The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-05-30
Movies Turning To
Continued from Page One)

First showings of the film will be
exclusively to labor union members
and their families, potential audience
of 3O,OO0,OO0. Although it has not def
nitely been determined whether the
picture will be produced in Hollywood
or at the studio Of the Eastern Serv-
ice on Long Island, production is ex-
pected to start about June Is. Sydney
WE'LL, former film executive, and
now owner of large theatrical litho-
graphing concern in New York, is vice
president and general manager OF
American Pictures; Julius w. Levine
is president.
Such a wealth of movement and
color unrolls around the figure of
Gompers the writer of the screen
plays most difficult task will be in
keeping down to standard length pic
ture. For the actors in it, even minor
role will be "fat part" as the giants
of American life, of labor, politics and
industry, are pictured in their contacts
with "Old San" Theodore Roosevelt,
William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow
Wilson, Warren G. Harding, General
Pershing, Eugene Debs, John D.
Rockefeller, Charles M. Schwab, Will
liam Howard Taft, Andrew Furuseth
John Mitchell, Bob La Toilette, Sr.
men who helped shape the destiny OF
America for four decades, felt the in
huence of the erstwhile cigar maker
Gomper Loved the Stage
Gompers himself is dramatic char
acter In his handling of men ano
events he is always showing touches
of the dramatic ability that might
have given him a career on the stage
| if he were not also endowed with the
ability to be and do rather than tt
depict. From his earliest days he lovet
the theater and found his chief re
creation in watching plays or variet!
shows. AS he writes of his CHILDHOOD
days in London,
"As | watch the actors l lived will
them the scenes Of the play. My emo
tons are naturally strong, and fortu
nately no one ever attempted to teacl
me self-repression. On the contrary
my life has PRACTICAL forced me to de
velop all the various phases of my ma
ture, which helped me to understand
all kinds Of men and to enter int
their hopes and plans" Gompers' mar
riage celebration-he was II and hi
wife only 16, and the marriage an i'm
pulsive one--included simply a suppe
at cheap restaurant and a trip t.
the theater.
For many years the figure of thi
patient wife stands always in the back
ground, thrifty, devoted, selfsacrific
ing. Gompers' early struggles as
member and officer of the Ciga
Makers Union brought neither fam
nor fortune as labor literally tough
it's way forward through terrible pr
vation. At one time, after strike ha
failed, Gompers was blacklisted Man
times his wife and five young childre
went hungry. He relates:
81 desperately sought employment
going home at night where my bray
wife prepared soup out of water, sal
pepper and flour. One night when thel
{: was no food in the house and our lit
= girl was very i'll returned home
= find a fellow worker, Jack Polak, ha
4 called and offered my wife $50 wee
D for three months if she would pc
= suade me to give up the union and r.
turn to work. | turned to my wife al
said, We'll, what did you tell him?'
"'What do you suppose said to hi
h with one child dying and another cor
Y ing? OF course | took the none!
2 Stunned by the blow | fell in chai
f My wife, all tenderness and sympath
e seeing | didn't understand exclaime
Good God, Sam, how could you a.
a such question? Don't you know L
f sented the insult? ?"
= Industrial VS.. Craft
|. The aftermath Of this strike, Il
n persecution of himself and his helple
h family, marked Gomper for life. Fro
n that time on the crusade for labor
rights became the ruling interest of h
: very being First in the Cigar Make
v Union his practical brain had effet
a He proposed to make union strol
enough to stand the shock of confli
Il and to provide protection to it's mel
=. bership. That meant high dues. In r
@ turn the members got sick and dea
~ benefits, m p o m en- informatio
= money advanced for travelling, mutu
aid in strikes and lockouts, legal
fense. Another provision Incorporate
,, in the constitution of the union at til
'. time-about lS77-was "by using /;
" honorable means to effect Nation
Federation of Trade Unions.' TT
- conception in Gompers' mind was
result in the organization of t
mighty American Federation of l.
Dor and to make himself it's dynam
- leader.
)" Then upon the scene comes the sic
y. der, mild-eyed II. V. Powderly, lead
. Of the Knights Of Labor, seer
) idealistic organization Fundamental
, in opposition to the craft union idea.
y chain of circumstances brought tf
- then powerful organization into co
y flict with the little New York local
cigar makers. Thus was the bait
q joined between trade unionism and t
loose industrial organization of +