The screen writer (June 1946-May 1947)

THE SCREEN WRITER travelers!!! How do I know it? Because they ARE TOO CONFOUNDED LAZY to be Communists!!! They are TOO PRONE TO LET-THE-OTHER-GUY-DOIT to be Communists! Or TOO INDIF¬ FERENT to be Communists! Or TOO FULL OF FEAR to be Communists — or even fellow travelers! If there IS any justification at all for these published attacks, it’s got to be laid right in the laps of at least sixty-nine percent of the ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP! They and THEY ALONE are BASICALLY AT FAULT because they are either fol¬ lowing like economically unstaple SHEEP who do not possess the power of voice, nor the courage to even write a letter to help PROTECT what they BELIEVE IN — or they are so economically SECURE they consider themselves UNTOUCHABLES, with neither the time nor the inclination to exercise the strength and prestige of THEIR voices and THEIR pens to help SAFEGUARD the FUNDAMENTAL AMERICAN PRINCIPLES AND PUR¬ POSES OF THEIR GUILD! Both are too LAZY, too INDIFFERENT or too FULL OF FEAR to exercise ALL the rights of their SWG CONSTITUTION. Most of them. I am sure, haven’t even READ it to determine its POWER, its RIGHTS and its ADVANTAGES and if it is SURVIVING or CAN survive the wear and tear of modern times and ideologies that are ALIEN to its fundamental prin¬ ciples and purposes — or if it needs OVERHAULING to safeguard against or combat these alien forces! Both are too LAZY, too INDIFFER¬ ENT, or too FULL OF FEAR to TURN OUT EN MASSE to elect guild executives they BELIEVE IN and then STAND BY THEM, tell them WHO THEY ARE, what their PROBLEM is, what their guild OPINIONS are — and in return DE¬ MAND to be KEPT INFORMED on ALL SIDES of ALL issues, particularly those thev are asked to VOTE on! Both are too LAZY, too INDIFFER¬ ENT, or too FULL OF FEAR to STAY UNTIL THE LAST DITCH of meetings they DO attend, but go walking out and rolling home to slumber like BABES or stupid OSTRICHES! In fact, most of them couldn’t do much good there anyway because their INERTIA has made them inarticulate and because they DON’T KNOW A PARLIAMENTARY RULE from Grandmother’s yardstick. Then “comes the dawn’’ — or DOES it? Both are too LAZY, too INDIFFER¬ ENT, or too FULL OF FEAR to exercise their talents for something besides fame and fortune or bread and butter — and get that something in the pages of their official guild “mouthpiece” — the Screen Writer Magazine. I KNOW because in my first weeks on the Executive Board, when I blasted the props out from under that cursed, ill-advised “Action Writer” classification of writers, (or THOUGHT I did, beginning with the Editorial on the subject) my ensuing program that was designed to establish a better under¬ standing and sense of MUTUAL respon¬ sibility among ALL SWG members, topflighters and little guys alike, FELL FLAT ON ITS FACE! It flopped miserably be¬ cause in that special little niche of mine on the Editorial Committee I could NOT GET OUT OF THE ENTIRE SWG MEM¬ BERSHIP more than TWO solicited arti¬ cles and ONE unsolicited article — and one scurvy letter attacking the acceptable solicited article. I could not even get one letter DEFENDING the guild-loyalty of the article, bevond the author’s reply to the attack, although I INVITED them in bold black, editorial type! Nor could all the cajoling and begging of our Director of Publication help me out. Yes, at least sixty-nine percent of rT\y fellow screen writers (that’s the authentic figure that generally never even shows up at meetings) have told me bv their beha¬ vior that they CAN’T POSSIBLY be Com¬ munists or fellow travelers because you simply can’t be lazy or indifferent or afraid and be a Communist or fellow traveler. As I understand it and 1 think correctly, you have to WORK LIKE HELL to be a Communist — or even fel¬ low traveler — and vou have to KEEP AT IT with all the DESIRE and FERVOR re¬ flected in the color of red — and with all the COURAGE and RUTHLESSNESS that we so-called Action Writers have to put into those dastardly heavies who simply 40