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Show ALBEE AND BECK DEFY U. S. Take it direct from E. F. Albee and Martin Beck, foremost vaudeville powers, there will be no vacillating policy toward the United States Government in its effort to declare the varieties within the Sherman act. As is well known, H. B. Marinelli, in a lawsuit against the United Booking Offices, is endeavoring to establish that this big body comes within the regulations of the Interstate Commerce Connmission. The determination de-termination of the issue is of the . utmost importance im-portance to theatrical folk generally, because under such a ruling every phase of the show business would be subject to the supervision of politicians and Federal authorities, and the resultant re-sultant disaster is incalculable. ' " Because of the vast importance of the deter mination of the issue, Messrs. Albee and Beck desire to have the public know the stand they are taking, and yesterday they issued the following fol-lowing defiant statement for publication in this column : "Notwithstanding 'the irresponsible report in . the Shubert press sheet that vaudeville man agers are perturbed over the Marinelli case, and having expressed no opinion one way or another regarding the case" before, we thing best to make a public statement through a reputable newspaper in reference to our position in this matter. There will be no settlement with 'Marinelli. 'Marin-elli. The managers are not peturbed in any kind of way, and any report to the contrary is a misleading statement, or an unofficial one by those who make it a practice of circulating false rumors of talks they are supposed to have had with this or that manager, and say that the United people are panicky and ready to make ' any sort of arrangement rather than go to court. "They have nothing whatever to fear from Marinelli or from any other source. Their business busi-ness has been conducted in a legitimate way, n and they are anxious to put themselves on rec- Ifcx ord to determine whether the show business comes within the Sherman law, not only in their own interest ibut for the .benefit of all branches of theatricals. If vaudeville Is interstate commerce, com-merce, then every kind of show business, particularly partic-ularly the legitimate, Is, and the sooner this is determined by the 'Supreme Court of the United M States, the better. There will bo no weak-kneed, M vacillating policy on the part of the United offic- M ials in this matter any more than there ever has 1 been In any other." New York Telegraph. fl |