Evening star., 1943-10-16
Union Security Clause
InNewspaperInd
Brings 3-Hour Debate
BY the Associated Press.

The question of whether a main
tenance-of of-membership clause in
union contracts covering newspaper
men would abridge freedom of the
press was fought out in three hours
of testimony before the War Labor
Board yesterday, with publishers
contending such policy would run
afoul of that constitutional guaran-
tee and American Newspaper Guile
spokesmen sharply differing with
them.
The hearing was ordered at the
request of publishers who are op-
posing Guild efforts to have such
union security provisions written
into contracts with several news
papers and news magazines
Under such provisions, which the
board has ordered into effect in
scores of other industries, an en-
ploye has Is days in which to decide
whether to resign from a union or
stay in. If he elects to remain a
union member, he must keep that
membership in good standing during
the life of the contract or lose his
job.
Fear Restriction of News.
The general view of the publishers
was that this might be all right for
war industries, but to extend the
principle to newspapers would tend
to restrict and color news and hence
interfere with freedom of the press.
Guild spokesmen replied that pub
fishers had been unable to find a
single case where the Guild had
controlled the writing of any man.
They added the publishers fears
about freedom of the press<were the
same "bugaboos" they raised against
newspaper mechanical unions, child
labor and wages and hours legisla-
ton and the National Labor Rela-
tions Act.
Arthur Hays Sulzberger, president
OF the New York Times, said Will
liam Green, president Of the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor, had au-
thorized him to repeat to the board
what Mr.. Green had told him on
two occasions-that he was opposed
to the closed shop or maintenance
of union membership for newspa-
pers and that the AFL could not
get its views properly presented N
newspapers without bias because the
CIO controlled the Guild.
Opposed Closed Shop.
Mr.. Sulzberger said Mr.. Green had
added belief in an anteroom of
the White House that mo union of
newspapermen should have the
closed shop" and had told the New
York Times official that freedom Of
the press was involved "in the closed
shop demand of the Guild
If his paper had had mainten-
ance-of-membership provision, Mr..
Sulzberger said, it would have been
compelled to discharge three of its
most valuable writers because all OF
them at various times had resigned
from the guild. He said these men
were William Laurence, science
writer, and Louis Stark, labor re-
porter, both Pulitzer Prize winners,
and a brilliant" editorial specialist,
Robert Duffus.
MOlIlS llSG, dlOOll llCs 2oA tiAS
guild, replied that freedom Of the
press is being lost by publishers
shouting Wolf, wolf and by def
ance of Government agencies"
The press is going to lose the
freedom of the press unless it wakes
up" he added. 1T is going to lose
1t to the radio
Replacement Easy.
Mr.. Ernst asserted that writer's
have as great variety Of prejudlces
or "slants" as their employers, and
If a reporter left paper, the en-
ployer could easily replace him with
anybody else he wants just by going
into what he called the market
place of thought"
Il don't know of an objective
human being" Mr.. Ernst said. "Al
of us have slants."
The guild attorney said the ques-
ton of a closed shop or guild shop
was not involved in the hearing. He
said If the board ordered mainte-
nance of membership clause IN
newspaper contract. employees who
are guild members at the time would
be given Is days to decide whether
to remain in good standing in the
guild for the life OF the contract or
resign and still remain on the paper.
IF they remain in the guild he
continued, "the employer may fire
them at any time, as permitted by
law or as agreed to between the
parties and replace them with guild
or nonguild members entirely as he
pleases and exclusively according to
his own prejudices.
Free to Hire Any One.
The only situation in which the
presence of such a clause has any
effect, not on freedom of the press,
but even on an employers selection
of personnel, is if an employe who
voluntarily agreed to remain
member of the guild in good stand
ing for the duration of the contract
subsequently changed his mind and
fails to do so. In such situation
the employer may not retain the
employe on his staff.
he is, however, Tree 10 replace
that employe If any other person
who he thinks will satisfactorily
convey the employers prejudices to
the readers of his newspaper. Thus,
the effect of the maintenance Of
membership clause on the en-
ployer's right to get his prejudices
across is absolutely nil.
"Concretely speaking, then, the
publishers contention is that their
inability to keep in their employ
an employe who elected voluntarily
to remain guild member and then
subsequently changed his mind, af-
fects their constitutional right to
print what and how they please
The mere statement of their posi-
tion suffices to demonstrate it's alb
surdity."
Threat to Traditions.
Benjamin M. McKelway, associate
editor Of the Washington Star, who
spoke also for the Cleveland Plain
Dealer, Cleveland News and st.
Louis Globe Democrat, said:
TT is inconceivable to me, as