The New York State Exhibitor (1933)

12 Jul 25’ 33 THE NEW YORK STATE EXHIBITOR Allied Advises Houses on the President’s Drive Urges All Theatres to Co-Operate in NIRA Push Allied States Association has come forth with this following announcement regarding President Roosevelt s drive for h;°her wages. It deserves the consideration of all houses. The bulletin says : To stimulate his lagging recovery program President Roosevelt has turned his attention trom codes for the tune being and has launched a drive to increase wages and reduce working hours for the period beginning August 1 and ending December 31, by voluntary agreement of all employers. This drive, reminiscent of the Liberty Loan campaigns is designed to enlarge the purchas¬ ing power of the country during the period necessary for the formulation, presentation and approval of industry codes. Each theatre owner will receive an outline of the plan from his postman. Moreover, the campaign has been so fully explained by the newspapers that it will only be necessary in this bulletin to deal with it in its relation to theatre operation. Theatres Should Co-operate Employment conditions in theatres have no possible relation to or effect upon interstate commerce, hence there is no power under the Industrial Recovery Act to compel a theatre owner to observe the proposed standards of wages and working hours. However, all theatre owners should take immediate steps to comply with the President’s wishes : First as a matter of patriotism as it is ob¬ vious that the depression can not be lifted without the united and unstinted efforts of all business men under the leadership of President Roosevelt ; Second as a matter of self-preservation since the publicity and propaganda to be re¬ leased will constitute a thinly-veiled blacklist¬ ing of all employers who do not get m step with the program. Allied Pledges Support Acting under emergency powers conferred on them by the Board of Directors, President Ritter and Chairman Myers have wired Gen¬ eral Hugh S. Johnson as follows: “Allied States Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors pledges its support to the President in the emergency re¬ employment drive and will aid first by endeavoring to bring all motion picture theatres voluntarily into line regard¬ less of technical questions of jurisdic¬ tion under Recovery Act and second, by urging theatres to make their screens available for dissemination of authorized information concerning the drive.” How It Affects the Theatre The President has, in effect, divided all workers into two classes, i. e., white collar workers and mechanical workers. Before They Flew Here are Hal Horne, U-A ad chief; Ed Finney, publicity general; A1 Lichtman, sales manager, being bidden bon voyage by Walt Disney, Mary Pickford, Charles Chap¬ lin and Joe Schenck before going to the Chicago U-A convention. The first category clearly includes ticket sellers, doormen, ushers, bookers, elevator conductors, etc., and managers receiving $35 a week or under. Whether operators, stage hands and elec¬ tricians are “service employees” under the first category or "mechanical workers” under the second is not clear and Allied has asked for a ruling on this. This probably is not important, as em¬ ployees of the latter class already receive pay over the minimum and work hours equivalent to or under the maximum in most localities. 1. Working Hours (a) White collar class: Not more than 40 hours in any one week. (b) Mechanical class: Not more than 35 hours a week, except that they may work 40 hours for 6 weeks within that period, but not more than 8 hours in any one day. The foregoing applies to all establishments employing two or more persons, except, that t does not apply to establishments employing not more than two persons in towns of less than 2500. Other exceptions do not affect theatres and, therefore, need not be men¬ tioned. Children under 16 may not be employed, except that children between 16 and 14 may be employed (but not in mechanical or manu¬ facturing industries) for 3 hours a day be¬ tween 7 a. m. and 7 p. m., provided it does not interfere with school. 2. Wages (a) White collar class: Minimum pay, $15 a week in cities over 500,000 or in immediate trade areas ; $14.50 in cities between 250,000 and 500,000 or i. t. a. : $14.00 in cities between 2,500 and 250,000 and i. t. a. ; and in towns of less than 2,500 an increase in wages of not less than 20% provided that this shall not re¬ quire a wage in excess of $12 a week. (b) Mechanical class: Minimum pay, 40 cents per hour unless the hourly rate for the same class of work on July 15, 1929, was less than 40 cents, in which case the rate shall be not less than the hourly rate on that date, but in no event less than 30 cents per hour. It must be borne in mind that these are nvn'mum wages. Wages now paid in excess of such minima are not to be reduced. Procedure The theatre owners will receive from the postman or other functionary a form of agreement between themselves and the Presi¬ dent which they will be expected to sign, pledging themselves to the foregoing program of wages and hours and other matters which need not be mentioned here. The signing of these agreements will en¬ title the theatre owners to obtain from their postmasters signs, posters, badges (believe it or not ! ) attesting that they are co-operating in the emergency campaign. The theatre owner who does not equip him¬ self with these trappings may find himself in a worse position than the merchant with a German name during the war. Why An Emergency Drive? This drive is necessary to avoid a crisis due to the failure of industries promptly to file codes providing for increases in wages and more jobs. This failure is due (a) to the inability of the various groups to agree on these matters among themselves: ( b ) the reluctance of the Administration to encourage or approve codes against unfair competition which would enable the industries to raise commodity prices so as to offset the increased wages: (c) the uncer¬ tainty inspired by the noisy activities of vari¬ ous unauthorized groups in formulating codes for persons whom they do not represent ; and (d) dissatisfaction with the failure of the Administration to deal frankly and openly in reference to its jurisdiction over purely intra¬ state businesses and as to what use it intended to make of the power which business was requested to deliver into its hands. The weakness of the present drive is that it presupposes there is a great reservoir of money in the treasuries of business concerns which can be freely tapped to increase wages without any corresponding increase in revenue other than the vague surmise that an increase in buying power will redound immediately to the benefit of such business concerns. The most encouraging feature of the an¬ nouncement is that the reception and approval of codes of fair competition has not been abandoned. If this work is prosecuted fairly and earnestly, and the problems inherent in the undertaking are dealt with freely and with candor, the recovery campaign may yet be a success. Allied and the Code Various proposed codes for the motion pic¬ ture industry have been made public. Allied has received the well-considered comments of a few leaders on these and now urges all leaders to get in their objections (if any) to these drafts. The time is now approaching when Allied must formulate a final policy for the exhibitors based on these comments, on information sent in as a result of the regional meetings held and to be held, and on the vari¬ ous proposals and agreements made to and with representatives of the distributors in the past. Having received anxious inquiries as to whether the code formulated by a small group recently could be hurried through without giv:ng the theatre owners an opportunity to protest, Allied obtained from General Johnson the following : “No code or agreement of any kind will be approved without the widest notice and opportunity for every person inter¬ ested to be heard fully.” Don’t forget to get your badge!