The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1920-10-29
Bum Company
and the Hungry
Musician
By our Cheyenne Correspondent.

| ENTERPRISE the Hagerstown, Md, CORE
spondent animadverts in unfavorable
terms upon some remarks in late issues
of this great band and orchestra jour
nal by the Lincoln and st. Louis CORE
spondents upon unionism as exempli-
fed by the American Federation of Mu-
sicians. l was the Lincoln correspond
Continued on Page Eight)
emit at the time in question, and must
put my Hagerstown contemporary right
on few points on which he seems to be
badly astray. His diction is rather
obscure, but 1 gather from the tenor of
his remarks that he is badly dissatis-
(, fled with the A. F. of M. in general,
mostly on account of the hunger of its
members for jobs.
In the first place, he compares the
price offered in his city for series of
fifteen band concerts by band of thirty
men with the wages paid standard shop
trades in the railroad industry, the price
paid the musicians being much the lower
when figured on an hourly basis. This
comparison is an unfortunate one, to say
the least. 1t was their national labor
organizations, their unions, that secured
these wages for the shopmen. More
than that, only few days ago the Rail-
way Labor Board handed down a wage
award that further increased the pay
of the shopmen by about % per cent. As
member of one of the shop crafts I
am glad to say that I spent my time
and good money, much more than my
monthly dues, by the way, in doing what
little I could in helping to get the
increase. The duties of a trade union
ist do not end with the paying of dues
or even in attending all meetings of his
craft.
Out here in Cheyenne we get SIS for
dances of three hours, which is consid-
erably better than even the overtime
scale paid railroad shopmen under the
late award. We got it by organization.
Were we still unorganized we would
probably be playing for ST an hour, the
rate mentioned by my contemporary as
prevailing in Hagerstown.
He says I naively confessed to getting
one job in a year, and that therefore
paying dues was for me an expensive
luxury. The fact that I played only
one engagement was due to circum-
stances over which neither the union
nor myself had any control. 1t may
surprise him to learn that I turned down
several engagements in the same time
for the simple reason that I thought 1
| could be better occupied elsewhere, and
| it was not in making money, either. 1t
may surprise him even more when I
say that I would pay dues into the A.
F. of M. for the next ten years, even
though I never played another engage
Il IN, hof 60, 4l,o 49,
rying card in that organization and
for the sake of the protection it has
afforded and will afford the musicians
of the United States and Canada. If
you wish to be miserable all you need
do is to think of yourself, of what you
want, what you are getting and how
much more the other fellow is getting
than yourself Think of nothing else,
and you can be as wretched as you
please.
| was made acquainted with band
manager, in the not very distant past,
who, when he learned I was band
musician, said to me in the most patron
izing manner in the world: 'Well, stick
around and come to see me occasionally.
Perhaps I may be able to use you" I
said nothing, but I thought to myself,
for that piece of insolent condescension
you'll come to me when you want me,
old top, and you will not get me, either
In due time he did want me, and with
the same air of condescension he in
formed me I might play with him, and
will never forget the dazed look with
which he walked away when I told him
could get along fine without the
engagement and did not want it. His
boneheaded presumption was properly
rebuked, and may add that never in
my whole experience have I known a
non union musician to refuse an engage
ment, if he were able to play it, on
account of the low wages offered.
| We have job hogs in the A. F. of NJ,
but there are far more of them outside
of it, for the reason that unorganized
musicians suffer from all the evils that
affiict the organized, with many more as
we'll thrown in for good measure. There
are more jealousy, back-biting and
| throat-cutting among non-union must
clans than among the members of the
A. F. of NJ, and there always will be-
1t is severe reflection upon the intel
ligence of any workingman who is una.
BILE to recognize the benefits of craft
ORGANIZATIONS, anu DEAR Ill Hllnu IlldI Tile
band and orchestra musician is only a
workingman, and that his instrument
is only his tool. The members of the
old National League of Musicians, in
greater part at least, cherished the fond
delusion that they were in class by
themselves, that they were artists and
had nothing in common with manual
workers, but under the admonition and
guidance of their wiser leaders, such
men as the late and now more than ever
lamented Owen Miller, man whose
memory will be cherished by generations
of musicians yet to be, they learned to
forget that stuff and to throw in their
lot with their brother wage-earners on
this continent enlisted under the banner
of the American Federation of Labor
The job hog on the outside sees the ben
efits that accrue from the organization
he also sees lot of work he will not be
able to touch unless he joins it. So he
becomes what the president of the A. F
of M. has aptly termed a 'mustbe'
unionist; that is, he joins because he
must be member before he can secure
the engagements he covets. But he soon
~, 41o4 h.