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Show EDITORIAL: Here's A Big Job COATESVILLE. PA., RECORD There's a job that is going beggin? in New York that could be filled easily by either of two men. The men arc Harry S. Truman and James Pelrillo. The job is merely that of taking tak-ing over the Metropolitan Opera and making it a profitable venture. ven-ture. Men and women who have been running the Opera for years have thrown up the sponge. Last season they had a deficit of $220,000; this year, before they get their plans started, start-ed, they were confronted by demands de-mands for wage and salary increases in-creases for members of twelve different unions. Music lovers who had been backing the Opera had been accustomed ac-customed to meeting deficits. But this finally grew burdensome. burden-some. Fact is that under the system sys-tem which permitted members of twelve different unions to demand de-mand more money than the Opera Op-era was earning, those who had been meeting the deficits were having their incomes slashed materially. ma-terially. So the old boys and girls finally final-ly gave up in disgust and the public will suffer. No longer will the common herd, to which most of us belong, be regaled with pictures of society dames displaying dis-playing their nether limbs on a cocktail table. Henceforth, we shall have to get along without pictures of male members of the upper crust standing on their heads in the "Met" lobby. And those of us who enjoyed the Opera Op-era from cheaper seats, will have to get our entertainment over the radio, exclusively. But the problem could be solved solv-ed over night if either Mr. Truman Tru-man or Mr. Petrillo were placed in charge. Mr. Truman knows how to meet all wage demands, increase payrolls and not increase in-crease prices. Of course, he doesn't does-n't know how to do it in government, govern-ment, where he is now engaged, but he knows how to do it in industry, therefore he must i . know how to do it with Opera. Q. E. D. Or Mr. Petrillo could make an adjustment pronto or maybe presto! He would simply direct that twice as many musicians be employed, at double the present rate, and there you are. That is the way he settles disputes with those who hire musicians; he surely would be willing to settle on the same basis if he were in charge of the Opera. And he would run right down the line with the same proposals. The artists would be paid for standing stand-ing by. They might not be wanted want-ed in the Opera they were singing sing-ing on Tuesday night, so all who were not given roles on Tuesday would be paid in full. After all. singers must live, too. When it came to the International Interna-tional Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes and Moving Picture Pic-ture Machine Operators, he would increase their pay and then require that any members employed at any other theatres would receive the same wage boost. There would also be. the Building Service Employes, the Amusement Clerks and Concessionaires' Conces-sionaires' Employes, the Association Assoc-iation of Theatrical Agents and Managers, the International Alliance Al-liance of Bill Posters, Billcrs and Distributors, the Treasurers and Ticket Sellers and the Scenic Artists. These he could take into membership in the Musicians' union and thus make it possible for Jimmy to add to his weekly take. The Stagehands, the Theatrical Thea-trical Wardrobe Attendants, the Operating Engineers, Firemen and Oilers he could retire on pensions, paid for out of the Musicians rapidly-growing welfare wel-fare fund. This would make it possible to hire new workers, from whom he would be able to collect initiation fees as well as dues. . Maybe, though, Jimmy might not like the idea of taking- on all this responsibiity. It will be recalled that not so many years ago when Jimmy decided the Musicians' Union needed better publicity, a series of free concerts con-certs by famed orchestras was arranged. One of the concerts was given in Coatesville. Unfortunately, Unfor-tunately, the plan was shortlived. short-lived. The Union discovered that there was more to putting an orchestra on the road than merely mere-ly signing a contract. When. Jimmy Jim-my and his friends discovered that in addition to presenting a program of music, it was necessary neces-sary to get railroad or bus transportation trans-portation in advance; buy tickets for the group; arrange for transportation trans-portation of baggage to and from the various cities; and once in the cities, to and from the hotels, ho-tels, auditoriums, etc.; make hotel ho-tel and restaurant reservations; rent auditoriums; provide employers em-ployers liability insurance a thousand things that never previously pre-viously had bothered anybody except the poor chaps who paid the bill when Jimmy got this slant on the music business, he stopped me tree conccris. It is barely possible that the job will have to be tendered Harry Truman. He might be able to have the Department of Agriculture take the Opera un-"der un-"der its wing. Then, when there is a surplus of Opera deficits, the Government can go into the market mar-ket and buy the surplus. |