New-York tribune., 1919-08-16
Managers Yield
Point TO Actors:
Union Rejected
Continued from page I

Paiu loI specla! holiday matlneeS, Sun
day nights and any performances II
excess OF eight performances a week
The Producing Managers are pro
pared to bind their members to full
tllmcnt of this contract and are now de
vls@ng ways for the enforcement of con
tracts that would offer the actor full
protection"
Says Association Is Needed
Mr.. Stewart also said In reply te
the managers statements:
mo matter how satisfactory q con.
tract might be obtained for the actor
so long as the Actors Equity Associ
alton was not recognized the actor
would have to fight individually to
see that the contract was lived up to
The experience of the Actors Equity
Association in the past shows that the
actor absolutely needs the protection
OF that association.
"The strike will continue until the
Actors Equity Association is recog-
nized. We assert that it is for the
actors to say by whom they shall be
Npresented-and not the managers
The managers say the Actors Equity
Association does not represent the
actors and actresses Of America. Over
5000 actors and actresses, including
80 per cent Of those on Broadway, as
sect that the Actors Equity Associa-
tlon does represent them"
Mr.. Stewart made this statement
after comforting with other officials
of the A. E. A. lie also SAID that the
contract proposed by the managers
was bait" intended to divide the
ranks Of the striking actors.
1T will not fool the actor" declared
Ny. Stewart,
Interested in Mediation Plea
Both actors and managers expressed
deep interest in news from Washing
ton that Secretary Of Labor Wilson
had appointca Rowland D. Nahany
and Benjamin NJ. Squircs corciliators
in the strike, and that they would con-
fer Immediately with the striking,
actors and the managers. ConciliatQrs
are not appointed until one side or the
other in a 'labor dispute requests
mediation.
Arthur Hopkins, speaking for the
managers. denied that they had re-
quested Federal mediation and Grant
Stewart, speaking for the actors, said
they had not
William A. Brady, member of the
Producing Managers Association, fol-
lowing the lead of George NJ Cohan,
played a part in at 9:45," which re-
opened last night at the Playhouse, one
Of the theatres which had been dark
since the strike was called August s.
Mr. Brady played the part of a butler
When he made his first entrance he
was cheered and applauded for five
minutes. Nearly the entire cast of "At
9:l5" went on strike. Mr. Brady re-
placed strikers were Amelia Bingham
Zelda Sears, Mildred Mclean and Ada
Gleason. Miss Mclean replaced Elise
Bartlett.
Untermycr Offers Services
Samuel Untermyer, in a letter made
public last night by the Actors Equity
Association, offers his services without
compensation to striking actors who
have been sued by the theatrical man
ayers. In his letter, which was ad-
dressed to Paul Turner, counsel for
the actors, Mr.. Untermyer said: "a
victory of the managers would mark a
long step backward in the struggle of
organized labor"
He added 81 personally own and
represent d half interest in the Shu-
bert e. Booth theatre properties and
one-third interest in the Forty-fourth
Street Theatre property. Despite that
feel that the actors arc right" In
another portion of his letter Mr..
Untermyer said:
81 regard the principles involved as
Of the highest public Importance and
am willing to deal with the case only
in the light Of public service
In another place he said: "Therc is
an element Of the grotesque in the
character and extent Of the litigation
with winch the courts have been sad
denly flooded for the apparent purpose
# IN i'm II i,,rr t,.,. y-+ h.
Actors Equity Association from as
serting their rights
The committee that waited on the
. managers consisted of t. II. Sothern,
Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fiskc. Augustus
Thomas. Leo Ditrichstein. Howard
Kyle and Lowell Sherman Messrs.
Ditrchstein and Sherman are members
Of the equity.
The Sothern committee met in Hotel
Blltmore. Some twenty-five actors and
paywrlghts attended,
Mr.. Sothern. who referred to the
strike as "a tragic situation,' said
his efforts toward mediation had been
intended in the interests of harmony,
but seem to have had the opposite
effect" He disclalmed any desire to
disrupt the Equity. Mr.. Sothern sug-
gested the naming of committee
to ask the managers just what sort
OF contract they were willing to adopt
Warfield and Mann for Managers
David Warlield and Louis Mann ex
pressed disapproval of the striking
actors course.
"The actors calling is different from
any other in the world" said Mr.. Mann
81 am quite satisfied with the man
ayers, action IN refusing TO deal with
the Equity. 1t takes time and money
to produce a play and give the actor
an opportunity to apply his talent |
deplore the entry of the Equity into
the American Federation Of Labor. +
hope the managers never yield until
the Equity is purgcd"
MIR. Warheld declared the strike gave
rise to the danger that the actor would
lose his individuality He character
lzcd parading and picketing bv per
formers as "the madness of the actors
bordering on frenzy, as thew wsllS
through the strcets'
Mountford Is Criticized
Mr.. Ditrichstein, Mr.. Kyle, Charles
Coburn. Mr.. Sherman, Holbrook Binn
and Janet Beecher We're other speakers.
Harry Mountford, an official of the
vaudeville branch of the union and of
the -Four AS came in for his share
or criticism. Mr. Sherman said Mr.
Mountford's income from the pro-rata
tax on Equity members was reputed to
amount to $4,000 or $4,000 a vear "
In addition to those already mon
tloned, the following attended the
Sothern meeting: