Variety (December 1916)

14 WHITE RATS NEWS = SPECIAL NOTICES Actors and Actresses: Save your money. The Lyric Theatre, Oklahoma City, has not signed with any Or- ganization, and members are still forbidden to appear there. In case one of our Chief Deputy Organisers should suddenly walk into a theatre and you don't know him personally, each one of them has a badge on which are the words "Chief Deputy Organizer, White Rats Actors' Union," in the center of which is the button, and each one carries written creden- tials signed by Harry Mountford. Pay no attention to anyone else unless he has a signed written or- der from Harry Mountford. ■^p Keep your mouths shut. Don't talk. Know nothing, but be ready to do as you are told. Remember your obligation, and the pass-word of the Organization,/ and have your Blue Card locked up in your trunk where you can get at it easily. Managers ar« going to hav« ono moro chanco to sottlo this matUr amicably. Don't believe what you read in the Professional papers. Don't believe anything unless it comes from one of our Officials. Do your duty as a man, as an actor. DO THAT WHICH IS RIGHT, AND ..NEXT.XFATL WHJU.BE A REAL THANKSGIVING DAY TO BOTH MANAGERS, AGENTS AND ACTORS. JAMES WILLIAM FITZPATRICK HARRY MOUNTFORD » • > '»- ■• > . V ■».. ■* *- ' *N*- , * • CLEARING THE GROUND We have repeatedly written the, managers and asked for conferences. Our letters have not been answered. The International President's public request for a conference was insultingly and contumely denied in the pages of this periodical. We have been polite. We have been courteous. We have received nothing in return but insult and abuse. Every available weapon has been used against us—the wildest of rumors, the grossest of insinuations, and batteries of lies. . * Perjury has been suborned. Actors and Actresses have been terrified. Gun-men have been used, and are at present engaged even in New York by the opposition. Some few Actors and Actresses have been induced to sell their birth-right for a mess of pottage. Attempts are made to injure us in every way. And the last attempt made by the U. B. O. and its allies was to attempt to split the forces of Organized Labor and ourselves. The U. B. O. was at the back of the resolution submitted in Baltimore at the Convention of the American Federation of Labor to withdraw our charter. # That attempt was defeated unanimously, and, on the facts being placed before it, that Con- vention pledged itself to support and assist this Organization. j Each time, when it comes to a fight, we win and win decisively. Each time a clash comes, the victory lies with us. And yet the managers will not perceive the hand-writing on the wall. They see but will not acknowledge our success. They know but attempt to conceal from the Actor their failures. Just look back. The N. V. A.—a paper institution, which yet has no permanent address; an organization whose quorum consists of 15 persons; an organization which is of such "good" standing that the proprietors will not accept their signature on a lease, and their foster father has to sign it. An organization whose list of member I have, and it is indeed a sorry list. There are not enough decent acts on it to make a success of one of Gus Sun's houses. j What has become of the Vaudeville Complaint Bureau? We never hear of that any more. What has become of John Sinopoulo's $10,000 challenge? What has become of the U. B. O. alliance with the Burlesque Wheel?* What has become of their threat that no White Rat would be working after October 31st? And what has become of their attempt to take our charter away? And what has become of the V. M. P. A. (which, at its meeting on Tuesday, was a scene of unexampled riot and confusion, when the members gave an example of how not to conduct an Organization) ? All of the managers' plots are domed to failure, for they are based on Wrong. And everything we attempt is bound to succeed, for it is founded on Right. We want nothing that is bad for the business, bad for the manager, bad for the Actor. We want to improve the business, uplift the standard of entertainment, and enable the Actor and manager each to get what he works for, each and every time. We would prefer to get this by persuasion. But conciliation seems useless. We are loath to use force, but that we have the force behind us was proven last Tuesday a{ the Open Meeting in New York when there was pledged to us the entire Labor Forces of the West. WE ARE GOING TO WIN. WE KNOW IT. WE FEEL IT. * AND EVERY ACTOR AND ACTRESS, FOR THEIR OWN SAKE AND FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR PROFESSION, SHOULD SEE THAT THEY ARE CARRYING A UNION CARD, WHICH IS THE BLUE CARD OF THE WHITE RATS ACTORS' UNION OR ASSOCIATED ACTRESSES OF AMERICfiT ~ HARBY MOUNTFORD.