1946 - A Year in the Life of a CIO Union
The Los Angeles Newspaper Guild
by Jim Smith
Were CIO unions different from today's unions? Yes. For one thing, members were fined if they missed a meeting. Hundreds of members attended Los Angeles Newspaper Guild (LANG) meetings every month. LANG was typical of left-led unions that saw themselves as part of the working class, not as a "special interest." They believed that an injury to one was an injury to all, regardless of the industry, union or country.
Here's a summary of the kind of activities this local union of about 2,000 members involved itself in during a year that marked the high point thus far of militant unionism in the U.S. It's taken nearly verbatim from the monthly issues of the Guildsman's newspaper.
Jan. 4 Guildsman
* Daily News negotiations lag (Phil "Slim" Connelly, chief negotiator).
* Voting for LANG officers underway.
* Elected without opposition:
Pres.: George Hutchinson (first 2nd term ever).
Sec'y: Harva Kaaren Sprager.
Treasurer: G.K. Williams
A.O.: Bill Brodie
* LANG annual meeting: 10 a.m., Sunday, Jan. 13, Musart Theater, Figueroa & Pico.
* Guild office: 1324 S. Figueroa, Telephone: Prospect 0241.
* Minutes of Dec. 11, 45 membership meeting: LANG calls for immediate withdrawal from China of U.S. troops & supplies. Resolution sent from N.Y. Newspaper Guild.
* 1945 Officers: Pres. George Hutchinson, VP Don Kirby; Sec'y Harva Kaaren Sprager; Treasurer G.K. Williams; Sgt-at-Arms Jack Phillips, Administrative Officer Bill Brodie.
* Guildsman editor: George R. Voigt.
Feb. 2, 1946 Guildsman
* Top story: Daily News negotiations.
* LANG files for election in circulation dept. at Hollywood Citizen News, charges mgt with union busting.
* LANG election results:
2 VPs elected: Michael Amstell (226); Andy Barrigan (198).
Sgt-at-Arms: Jack Phillips (187)
CIO delegates: Brodie (377); Connelly (352); G.K. Williams (351); L.F. Claypool (347); Barrigan (340); Sprager (316); Voigt (314); Ellis (308).
* At the Feb. 11 membership meeting: Report on French underground fight against Hitler by Guild member Harold Salemson. Also, songs by Verne Partlow.
* Downtown newspaper chapter of American Veterans Committee formed, Milt Phinney, chair.
* Daily racing Contract includes severance pay for 1st time (only circulation is covered).
* Annual auditor's report (1945) published: Total income $48,684.62; Total Disbursements $45,137.74.
* CIO newsboys prepare for fight in negotiations. 8-year struggle for recognition.
* Bradfords return. Lt. Eugene Bradford, one time financial sec'y is at Fort Bliss expecting to be out of service in a few weeks. His wife, Sgt. Anne Bradford, is back on U.S. soil after service in the European area, undergoing separation from the Women's Army Corps.
March 2, 1946 Guildsman
* Top story: Two LANG units top 100% in strike fund pledges. 12,000 CIO members in L.A. on strike. LANG's ace negotiator and former president, Slim Connally and 20 other CIO leaders on trial for picket-line charges. A.O. Bill Brodie asked Representative Assembly to call a drive in all units for 100% fulfillment of voluntary pledge of one hour pay per week for strike assistance to sister unions. Long Beach Independent was 1st unit to hit 100%. Next was San Pedro News-Pilot.
* Daily News contract sets new records. Highest pay rates outside of New York City. First time: 50 weeks severance after 25 years. First time: Three weeks vacation after five years.
* Tentative agreement with San Pedro News-Pilot: 17.5% raise.
* CIO newsboys set March 19 strike date against Examiner.
* NLRB charges filed against City News Service for refusing to bargain.
* FTA (Food, Tobacco & Agricultural workers) union asks Bill Oliver and Verne Partlow to write songs for big organizing drive.
* Editorial against white supremacy, demands Justice Dept. act.
* Editorial for keeping price controls.
* Controversy at International Executive Board meeting: President Milton Murray wants position converted into paid job, do away with Exec. V-P position. IEB VP/Local president George Hutchinson disagrees.
* CIO Political Action Committee (PAC) national program: full employment, higher minimum wage, emergency unemployment insurance, taxation according to ability to pay, continuation of price and rent controls, low rent housing, permanent FEPC, abolition of the poll tax, social security, veterans legislation, child care, seamen's bill of rights, Missouri Valley Authority, education.
* Guild members active on steel, electric, packing and agricultural picket lines last month.
* Minutes of 2/26 R.A. meeting: RA votes to send 12 delegates to Guild convention in Scranton, will pay transportation and per diem but not lost wages.
* Minutes of 2/12 General Membership Meeting:
-Treasurer Kay Williams said budget is higher than ever before, "the union is not in business to make money but to provide services for its members."
-Initiation fee raised to $5.
-Verne Partlow sang new song on housing problems "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
-Connelly introduces leaders of three striking unions: Eugene Judd, sec'y, UAW Local 216; Jim Grady, president, USWA Local 2058; Carl Brandt, western rep, UE.
-Nine appointed as delegates to Hollywood Writers Mobilization.
April 1, 1946 Guildsman
* Top story: GUILD WINS WAGE RAISES, CONDITIONS IMPROVEMENTS Three Contracts Renewed by Guild Action
New contracts: San Pedro News Pilot, Long Beach Independent and the California Eagle.
-News-Pilot: after strike deadline, 17.5% general increase. Editorial employees, formerly under an AFL federal charter, were brought under Guild jurisdiction with wage increases of up to 40%.
-Long Beach: 5% increase to $70.76. Five year scale cut to four. District Managers up to $55. "The Long Beach renewal was worked out in record time," commented Bill Brodie, who served as negotiating committee chairman. "Two meetings with management brought complete and amicable agreement."
-California Eagle: Guild shop, $30/week increase for the seven employees.
-Negotiations underway at Citizen-News, Huntington Park Bulletin and Consolidated Publications.
* Agreement on wholesale rate reached at Daily News. Under the agreement, District Managers are guaranteed $392.67/month and car and loss allowance. They get a $2.50 monthly raise for each year of service after three years, and they get $8 a hundred in addition for all circulation above 1250 average daily.
* Connelly appeals ruling in right to picket fight. Connelly, former president of LANG and an active member of nearly all its important negotiating committees since he was made secretary of CIO Council, was charged with "disturbing the peace, blocking entrance to a struck plant, violating an injunction and inciting a disturbance." Sentenced to 60 days on each count running concurrently.
* Citizen-News demands elimination of all forms of union security from Guild's contract. Still pending is NLRB petition for election among circulation employees and charges owner Harlan Palmer fired six employees for union activity.
* CIO president urges members continue to buy U.S. savings bonds.
* Daily News members have contributed $1,642.32 to LANG Defense fund. Voluntary donations were pledged from pay increases gained by the new Guild contract. LANG Defense fund now has a total cash amount of $6,557, highest in the funds's history.
* Closing of nominations for convention delegates is principal order of business at LANG's April meeting next Tuesday night, 8 p.m. in the Embassy Auditorium. Also on the agenda is proposal that all members would be required to attend an orientation meeting for new members.
* Editorial "Freedom of the Press" defending George Seldes against attack by Editor & Publisher magazine.
* Hollywood Writers Mobilization, a coalition of various studio writers' guilds and LANG begins publishing "Hollywood Quarterly."
* Quotes from LANG leaders opposing a paid international president.
* HerEx District Manager Billy Harris reinstated after mgt. backs off dishonesty charge. AT the end of the two hour session, during which Guild President George Hutchinson had to make three trips down to the circulation department to plead with the boys to keep on taking the papers out, management withdrew all charges against Harris.
* Bill Ryan returns to Herex copy desk after 36 months service in the Army Air Forces and Air Transport Command.
* LANG holds housing bee. Fifteen members swinging sledge hammers and wielding screwdrivers, chisels and wrenches started remodeling Guild hall. On the program are installation of a bar, murals on the walls, construction of a library and reading room and remodeling of the kitchen. Florence Thrasher and Hazel Brodie, of the Guild's auxiliary, provided coffee and sandwiches. Showing and audience discussion of significant films will be continued by the Writers Mobilization at three month intervals as part of the organization's new motion picture program.
* Auxiliary Activities, by Ruth V. Bortin. LANG Auxiliary points with pride to Julie Williams, Elsie Murray, Alice Cohee, Helen Kapp, Dorothy Connelly and others of its members who did their lot (those girls don't stop with bits) in the successful McClanahan Recall (a reactionary L.A. City Council member). One topic at the next meeting will be the adoption of a Yugoslav orphan.
* Two full pages of CIO Political Action News plus a full page Los Angeles map of congressional districts.
* Full page ad supporting boycott of American Tobacco Co. "Lucky Strike Means unfair Tobacco."
* Newsboys union wins Examiner fight. "The Los Angeles Times is next." That was the slogan of the Newsboys' Union, CIO, last week after they had successfully brought the Hearst Examiner to terms in the deadline hours before a strike was called. The newsboys gain increases ranging from $4 to $12 a week for all members, a union shop, the right to sell papers on their corners on Saturday, etc.
* Minutes of General Membership meeting, 3/10/93:
-Speaker of the day was Dr. Richard Noyes of the California Institute of Technology who spoke on Atomic Energy.
-Bill Axelrod of the Newsboys Union spoke on their fight with the Examiner.
-Herald unit presented gifts to members of the Herald negotiating committee. Three received war bonds, seven received Reynolds pens.
* Minutes of R.A., 3/26/93:
-Report of Executive Committee, given by Brother Bill Brodie, covered 1) Excuses; 2) New Members; 3) Purchase of two Kardex files; 4) Communications-recommended support on request to Congress on civil rights; CIO-FTA Resistance; Hollywood Writers Mobilization request for publicity for "Hollywood Quarterly"; Festus Coleman Defense; AYD; L.A. Committee for Democratic Policy in Far East; , etc.
* M/S/C to concur in request from Mobilization for Democracy to write President Truman urging disassociation with Churchill's speech in Missouri and to request strengthening of the Yalta and Potsdam resolutions.
* M/S/C that R.A. recommend to Convention that a New Members Handbook be made available.
* M/S/C to refer to Executive Board and Administrative Officer method of keeping membership at Regular Meetings throughout the entire meeting session.
* Units (Chairs): Herald-Express (R.S. Tuck Edwards); Daily News (Zula Ferguson); City News Service (Mesa Dobson); Huntington Park Signal (George Henry); Long Beach Independent (Harold Rigney); San Pedro News-Pilot (Kenneth Johnstone); General Unit (Ruth Marrow); Triangle Racing Form (Joe Ramirez); Hollywood Citizen News (Charles Andrews); Associated Press (Garber Davidson); Huntington Park Bulletin (Marie Martello); Wave Publications (Earl M. Letner); Hollywood Press Times (Jean Barnstein); Consolidated Publications (Nathan Rothenberg).
May 3, 1946 Guildsman
* Top story: CITY NEWS VOTES STRIKE AWAIT LANG'S GO-AHEAD. Strike Action Follow 15 months negotiation.
* New attendance check system begins at Sunday meeting. members must attend at least one meeting every two months to avoid being fined.
* NLRB election for 21 Hollywood Citizen News circulation men, May 7.
* Chuck Randle, Daily News District Manager, is new chair of LANG's steward's council. He is rushing plans to get into print with the long-planned stewards' manual. He will be available to discuss problems with Guild members at the Guild hall between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. each Tuesday and Thursday morning.
* National strike faces Time-Life, L.A. unit formed. Strike underway at Pacific Press, coast publishing firm for the magazines, by the printing trades unions.
* Brad back. Old Home week atmosphere flourishes around the Herex unit with guildsmen flocking back from service en masse. Latest to shake his Sam Browne belt with alacrity is ex-1st Lieut. Gene Bradford, now back at the helm of the Herex library. Gene laid down his heavy Guild duties 45 months ago to enlist. He trained platoons in various U.S. camps for overseas fighting in the infantry.
* Santa Barbara Guild in organizational fight. Editorial workers on the Santa Barbara News Press aided by LANG and IEB VP George Hutchinson are battling for collective bargaining recognition in the face of stiff employer opposition and despite the discharge of three leading members of the Guild there. The embattled unit, holding membership in LANG pending issuance of a charter by the IEB, lined up 80 per cent in favor of the Guild. The three obtained a majority of members just two days before they were called in and fired. "Another open-shop newspaper town is falling by the wayside," commented Hutchinson.
* LANG fights discharge of wire service employees. Rosalind Shaffer, AP special Hollywood columnist and Earnest Kleinberg, Acme photographer were being released to make way for employees returning from the war, said management. The Guild contended that the discharged employees were not war leave replacements. "Wire serves generally have made every employee hired since the beginning of the war sign a 'waiver' stating that he or she was a temporary employee," commented A.O. Brodie.
* Cap Adams dies of heart attack. A.S. (Cap) Adams, was a member of the DN advertising staff since 1941. He had previously worked for the F.W. Kellogg newspaper chain, the old Los Angeles Evening Express, the Long Beach Sun and the Pasadena Post.
* Annual Guild Edition Offers Cash Prizes. The special edition, which will consist of five sections of more than 20 pages each, is being prepared primarily to convince this year's convention delegates that Los Angeles is the logical convention city for 1947. Fifty dollars in cash prizes will be awarded to contributors for the best copy in each of the following categories: Voluntary stories and articles, assigned stories and articles, pictures, cartoons and ad layouts. There will be a special award for circulation. There was a seven-member advertising committee.
* Report on ANG issues at Sunday meet. A preliminary report of a special Guild committee studying ANG convention issues is to be made at Sunday's LANG meeting. On the proposal for a paid presidency, Philip M. Connelly commented, "This is just a fight between two guys to see which one stays on the payroll. There is no fundamental principal involved. As far as I am concerned, they have both done a bad job and there can be no choice between them. What we need is an administration that will get out and organize this union and put us into the forefront of the important battles that are going on in this country, rather than spend their time squabbling over which one gets paid."
* Former Herexer John Clark Principal in San Diego Beef. Charges and counter-charges were hurled in the San Diego Newspaper Guild over the last three weeks, necessitating the assignment of George Hutchinson, international vice president, as an advisor to the local in an effort to clear up the troubled situation. John Clark was discharged from his job by C.D. McKinnon, publisher of the San Diego Journal because he "probably was a Communist." The Journal City editor quit in protest against the discharge and the Journal unit voted to support Clark. The Local's executive committee allowed McKinnon to sit through its entire hearing on the matter and then voted against handling the grievance. Angry at the failure of the Guild to act, 1500 members of the IAM Lodge 1125 voted to denounce the Journal. Hundreds of protests swamped the Journal. The beef culminated when McKinnon offered Clark reinstatement. Clark declined and accepted four weeks severance pay.
* The Auxiliary adopted a Yugoslav orphan at the last regular meeting, and all of you will soon receive a leaflet with details about our child; Dorothy Connelly's vivid description of Yugoslav children in the war, a tale which motivated the adoption; and a plan for financing.
* Congressional Rep. Ellis Patterson leading fight to save OPA. A Gallup Poll found that 70 percent of the American people favor retention of price and rent controls.
* Guildsman Herb Klein takes CIO job in S.F. New director of information for the CIO Food, Tobacco and Agricultural Workers Union California-Arizona regional office, is Herbert A. Klein, long a LANG member.
* Guildsmen staff Screen Writers' magazine. Harold J. Salemson, a LANG member is Director of Publications for SWG. Former ANG members who have contributed to past issues of the magazine include Alvah Bessie, Lewis Amster, Robert Shaw, John Lardner, and many more.
* Wedding Bells Ring for Harva. Harva Karren Sprager, LANG secretary and Daily News drama writer, became a Mrs. the 5th of this month. She was married at her home, 11000 Bellagio Rd., Bel Air by Superior Judge Stanley Moffat. The bridegroom is Nathaniel Holtzman, tax lawyer, ex-navyman and active member of the Lawyers Guild. Harva announced she neither plans to leave her position at the News nor cease her active participation in the Guild. In fact she is going to leave her brand new bridegroom for most of next month while she attends the national ANG convention in Scranton, Pa.
* Frank Scully runs for Legislature. Frank Scully, columnist for Variety (N.Y.) and the Hollywood Press-Times, and a charter member of LANG has filed for California's 57th (Hollywood) district. The incumbent, Albert Dekker, also a LANG member, is not running for re-election.
* Herex Dance Brings PAC $60. An impromptu Herex Easter Bunny Hug dance at Guild Hall April 26 netted LANG's Political Action fund some $60. The gang that stayed away missed one of the best shindigs of the season, with celebrants sticking it out until the wee small hours. Bill Davidson supplied hot and sweet orchestral dance music.
* Labor Courses Offered by PEC. Peoples Educational Center currently is offering two courses entitled "Your Trade Union and You" and "The Labor Scene Today." Labor attorneys Frank Pestana and Ben Margolis lead the first class.
* Howard Koch, screen writer and playwright, has been elected chairman of the Hollywood Writers Mobilization.
* Chuck Cheatham, longtime City News reporter who transferred out to the Long Beach Independent shortly before entering service, is back at his Independent job.
* 2500 More Signatures Needed by FEPC. Almost 50 percent of signatures filed for the California Fair Employment Practices Act initiative have been thrown out for technical reasons.
* About Newspapers and Labor Unions, by L.E. Claypool. "After I had been kicked around a few years it dawned on me one day that the people who always seemed to want newspaper reporters to be neutral and objective were the owners of the newspapers or their stooge editors . . . I found I was working nine hours a day every day but Saturday. On Saturdays I worked from 7 a.m. until 3 a.m. on Sunday. In other words, I worked 65 hours a week and got not a penny for any such thing as overtime . . . Then the Guild came along and put an end to all that. It wasn't easy and to this day there are short sighted and narrow minded newspapermen who do not realize that their 5-day, 40-hour week and overtime are all due to the pioneering of the Guild."
* Political Action takes dough. LANG members voted $1500 to its political action fund in voluntary contributions.
* Herex photogs Ben White, Tom Courtney and Howard Ballew won $100 each in a Hearst sponsored photo contest.
* PAC endorsements for June primaries. For the assistance of its members in deciding how to vote June 4, LANG's Political Action Committee lists below the outstanding candidates for various offices (includes Robert Kenney, Governor; Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, Attorney General; Jerry Voorhis, Cong. 12th district, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Cong. 14th district).
* Anti-labor initiatives collecting signatures. One would outlaw union shop and forbid "two or more persons by cooperation to induce . . . any person to affiliate with a labor union." The other would exempt veterans from union membership.
* State CIO-PAC election program. Statement on foreign policy hits drive toward War-Imperialism. Today, less than a year after V-J Day, the danger of war is again threatening us. Imperialist-minded representatives of American Big Business are the main source of this danger.
* Political Action Sign-up Form.
* Minutes of General Membership Meeting, April 10, 1946. Minute of silence on first anniversary of FDR's death. Speaker of the evening was Pat Brown, candidate for attorney general. Bill Oliver announced that a contest will be held for a mural history of the newspaper industry for the Guild Hall. Communication from Brother Bradford thanking LANG for the flowers sent to him while he was in the hospital. Communication from Building Service Employees outlining their grievance against the Sacramento ball club and asking LANG to honor their picket lines when the club plays at Wrigley Field April 16. John S. Shelley, candidate for lieutenant governor introduced.
June 1, 1946 Guildsman (convention issue) - 84 pages
* Theme of issue is bringing the 1947 convention to Los Angeles.
* Full page cover photo of 20th Century Fox secretary named Nancy Guild.
* Celebrity ads include from Irene Dunne, Dorothy Lamour, Ida Lupino, Rosemary De Camp, Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Eddie Anderson, Bud Abbot, Lou Costello, Frank Sinatra, Red Skelton, Bob Burns, Judy Canova, Betty Hutton, Nelson Eddy, Walter Lantz, Edward G. Robinson, Dan Duryea, Edward Everett Horton, Dick Haymes, Jane Wyman, Ronald , Dolores Moran, James Dunn, Dore Schary, Sammy Kaye, Dinah Shore, Rudy Vallee, Bob Hope, Alan Hale, Bill Demarest, John Garfield, Jimmy Durante, Garry Moore, Pat O'Brien, Walter Slezak, Robert Cummings, Jack Haley, Jerry Colonna, Harold Peary (Great Gildersleeve), Gene Biscailuz (L.A. County Sheriff), Jerry Geisler, Jerry Wald, Lena Horne, Peter Lorre, Alan Ladd, Charles Boyer, Sonja Henie, Ralph Edwards, The Andrews Sisters, Franchot Tone, Gary Cooper, Jack Carson, Buddy Rich, Harry Von Zell, George Raft, Danny Kaye, Spike Jones.
* 14 convention delegates elected: George Hutchinson, William Brodie, G.K. Williams, Andy Barrigan, Harva Kaaren Sprager, Philip M. (Slim) Connelly, William Oliver, Alma Gowdey, Merrill Davis, Eddie Phillips, Howard McClay, Collins Bradley, Ruth Marrow, Betty Golden.
* Mr. Newspaperman, Vern Partlow - he can do anything. Partlow is lanky, talkative, 36 years old and a top reporter on the Daily News. But on his own time, with his long fingers on his guitar and his vocal chords throbbing, he goes through a transformation which suggests that, even for a newspaper reporter, he has found his way to the present by a strange, unbelievable route. He has been called "a singing newspaper," which is as good a way as any to define him when he's operating before a group with his guitar. Of the atom bomb, he sings: "We hold this truth to be self , that all men are cremated equal. . . . The atom bomb is here to stay but are we?" In 1942 Partlow became administrative officer of the Guild. "Because," he says, " dissenting factions couldn't agree on anybody else. I was a compromise."
* L.A. once worst newspaper town - then came the guild, by Vern Partlow. The Guild is no insurance company, newcomers. You don't pay a premium and - ipso facto - get results. You pay dues for the upkeep of the union, but the results you get yourself, by banding together, keeping the Guild vital, active and democratic, by practicing the ancient principle that in union there is strength.
* A drink in one hand, a contract in the other, by Orv Danforth. Story about administrative officer Bill Brodie. First time he ever negotiated for the San Diego Guild, Bill - with his shirt sleeves rolled and his necktie in his pocket - battled it out across the table with a sharp, $500-a-day company attorney. The union won a solid contract and Bill's fellow Guildsmen marveled at his mental tenacity. A few days later some of those Guildsmen had a chance to marvel at Brodie's physical tenacity. In the Press Club, a big, off-duty cop said something about unions that Bill didn't like. The cop had had too much to drink. Bill had had just enough. "Throw this damned cop out of here," Bill shouted to the Press Club manager, "or I will!" The manager, who knew all about local politics, refused. Brodie knew local politics, too. But he didn't scare, Bill tore into the big cop and it took several men to tear him away. The cop staggered out and never returned. Late in "42 Brodie was offered a job as editor of the Los Angeles UAW's Plane Facts. Within a few weeks, Bill made Plane Facts one of the major organizational weapons of the UAW here. On top of that he was producing UAW radio shows. Bill's bargaining ability was recognized and he became one of UAW's chief aircraft negotiators for the nation. He helped negotiate the first labor contract ever signed by Donald Douglas. Bill turned down jobs as national negotiator for aircraft (offered by Richard Frankensteen) and a position on the aircraft wage stabilization board in Washington to run for, and be elected, administrative officer of LANG.
* LANG staff handles big business. Mechanical operation of LANG's normal activities for its 1300 members and its 17 units is almost big business. In the Musart building offices of LANG are four more-than-full-time employees. In addition to A.O. Bill Brodie are Maxie Haus, office manager; Helen June August, bookkeeper; and Edith Stein, stenographer.
* City News strikers teach boss how to run business. Striking Newspaper Guildmen of the City News Service agency this week were furnishing new service to more clients than their former boss ever did, despite the fact that said boss wrote blacklist letters to former clients naming all the strikers. The newly established Metropolitan News Service, organized by the strikers on a volunteer basis, was supplying news of Los Angeles happenings to 16 dailies, 40 community newspapers and four radio stations. The emergency service is operating from the Newspaper Guild hall.
* Auxiliary active in LANG affairs, by Dorothy Connelly. Soon after the Newspaper Guild No. 69 was born in Los Angeles, another organization, known as Guild Auxiliary No. 3 also saw the light of day. For eight years the Auxiliary has worked by the side of the Guild, always fighting for the same objectives, and utilizing the forces that are sometimes forgotten by unions&endash;the enthusiasm and help of the wives at home. History records that the first meeting of Auxiliary No. 3 was held at the home of Stephanie (Bill) Oliver, where thirty-five wives and mothers gathered to discuss how they could help with the strike at the Hollywood Citizen News. The Auxiliary has usually met at the same time and place as the Guild. When the Guild met on the third floor of the Musicians Union Building, on Georgia Street, the Auxiliary shivered in the basement.
* Slim Connelly's a very big man, by Charles Ellis. The biggest man in the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild in more ways than several is Philip M. Connelly. Connelly, who probably has more friends and more enemies than anyone else in town, runs his office as secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles CIO council almost as if it were a city desk. In Los Angeles Connelly is Mr. CIO and largely responsible for labor's permanency and prestige here. Connelly, as a member of LANG, was elected first president of the California CIO council in 1938, and reelected to that office without a break until 1944 when he stepped down. Delegates to the L.A. CIO council four weeks ago reelected him to his seventh consecutive term as full-time executive officer of the council. As second president of LANG, he led the famous 13-week strike at the Hollywood Citizen-News, which had a tremendous effect in the recall of former Mayor Frank Shaw, and the cleanup of the anti-union, red-chasing Los Angeles police department, which, as is the mayor's office, is again in need of a cleanup job. In recognition of his strike leadership, Connelly was elected to the international executive board of the American Newspaper Guild and served four times, finally resigning voluntarily.
* If it's a job of any kind, ask GK- he'll do it or see that it's done, by Ann Brownell. G.K. Williams, editor of the Labor Herald and LANG treasurer, is an ex-businessman, among other things, whose social conscience began to twinge a comparatively few years ago. But it's kept him jumping ever since. Somehow he finds time to keep Guild accounts straight and gloat over the Guild surplus which has grown, since he took office as treasurer in 1943, from $1500 to $14,509.66. "It's due to the growth of the Guild, not to any business ability on my part," Williams says modestly. Williams who has been everything from salesman to proprietor of 300 acres of citrus trees to one-third owner of a carnival, got his first newspaper job, writing high school sports for the Brooklyn Citizen.
* Hutchinson nearly Mexican general. George Hutchinson is a pioneer Los Angeles Guildsman and an international ANG vice president for two years. Known from coast to coast as "Hutch," he became a Guildsman as a direct result of the Guild going CIO and taking in departments other than editorial. Hutch organized Hearst's Herald-Express circulation department into a militant union. By using coercion and intimidation and the old trick of payraising, the Herex broke the group organized by Hutch. At a meeting of the management-inspired "independent" union, however, Hutch convinced the members that they had been sold down the river, and the union voted to join the Guild. After a stretch as a GI, Hutch went back to railroading and was sent down into Mexico where the government was doing some construction work. That was at the time of the Mexican insurrection and Hutch was offered a commission in the insurrection army. But he turned it down to become an engineer on the railroad, until 1920 when he was fired for participating in a strike.
* Zula swings wicked rolling pin, men, by Ann Brownell. Zula Ferguson, Daily News home economics editor and Guild unit chairman, turns not only a neat pie crust but also a neat political trick. In 1938 she came to the Daily News. The Guild had preceded her by one year, but it was another year before anyone bothered to ask Zula to join. At the time she took over the unit, it was falling apart, with no enthusiasm, very little Guild feeling and a very big threat of company unionism hanging over it. The unit is far different now. Persons who never before thought of attending a Guild meeting now go simply because Zula, in her gracious and inimitable way, invited them personally.
* Thanks . . . Members of the pre-convention annual edition advertising committee - Virginia Wright, Tuck Edwards, Lowell Redelings, Bob Thomas, Virginia MacPherson, Dick Hayes and Charley Wadsworth - wish to thank all of their friends who helped to make this issue a success. The success of this Special Edition enabled the Guild to send its delegates to the annual American Newspaper Guild convention.
* Newsmen requested to aid race relations, by Ed Marciniak, Chicago Guild. What a Guildsman says about Negroes or Mexicans in the columns of the daily press makes an impact on the conduct of race relations throughout the city. At the request of the CNG's executive board, I set down some personal observations on what Chicago newspaper men and women can do about responsible journalism in the field of race relations: 1) End the practice of labeling Negroes in crime stories. If individuals are not identified as "white" in crime news, why should "Negroes" be so labeled? 2) Write news stories about the positive contributions Negroes are making in the city. 3) Work to have Negroes hired as reporters on the Chicago dailies. It's a major crime that not a single Negro is employed in the editorial departments of any of the Chicago papers. 4) Use Guild meetings, the Guild News and the ANG's mailing list to bring this problem before working newspaper men and women. 5) Eventually work up to a point where we can have "no discrimination" clauses inserted in Guild contracts with newspaper managements.
* Paper shortage serious, but Guildsmen keep jobs. Strikes in British Columbia mills have forced abandonment of three morning editions of the Daily News. The Daily News curtailed its paper consumption by 60,000 a.m. copies daily. News that the paper was abandoning its 24-hour publishing policy was announced first to guild shop stewards. The Daily News has a circulation of more than 250,000. Unique size of the freak six-column tabloid Daily News complicated the situation, making it impossible for management to obtain paper from other sources.
* The newly formed Wire Service Unit of LANG propose 20 changes in the national contract including elimination of wage differentials where higher wage rates are paid in New York and sometimes in Washington and Chicago. Many proposals were forwarded to Joseph Colangelo in New York for inclusion in the 1946 contract, but not one found its way into the proposal presented to management by the Guild. The joint Los Angeles wire service unit sincerely hopes that the above proposals will not be filed in the wastebasket, as were those previously submitted. Mr. Colangelo - I call him Mr. because a brother would not be guilty of such neglect&endash;did not even acknowledge receipt of the previous proposals or the letter accompanying suggestions of the Acme group, and when the administrative officer of the Los Angeles local spoke to him in New York, he persisted in his refusal to comply with our wishers in this matter. - R. Collins Bradley, Secretary, LANG Wire Services Unit.
* Delegate Betty Golden is employed by the Labor Herald as Southern California business, advertising and circulation director, joined the Guild in 1945. This is the first ANG convention she will be attending. She is secretary of the General Unit, Representative Assembly and on the Executive Board of the Hollywood Writers Mobilization.
* Herald-Express Unit begins new Guild contract negotiations. Want pay to raise with higher prices. LANG's biggest unit (500 workers) this week was organizing the most searching study of its contract terms ever undertaken.
* Truman blasted. A resolution adopted by the Representative Assembly of LANG condemned Truman's interference in the railroad strike and his call for the induction of such strikers into the armed forces. The resolution is to be brought to the ANG convention.
* Convention delegate Eddie Phillips, press photographer with the Herald-Express for the past 10 years, is one of the original members of the Los Angeles chapter.
* Militant grievance action at the News and Herex prevented the discharge of two employees and enforcement of the advancement opportunity clause, last month.
* Negotiations for '46-47 editorial contract at the Hollywood Citizen-News rocked into their 16th week yesterday while discussions were just getting under way for a contract for the newly affiliated circulation department.
* Bill Oliver was 1944 president of the Guild, has been with the Herald-Express in the drama section since 1936. He will be attending his third convention. He was a delegate to the first national Hearst Chain Bargaining Conference in Chicago in 1940.
* Action taken against new Truman plan. Delegates from five large progressive organizations met last weekend to establish a final program for independent political action at a meeting raised to a high pitch of determination by President Truman's raid attack on labor a few hours earlier. The five organizations were CIO-PAC, NCPAC, Railroad Brotherhoods, Progressive AFL, and the Hollywood Independent Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions. Many LANG delegates were present. "It is long past time we took some new form of political action," said CIO's Philip M. Connelly. "Great things are at stake in this country today."
* Wives must aid political act. Some tips for women by Julie Williams (LANG Auxiliary president in 1945, she is now president of the California CIO Women's Auxiliary Council). The time has come when women must assume their complete and full political responsibilities. If Auxiliary members could be instrumental in getting even 2 percent of these non-voting women to vote it could easily mean the difference between victory and defeat in 1946 elections.
* Minutes of the membership meeting of May 12, 1946. Additional resolutions for the convention were read by Bill Oliver and Andy Barrigan. They covered democratic rights, full employment and the OPA. All were approved. Harry Christie, secretary of the Allied Printing Trades Council spoke and asked for support for the strike at Pacific Press. Ed Reese, chairman of the new Time and Life unit was introduced. Bud Geissenger of the Hollywood Citizens News unit reported on an election in the circulation department. The Guild won 15 to 10.
* Captions of photos on page 39: Top photo was taken at the huge anti-Gerald L.K. Smith mass meeting in Olympic auditorium. Los Angeles Guildsmen helped arrange and publicize the meeting. Speakers included Atty-Gen. Robert W. Keeny, Orson Welles, Gregory Peck and Connelly. Mobilization for Democracy was formed at the meeting to fight native fascism in Southern California. Left, center, is LANG treasurer G.K. Williams signing first 100 percent PAC check in California, in 1944. With him are LANG president George Hutchinson and Anita Batsch, then LANG office manager. Right, center, shows Guildsmen Slim Connelly and Bill Brodie turning on the heat for Hearst negotiators (at left) Martin and Harvey Kelly, who are mopping perspiration from their faces. Resulting Herald & Express contract set this year's high contract pattern for Hearst chain. At right is LANG secretary Harva Sprager.. Lower, left, is Guildsman John Cohee handing Walter Winchell the New York Guild's Page One award. Cohee also signed Winchell into the Guild. Lower, right, is photo of notorious strike-breaking attempt of L.A. "Metropolitan" (anti-strike) squad shooting gas projectiles and swinging clubs in front of U.S. Motors plant. L.A. Guildsmen helped publicize activities of the police to gain wide public support of the CIO United Electrical Workers strikers, and helped turn heat on the city administration for its vicious anti-labor activities.
* Fascists now active here; target: Labor, by Grace Simons, General Unit. This past year has witnessed a forceful effort by fascist demagogue Gerald L.K. Smith to establish headquarters in this city, the initial outbursts of he revival of the Ku Klux Klan, and ruthless attempts to coerce and intimidate Negroes.
* Labor endorses new health plan. The pre-paid hospital and medical care health plan of Blue Cross won the unanimous endorsement of the AFL Central Labor Council at its last meeting, according to William J. Bassett, secretary-treasurer. Free choice of more than 6200 member doctors and 82 community hospitals is guaranteed under the plan. Group members' dues are paid monthly through payroll deduction and many employers are paying all or one-half of this cost for their employees.
* Anti-labor history of Times told, by Ed Wilson. This article will give the reader a glimpse of labor's early struggle against its arch-enemy, the Los Angeles Times. AT the main entrance of the Times building one may find graven in brown, Missouri granite, the following trumpet-toned inscription: This building is dedicated to the cause of true industrial freedom and liberty under the law. Behind that sentence there is a long, bitter story - a story distilled during more than half a century of warfare - and it blares forth a challenge.It is a bristling defiance to organized labor, and a clarion-call for the open-shop interests to stand firm.
* Alma Gowdy, convention delegate, and one of the first members of LANG, has been with the Herald-Express for 15 years in display advertising.
July 5, 1946 Guildsman
* Top story: ACME backs down, bows to LANG in Kleinberg case. Reinstates Photog after vigorous action by Guild. LANG won a precedent-setting victory when Acme News Pictures backed down in a dispute over the discharge of photographer Ernie Kleinberg and reinstated him with full pay.
* Although LANG's all-out bid for the national convention of the American Newspaper Guild in 1947 failed, the LANG delegation did a bang-up job in Scranton. LANG delegates circulated souvenir match books, orange sprays and copies of the special edition of the Guildsman to every delegate. They threw a cocktail party which almost all the convention attended, and they lost the bid for the 1947 convention by only a narrow margin of votes. Sioux City, Iowa, was chosen for next year's convention. Smaller locals gathered in the administration line about its efforts to favor the little guy.
* A check for $3392.36, believed to be the largest amount of severance pay ever given to a Guild member on the Pacific Coast, this week was given to laid off Daily News librarian Mrs. Jane Worthington. The sum represented 40 weeks pay, plus two weeks vacation pay and two weeks in lieu of discharge notice.
* The atom bomb, the Big Four meetings, the art of Picasso, the music of Bach, the Jews in Palestine, the care of an infant, are among the varied topics that will be discussed in classes at the Peoples Educational Center for the Summer Semester.
* Convention Reports:
Political Action, Veterans' Affairs,Wire Service panel,
Council of Councils (Councils represented: Empire State, Michigan, Midwest, New England, Northern California, Northern Ohio, Ohio Valley, Pennsylvania, Texas): A majority of the councils have had an executive secretary for only a few months. It is the belief of the Council of Councils that the Council system, given sufficient time to operate, will eventually prove itself the best method for bring the most newspaper men and women into the Guild.
Finance committee: This convention is the first to consider a proposed budget.
Hearst committee: Recommends the establishment by ANG of a permanent Hearst Chain Council for the distribution of information on a national scale of facts concerning grievances, negotiations, etc.
Hearst Council: National memorandum existed between the Guild and Hearst.
Scripps-Howard: Chain council being developed.
Bargaining: Program includes wages, wage reopening, wage information, vacations, social security, job security, union security, limitation of apprentices.
* Auxiliary Activities. FEPC will be on the ballot. We have already sent in half of our yearly pledge for the support of Anka Zoric, our Yugoslav child.
* Minutes of General membership meeting, June 11, 1946. Speaker: Steve Murdock, former San Jose Guildsman and now publicity director for the FTA, who outlined the history of the cannery workers' fight for proper union representation. Zula Ferguson presented awards to the negotiators who worked out the new Daily News contract. Brodie reported that the NLRB election result was 10 for the Guild to 9 for no union with two votes to be received form servicemen. The CIO Council has set up a labor day committee and suggests that locals appoint their own committees to work with CIO one.
August 5, 1946 Guildsman
* Howard L McClay - Roy J. Ringer ... Guildsman Editors.
* Top story: HEREX NEGOTIATIONS MAY SET NATIONAL PATTERN. No Contract-No Work Ultimatum Opens Wage-Hour Demands. The demand for $100 wage scales for key classifications in almost every department was backed by clear warning to the publisher that the unit expected demands to be met and a new contract signed by Sept. 3, when the old contract expires. The unit elected the following negotiating committee: Bill Brodie, Andy Barrigan, G.K. Williams, Slim Connelly, Frank Thrasher, Zula Ferguson, Lloyd Settle, Ruth Marrow, Lew Garrett, Harry Heller and L.E. Claypool.
* Summary of new Herex demands: Vacations - Four weeks instead of two. Holidays - Six holidays instead of five. New Years to be added. Hours - Meal times to be scheduled and fixed regularly. Expenses - Payment of $10 weekly ($25 for district managers) for providing automobile for use on company business and 10¢/mile. Seniority - credit for all service with Hearst. Advancement Opportunity - Employee with longest seniority bidding on job gets automatic trial period. District Managers - company payment of fines and attorney fees for traffic violations. Drivers - Elimination of car washing and servicing from job duties. Chute Men - Provision for full staffing of chutes at all times. Classified - Equal wage treatment for outside and telephone sales and for classified and display deskmen. Provision for equalization of territories and review by joint union-management committee. Retirement - Voluntary severance pay after 10 years. Proposal that management negotiate pension plan to supplement government old age security. Apprenticeship - Joint committee. Part-time employees - 20 % extra pay. Shift differential - Increase from 5% to 10%. Struck work - no employee required to handle. Dues checkoff - company to check-off dues and assessments. Wage reopening - Guild to have right to reopen contract at end of any four month period in which living costs increase 2% or more.
* ANG comes of Age. A report by LANG delegates. In convention at Scranton, ANG ceased to be a "press club." It stopped being "an organization of professionals." It became a trade union. The program was organizing. Political action. Sound finances. Constructive wage policies. An extensive organizing program was achieved RIGHT ON THE FLOOR OF THE CONVENTION, with a minimum of bickering, no ifs and buts - a definite, determined organizational program. The convention was leaderless - in fact, many of the delegates came to the distinct opinion that the program of the top officers was to prevent consideration of important issues rather than to encourage such discussions. Almost the entire first day and a half of the convention was given over to a struggle to force establishment of adequate panels and committees. Once this was done, rank and file delegates provided leadership for an otherwise leaderless convention.
* CNS strike deadlock continues. Possibility that negotiations would be resumed and the three-month-old City News Service strike come to an end was snafued this week when Manager Telford Work once more resorted to the double-talking labor tactics he has employed during the past 18 months.
* DN Unit Party Adds $275 to CNS Strike Fund.
* Guild playing effective role in political action, by Leslie E. Claypool. The outstanding political fact of 1946, as far as the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild is concerned, is that the Guild has become politically conscious and active.
* Employers Draw Warning on Vet Job Training. Veterans participating in on-the-job training programs must be kept from becoming a cheap labor market for employers, says Marine Major-General Graves B. Erskine, head of the U.S. Dept. of Labor's re-training and re-employment administration.
* 3 R's of Labor to be taught at new school. California Labor School, Inc., will start its first summer school for white collar and professional workers on Sunday, Aug. 18, at Asilomar, California. The school, endorsed by LANG and many other California labor organizations, will emphasize instruction in organizing techniques, establishment of union educational programs, trade unionism, economics, minority problems and labor policies.
* RA Supports Higher Standards for Women. A resolution asking for establishment of an 85¢ per hour minimum wage, an eight-hour day, 40-hour week and revision of sanitary conditions for women and minors in the state was adopted by the LANG's Representative Assembly meeting on July 23. Delegate Lewis Garrett, who attended the first UOPWA sponsored conference on wages and hours for women and minors on July 17 at the First Unitarian Church, reported to the RA that 25 delegates representing labor unions, youth councils and church groups were present at the meeting which supported the demands.
* Elect Mosk New Chairman of NCPAC Chapter. The executive board of the Southern California chapter, NCPAC, last month announced selection of their 1946-47 officers. The board, elected at the June 29 annual membership meeting, chose attorney Edward Mosk as its chairman. Vice chairmen elected were Carey McWilliams, Assemblyman Augustus Hawkins, Ben Margolis, Mrs. William Dieterle and Mrs. Charlotta Bass.
* Contributors to Guildsman Edition Win Cash Prizes. Two first prizes were given to a layout on a profile about Vern Partlow by the editorial board that handled the special 84-page June edition of the Guildsman. They were awarded to the team of Ann and Bob Brownell. Ann works for the Labor Herald, Bob for the Daily News, and they are a team in marital relationships as well as writing assignments. Julie Williams was awarded first prize in the voluntary story classification for her piece on the tremendous role auxiliaries play. Winning photo was submitted by Daily News photographer Gib Brush, it shows dynamic scene at movie strike picket line.
* Acme Reinstates Two Employes Pending Hearing. Guild threat of a "continuous grievance session" which would have stopped production completely, won temporary reinstatement last week for two Acme News pictures wirephoto operators.
* Guild Joins 'Airborne' Rent Control Lobby. An airborne "people's lobby", composed of twenty representative of steel, rubber, auto, ship and other industrial unions, the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild and civic groups, was on hand bright and early in Sacramento, July 22, for the opening of the special legislative session called by Gov. Earl Warren to consider rent control legislation. It was believed to be the largest group of trade unionists ever sent to the California State capitol to do a special lobbying job. Members of the delegation unanimously agreed that they wanted rents and evictions frozen for 90 days as of June 30 date of expiration of OPA. Labor and its representatives now recognize that air travel now makes it possible for labor to speak its piece, to be seen and heard, at the State Capitol, without losing more than one day's work.
* Negotiations at Citizen-News Approach Climax. Agreement in principle to terms of the proposed new contract between LANG and the Hollywood Citizen-News was reached late today. After three months of meetings, negotiations for a first contract covering the circulation department at the Hollywood Citizen-News were approaching a climax last week. Management negotiators have stubbornly refused throughout the sessions, to grant a 40-hour week and holidays for the circulators, on the ground that since they were on a wholesale rate basis they should work unlimited hours.
* Set September Deadline for Broun Entries. All entries submitted for this year's Heywood Broun Award will be considered for radio scripts to be aired on the ANG's forthcoming national radio show. G.K. Williams, LANG, is chairman of t he radio program committee.
* 3 L.A. Members Will Attend St. Louis Meet. LANG will have at least three representatives at the Guild's national collective bargaining conference to be held Sept. 7 and 8: President George Hutchinson, Daily News Unit Chairman Zula Ferguson and Administrative Officer Bill Brodie. The Hearst chair council and the Wire Service council meetings will be held at the same time.
* Greenock New Coast Organizer. ANG's convention-adopted policy of expanded organizing reached to the West coast last week with the appointment of Robert Greenock, San Francisco-Oakland Newspaper Guild as an international representative.
* The Routemaster, by C.B. Allen, Daily News.
The presses roared with furious din,
The district man stood by;
He checked his watch, he bit his nails,
He scanned the cloudy sky.
Not broken press, nor fog, nor rain,
Nor traffic four dimensions
Could stay him from his daily round,
For he was conscientious.
The doughty mailers knew their stuff,
And standing by their table
They wrapped and tied the bundles up
As fast as they were able.
They pushed the heavy loaded truck
Out thru the open door;
The district man with quickened hand
Set to his loading chore.
With bundles stacked and tucked in tight,
He stepped in desperation
Upon his starter - he was off,
To keep up circulation.
He drove thru traffic undismayed,
Determinedly ahead;
He squeezed and turned and spurted thru
Where Angels feared to tread.
He spotted bundles on the fly
To carriers tried and true;
Not one of them would let him down,
And that, he really knew.
His boys were always on the job -
But wait! - a note instead -
The carrier of his biggest route -
The boy was sick, it said.
He grimly spotted all the rest,
Then raced across the town,
And tirelessly he faced his task -
The route that he had down.
He threw the route, a tough one, too,
But all must have the news,
Matt Weinstock, Alley Oop, and all -
And also Boddy's views.
His flashlight beam thrust thru the dark
To ferret numbers out;
He hurled each paper on the porch,
Or someplace thereabout.
All done, he confidently called
The office just to see
If any messages were there -
That voice of destiny.
"Yes, District Twenty-three," replied
The voice that he well knew,
"At 2916 South Grand,
One paper - should get two."
He stopped to figure out whose route -
A thoughtful interim -
And then he knew the bitter truth,
Just one complaint - on him.
* Every Market a Black Market Purpose of NAM Propaganda, by Bill Brodie. One of the greatest propaganda campaigns in U.S. history has just been concluded with the wrecking of price controls. This campaign was backed by paid advertisement of the National Association of Manufacturers and repeated millions of times by the reactionary press and radio. The American press lent itself almost 100 per cent to the propaganda. As organized newspaper workers, publishers may still be strong enough to force us to write this kind of material, but can they force us to believe it?
* Here's an Aspirin for Rent Control Headache. If you're not certain whether OPA is or OPaint . . . if you're blowing your top over this rental rigamorole, the following questions and answers may be the answer to your palsied prayer. (Questions and answers about rent control.)
* LANG Supports New Fund Drive. Southern California chapter of the American-Jewish Labor Council today urged all CIO members to aid in the chapter's current drive to raise $250,000.
* Partlow (and Guitar) Join Cannery Fight. LANG's Vern Partlow, who sings, debates and sells CIO with a guitar, has just been handed the biggest organizing assignment of his busy Guild career. Partlow - and his four stringed "secret weapon" - will turn his troubadour talent into the greatest labor election in the history of the West, the FTA-CIO cannery workers' drive in northern California. Like CIO unions throughout the country, the LANG wanted to do something for the big mobilization in a dozen northern cannery towns - so it offered to contribute a week's salary for an organizer to help prepare for the big labor board election that's coming soon. FTA - Food, Tobacco and Agricultural workers, to you - said "swell" and asked LANG to send Partlow and his guitar and songbag of original stuff for the drive. Two songs by Partlow - entitled, "My Name Is Cannery Bill" and "Round and Round the Canneries" - already are playing on phonograph records at mass meetings, in juke boxes and homes of cannery workers. Sixty thousand grossly underpaid and over-sweated workers and 75 huge canneries are involved in the coming election.
* Guildsmen Join Fight To Depose Franco. At a meeting held late last week, Guildsmen and special representatives of CIO locals heard "Carmen," a demurely dressed, vigorous woman who is the famed representative of thousands of workers constituting the underground movement in Spain. Her address came at the beginning of a month-long period voted by the World Federation of Trade unions as the time to place heavy emphasis on the plans to overthrow Franco's government.
* Photo caption: Guildsman "Slim" Connelly receives the Catholic Interracial Council's annual award for "best service" in the interracial scene. Pictured with Connelly are Dan Marshall, board chairman; Father George Dunne; Dr. Thomas R. Peyton, the council's president; and newspaperman Frank Scully.
* Guildsmen Hear Pastor Assail Racial Prejudice. Los Angeles' recent wave of racial terrorism as evidenced by burning crosses and threats of violence may have been brushed aside by the mayor and the police department as "just pranks," but the fact remains that these incidents are nothing more than examples of the ever rising tide of racism. This was the opinion expressed by Rev. George E. Dunne at the last LANG general membership meeting.
* History of Unionism Told New Members. "The American trade union movement has played a proud role in protecting and strengthening democracy in the United States. The American Newspaper Guild has been instrumental in raising newspaper wages by more than 50 per cent and establishing decent dignified working conditions." This was the gist of a summary of Guild and labor data supplied to more than 35 new members of LANG at the first new members meeting held last month. By membership action several months ago, LANG made attendance at one such meeting mandatory for all new members.
* Santa Barbara Grievance Ends. Charges filed with the NLRB by the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild against the Santa Barbara News-Press over dismissal of three Guildsmen last May were dropped today. LANG administrative officer Bill Brodie announced that the three newsmen, Hayden Reece, Richard Haitch and Richard Collins, were given a cash settlement of $260 each. All were war replacement employes.
* N.Y. Guild Buys Own Building. The N.Y. Guild - apparently tired of dragging its office staff and machinery from building to building four different times in its 13-year history - today is the proud owner of its own building. At a cost of $206,000, the NYNG purchased a three-story structure on 44th Street near Broadway and expect to be completely situated in their new home by Christmas. The building will be financed by the issuance of 20-year, 3 per cent bonds to be sold principally to Guild members rather than borrow the money from the bank. It is also planned to sell stamps in $1 and $5 denominations to members unable for some reason to buy bonds outright. Each $50 worth of stamps will be convertible into $50 bonds to be issued later in the campaign.
* Keeping Abrest Of the Times. Hollywood movies hit a realistic high in the current showing of "Young Widow." In the story, Jan ("Outlaw") Russell takes a job on the editorial staff of a New York newspaper. The managing editor, played as a good guy by Kent Taylor, says to her, "I trust you are in good standing with the Guild. I don't want any labor troubles." The gal's answer (she's a smart gal) is "I certainly am."
* Six Assessments to Finance Member Drive. Most ambitious organizing program in American Newspaper Guild history is underway, with $120,000 to be spent this year in extending advantages of Guild membership to newspaper workers in all parts of the country. Delegates to the Scranton convention voted six assessments to provide supplemental income for the hiring of additional field workers.
September 2, 1946 Guildsman
* Top story: LANG MOVES TO UNITE NATION'S HEARST GUILDS. 'Showdown' Near As Herex Rejects 10 per-cent Wage Offer. A call to all Hearst Guild units to come to St. Louis Sept. 7 prepared to discuss "joint action" against all organized Hearst newspapers in support of the national wage policy demands was issued by Los Angeles Newspaper Guild last week. The action came as the Sept. 4 deadline for completing a new contract at the Herex neared without prospect of agreement.
* Herex Receives National Support. Telegrams of support were received by the Herald-Express unit: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Boston Guild, San Francisco-Oakland Guild, Detroit Times unit, Milwaukee Guild, Chicago Guild. Officers of New York Journal, Mirror, International News Service, American Weekly and International News Photos - all Hearst units - met Aug. 23, pledged full support of Herald-Express unit.
* Citizen-News Circulation Contract Completed. Wage increase ranging up to $75 a month and important gains in working conditions were provided in the first contract for circulation department employees which was completed last week.
* Strikers Released; Guild Carries On CNS Fight. While most of the strikers have been placed in other newspaper jobs in the city, the prolonged City News Service strike entered into the fourth month with management neither attempting to negotiate a contract nor to open up its service.
* Negotiations for first renewal of the contract between LANG and Wave publications are now in progress. The local, through negotiators Bill Brodie and Andy Barrigan, is asking for a general 40 per cent increase in all classifications.
* LANG headquarters warns that non-attendance excuses for General Membership meetings are NOT getting in within the 10-day limit set forth and that members not abiding by the rules are being fined.
* Keep Posted on Sept. Meetings. Here's a list of meetings that concerned Guildsmen must remember: Sept. 3- Shop stewards' council at Guild headquarters; Sept. 4 - New members meeting at Guild headquarters; Sept. 5 - Executive Board at Guild headquarters; Sept 6 - L.A. CIO Council at CIO Building, 5851 Avalon Boulevard; Sept. 8 - LANG general membership meeting, Musart Theater, 1324 South Figueroa Street; Sept 19 - General Unit, Guild headquarters; Sept. 24 - Representative Assembly, Guild headquarters.
* LANG supports Newsboys in letter to Times. LANG's 100 per cent support of Newsboys Union, Local 75, CIO, was expressed in a letter to publisher Norman Chandler of the Los Angeles Times.
* Missing: $27.16. What would you do if $27.16 inexplicably disappeared from your paycheck? Well, that is exactly what happened to the paycheck of every wage earner in America during the month of July, 1946. Economists have shown that the premature death of OPA and its mummified revival cost the average American worker $27.16 more to support his family during that period than the mean monthly budget of the preceding year.
* Phinney Phalls. Thirty was written to the bachelorhood of Daily News writer Milt Phinney last month when the former LANG president "scooped" his confreres with his surprise marriage to Carol Tiegs, also of the DN reportorial staff.
* Kay Williams Ill; Condition Still Unchanged. A combination of lobar pneumonia, a throat infection and overwork has confined Kay to bed for two weeks where he has been and still is under doctor's care. Williams was confined to bed immediately after the last General Membership meeting. In fact, Kay should never have been at the meeting, but being a real Guildsman appeared against orders not to aggravate his condition.
* Inter-Unit Wire Service Meeting. A new era of unionism officially started here last month. The Los Angeles Commercial Telegraphers' Union Chapel of the Associated Press met jointly with the Newspaper Guild unit of the same wire service to cement permanent cooperative relationship.
* Cannery Drive Looms As Major CIO Issue, by Vern Partlow. You handle spinach so hot your fingernails fall off. You work ankle-deep maybe in muck. You're speeded-up until you hear the whir of dangerous machinery in your sleep. You get a wage scale ranging from lousy to stinking. That's life in the canneries of northern California.Last October, the cannery workers voted decisively for the CIO-FTA (Food, Tobacco and Agricultural workers). But the teamsters and employers put on the screws and the labor board obligingly set aside its order and promised a new election.
* Guild Radio Show Being Prepared. "The Newspaper Guild On the Air," now being prepared for the networks will pay a $1000 cash award every week to the newspaperman or newspaper woman whose story is used for dramatization. In addition, $1000 will be paid into the treasury of the American Newspaper Guild every week of the show. The committee is waiting until it has enough stories to be able to present 13 fully developed weekly programs. The story must be true, from start to finish, with real names, exact facts and, if possible, clippings to support the story.
* Minutes of the General Membership Meeting. Bill Brodie reopened several points in the minutes to make sure the membership understood approval constituted a $2000 expenditure for a bookkeeping machine and money to cover costs of providing the Labor Herald to the entire LANG membership. Hutchinson announced the following committee resignations and appointments: L.E. Claypool resigned as PAC director and Bob Kirsch was appointed. Jack Phillips resigned as sergeant-at-arms. Appointment of Bill Oliver as chairman of the educational committee. Howard McClay and Roy Ringer appointed as co-editors of the Guildsman. As administrative officer, Brodie reported on the general situation that LANG and other unions are facing on the domestic and international scenes. M/S/C to accept the report. Chad Culver reported on the Guild Hall committee and tendered her resignation. Page One Ball committee of the ANG has set Nov. 22 as the date of the dances.
Sept. 5, 1946 Guildsman (Special Edition)
* Why You Can't Buy Herald-Express Today.
* Management Accused of Locking Out Workers in Pay Dispute. Management locked out its nearly 1000 employes when it was confronted by a Los Angeles Newspaper Guild strike when the Hearst organization refused to agree to a contract providing workers a living wage.
* On the Line - With the Pickets. Worn to the breaking point, but determined to break the resistance of management, a steady line of men and women marched before struck entrances of the Los Angeles Herald and Express building Tuesday morning.
* New Herex Demands For Better Working Conditions Summed Up - 42 points.
* Your Newsboy - His Pennies Are Gone - Read all about it - "Hiyo! - Read all about it!" You hear him yelling his lungs out at his corner newsstand - garnering nickels from the hurrying passerby. And for each nickel he gets for a paper, the newsboy pockets only two cents. But every member of the newsboys' union - LIU No. 75-CIO - is setting aside pennies this week - a growing pile of them - 300 in all. Every news vendor has pledged himself to contribute $3 a week to support the Newspaper Guild strike against the Herald-Express!
* Our Story - This special edition of the Los Angeles Guildsman tells our story. We ask a fair hearing from our fellow workers and from all citizens of Los Angeles who believe in democratic processes as opposed to the mounting wave of Fascist reaction here.
* To Beat Living Cost Rise - NEWSMEN NEED $100 WEEK - And Here Figures to Prove It! Reporters, after five years' experience, now get $70 a week minimum. The proposed scale is $100 a week.
* Bill Brodie - He's the Man Directing the Job. At last he slept, not in a bed but across a hard bench in the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild headquarters . . . When a labor leader is fighting reaction and Fascism, sleep doesn't come easily. "Have faith, guildsmen. United we win, divided we fall. We'll stay united and we won't fall," These great words of courage uttered by Bill Brodie, composed a song of courage and hope - stubborn determination - and gave strength to the pounding of the pickets' feet.
* GUILDS THROUGHOUT U.S. PLEDGE HEREX AID. BULLETINS!
* Herex carries the ball for news-workers. Locked-out workers of the Evening Herald and Express are carrying the ball for every other newspaper worker in Los Angeles - in Southern California - throughout the United States. The all-out strike yesterday made empty and silent the Spanish renaissance structure at 1243 Trenton street, for the first time in its history paralyzing production of Hearst's biggest money-making newspaper.
* Fortitude Is Guildsmen's Creed in Strike. Determination . . . That's the underlying feeling in the hearts of 525 Herald-Express guildsmen as they unrelentlessly pound the pavement at entrances of the plant which locked them out. Most of them being newspaper workers - are broke.
October 4, 1946 Guildsman
* HEREX STRIKERS DIG IN FOR LONG BATTLE. All CIO Backs Newsmen. Herald-Express strikers this week settled down to carry on a long fight in the "Battle of Trenton Street" as mechanical craft union at the Herald-Express and other newspapers prepared to negotiate new contracts. The American Newspaper Guild has hailed this strike as the top struggle of the nation.
* State CIO Backs Strike. Rally Full Force to L.A. Guild. The CIO board heard Herex unit chairman Tuck Edwards, LANG treasurer G.K.Williams and Herex striker Eddie Phillips make an appeal for all-out support. Williams declared that in the four years he had been treasurer of the local the Guild had never refused a request for aid - financial or otherwise - from "any CIO union in distress."
* Whose strike do you think this is? by G.K. Williams. The history of the Guild in Los Angeles shows that wage gains won at one paper are invariably followed by similar gains at other papers. Something must be holding up the weekly contributions of some Los Angeles Guildsmen. Every dollar you contribute is just so much insurance that heavy dividends will come back to you in later paychecks.
* Soup Kitchen Serves Thousand Meals Daily. An army marches on its stomach - Napoleon said that. Our "Army with banners" is going to march on its FEET fortified by a square meal and a cup of Darby Kelly's hot coffee - Norma Barrigan, chairman of the Auxiliary Committee which runs Herex soup kitchen said THAT. On the morning of Sept. 4 - S (Strike) Day - the committee was handed the man-sized assignment of setting up a kitchen to feed the 525 men and women out on strike and "keep it going 24 hours a day."
* Minutes of Membership Meeting, Sept. 8, 1946, Musart Theater. Art Atwell reported on the Labor Day Committee, declaring that LANG had a poor representation. Those who did work on the committee did such a good job that LANG's float won first prize. Lou Garrett announced in behalf of the City News Service unit that to all intents and purposes, the City News strike has been concluded victoriously. A contract with a new outfit, called California News Press, with the Daily News scale, will be signed Tuesday. The old CNS has been effectively closed. He warned the Herald unit, however, that Telford Work has been dickering with interests in the city for an open shop service and has contacted newspapermen asking them to go to work in 10 days to cover the civic center. If he tries to reopen the service, LANG will have to reactivate the strike. Andy Barrigan said another successful negotiation has been concluded with the Consolidated Publishing Company. It is a supplemental contract to the circulation department's agreement, calling for $100 a week for editorial workers. Slim Connelly made a report on the action of the IEB and the St. Louis conference which has given its full support to the strike. The only dissent was from Sam Eubanks who termed the strike "ill timed and ill advised" when he opened the conference. All IEB members rose and disagreed with Eubanks. The conference then proceeded to vote Eubanks' position down unanimously. Connelly outlined the need for securing our relations with the printing trades and the need for participating in the Pacific Press strike. Printing Trades members have been invited to the mass meeting scheduled for tomorrow night at the Mayan theater. At that time we will tell our story to them. LANG, in exchange, has offered to give full and militant support to the Pacific Press strike. After the Pacific Press and Herald strikes have been won, the Allied Printing Trades have offered to join with LANG in organizing the Times.
* Win Strong Gains At Press Times. Negotiations for a new contract at the Hollywood Press-Times ended a few days ago with resounding gains all around. General wages, apart from advertising, were boosted 20 per cent over the old contract. Negotiators were Andy Barrigan and G.K. Williams.
* Coordinators Aid Guildsman Staff. Through the cooperation of the editors of The Guildsman, the Herald-Express Strike Coordinating Committee has taken over this edition to clarify the strike issues for the general membership and pay tribute to the different Guild units and members who, in contributing to the victory of the Herald-Express strikers, are contributing to better wages and conditions for Guildsmen everywhere.
* This Is the Story of a Strike. Here you will find the truth that unions are people and that people are unions. There are 525 Guildsmen on strike. And above them are committees . . . committees on picketing, publicity, food, welfare, fund-raising. And above these committees is a strike strategy committee, which is a planning, steering, channelizing and doing committee. And alongside the strategy committee is the negotiating committee.
* Pickets Carry Herex Story to Public. The Herald-Express strike picket lines and walk-downs, which have cut the circulation of "The Largest Daily Newspaper in the West" from 400,000 daily to exactly zero, have been organized with military efficiency by the Coordinating Committee on Picketing, headed by Ted Diez. The pickets, backbone of any strike, have been thrown around the main Herald plant, the Herald offices in the Broadway Arcade and the Southwest branch on Figueroa street, the City News office and the various railroad yards where carloads of newsprint destined for the Herald have been diverted to other cities. In addition to the Herald strikers, the picket lines have been joined by members of the Newsboys Union, the Daily News, the Labor Herald, CIO Longshoremen, Marine Cooks and Stewards, CIO office workers and by token representative of other sympathetic union groups. An average of 360 pickets have appeared at the Herald for the daily mass picketing from 7 to 8 a.m., followed by a 24-hour shift of 188 regularly assigned pickets, who hit the bricks for four hours out of eight during the day. The strike messages also have been taken to the general public in spectacular fashion by four walkdowns in the downtown area, one of which featured the wives of strikers and another the Herald veterans of World war II.
* Strikers' Own Paper Tells Story to Public. Under the leadership of Tuck Edwards of the Herald staff, a city room was set up at Guild headquarters and with the expansion of activities, moved to a larger office at 823 W. Pico. Major item has been publication of the Guild Striker in tabloid, once a week. Limited by the shortage of paper, this four-page newspaper rounds up all the strike activities and carries photos and paid advertising. In addition, a mimeographed daily Bulletin is put out to the members.
* Legal Committee Active. One of the smoothest working units is the Legal Committee, chairmanned by Bill Te Groen, who for 26 1/2 years has held down a City hall beat for the Herald-Express.
* Photo caption: General Brodie, the 24-hour-a-day leader of the Herald-Express strike. All activities revolve around Bill in a whirl that would make a lesser man dizzy. Somehow Brodie, nicknamed "general" by the strikers, finds time, energy and resourcefulness to carry the top load in this top ANG struggle.
* Heavy Support Backs Strike Benefit Unit. Backed by a huge defense fund of more than $90,000 from the IEB and with an allotment of $10,000 weekly at its disposal, the Herald-Express unit of the Los Angeles Guild, in the fourth week of the Herex lockout, finds its strike benefit program a well-oiled, smooth running machine.
* Personnel Keeps Tab On 525 Strikers 24 Hours a Day. Organizing a personnel department on a moment's notice to classify and assign 525 people is some job. The department has the responsibility of making all assignments whether on the picket lines, in key administrative spots, committee work or other duties. Records are kept of all strikers to be used as a basis for determining his benefits.
* "Meet the Strikers" Party Attracts 250. Mixed drinks were pegged at 25¢ - calculated to meet ability-to-pay of the non-working Guildsmen and at the same time cover costs but loss resulted when volunteer bartenders started passing out samples. The party, however, netted $81.60 for the strike kitty from admissions and a nylon hose raffle, and succeeded in its first object - entertainment for the strikers.
* Auxiliary Needs Food Donations. A plea for canned goods - and "still more canned goods" - went out today from the Auxiliary Committee.
* Newsboys All Out For Guild. More than 225 news vendors affected by the strike have lost up to 70 per cent of their earnings - more than half now earn less than $20 a week. Seventy per cent of the news vendors are married, with family responsibilities. News vendors on the Herald-Express picket line average 200 a day. Those who don't march on the picket line for two hours every day are fined $25.
* ANG Donations Flood Herex Strike Coffers. Overall total of $30,199.31 has reached the offices of the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild in support of Herald-Express strikers from Guilds all over the country, unions in the Los Angeles are and in individual contributions.
* Brass Rail, Press Cafe Aid Strikers. The next time you pass the Brass Rail or go by the Press Cafe, be sure to tip your hat - or, at least, wave your Guild card - in salute to a couple of swell "guys." Setting up our soup kitchen would have been impossible with their aid - and equipment.
* Guild Staffers Take Pay Cut. With income from dues from striking Herald-Express workers dropping to a nickel a month and much other revenue channeled into the defense fund, LANG office personnel voluntarily took a 50 per cent pay cut at t he beginning of the lockout to allow the Guild more operating fund. Volunteering to accept pay slashes were Maxine Haus, office manager; Bill Brodie, administrative officer; Helen August, bookkeeper; Edith Duncan, receptionist, and Lee Loving, maintenance man.
* Open Negotiations At Southwest Wave. Negotiations for a new contract opened last week with the usual exchange of pleasantries, many points agreed to tentatively and with an initial offer of 10 per cent wage increase made by management. Guild negotiators Bill Brodie, G.K. Williams and Andy Barrigan refused to take this wage offer seriously.
* Tom Van Dycke, former Los Angeles Guildsman, hit the big time this month with the sale of a mystery novel to a New York publisher. The book, entitled "Not with My Neck," will hit the counters in the Spring of '47 and what's more, there's a guy in the thriller by the name of Bill Brodie.
November 2, 1946 Guildsman
* Top story: Hearst bows to Guild pressure; negotiates today. Los Angeles Newspaper Guild pressure against William Randolph Hearst's Herald-Express brought results last week as Hearst agent Harvey Kelly agreed to resume negotiations after saying for weeks that we would not meet with the Guild until the picket lines around the newspaper were withdrawn and the members of the unit went back to work.
* Six ANG assessments support Herex strike. National membership of the American Newspaper Guild was called upon this week to join in financing the Herald-Express unit's fight. A series of six national assessments has been levied by the International Executive Board to augment the International Defense Fund.
* HEREX STRIKE BUDGET TEN GRAND A WEEK. Benefits to unit take 80 per cent.
* Cash donations flood Herex strike coffers. Many new guilds were added to the ever-increasing list of contributors, with new York still topping the list with $4,910.25 to date.
* Full strength of Daily news unit backs Herex strikers, by Zula Ferguson, Chairman, Daily News Unit. Three hundred Daily Newsers are making a splendid contribution - in interest, effort and money - to this enforced strike of Herald-Express guildsmen.
* LANG to nominate delegates. Nominations for LANG delegates to the 1946 California CIO convention will be made at the Nov. 10 general membership meeting. LANG is entitled to 10 delegates, two more than LANG's 1945 quota.
* Hollywood paper sued for million in libel action. Director of publications for the Screen Writers' Guild, Haarold J. Salemson, filed a $1,000,545 libel suit this week against the Hollywood Reporter and its publisher, William R. Wilkerson. The Superior Court suit was said to be the first case involving asserted libel of the war record of World War II veteran.
* Minutes of General Membership Meeting, Oct. 8, 1946. M/S/C to transfer the organizing fund to the Herald-Express strike fund. Bill Brodie outlined the negotiational strategy of the strike which had its origin at the Scranton convention and the St. Louis wage conference. As for local negotiations, the Herex unit had won most of the 43 points in dispute when the strike started. Negotiations were broken off by management over the wage issue. M/S/C to adopt PAC resolution by Bob Kirsch: Be it resolved that the membership of the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild, CIO, commend Henry Wallace and urge him to lead a great crusade in the interest of the great majority of the people of this country to carry on the fight left unfinished at the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We pledge to Henry Wallace in his fight our fullest support; Be it further resolved that the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild shall express to President Truman its criticism against the foreign and domestic policies of his administration which have acted and show promise of acting against the economic and social welfare of the great majority of American's citizens; and be it further resolved that the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild urge all progressive candidates in the forthcoming election to express their support for the broad ideals of foreign and domestic policies as expressed by Henry Wallace.
* All Labor Herald staffers give day's pay a week. First LANG unit to come through 100 per cent with one-day-pay contributions to the Herald-Express strike fund was the Labor Herald.
* Quarterly Audit-Los Angeles Newspaper Guild, July 1 - Sept. 30, 1946. Total funds received: $14,913.03. Total Disbursements: $18,967.98.
* S.F. negotiates city-wide pact. Demand for wage increase and improvements will be presented to the San Francisco Publishers Association when negotiations open Nov. 27.
* Photo caption: First person to adopt a Herex striker was Dan Meripol, himself a former Herald employe, who couldn't resist the sales talk of luscious Vi Storm, locked out Herex library clerk, who accepted Meripol's donation. Marvin Butler, Herald maintenance man, was the lucky lad to be adopted.
* 'Miss Prints' premiere Nov. 14. The rich vein of humor in the newspaper business will be uncovered for all to see starting Thursday, Nov. 14, when the Guild musical, "Miss Prints of 1946," opens at the Musart Theater. Proceeds of the show, which will run for three days, will go to help locked-out Herald Express Guildsmen in their fight against Hearst for a living wage. Opening number of the show will be an original song, "Oh' a Newspaperman Meets Such Interesting People," by Vern Partlow.
* 'Lockwood was here . . .' Jack Lockwood, Herex circulation district manager, believes in combining business with pleasure. Starting his vacation at the same time the Herald-Express locked out its Guild employes, Lockwood called on 23 Guild locals from Denver to Boston on a five-week tour, and obtained their support in the Guild-Hearst fight.
December 2, 1946 Guildsman
* Top Story: HEREX RETURNS TO WORK; WAGE TALKS TO CONTINUE. Major Gains Achieved In New 2 Year Contract. The 525 Herald-Express Guildsmen, who had walked the picket line 84 days beginning Sept. 4, ended their strike Nov. 26 and went back on the payroll the same day. The new wage scale under which herald Guildsmen returned to work gives experienced editorial workers a raise from $70 to $80 a week. Important gains won by the Guild include three weeks vacations after five years service, dues and assessment checkoff, New Year holiday, increased car mileage rates and an increase in night differential pay. "It is the best that we can wring out of management at this time or for a foreseeable future," LANG Administrative Officer Bill Brodie told the Herald unit meeting Tuesday morning in the Musart theater. "It enables us to seal off the gains we have won in this long struggle. It enables our union to return to the plant in strength and with the ability to protect our members come what may." Brodie declined to recommend either acceptance or rejection of the return-to-work formula which had been fathered by ANG President Milton Murray. Wage negotiations will continue for 60 days, after which the Guild may initiate arbitration within 30 days. Arbitrator's decision to be retroactive to date of return to work.
* Wave Talks Resume With NLRB Filing. Wave Publications contract negotiations, stymied because of management refusal to bargain on security clauses, are under way again following the Guild's filing of unfair labor practice charges with the national labor relations board. Wave attorney Elmer Howlett advised his clients to continue negotiations at a board hearing after the publisher had written the Guild that it no long represented the employes. The publisher's contention was backed, so he said, by a petition reportedly signed by 16 Wave employes. At the NLRB hearing management had agreed to extend the present contract until Dec. 11 and to a further extension if needed. All issues except Guild shop have been settled.
* "Miss Prints of 1946" Scored Hit at Musart. The show consisted of a series of laugh provoking blackouts portraying the crazier side of the Fourth Estate. The musical got off to a flying start with a rendition of Verne Partlow's "Newspapermen Meet Such Interesting People." Cleve Herman did the vocal.
* New York Newspaper Guild's annual Page One awards will be presented Jan. 6 at its Page One Ball in the Waldorf-Astoria. Award for the most outstanding journalistic achievement of 1946 will go to John Hersey for his story on Hiroshima, to which the New Yorker recently devoted an entire issue. Henry Wallace, Trygve Lie and Sidney Hillman were given top awards in that order for achievement in the field of public affairs.
* A Guild-wide conference to explore the field for best officer material for 1947 will be held at Musart theater, 1320 S. Figueroa street, Wednesday night, Dec. 4 at 8 o'clock. Notices have been mailed to all LANG members advising them of the meeting and urging attendance. This is the third annual conference of this type. It was started in 1944 by G.K. Williams, present LANG treasurer and then administrative officer.
* A LANG committee to aid the Philadelphia-Camden Guild strikers has been formed with LANG treasurer G.K.Williams as sponsor and chairman.
* Death Ends Brilliant Career of Morgan Hull. Morgan Hull, one of the organizers of the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild 10 years ago and a man who conducted four of the most important strikes in American Newspaper Guild history, died last Thursday. Hull was one of a small group of men who in 1936 and 1937 met under wraps to form what is now the Los Angeles local of the ANG. LANG president George Hutchinson spoke at the funeral which was attended by scores of Guildsmen.
* Milt Shields, a member of the General Unit of LANG, has been appointed executive director of the Citizens Committee for Better Education.
* Edythe Duncan, office worker at LANG headquarters, has been elected secretary of her own union, United Office and Professional Workers, Local 9.
* A program aimed at helping housewives slash the cost of living was taken to the national CIO Congress of Women's Auxiliaries convention in Atlantic City by LANG member Julie Williams and became the convention's number one project.
* Pioneer Guildsman Leaves Daily News to Edit Paper. Marvin E. Carter, Daily News copyreader since 1937 and one of the earliest members of LANG leaves this week to assume editorship of his brother's daily paper in Boulder city, Nev.
* The Los Angeles CIO council this week spoke out sharply against possible discrimination in U.S. employment service centers, following their return to state operation on Nov. 16.
(A version of this chronology was presented at the May 1997 conference of the Southwest Labor History Association, which met at Cal State, Dominguez Hills.)
Copyright by Jim Smith