The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-01-29
PET RILL0 TELLS
FACTS OF TRADE

men. Union batting legislators low
to cite him as a prime exampl
Of the evils Of free trade unionism
But when the nimble president 0
the American Federation of Musi
cians-AFL appeared before then
last week they had to back up.
Petrillo is too smart for labor
baiters, for one thing. For anoth
er, the facts are on his side. He'
too good natured to let anyone ge
his goat, and too sold on the jus
tice of the musicians case to bt
forced into a retreat.
The set-up for Petrillo's appear
ance before Fred Hartley's House
Labor Committee certainly wasn't
calculated to put him at his ease
Spot lights focused squarely on his
face as the movie cameras grounc
away at him. Most of the two hours
that he was on the stand he had
to hold his arm up with his hand
shielding his eyes. And to add in
suit to injury Hartley let the tele-
vision boys broadcast this Congress
sional interview with the man who
has yet to work out an agreement
with television broadcasters.
But Petrillo was as quick and
cocky as ever, replying blandly to
questions more designed to throw
him off his guard than to induce
evidence upon which to base legis-
lation which would correct the con
ditions against which the Musicians
Union has protested.
Before Petrillo could open his
mouth sarcastic Fred Hartley had
congratulated him on his evasions
of the law. Actually the little end
of the Taft-Hartley combine was
attacking the federal court which
had ruled that the AIM had not
been guilty of violating the Lea
Act that Congress had aimed at
the union.
When Petrillo's turn came he
took full advantage of it. He point
ed out that the broadcasters had
made $20,C00,000 more in 1947 than
in 1916, and that they had en-
ployed fewer live" musicians.
He made it clear that he didn't
intend to let his unions ban on rec
ord making remain a permanent
policy. Musicians don't want to dis
courage the making of records for
home use, Petrillo pointed out, but
they have no other course so long
as there is no way to stop juke-boX
operators and disk jockies from
using these same records to dis
place musicians.
The musicians chief admitted
that one of the reasons for the
record ban is the provision in Taft
against payment of well
fare fund benefits to workers not
in the work against which
Welfare royalties were levied. He
the committee Of the pub
ic service as well as the benefits
o musicians that had been derived
rom royalties collected in the well
are fund from recording companies
,rior to Taft-Hartley. Most of it
vent for concerts furnished schools
md hospitals. Only one-half of one
percent was used to administer the
'und.
After Petrillo's testimony Rep.
Jarroll ID. Kearns (R., Pa.) stated |
hat he planned to introduce legis-
alton providing for separate copy
lighting of records designed for
ome and commercial use and auth
rizing the payment of royalties
rom the production of commercial
ecordings.
Petrillo also denied categorically
he charge that his unions policy
vas to impede chronological pro-
,ress in the radio industry. The
lFM is in many cities today work
ng out wage scales for FM broad
asting lower than those demanded
f the big AM networks. Only stick
lg point for the union is that the
ig stations shall not broadcast the
anne program on both AM and FM,
hereby getting two sets of profits
ut of the musicians time.
He repeated the statement that
e made in New York last week
lat he hoped for successful con-
usions to his current negotiations
ith the netWorks-to cover tele-
sion and FM as we'll as AM broad
isting. When one of the Congress
len rejoiced too much over this
however, Petrillo, who
nows the broadcasters' animosity ,
ward the union, warned him,
Don't grab too fast"
After nearly two hours of clip ;
ed, often half -jocular answers to
le Committees questions, Petrillo !
up. won't some one wor-
7 about the musicians? Can't some :
you help us? We don't want to
estroy anything. But we're being !
All we're asking is do
e live or don't we live at our !
losen profession ?"
The day after the musicians \
lion president testified, its attor- Z
~, Milton Diamond, took the \
and. Supporting Petrillo's cOnten- 4
)ns, Diamond called attention of y
Congress outraged at the musi- =