The screen writer (Apr-Oct 1948)

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SCREEN WRITERS GUILD, INC. 1655 NO. CHEROKEE AVE., HOLLYWOOD 28, CALIFORNIA AFFILIATED WITH AUTHORS' LEAGUE OF AMERICA, INC. OFFICERS & EXECUTIVE BOARD, THE SCREEN WRITERS' GUILD: PRESIDENT: SHERIDAN GIBNEY; 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT, GEORGE SEATON; 2ND VICE-PRESIDENT, F. HUGH HERBERT; 3RD VICE-PRESIDENT, DWIGHT TAYLOR; SECRETARY, ARTHUR SHEEKMAN; TREASURER, HARRY TUGEND. EXECUTIVE BOARD: ROBERT ARDREY, ART ARTHUR, CLAUDE BINYON, CHARLES BRACKETT, FRANK CAVETT, OLIVE COOPER, VALENTINE DAVIES, RICHARD ENGLISH, EVERETT FREEMAN, PAUL GANGELIN, ALBERT HACKETT, ARTHUR KOBER, MILTON KRIMS, ERNEST PASCAL, LEONARD SPIGELGASS. COUNSEL, MORRIS E. COHN. EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, ALICE PENNEMAN. EDITORIAL THE blacklist is the poison gas of industrial warfare, a weapon long since repudiated between employers and employees, but, in a curious throwback to the 1890's, revived by the Motion Picture Association against writers whom it considers undesirable. Thurman Arnold, in behalf of the Guild, has challenged the use, through corporation conspiracy, of this dangerous, corrupting device, which can spread its venom to the damage of the entire community of writers. Among other things, it is hoped that this suit will eventually compel a form of "Hague Convention," outlawing once and for all this despicable tactic by which groups of companies suspend individual judgment and enforce a collective ban upon any current object of their organized wrath. The action of the producers is comparable to Lynch law — punishmentthrough-panic inflicted upon victims found guilty without due process of law and executed on the spot, with only h earsay evidence to justify the corpse swinging overhead. We have here an example of economic Lynch law. True, civil damage suits may in time provide partial recompense to the victims for the malodorous method used against them. But that doesn't excuse those who lined up with the mob instead of with the sheriff. Nor is there any excuse to be found where courts after the event confirm the mob's verdict. And the magic word, "Innocent" has no power to resurrect those already embalmed in printer's ink and interred in the filth of editorial misrepresentation. The blacklist — both open and tacit — and the Kangaroo Court method of trial are perhaps the two deepest causes for short-term concern among Guild members. Both are major targets in the Thurman Arnold complaint. Nor can arbitrary cancellation of clear-cut contracts by distorted interpretation of the morality clause be allowed to go uncontested in an industry where so much is based upon contractual agreement. 16 The Screen Writer, June-July, 194