“Theater Managers Try the Citizens’ Alliance Advertising Scheme”

Headline: “Theater Managers Try the Citizens’ Alliance Advertising Scheme”

The crooked hand of the Citizens’ alliance is suspected by experienced judges in the present trouble in the theaters. Already the dirty trick of “muddying the waters” is seen in the misrepresentations advertised in the Daily papers. These advertisements contain a number of half truths calculated to give the public an evil impression of the labor side of the controversy.

The main demand of the stage employees is for “one day’s rest in seven.” The question of wages is secondary.

The union claims the right to protect its members from discrimination and persecution, and will no permit a member to be dismissed without just and reasonable cause. This cannot be interpreted as the right to dictate who shall be employed. If unions did not furnish this protection active workers might be driven out of the trade and the union destroyed.

Only one extra worker would be required in a theater employing six workers or less and the extra worker would not have to be employed the full six days. It would depend on the number to be relieved.

The demand is not for 30 weeks guarantee for the force employed, but for the man in charge. The stage employees work long and irregular hours but have no assurance of employment for any fixed period.

The union requires a certain number of workers for each theater and this force interchange in their lines of work. The ridiculous claim that a “carpenter cannot hold a ladder for an electrician” shows the malicious extreme to which the anti-labor publicity agent of the theater managers has gone to make a case for his employers.

All of the demans of the union could be amicably compromised, but for some reason the managers became defiant and broke off negotiations. The contract of the motion picture operators provided for an annulment of contract in case of labor trouble.

The lying advertisements seek to give the impression that the motion picture operators broke their contract. This is in keeping with the other charges contained in the paid publicity of the managers.

The theater employees ask the public not to be influenced by malicious misrepresentations made for the purpose of prejudicing the cause of the striking theater employees, and urge that patronage be withheld as a matter of safety to the patrons and justice to the workers until a settlement has been reached.