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4THE NEW YORK CLIPPERApril I• tWHITE RATS START BIG RALLY.AT OPEN MEETING, MARCH 21.MOUNTFORD ON TOUR.The open meeting held at the New York clubhouse on the eve of Harry Momvtford’s departure for a recruiting trip to the coast and back was attended by all who could possibly be jammed into the large meeting rooms.During the meeting two men fainted, but werequickly revived, after slight interruption of theproceedings.At 12 o’clock Tuesday night the platform was manned by Edward Esmond, Edwin Arden, John Cape, Ernest Carr, Wm. Morris, J. W. Fitz Patrick and James Marco, amidst great applause, and thesinging of the anthem.Mr. Esimond acted as chairman, owing to the lamentable fact that Fred Niblo was obliged to attend his wife, who had suddenly been taken ill. Secretary Carr lead Mr. Niblo’s note of regret.Edwin Arden was introduced as representing the Actors’ Equity 'League, and expressed himself strongly in favor of helping the unprotected performer who needed assistance under conditions, which, he said, vary greatly froan those in vogue during the early years of Mr. Arden’s long stage career. He saw the pleasant relations of managers to actors dwindle away, he noted, until there now oxiats an unsurpassable gulf between them. The actor weakfer, the manager stronger.” He wished to sound one note, not that of self-protection, but “protection of others,” and quoted a reply from a prominent actor who did not wish to bother with the little fellows, as he himself was doing pretty well. To hundreds well able to protect themselves with an equitable contract there are thousands who nre not, he said, and promised to devote the rest of his life to help those that cannot help themselves. His earnest eloquence throughout his address contradicted his opening statement, “The Sphynx Is a silver-tongue orator compared with me.” Terrific applause was his as he closed, and again, later, during the meeting, when he was obliged to leave.At 12.18 James W. Fitz Patrick opened a speech by addressing his hearers as “brother checker players” in jocose vein, but soon settled down to stating facts. He acknowledged that he had learned a great many new things from Mr. Mountford and gained new insight into the Mountford doctrine, which had caused him to be more and more in accord with the international organizer. He said that the organization during the interregnum had laid upon its back and snored, while suffering with pernicious unaunia. Whenever it showed awakening interests a hypodermic was used to put it to sleep, and it reerted for a time again to lack of interest and to despair, which he hoped had now disappearedforever. He referred to two classes of agitators,♦one who agitates to destroy merely, and the other real valuable agitat.or, who, like a surgeon, applies the probe and the knife to cut away the growth that impeded the flow of the life giving fluid. He pointed out that conditions under which the actor is working cannot last, and because the cause of the White Eats is right they must win. The statement that the actors are artists not laborers, he attacked with vehemence, and laid particular stress upon the point that no manager would be expected to employ an incompetent actor.“Certain actors must play certain houses by virtue of the grade of their goods, and certain managers must have certain acts for the same reason,but the eighteen shows and two-shows-a-day actor would be protected. Not temperament, but good business sense only would be considered.” He endorsed Mr. Mountford’s stand for a sane, safe organization, conservative to a degree and aggressive when occasion required. He wanted to exact three points from the actors: “Save your money If you can get any, you may need it,” “Have faith in the organization” and “Have courage,” when the time comes to stick to the principles you advocate. He referred to traitors who may malign the organization, perhaps through malice or through weakness, for a consideration, and which actiou he termed an “unpardonable sin.” He wanted to eradicate the impression that might be spread that the White Rats were a lot of I. W. Ws.f anarchists, destroyers and wreckers of their own structures, and referred repeatedly to “the company you keep.” He assured his hearers that “we are going to win because we arc right.”John Cope, of the Equity League, denied that hewas a speaker at 12.44, but after listening for fourteen minutes to his entertaining discourse no one accepted the denial. In concise, direct statements he brought out the fact that he was in the habit to follow the dictates of the council of the League, which he represented like a good soldier, and the appreciation of the League’s efforts bythose whose difllculties it helped to overcome. Many disputes are settled out of court. He referred to the old, well known lesson in economics that “the price of labor left to open competition would be lowered to such a form that would make It impossible for labor to exf6t,” and that organization was the remedy. He naively remarked: “I don’t know if I am giving information, but I have to say something. The actor,” he said, “objects to union methods because he don’t want to be bossed. Why not let one more boss you? The stage doorkeeper, with his ‘Put that cigar out,* bosses you; the stage manager, the manager, every rule and every law tells you you must not do this or that. One more boss won't hurt you! IfSID LEWIS.“ Let Him Rave.”the volunteers don’t want to come in, the drafted must,” he said. A bricklayer gets seven dollars a day, and a big union musician had told him that this supposed distinction between a “bricklayer” and an “artist” did not exist in the mind of any intelligent person. He expressed himself strong for the alliance of the Actors’ Equity League withlabor for a universal “brotherhood of man.”Next came Wm. Morris, introduced as a “manager not a member of any manager’s association.” The popular manager, after an ovation, told his eager audience that the time was ripe for Imperative co-operation, and that the actors must stick. He contradicted some of the statements made by an actor against tbe policy of the White Rats by citing, in his quiet but eloquent method, several points which the actor had overlooked. “When there is no opposition the salaries go. down.” he said, “without reason in some houses, with good reason in others, perhaps. There is nothing like apposition to hold up salaries. In Great Britain contracts are kept,” he said. In referring to the agency methods, he xnentioued some -of the existing conditions which had came to his personal attention during his experience as a manager. He also took occasion to advise the members to depend upon their leader, and thanked the audience, concluding with the remark “It’s nice to be remembered by one’s friends.” Nothing but an extra bow would quiet the applause.At 1.10 Harry Mountford started his quiet, but forceful, address, using some of the strong arguments he has at his command. He predicted that within a year, poihaps two, some of the men who •were now bitterly opposed to the Mountford doctrines would be pleased to voice their sentiments on the same platform on which Mr. Morris spoke. He assured everyone that there was no personal malice against any of his opponents. There was no value to their statements abont his personal affairs as having a bearing upon the vital questions at stake, and wished for the time when alt managers could teceivd whole souled applause, such as had been accorded to Air. Morris, from the actors to treasure in their memories. He likened the White .Rats organization to a pack of fox hounds which, when on the trail five years ago were diverted by the ted herring that had been drawn across the real scent, but said that they hod been drawn back to the trail and would not be fooled again. He referred to a recent editorial attack on President Francis Wilson, of the Equity League, as In his own case, the penalty for crossing certain interests which resented any questioning of their methods by the agitators.He warned against taking the advice of managers who tell the actor how to run. his organization. He referred to his prediction at a meeting on May 23, 1911, that salaries would be cut, 33 to 75 per cent., also to a starement published by his opponents, June 3, 1911, that such statements were positive lies^ that it would be impossible to reduce them, and he left it to his hearers to say which statement was right He said: “If I would lead the organization to ruin with flying colors, wewould be no worse off, but at present we are in the trenches, without any mad desire for fight. We are recruiting. If there are no volunteers we may have to force them in. The big actors have their troubles, but they keep quiet about it. There are many big acts canceled.” He referred to Instances of arrangements for booking at salaries bigger than usual, and subsequent attempts to have the matter taken up by the proper authorities..If, he said, they don’t book any White Rats rnfter -April 1 there will not be a show in the country in the vaudeville business. There won’t be enough actors to go around. As to things accomplished by organized actors during his connection with the cause, he mentioned the three-fourth fares secured for actor travelers in Great Britain, and pay for matinees, also the fact that a committee from the Variety Artists’ Federation had requested his return to England at the time he accepted the offer of the White Rats to again be their leader.The question of paying dues on April 1, he touched upon by quoting a letter sent out, inviting all managers not to neglect sending in their dues, under penalty of loss of franchise. “The same thing might be applied to the dues of the actor.”“The baby White Rats, without a bads bone, had grown into a giant ready to act for the actors of America.” The arbitration of questions suggested recently by the managers, he said, he would gladly welcome if there was an organization capable of enforcing the finding of the committee upon the actor or the manager affected. But without enforcement the arbitration has no value. The only way to enforce it with fairness to the manager and the actor is by the “closed shop.”He referred to some of the five year and three year contracts as something that agitation had effected, and advised all those who could to sign up.In closing he again assured Ms hearers of his firm belief in the fact that the actor was about to secure control and to govern and rule the profession to which he belonged.The meeting adjourned at 1.45 a. m.ANOTHER KEITH HOUSE FOR NEW YORK?A representative of the Keith interests has been looking over the territory around Fox’s Crotona •Theatre, Bronx, New York City.Across the street, half block away, Southwest corner Tremont Avenue and Park Avenue, Is a large plot of ground owned by the F. M. Shaffer Brewing Co., who have given an option, and if the two pieces of property on Tremont Avenue can be had a popular priced house, with a seating capacity of 3,200, will be built for vaudeville.II“WRECKAGE.”Wreckage” Is the title of play by J. Hartley Manners, which Dodd, Mead Co. have published in book form. Mr. Manners has chosen for his thame the drug habit, which he has endeavored to treat from the layman’s point of view, at the same time making the work, as the author says in his preface, “An arraignment of the conditions which brought about the evil; an exposition of its dire effects on human life, and a message of hope to those who have become victims of it.”“RIO GRANDE” FOR EMPIRE.“Rio Grande,” Augustus Thomas’ new play, will be given April 4, at the Empire, New York, following the engagement of Eisie Ferguson, in “Margaret Schiller.’’
Newspaper Details
New York Clipper
New York, New York, US
Sat, Apr 01, 1916
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 24 Jun 2020
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