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Show THE SEARCHLIGHT Propaganda Drive Under Way Editor's Note. This is the third in a series of articles on the current propaganda drive against collective bargaining. It was planned to complete the discussion in three articles. However, limited available space has made it necessary to discuss the radio phases of the drive in a separate article which will appear in the next issue. Any discussion of the deliberate, propaganda campaign now current in and on the radio would be incomplete reference to a vicious and ill-advised published in the Salt Lake Tribune on malicious the press without editorial February 6th. To disclose the pernicious quality of the Tribune attack we quote one paragraph: “An outraged and aroused public will stand only so much selfish disregard of the general welfare—only so much extortion in an emergency—only so much insubordination which imperils millions of sons, brothNor ers and husbands in the battle zones. does it alter the case that large numbers of are also in uniforms—that unionized men only makes more shameful and reprehensible the conduct of strikers, often motivated by trivial causes like the discharge of an incompetent workman or the demotion of an unreliable foreman.” The Tribune had two reasons for running that editorial. First, it felt obligated to earn some of the money paid to it by the great “advertising” corporations, discussed in previous articles, who are the backbone of the current drive against The Tribune simply had collective bargaining. to keep in the good graces of its revenue pro- ducers by chiming in with a “‘me-too” editorial. But the Tribune its own, for taking a It was still smarting a strike of employees a strike that forced had crack from in its Mr. a sinister motive, all at labor organizations. the beating it took in own composing room— Fish of the publishing firm of Fitz &@ Fish to do some actual bargaining with his employees. Fish is the general manager of both the Tribune and Telegram. The Typographical Union had made nineteen attempts to bargain with Fish—nineteen at temps to reach an amicable understanding before it called a strike. But Fish (maybe there is some thing in a name) deliberately adopted the tactics made infamous in Salt Lake by Louis ance Callister. Continu- In nineteen attempts by the Un- ion to arrive at a peaceful settlement of the con- troversy in the Tribune composing room, Fish did absolutely nothing but stall and equivocate. Under such circumstances the Typographical Union had no choice. Its manifest desire to ne- gotiate an orderly settlement was thwarted and sneered at. Thereafter it could strike, or it could tolerate the dilatory, evasive tactics of A. L. Fish forever. It chose to strike. In assessing the blame for that strike any fair- minded person must give the discredit to the Tribune management—particularly to A. L. Fish. A. L. Fish was none too forthright in his negotiations with the Newspaper Guild a few months before. Observers agree that he had be- come a convert to the Callister methods, and had determined to try his new technique on the em- ployees in his composing room. If the Union lacked the spunk to stand on its right to strike after nineteen attempts to avoid a work stoppage by meeting with management on a basis of genuine collective bargaining, it would have ceased to be a Union, and would no longer be entitled to the respect and loyalty of its members. Accordingly, Fitz & Fish rather than the Typographical Union should be charged precipitating the Tribune-Telegram strike. with OPA BRIEF ADMITTED In spite of the vigorous protests of Utah Power & Licht Company and its journalistic ally, the Salt Lake Tribune, the State Supreme Court per- mitted OPA to file a brief in the rate case grow’ ing out of the order of the Public Service Commis sion for a reduction in rates of $1,500,000. The Tribune editorial on the subject used the same argument and virtually the same language as George M. Gadsby when he protested the entry of OPA into the case. WE'LL BE COMING UP FOR AIR Sixty days of smog and all that goes with it moves us to suggest that some musical Salt Laker write a parody on a well-known song, to make it read: “When It’s Springtime in the Rockies I'll be coming up for dir.” |