Page Irour

PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

October 15, 1937

BOOKS
and
AUTHORS

THE POST-WAR HISTORY
OF THE BRITISH WORK-
ING CLASS, by Allen Hutt.
Gollancz. Left Bock Club
Choice.

Reviewed by Ian Robertson
TENHIS is an extremely im-

# portant book, both in the
time of its appearance and
in its subject matter. Many
who have watched in these
recent years the gradual but well
calculated inroads which Wascism
has been making on democratic
liberties in Great Britain have felt
a growing sense of despair at ihe
official attitude of the Labor party
and trade unions. ‘

Ever since the British national
government came into power, the
official Labor movement has
seemed to be drewn in more and
more behind that government's
policy. The last general election
showed the Labor party from the
outset taking a defeatist attitude,
refusing to go out whole-heartedly
for victory, refusing to recognize
that victory was possible. The
natural result was an oyerwheln-
ing. defeat.

. °
OR such feelings Hutt’s book
is a welcome tonic. He in n0

way minimises the pitiful role that
the leaders have played. The tale
as unfolded by him from Black
Friday in 1921 through Black Wed-
nesday of 1926, to the days when
the “Daily Heraid’’ praised Hoare’s
speech at Geneva as ‘the woice of
Britain, and to the Edinburgh
conference last autumn, is one of
the constant struggle on the part
of the Jeaders to hold in check
the revolutionary spirit of
rank and file-

Through long years of strugele
fhe movement was built up into a
mighty machine, as Hutt has him-
self outlined in his book, “This
Final Crisis.’ But the machine has
now become part of the capitalist
structure, and those whose job it
is to direct the machine have come
to feel themselves a part of that
structure and to oppose any effort

to change it.

The book is a welcome tonic to
despair, however, because although
it outlines clearly the sorry role
of the leaders, it emphasizes n0
less clearly the magnificent pos-
sibilities of the rank and file. It is
at times of crisis that such poten-
fialities are revealed, and time and
again they are shown in the his-

. tory of these jJast few years.

AM a detective story fan, but

not for long have I been so
thrilled as in reading the chapter
‘Nine Days That Shook Britain.’

Tt is a tale of magnificent hero-
ism and solidarity, and it is more.
than that. It is a revelation of the
administrative potentialities of the
British working class.

Tt is precisely because Wwe our-
selves have lived through the
years outlined in this book that it
is so important as a reminder of
what really happened. Every day
now. seems to bring some event,
and it is difficult to see the wood
for the trees. z

Hutt’s book is an excellent guide
for our bewilderment. Two notes
are struck right through the whole.
"he first is that of the essential
solidarity and real revolutionary
feeling among the rank and file.
The second is that of the need for
unity in the ranks if anything is
to be accomplished.

At the end of the war there was,
for a time, such a unity. The rail-
way strike of 1919 was a striking
example of what may be done
when unity prevails. The railway-
men themselves were Solid. The
locomotive men, though they had
een bribed with a wage increase
of their own, Stuck by their com-
rades. The co-operative movement
made arrangements through its
pank for the necessary sirike pay,
and local co-ops took vouchers
from strike committees in ex
change for food. The printers tool
a hand in the game and made it
clear that they would not print
lying propaganda.

Finally, the railwaymen took
the offensive and set up their own
propaganda bureau through the
Tabor Research Department to
answer the press: propaganda from
the other side.

Magnificent as this was, it did
not result in a great forward
movement for labor because the
jeaders refrained from calling on
the triple alliance for action in
sympathy.

e@

HERE, however, a measure of
unity was achieved, successes
were gained. With the example of
the perils of disunity shown by
the advance to power of Hitler and
the growth of Fascism, it is sur-
prising that the Jjeaders in this
country could not draw the obvious
moral.

Patient, tireless, energetic work
lies to the hand of every conscious
individual in the mighty Labor
movement of Britain in order to
ensure—and that speedily—the
{riumph of unity and a forward
fighting policy.

T believe that the history of the
past vital iwenty years, as set
down unadorned in this book, can
Jead to one commonsense conclu-
sion, and one only. That was
bluntly put by Wrederick ngels,
one of the greatest of all Socialists,
one of the profoundest students of
Great Britain and the British,
when he wrote: ‘here is no
power in the world which could
for a day resist the British work
ing-class organized as a body’

the

Juan M.

EMIND the bloody hor-

ror of Spanish Fascism
with its junta of feudal gen-
erals and medieval politici-
ans iS a ruthless organizing
intelligence that is as
modern as poison gas. It be-

longs to Juan March, the almost
jlliterate hog farmer who became

the Jeadine racketeer and then
fhe leading industrialist of his
country.

The bombs that fell on Guernica,
the shells that go screaming into
the workers’ quarters of Madrid,
the bullets that massacred the best
men of a province in the Badajoz
bullring are the bitter fruit of jhis
unremitting fight to overthrow the
republic. Eyery missile that has
earried death to a Spanish heart
should be tagged, “Ifrom Juan
March to the Spanish. people.”

This man, whom one of Azana’s
ministers once called “‘the repub-
lic’s biggest single enemy’? and
whose role in fostering the revolt
proves the justice of the remark,
has kept himself almost entirely
unknown abroad. Only a few
casual references to him as one of
the financiers of the Fascist movi-
miento have crept into the press
despatches. But Spaniards know
that in event of rebel victory
Franco will bear the title of Jefe,
-Spanish equivalent to Fuhrer or
Duce, but Mareh will hold the
real power.

W amazingly checkered career

has converted this peasants
son into a champion of reaction.
From the moment the republic was
established on promises of many
reforms, one of which was to
shorten the stature of such giants
as March, he has directed his re-
sources steadily against all the
parties on which the new regime
was based. Part of the time he
carried on his share of the debate
from prison—the thunder of guns
today is his last loud, illogical
argument.

The prospect of March's suprem-
acy in the feudal revival, which is
the 2oal of the reyolt, pleases few
Spaniards. Their wealthiest com-
patriot, although fervently hated
by the People’s Front, has never
been cordially welcomed by the
aristocracy of land, birth, and
trade. :

No weird portents were reported
at his birth sixty years ago; the
supernatural plays no part in the
March sagza. In the little cottage
at Santa Margamta on Mallorca
his advent was as little heralded as
jhat of the litters of pigs which
provided his parents with the prin-
cipal part of their livelihood. ~

We had the usual schooling pro-

vided by the church. That is to
‘say, together with other boys oL
the village he repeated m concert
stray items of secular or religious
jearning. These jncluded, none of
the three R’s, although March has
since learned to sign his name,
read a bit for profit if not for
pleasure, and achieve phenomenal
virtuosity in arithmetic. This last
‘was of seryice when he embarked
upon a career, for he became a
dealer in Swine- =

AG the close of the century
March was known throughout
his native countryside as a shrewd
bargainer. From one farmer he
would buy, atter interminable
conversation, two pigs. An after
noon’s diplomacy worthy of an
arms conference would result in
the purebase from another of
three or four hogs. When he had
eollected thirty or forty, he would
take them to Palma, Mallorca’s
metropolis, to sell. There he dis-
eovered the racket that was to
make his fortune.

This was nothing less than
pbootlegeing, an old Spanish cus-
tom which contrabandistas had de-
velcped into an exact science gen-

man’s Diary —

O further the boycott against
Japanese goods, the Women’s
League of the Washington Com-
monwealth Federation
Japanese has launched an anti-

Boycott silk stocking cam-
paign.

Mis. Isabel Costigan, chairman

of the league, wearing cotton

stockings herself, stated that 97
per cent of the silk sold in Amer-
ica is of Japanese origin.

To make doubly sure that you
are not buying undies or stockings
made of Japanese silk, buy cotton
or rayon instead. If all women and
women’s organizations will support
this campaign we shall be going
a lone way towards stopping the
Japanese invasion of China.

eo - :
ANADIAN boys and girls have
proved that the plight of the
Spanish children 1s very near to
‘their hearts.
Home For I spite of the di-
versions of Summer

Children
holidays, they have

raised a total of $500 towards a
Canadian children’s home in Spain,
by holding parties, bazaars and
selling tags. -Even children living

on isolated farms have helped
swell the fund by contributing
their hard-earned nickels and
dimes.

This money has been forwarded
to the International Co-ordination
Committee in Paris where a villa.
is to be equipped and maintained
to house thirty orphaned Spanish
children. The maintenance of these
ehildren is entirely dependent upon
the’ generosity of Canadian people.

Canadian boys and girls who
raised this amount have a plan
to provide the orphans with Christ-
mas gifts by, making and repairing
toys themselves. The best toys
will be forwarded to the villa, and
the others will be sold to provide
play equipment.

War His
Last Illogical
Argument

erations before their American Imi-
tators made it notorious
out the world. The only difference
was that the racket was based
on tobacco instead of liquor.

It began more than a century
ago when the government leased
to a private company the monopoly
ef selling inferior cigarettes and
trashy “makin's.”

Smugglers hastened to embrace -

this new
were

opportunity.
established

Factonmes
in nelighborine=

countries, primarily in Algiers be- ©

eause of the obliging nature of the

authorities and the conyenience ©

of transport. Fleets of small ves-
sels
Spanish shores. Beggars, waiters,
shoe cleaners, porters, all sorts of
humble folk were the ultimate
vendors. They made a few pennies
3 day; the entrepreneurs made
millions. :
*

ALLORGA is an island whose
coast is dotted with isolated
eaves, coves, and inlets. It had,
consequently, always been a smug-
fling centre. So it was not SUurpris-
ine that March should have be-
come acquainted with the
racketeers. @Qne of the rising
young men among- them, Jaime
Grau, hailed from March’s own
willage. *

Grau introduced his townsman to
bootleggers who were willing tu
accept the insignificant sums he
could invest. It was still possible
in Spain (as it was in England in
the days of Drake) for respectable
folk to back a slightly piratical
‘venture for a share of the profits.

He and Grau, perceiving that it
Was neither necéssary nor desir-
able to risk handling contraband
in person, formed 2 partnership.
Both were ruthless without fero-
city, calm, decisive. March, how-
ever, had more effrontery and
daring. Soon it was remarked that
the voyages he and Grau planned
“ere safe investments, every con-
tingency anticipated, every risk
reduced to a minimum.

Soon they began to talk of the

Mareh quarrels, for neither he nor
Grau could aceept the other as an
equal. The ranks of the contra-
pbandistas were divided. Gangsters
who had worked in harmony for
years began blazing away at each
other. m

One evening March was seen at

the Palma Cathedral ordering
masses, confessing, and offerings
prayers for the departed. He ex-

plained that Grau’s son was the
object of his piety, but: it was net
until several hours later that the
young man was found in Valencia,
4 couple of hundred miles away,
with a knife in his back.

* :

URING the World War the
March fortune boomed more
jrapidly than any other im neutral
Spain. In addition to fat returns
from war industries in which he
had invested the profits of boot-
legging, his coffers were generally
believed to have been enriched by

both German and allied gold.

The provisioning of German sub-
marines in the Mediterranean was
a lucrative business. Waturally the
contrabandistas were the’ men for
the job: But by a curious coin-
eidence most of the undersea eraft
allegedly supplied by the March

OTHERS in the Ferie Com-
munist party branch were in-
dignant to hear that their chil-

arch - = Spain’s

througa- .

ran ‘the contraband to the™

fear of his power,

gang were almost

jmmediately
thereafter caught in allied traps-

Before the was ended, not even
March's mathematical mind could
alculate the extent of his riches.
But he did not become a truly na-
tional figure until after 1913. Then

Madrid quite suddenly became
aware of him. :
His long, lean figure flitted

through crowded ante-rooms into
the offices of generals and cabinet

ministers, ushered toward these
imner sanctums by flunkies, who
searcely knew his name, with a

deference that was hardly accorded
to dukes. Later it was learned that

“March was using thousand-peseta

notes instead of visiting cards.. He
was never asked to wait.

People spoke with awe of the
palace he had bought jin the capi-
tal. He furnished it with the”
treasures of some of the noblest
houses in Spain. When a family
rich only in memory and antiques
needed cash quickly, March's
agents were sure to be on hand.

His keen, impassive face became
almost as familiar as that of the
kine. It was also as easy to cari-
eature. Cartoonists never wearied
of exaggerating © the large nose,
eurving down towards a sharply
out-thrust jaw, and the inevitable
pie black cigar (on which full duty |
had heen most scrupulously paid)
jutting from the thin lips. Photo-
graphs were rarer, for March has
the racketeer’s dislike of a camera.

FIILE tourists were marveling
at his palace, the business
world was startled by repeated

manifestations of his commercial

importance. Hus connection with
shipping dated back to his owner-
ship of smugsling schooners. Be-

- fore anyone knew of his activity:

in @ larger market, he became the
majority stockholder of the most _
prosperous of Spanish steamship
lines, the Compania Transmediter-
ranea,

Under his guidance it thrived
impressively. It enjoyed a mono-
poly—March discovered that mono-
polies cam be as profitable for the
monopolist as for the racketeer
who defies them—of the mainiand’s
trade with the Balearic Islands
and of the inter-island traffic.

Mareh did his financing through:
his own bank, defended his actions
in his own newspapers, including
two of Madrid’s jeadinge dailies,
and drove his factories with his
own coal. The only Spanish in-
dustrialist of international stature,
he had his finger, and his money,
in the whole field of Spanisn
manufacture, particularly Sugar,
textiles, and heavy industry. The
from the underworld, had the
seeping upward
eurious effect of strenethening
his position im business.

When Primo de Rivera estab-
jished his dictatorship, he knew
he would have to impress the.bene-
fits of his rule upon the land
quickly or else fail. He undertools

made. by EF. R. Smith of Tacoma,
when giving an address at a din-
ner of the Nelson Rotary club.

Responsibilities,

David Loth
Reveals Storv In
New Masses

to settle what he and his class
considered the two great domestic
problems—labor troubles and con-
traband. Other governments had
tried to persuade unions and crush
smugelers.

Primo decided to reverse the pro-
cess. He turned the Civil Guard,
the most efficiently ruthless of all
police, loose on labor; and gave
March the tobacco monopoly over
Moroeco on the theory that the
biggest racketeer of all would know
better than anyone else how to
protect a monopoly.

Primo and his colleagues, pro-
fessional soldiers whose idea of
statecraft was a volley of rifle-fire
whenever workers or peasants
showed signs of asserting them-
selves, soon found Mareh indis-
pensable. His advice was relied
upon in all financial matters. He
used= his commercial interests to
Support the dictatorship, and with
ereater effect used his political in-
fluence to foster his business,

*

HE republic, however, looked

upon him with extreme dis-

favor and considerable apprehen-

Sion. The Socialist and Republican -
leaders, who had been in jail or in
exile while March was getting rich
and making himself useful to dic-
tators, noted with fear that he was
called, even after the revolution, ,
the “‘uncrowned king of Mallorca.”

That island, strongly monarchist,
elected him to the Constituent
Cortes which was to frame a new
constitution. The parliament was
overwhelmingly Left when March,
a most unwelcome reminder of
other days, took his seat there.
or some time the new masters
of Spain regarded him with sus-
picion and at last they arrested
him on charges of responsibility
for the disasters of the dictator-
ship. ;

But eyen in a revolution the re-
publican leaders were bound by
conventions. Acutely conscious of
the injustice that had sent them: to
jail or exile, they were determined
that no such wrong should ever
be imputed to them. So they per-
mitted their principal enemy every
advantage that legal trickery could ~
provide. .

Arraigned before a Committee of
March conducted
his own defense, reserving lawyers
for private consultations. He bait-
ed his accusers, unfettered by
judicial formalities, while they
delved patiently into his mono-

_polies, polities, finance, even -the

death of young Grau.

That the man had been and al-
Ways would be the mortal foe of
any even faintly liberal regime was
obvious; that he was guilty of
specific crimes Was susceptible
only of moral proof. The overly
scrupulous committee sent him
back to jail, free to see anyone
who called, to carry om a vast
correspondence, to direct his busi-
ness and political associates. Mean-
while faithful Mallorea elected him
one of the lay members of the new
Supreme Court, which would in
{ime pass on the March case.

As the months passed, the sov-
ernment seemed to have forgotten
him, but he was not so careless.
Prom his model prison went out
orders, checks, advice for organ-

The Fernie branch of the Com-
munist party writes that they have
no hall, therefore it hasn’t a statue

the

dren. are being ac Mx. Smith stated that “he was of Christ in it, neither has it at
Silly: eused of spitting on told that the Communist party bas any time conducted a children’s
Slanders the statue of Christ. a hall in which they have set up 2 school. 3 ; -
Statements to that statue of Christ. The first thing Anyone who has the slightest

effect, also that Communism is fhe children are taught to do is knowledge of the work of
endangering the very homes of walk around the statue and spit Communist party will realize that
Canadians and Americans, Were ODsedta Z statements of this kind are ludi-

Seeing Things — _TRUSTIFICATION IN STEEL

COAL FIELDS

irony SSD000 SURFACE

Thee bilien dollag U-as
Corporation owns OF has
its contro] 300,000 ecres of

and gas coal fields,

of coking coal fields.

U. S. STEEL IN OTHER INDUSTRIES

UN SSES) s1q0c0 comns COAL

Steel
under
steam
350,000 acres O71
surface coal fields and 410,000 acres

U. S. Steel controls from > to 34

——

of the iron ore reserves of the

country.

300 oil wells and 1500 active gas
wells are the property of this cor
poration.

‘
LAKE STEAMERS 28 sQ0BANTSS

———————
oo
=a ——

plow ihe
the tron
Steel Plants.

locomotives carry this rew materia!
over 4000 miles of tracks.

fune of 12,800,000 daily capacity to
do work for the Morgan controlled
WIS.A. Steel CGorperation- |

from
Dollsr
Chart “The Steel
Industry by
Visual
Press, 840 Bread-
way,

125 lake steamers and 500 barges
Great Lakes transporting
ore and coal for the U- S.

55,000 freight cars, drawn by

WATER POWER

Water power is harnessed to the

|\lustrations
section of
Lecture-

Education

New York:

Above is reproduced one of the new charts pub lished by Vis

use of trade unions, fraternal, social and farm groups.

ual Education Press,

New Work, for

Swine Dealer Deluxe

izing a reactionary bloc in the
next election. March had taken up
with Primo de Rivera's son te
form an avowedly Fascist party,
but he soon turned to the Gatholie
Action led by Jose Maria Gil
Robles, a far abler politician.

The industrialist-racketeer’S Aac-
tivities were so openly carried on
that this writer, then publishing
a weekly in Spain, wrote of him.
“3]] he needs is to find the proper
uniform behind which he can work,
and the proper moment to lead his
‘country back to- dictatorship.”

*

H= found tne uniform in

France’s wardrobe. The mo-
ment was brought closer by the
energy With which he directed
propaganda on a scale never know
before in Spain. He bought over
most of the press, an army of paid
campaign workers covered the
country; speakers and publicity ap-
pealed to all sections of the people
and one day in October, 1933,
March and the governor of his
prison went for an automobile
drive. News of the excursion be-
came public only after they had
passed safely over the Portuguese
frontier.

In December that year, the con-
federation of carefully drilled Right
parties marched to the polls, whole
convents at a time, battalions -of
women marchaled by their priests,
the solid memberships of polo
clubs: The Republicans were routed
and March, an exile in Paris, be-
came a successful candidate for
the Cortes, Mallorca sending him
in at the head of the list. At Haster
he returned to his native land.

The rest of Spain was not yet
ready to accept his jeadership. The
republican ideal persisted, showings
jtsel— in the rising of . October,
1934, which was crushed with a
ferocity that Primo himself had
mever dared. But even Moors and
the mercenaries of the foreign
lesion could not suppress the work-
men, peasants, Shopkeepers, and
jntellectuais who were © with in-
ereasing heat demanding the re-
forms promised in April, 1931.

*
HEN the People’s Front was
swept into power in February
of last year, Juan March fled the
country again, even before. the
yotes were counted.

This time, he knew, only force
could bring him back. He did not
hurry. Carefully he directed the
immense amount of work involved
in preparing military stores, ar-
ranging with Moorish ehiefs for
the use of their followers, corrupt-
ing all who: could be reached by
money. ‘Itortune™
estimated that he spent seventy
million dollars in this way; 2 Brit-
ish observer put the figure at fit"
teen million pounds.

~And only then did Mareh un-
Joose General. Franco—it is _ well
to remember that he had been
military governor of both the
Balearics and Morocco where
March influence is “particularly
strone—asainst the government.

Madrid paid Juan March one
compliment; the first decree con=
fiscating property was leveled at”
his steamship company. He must
know, too, that no republican gov—
ernment will leave him again in
possession of his lands,
factories, newspapers, shares in
corporations and monopolies. A
People’s Front victory will rid
Spain forever of March. But if he
could place Franco where Primo
de Rivera once ruled, he would

seize all and more than he has
lost.

In the meantime, the ereat
racketeer flits obscurely from

Gibraltar to Italy, from Salamanca
to Lishon, negotiating with Mus-
solini, advising generals, ereating
and administering rebel credits
said to total one and a half mil-
lion dollars: :

by Victoria Post

crous. When an organization fights
day by day for better conditions,
living wages, proper relief ~ for
starving people, it is not likely to
endanger the home life, but rather
improve conditions in the home so
that greater enjoyment can be got
out of it.

Mr. Smith should make sure
that his statements are true be-
fore delivering them to the pub-
lic, otherwise he will find an army
of angry mothers at his heels de-
manding hwithdrawal of his &c-
cusations.

e

ps Sees nowadays one
reads articles on how to live

though the cost of‘ living still
rises. This is all very
Cost of well, but why don’t
Living these people do some-
thing about lowerin=

the cost of living or raising the
wages in proportion, instead of
trying to tell us how to make
money reach inipossible heights?
he latest book on this subject,
by Ray Giles, 15 ealled “How to

Beat the High Cost of Living,” and
contains 864 money Sayers for
everyday use.

With all due respects to Nir
Giles, I imagime some of the
syomen on the prairies could give

him some pointers, in fact they
would be glad to get hola of some
money with which to experiment
in stretching to reach the cost of
living.

In the past year retail prices in
general have risen 9.2-per cent and
we are told by economists that it
js going to cost us vastly more to
live during the next few years
than ever before-

So we are still going to let pes-
ple tell us how to make our money
stretch to these ever increasing

prices, or are We going to do
something about settine increased
wages or relief.

STAGE
and

SCREEN —

r

- ward

-and is

magazine has .

mines, -

OW the New Film Alliance
Sizes the new pictures up:
THE BRIDE WORE RED: How
a singer in a waterfront cafe tried
to escape her “‘class,"” but couldn’.
The rich man throws her down,
and the poor but poetic peasant
takes her up. Joan Crawford,
Franchot Tone and Robert Young

are wasted on this.

ANGEL: Sophisticated story,
directed by the German PErnest
Lubitseh, of a girl who loves her
husband, but wanders from home
in search of a thrill. Complications
which result are in the hands of
Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall
and Melyyn Douglass. Bit parts,
beautifully played, are done by Ed-
Everett Horton, Herbert
Mundin and Ernest Cossart.

LANCER SPY: Unfortunately
set against a war background, and
unconsciously showing the glamor
of war, the story deals with a
British naval officer whose re-
semblance to a captured German
spy allows him to copy the Ger-
man’s mannerisms and return to

- Berlin to extricate military secrets.

DOUBLE WEDDING: As in My
Man Godfrey, William Powell is
the slightly nutty and yery suave
and amusing philosopher in rags.
His belief—which leaves an acid
taste in the mouth—is that work
js for workingmen, work is con-
temptible and undignified, and so,
Wwe Sather, are workinemen. If you
Can overlook this nasty idea, the
action is quite funny and very
harum-scarum, Myrna Loy is the
co-star. - :
A REVEALLNG insight into con-

& temporary Soviet life is given
in- Beethoven Concerto, outstand-
ing new Soviet film to be shown
here at the Globe Theatre the
week Commencing November 7.

Most of the music for the pic-
ture—including the concerto for
violin and orchestra, which is
played in its entirety—is by Bee-
thoven. A good part of the score,
though, is by I. Dunayeysky, the
Soviet Gershwin. Dunayeysky did
the score for “Moscow Laughs,” a
Jaze comedy. He is well known for
his orchestral and fum music.

The cast of “Beethoven Con-
certo,” is largely a juvenile one,
entirely non-professional.
Wiadimir Gardin, world famous for
his leading roles in Soviet hits, is
cast as the violin professor who 1s
instructor of one of the two
violin prodigies featured in the
picture. :

New and amusing slants on the
Soviet scene dot the picture. Dedi-
cated to the children of the Soviet
Union by its producers, the pic-
fure takes up their childish prob-
lems in their own terms.

A full symphony orchestra and
an unique cartoon sequence add to
the entertainment.

e

By JOHN R. CHAPLIN

OLLYWOOD.—A resolution to

the Los Angeles Central Labor
Gouneil from the Culinary Work-
_ ers’ Union has requested that Wal-
lace Beery be put on the unfair
list for going through picket lines.
He, like some other actors, has
been frequenting the struck Brown
Derby Restaurant, despite request
from the Sereen Actors Guild that
its members stay away from there.
“Beery, previously suspended by
Actors Equity for refusing to jom
the guild, has made application for
a euild ecard since the 95 per cent
guild shop went into effect. The
Culinary Workers are not asking
only local censure of Beery, but
also a national boycott.

Irrances Farmer is going to have
the lead in the next Clifford Odets
play for the Group Theatre in New
York. And James McMillan, who
starred in the Los Angeles Federal
Theatre’s Gods of the Lightning,
is said to be also due for a con-
tract with the Group.

The National Labor Relations
Board hearings on who shall rep-

resent the scenario writers in col-
bringing
out plenty of startling facts, so

lective bargaining are

far concerned mainly -with costs
and returns of film production. But
this data will bear careful analysis
when the hearings have gone 2
little further. Insiders believe the

revelations may shake
whole film industry.

up

the

David Selznick denies that Paul-

ette Goddard, or anybody else, has
been signed for what is considered
the outstanding plum of the sea-
son, the part of Searlett in Gone
With the Wind. William Dieterle,
who made Pasteur and Zola, has
declared, on his return from the
Soviet Union, that he saw the best
films in the world over there, and
that his one dream is to make 4
film based on the life of Karl
Marx. But we don't think Warmers
will authorize that.

There is rumor that the Hal
Roach-Mussolini deal may fall
through. The simmering Hollywood
protest against it is terrific. The
Motion Picture Artists Committee
for Spain has been carrying on 2
strone ad campaign in the trade
press, with barbarous quotes from
Vittorio Mussolini's book on Ethi-
opia: And on several occasions,
durine his visits to various studios,
his guides have had to keep the
Duce’s son as far aS possible from
such people as George Jessel, who
were denouncing Mussolini, Hitler
and Fascism as loudly as they
could.

The Mexican labor movement —

has won a 40 per cent raise for all
workers in the distribution and
theatre end of films. Curt Bois, ex-
jled German actor. will do a part
in The Yellow Wizhtingale, at
Paramount, and Leo Reuss, also
exiled by Hitler. has been signed by
M.G.M.
wood’s gain-

sechinerwakies

Germany's loss is Holly- :

1 ra catabolite

be sity

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