Montana labor news., 1944-12-21
RACE TRACKS WIDE
OPEN DESPITE
UNION PROTESTS

~ "a ~ AZ - ~ a AssAf n ~
LOS ANGELES FPl-m the MIDST
Of growing complaints from government
officials about serious manpower short
ages and warnings of new. stiffer man
power controls in the offings. unions
are calling attention to an oasis of pre-
war America right here in Los Angeles
that doesn't quite iibe with the picture
Of a nation totally mobiHzed for all-out
war against the Axis
Hollywood Parks wide open nova
horse racing track with all the trim
mings, located in Inglewood Tt opened
early in November and ran rive days
week until December is. a total Of 81
days And the prospect facing this war
production area in 1945 is ITO more days
of horse racing-55 at Hollywood park
SIS at Santa Anita Bay Meadows, near
san Diego where the big Consolidated
and Ryan aircraft plants are located is
to get 80 days Of racing next year
Effects Of the opening of Hollywood
park We're felt right away Northrop Air
craft Inc. in nearby Hawthorne. for in
stance, reported that more than loo
manhours Of work were lost the first
two days OF the meet Anybody who
works in the big plants in this area
Northrop where the Black Widow night
fighter is built. North American where
the Mustang is made-can tel by keep
ing his eyes and ears open that it was
a big mistake wheh MWC okayed the
opening Of Hollywood park
Organized labor was right, as repre-
sented by the Los Angeles CIO council
when it passed unanimous resolution
many months ago opposing the grant Of
permission to open the park which ney-
.ertheless became the first southern Cali
f0rnia race track permitted to start since
Pearl Harbor The AFL likewise was
against reopening horse racing.
Sure. all the reservations have been
made that sound swell Protective clauses
are as thick as racetrack touts. Nobody
is to be hired away from essential war
work and the racetrack arrangements
have used lots Of war veterans, women.
part-timers and physically handicapped
workers. But that's not the point.
The point is that Hollywood park or
Santa Anita park in operation is a dis
traction and an interruption to war
workers. They are just human, regular
Americans, same as soldiers. same as peo-
pie most anywhere they respond to the
lure of the bangtails and the bets
The vast majority aren't lured into
absenteeism to go see the races but
thousands of those who stay on their
Jobs in aircraft or shipbuilding huddle
in corners Of the shop during the work
ing day to talk over the odds or place
bets with quickie boozies. 1t takes time,
attention, edge from their work.
over in Hollywood where film pro-
ducing is classed as an essential indus
try and gets favors as such, operation Of
Hollywood park has cut deep into work
ing time Of the men and women who
make movies. The testimony is the same
from many sides. Here's what a reliable
reporter, Columnist Matt Weinstock Of
the Daily News found in a visit to
Hollywood park:
THE cars still park In neat rows.
though many boldly brandish B and G
stickers You see the old familiar faces
of shifty-eyed racetrack characters
Occasionally you see an actor or war
workers who hasn't bothered to remove
his Identification badge Before each
race the judges are delivered to their
posts around the track In horse-drawn
broughams. Gotta save gas, you
know. The handle or money bet, is
81 100000 day, except on Saturdays,
when it approaches $2,0OO,000.
you wonder if soldier back from
combat would get sore But you see a
sprinkling of servicemen and you
aren't sure. But as the Black widows
Mustangs, Forts and Cats come in low
for landings at a nearby airport, you ash,
yourself if the whole business isn't an
anachronism. a disgusting travesty. an
indecency.
From the one point that matters to-
day-producing for victory-it seems
that 1t is. For most working folks in
southern California, the thunder Of B-2s
bombers over Tokyo, the blasting Of
heavy guns battering the Nad lines, are
louder than the laundering hooves. They
want to keep their eyes on the main job
their dollars in necessities and war bonds
their hands at work More and more Of
them, led BY the unionists among them
are thinking it's time to give horse rae
ing the horse laugh until victory II
can wait that long in southern Cali
fornia.