/

a
DeMille Asks Congress
For 'Right to Work'
WASHINGTON — CecU B. DeMille, fUm
producer, called on Congress this week to
sefeguard production and through it, national
defense, by federal
guarantee of the "right to
work."
Appearing before the
house labor committee as
its first witness in the
hearings on right-to-work
legislation, DeMille, who in
1944 had to give up his
radio job as a result of suspension
by the American
Federation of Radio Artists
for refusal to pay a one dollar
political assessment, asserted
that "protection of
this right is Just as vital
to the national defense as
universal training or the
draft."
After three years of continuous
crusading for "freedom
CecU B. DeMille to work," DeMille par-
ried-and-thrust at 18 dif^
ferent members of the committee sitting
simultaneously, who sometimes were hostile,
sometimes friendly with their myriads of
questions.
SAYS DISPUTES ARE PETTY
Spotlighting the events of the now 30-
months-old Hollywood labor jm-isdictlonal
dispute, the producer declared that "things
have become so bad that disputes arise and
workers are laid off over such petty things as
which imion may remove a bale of alfalfa
from a movie set, or who may make up an
actor below his Adam's apple."
Pointing out that the importance ol the
right to work is as basic as the right to life,
"for it is by work that men live," DeMille
quoted the three decisions of the supreme
court which he said firmly established that
the right to work is a constitutional right—
part of the personal hberty protected by the
fifth and 14th amendments.
"Yet," he asserted, "in practice, the right
to work has been violated in a multitude of
instances, of which my own case is only one.
That the courts have never been given a
clear mandate by federal law to protect the
right to work absolutely and at all events
may be one reason," he said, that a "clearly
established constitutional right has been and
can be challenged with Impunity."
KEARNS QUERIES DeMILLE
Carroll D. Kearns (R. La.), who was chairman
of the sub-committee investigating the
Hollywood jurisdictional dispute, queried
DeMille on whether or not he thought the
present labor laws, if properly enforced,
would not be adequate to guarantee the Individual
the right to work. Kearns added the
cryptic exclamation, "Why doesn't the government
take over the unions for a change,
and see what they can do?"
There have been so many instances, was
DeMlUe's reply, where the Taft-Hartley act
and other labor laws have been avoided. As
an instance of this, he said that Instead of
removing a worker from a union, which the
Taft-Hartley act prohibits, the worker was
merely not called to work.
Comparing the lack of a statutory statement
of the right to work with the present
legal protection given the right to strike,
DeMille declared that the "silence of the
law has helped to produce an entirely unwarrantable
interpretation" of the latter,
which he described as a valuable and necessary
right. "The right to strike," he continued,
"has been stretched to mean not only
the right of workers to quit in concert, but to
prevent their- fellow-workers, who want to
work, from going to their jobs, by assault,
threats, intimidation, and abuse."
Asked if the various states did not already
have laws against violence in labor disputes,
DeMille answered that such laws were on the
books in some states, but that "heads are
being broken daily." He referred to a photograph
from the Los Angeles Times of March
5, showing massed pickets outside a Los
Angeles garment factory, with an official
court order in the gutter at their feet.
FOR WORKERS' PROTECTION
Representative Lesinski (D., Mich.) asked
if such a law would not put a weapon in
the hands of unscrupulous employers vrtiereby
they could break strikes and lower wages.
Such was not his intention, answered DeMille.
"Both management and labor are playing a
game for the control of industi-y," he said.
"I am asking that Congress give relief to
the millions of workers, both union and nonunion,
who need protection so that they
won't be shuffled around like bags of beans
between management and labor."
In his testimony, DeMille recalled that a
right-to-work law had helped thwart Communist
plans for taking over France last
November when, after a wave of Commimistinspired
strikes and with a general strike
in the offing, Premier Schuman proclaimed
in the national assembly that attacks on the
right to work would not be permitted, and
that acts of sabotage would be punished.
Summing up. DeMille called for a federal
"right to work" law backed up by provisions
for stiff criminal penalties for offenders and
the right to collect civil damages, and asserted
that precedent for such a law can be found
in the already existmg federal statute which
provides fines and a prison term for persons
who conspire to injure in any manner the
rights secured to a citizen by the Constitution,
or laws of the United States.
ITOA Pledges Support
Of Youth Month Drive
NEW YORK — The Independent Theatre
Owners of New York has pledged support to
the Youth Month activity which is being
spearheaded by Theatre Owners of America.
In a message to Charles Skouras, national
chairman for Youth Month, Han-y Brandt,
ITOA president, said: "Activities of this sort
which are designed to place the theatre business
in its proper relationship to worthy
public projects deserve the support of every
theatreman regardless of association or affiliation."
'Monopoly Finished/
Samuelson Declares
PHILADELPHIA — "Monopoly is finished,"
writes Sidney E. Samuelson, general
manager of eastern Pennsylvania
Allied, in a bulletin to members.
"On the question of divorcement, there
is more work to be done in the New York
district court. But the indications are
plain that the supreme court thinks that
divorcement is the ultimate solution to
the monopoly problem in the motion picture
business.
"Monopolistic trade practices which enabled
the distributors and the chain theatres
to maintain a tight grip on this
industry are smashed by the supreme
court decisions. Competitive bidding was
eliminated."
Samuelson mentions the ban on pricefixing,
compulsoi-y block booking, discrimination,
requirement of proof for reasonable
clearance and other features of
the decree.
"For years," he continues, "Allied has
battled the motion picture trust. And
now the victory has been won. Only
minor mopping-up operations and policing
by independent exhibitor organizations
remain. The future of this industry,
so far as exhibition is concerned, will belong
to the independent theatre man.
"Here is a word of warning for the
smart fellows: Allied of Eastern Pennsylvania
will see to it that aU illegal practices
and violations of the decision by
any distributor or chain theatre in oiuterritory
will be promptly called to the
attention of the proper authorities, with
a request to proceed vigorously against
the lawbreakers. And wherever necessary,
Allied will advise its members to proceed
individually against those distributors
or chain theatres which have violated
the law in the past or which attempt
to violate it in the future. As a
completely independent exhibitor association,
without obligation to any other part
of the motion picture industry. Allied
stands ready at this important juncture
to serve its members, and its members
only."
Special 'Rope' Trailer
Postponed Until June
NEW YORK—Shooting in New York of
the special trailer for "Rope," Transatlantic
Pictures Technicolor film for Warner release,
has been postponed until June. Alfred Hitchcock,
director, will be unable to return from
England before then. He is working on the
screenplay for "Under Capricorn," second production
for the comipany. The trailer will be
in Technicolor and will star James Stewart.
Equipment Demonstration
CHICAGO—Herb Goldberg, representative
of the California Popcorn Equipment Co.,
will present the company's Hollywood Servemaster
at the Stevens hotel here May 18, 19.
Goldberg will leave for the east following the
showing to Introduce the equipment in other
territories.
14 BOXOFFICE : : May 15, 1948