — violated in many instances before and since the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act — should be guaranteed by Congress through a Constitutional Amendment or through the enactment of a Federal "right-to-work" law just as the Government now insures workers of the right to strike, Cecil B. DeMille, Hollywood producer, told the House Labor Committee here Tuesday. The group is holding hearings on "the right to work." Mr. DeMille was the first of a series of witnesses. He was followed on the stand by Donald Richberg, labor relations authority. The committee, under the chairmanship of Fred S. Hartley, Jr., also was shown newsreel pictures of recent strike violence. Court Upholds AFRA Attention was focused on Mr. DeMille recently when the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the right of the American Federation of Radio Artists to levy special assessments on its members for political or other purposes and to suspend members unwilling to comply. The issue arose in 1944, when Mr. DeMille was barred from the air by AFRA for refusing to agree to a $1 assessment on members for avowedly political purposes. .Stating that, while both an employer and a union officer, he did not speak for either business or union management, Mr. DeMille stressed that his concern was for the individual and that he was opposed to reaction in any form. Declaring that the framers of the Bill of Rights knew that some of the fundamental rights embodied in the Constitution would sooner or later have to be outlined in detail, Mr. DeMille told the committee that "one of the most fundamental of those rights is the right to work. I submit . . . that the time has come for Congress to declare it to be the public policy of the United States that every individual should have the right to work, when he pleases, where he pleases, for himself or for whoever wants to hire him — and that the full protection of the Government should be put behind this right to work." Quotes Court Decisions To support his stand, Mr. DeMille quoted from several court decisions, but went on to say that the right to work had been violated many times, quoting his own experience with AFRA as an example. "The right to strike is a valuable and necessary right," he declared, "but what man in his right mind would say that the right to strike is more important than the right to work !" And he went on to say that, since the Federal statutes do not emphasize or defend the right to work, "an entirely unwarrantable interpretation of the right to strike" had been produced.' He pointed out that while peaceful picketing and other lawful strike means were in order, the right to strike had been stretched to mean also the right of strikers to prevent fellow workers, who want to work, from going to their jobs. A Federal right-to-work law — backed up by provision for stiff penalties— would go far to clarify the just limits of the right to strike and, at the same time, would protect Americans who want to exercise their right to work, Mr. DeMille declared. Citizens Committee Urges Trade Pact Extension Washington Bureau The Citizens Committee for Reciprocal World Trade, which includes Eric A. Johnston, MPAA president, Spyros Skouras and other industry officials in its membership, Monday told the House Ways and Means Committee there was grave danger of impairing the nation's security and economy and of jeopardizing the success of the European Recovery Plan unless the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act is extended for three years. The House Committee had been holding closed sessions all week at the request for an extension of President Truman, who hopes to have the bill by May 15. Warner Branch Heads Meet in New York Warner Brothers branch managers concluded a two-day session on sales policy for forthcoming product at the home office last Friday. Ben Kalmenson, general sales manager, presiding, the managers discussed "Silver River," "Wallflower," "The Big Punch"' and "Romance on the High Seas." District managers who attended were: F. D. Moore, Sam Lefkowitz, Robert Smeltzer, Charles Rich, Harry A. Seed, Hal Walsh, John F. Kirby, Doak Roberts, Henry M. Herbel and Haskell M. Masters. Martin Theatres Divided Into Four Districts Martin Theatres of Florida, Inc., Columbus, Ga., has set up four district headquarters for its circuit, E. D. Martin, president, announced this week. The headquarters and their managers are : Marietta, Tenn., Matt Bates, manager ; Eufaula, Ala., G. N. Goldwire ; Milledgeville, Ga., J. N. Morgan, and Fitzgerald, Ga., I. T. Taylor, manager. MPAA in Mom For Unfreezing Money Abroad The Motion Picture Association of America is participating in a commercial plan to unfreeze some of the funds tied up in countries such as Italy and France by finding and developing new world markets for their product, it was learned this week. Reportedly conceived by Gerald M. Mayer, inanaging director of the MPAA's international division, the plan has been adopted by the World Commerce Corporation, an international trading association with offices in the principal cities of the world. The project is finding its first application in Italy and is aimed principally at countries that ordinarily would be unable to release American film earnings to any appreciable degree until after the European Recovery Program had put their economy on a sounder basis. The World Commerce Corporation, backed by banking institutions of international prestige and by other large organizations of worldwide stature, is reportedly representative of film interest to a degree. Some members of its board of directors are said to be prominently identified with the American industry. The whole program to recoup frozen currency is said to have been set up by Mr. Mayer and John A. R. Pepper, WCC vice-president. It calls for WCC to convince European manufacturers, growers and commodity producers in general that new world markets can be found for their products. This presumbably means that WCC, which functions' more or less like a brokerage organization, would attempt to place European wares in South American countries as well as the United States. Once the manufacturers are persuaded to align themselves with the scheme, WCC approaches the government of the country wherein the manufacturer operates and proposes an agreement whereby frozen American film earnings equal to the manufacturer's earnings in the new market will be turned over to the manufacturer while an equivalent of the amount in dollars goes to the U. S. film companies. Allied Rocky Mountain Owners To Discuss Buying Combine The convention of Allied Rocky Mountain Independent Theatres in Denver, May 18-19, will discuss the possibility of establishing a booking and buying combine for members and the group buying of candy, popcorn and theatre supplies. Principal speaker will be Abram Myers, general counsel of national Allied, who will speak on the Supreme Court decisions in the Paramount, Schine, Griffith and Goldman anti-trust cases. Election of officers and directors will close the convention, to be held at the Cosmopolitan Hotel immediately following on National Allied's board of directors meeting, May 17. 24 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MAY 15, 1948