P ALL

pts from the speech of
nt Kenin, of the Ameri-
ation of Musicians
December 19 to the Interna-
Association of Concert
at its twenty-first an-
convention held at the New
Hilton Hotel. President
| is also President of the
ncil of the AFL-CIO Unions
entific, Professional and
Employees, a Vice-
nt of the AFL-CIO and a
of its Executive Coun-

the mid-nineteen fifties, the
tgh Symphony embarked
tour of the Pennsylvania
i towns. It was an historic
ent. For the towns involved,
vas the first time they were
ted by a major symphony
ch . For a great orchestra
at had traveled to all corners
world, this was the first
that it had ventured into
neighborhoods. The con-
Were sponsored and pro-

by the Steelworkers
and in most cases the
ces were the union’s

bers and their families. For
both the union and its members
this was a new experience.
Our president, Mr. Martin,
and organized that
It was a tour that took
of a growing revolution and
to do something about it.
an approaching band, this
tion appeared small on
rizon but in the past de-
as it has come closer to
[ us—its cadence has quick-
and its volume has increas-
$0 that today even the hard
ing are marching to its
.. this is the revolution of
-€xpectations.
es from the ghettos ac-
anied by a now strident
for homes, for jobs, for
. And it also comes from
suburbia. There the re-

ALTURE
HE PROPERTY

volution is not marked by
shouts and slogans but by a
quiet desperate search by work-
ing men and women and their
children for beauty, for grace,
for involvement, for meaning in
their lives.

Never before has there been
a nation such as ours possessed
of the wealth necessary to ful-
fill the promise of a rich, full
life for all its citizens. Never
before has the gap between the
promise and the performance
been so nakedly exposed. The
revolution of our day ... in the
ghetto and in suburbia . . . is
meant to close the gap, use this
wealth, and fulfill that promise.

American organized labor has
had extensive experience with
helping men and women to re-
alize their fondest goals and,
after considering all sides, 1 am
confident that history will note
that thus far labor in this coun-
try has been quite successful.
Because organized labor helped
many millions achieve a greater
share of the wealth they pro-
duce in the form not only of
money, but leisure time, these
many millions have had new
opportunities opened to them.

At the turn of the century,
Samuel Gompers predicted ra-
ther ingenuously, I think, that
“Jeisure cultivates tastes for art,
music, concerts, operas, the
theatre”; but then he went on
to make a most valid observa-
tion, “these new opportunities
once availed of are no longer
luxuries,” he said, “the lux-
uries of the past become the ne-
cessities of today and all man-
kind agrees that in order that
the workers may be counted
upon to continue their labor, the
necessities of life must be as-
sured them .. . To make the
luxuries of today the necessities
for tomorrow —to continually
raise the standard of life of the

Martine van Homel and Hazaros Surmejan in a scene from the National Ballet of Canada’s version of

worker is in the highest degree
sound economy.”

The evolution of the mass of
Americans from opportunity to
opportunity from desire to de-
sire was noted by the AFL-CIO
Council of Unions for Scientific,
Professional and Cultural Em-
ployees in a policy statement
announcing the Council's parti-
cipation in AFL-CIO programs
to involve union members in the
arts. In part, this is what this
Council said:

“We know that today. the
American’ worker's historical
preoccupation — working for a
livelihood — is increasingly in-
volving a diminishing portion of
his time and energy.

“Many societies in the past
have supported leisure classes
of varying sizes possessing vary-
ing amounts of time free from
demands of working for a living
Today leisure is no longer the
privilege of the few, but the
right of many. Free from the ne-
cessity of working for a “living”
the major part of his life, the
modern worker is slowly
measuring and defining new
freedoms which sixty years ago
he hardly thought possible. To
the worker at the turn of the
century, freedom meant freedom
from—freedom from exploita-
tion, freedom from the irration-
al authority of a boss or fore-
man. It came to mean, also, free-
dom from drudgery, monotony,
and the dehumanizing effects of
manual work Today, however,
with his new found time, free-
dom from no longer suffices.
Today’s worker is increasingly
looking upon freedom as free-
dom to—to make his voice
heard in the civic life of his
community, freedom to travel,
to learn, to enter the creative
world of the arts and to partici-

Les Sylphides.

pate in all the benefits our cul-
ture has to offer.

“At one time the limit of a
working man’s dreams (beyond
a decent job at decent pay) was
to see his children assured of a
basic education, When labor
called for universal free public
schools it was fighting to help
him reach his goals. Today,
with free time increasing stead-
ily, the worker wants more than
a basic education. He wants
those enriching experiences
which in other times were avail-
able only to the wealthy leisure
class. He may want these for
himself or, as is mostly the case,
for his children, because art,
theatre, music, good books, tra-
vel are part of a continuing edu-
cational or “growth” process,
and today they are part of the
common man’s search for hap-
piness.”

I have told you that a labor
union cannot create art and that
it cannot fill a hall; it can only
help the artist and assist you in
building audiences.

But, mark you, this new cus-
tomer and patron is not an ob-
ject. He is a person seeking ful-
filment. It is not enough that
you invite him to purchase your
seats and give to a fund raising
campaign, he must be given a
voice in planning your subscrip-
tion drivers and fund raising. He
must be given a place on the
Boards of our concert halls and
his wife must be enlisted in the
lady’s committees.

I truly think we will fail if all
we can do is sell more tickets
and fill more seats. This is im-
portant. I am certainly aware of
its importance, but there is
something far more important

and that is giving new, elemante prey

of the population a chance to if

fs: BACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 21, 1969-—Page 19

participate in a meaningful en-
terprise. Give these people a
stake in your activities and you
will be building a growing, last-
ing relationship.
At times, it seems, the end of ‘i
technology and the goal of mod-
ern management is to so ar-
range the world that no one
needs to experience it. Your suc-
cess lies in the other direction. ee
Art must again become a com- y
munity affair. If you want the
help and the support and the
commitment of a wider aud-
ience, then you cannot expect
that the care and guidance of
the arts can forever remain the
province of the few.

I have told you all of the
things a labor union cannot do
for you and for the arts. The
AFL-CIO cannot create art. The
AFL-CIO cannot sit in your
seats. The AFL-CIO cannot
provide your institutions with
large financial’ grants. Only
AFL-CIO members can do these
things. But what we in the AFL-
CIO are telling you is that we
will help you to reach these
many millions and their fami-
lies. As it has in politics and in
welfare, in the plant, and shop
and office, the AFL-CIO and its
affiliated unions can be the ve-
hicle for involving people in
building a better life for them-
selves and their community. If
this is your interest, then we
will work with you—and I do
believe we can make beautiful

music together.

LAIWAM International , Mi