The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 21, 1919, Page 10

| «g e 0.0 0O Ot . cast shall be enabled to do their acting N. Y. Labor Start Educational Committee of Big Unions Would Strengthen Move for Industrial Democracy by Developing Desire for Better Conditions of Living Washington Bureau, Nonpartisan Leader. OVERNMENT agents who have been investigating the rapid in- crease in industrial discontent in the United States have found in New York City a new plan of approach to unrest. Gener- ally people complain that wages are too low to cover the cost of the food required to keep them in good health. But the United Labor Education committee, made up of labor organiza- tions having a total membership of they do not want to raise any lines of financial class in their own playhouse, they have printed on the back of each membership ticket this rule: “Seating Arrangement—Tickets for all seats.in the house will be contained in urns; one urn con- taining tickets for single parties; another for parties of two, and another urn containing tickets for parties of three (where the parties are larger than three, tickets will have to be taken in groups of twos and twos, twos and threes, threes and threes, ete.). Upon presentation of this membership cou- pon the holder is allowed to put his hand into the . e e over 200,000 men and women in the e i ——— e Greater City, is undertaking to culti- :i!—’ vate in the minds of ordinary wage- 0= g workers an appetite for good lectures, the best music, an improved drama and folk plays, and for fine modern art in their tenement homes! As these things can not be enjoyed by underpaid and servile workers, the first result of the movement is to make the members active and per- sistent in securing a better measure of industrial democracy. ] WHAT THE PLANS PROVIDE North Dakota farmers, who have won national fame for their rural theater, will be interested in the Workmen’s theater which this United Labor Education committee is to launch this summer. The mem- bership card, providing for admission to three shows, indicates the com- pleteness of detail with which the plan is being worked out. The three per- formances in the Workmen’s theater, . by the Workmen’s Players, are to be given for $1.50. As the affair is co- operative, no war tax is to be paid. The Workmen’s Players are to be re- cruited from the great number of dramatic artists to be found at all times in New York, and are to be un- der the direction of one of the ablest stage directors in the country—an enthusiast for the cause. The art director of one of the big theatrical syndicates has undertaken to help. He is arranging that the members of the Workmen’s Players for the Workmen’s theater at a nomi- nal charge, by giving them regular commercial engagements for four or - five of the seven nights in each week. Until a theater building is constructed for the to,. Agricultural association” to the editor of the New ] Majority, official organ of the Chicago Labor party. | th D TR I S T workers themselves they will occupy a hired thea- . ter, with the usual divisions of the seating into " boxes, orchestra, balconies and gallery. But be- cause all the members pay the same price, and since E HAVE not investigated the program of the Nonpartisan league, but we should like to do so in the near future. The farmers of Illinois don’t want anything like that here.” This is the statement made of the newly organized “Illinois Mr. Thompson was interviewed as the result of e‘an announcement appearing in the Chicago Daily News, stating that the Illinois Agricultural asso- ciation was being started in Chicago to “battle r radical ideas that are trying to gain entrance in the ( Mississippi valley states.” ~Similar “agricultural 7 associations” also are“beiig organized in Iowa and ¢ Indiana. : ¢ The News said further that the association “will 1 ] i i i A A T DA L B G S AT e S i e Sk —From the Stars and Stripes. by D. O. Thompson, secretary 140 i, . —of the League of Nations This cartoon from the paper published by American soldiers in France shows plainly enough that they want a condition brought about that will not mean war and military service for their children. Truly the small boys of today are “the most interested members” in the league of nations plan. They are inter- ested in any plans for the future. Our fight today for industrial democracy, at home and throughout the world, may not reap full results for us, but it will for our children. urn and draw his ticket or the tickets for his group. Thus the member is as likely to get a seat in a box or in the orchestra as in the second balcony.” Ten thousand membership coupons will be sold at first, that being sufficient to fill the house for some 18 performances. The members are to have a Ignorant About the League, but “Agin” It fight the encroachments of the Nonpartisan league, which dominates North Dakota and is spreading out over the West, and which for two years has tried to organize the Illinois farmers, but with- ", TR %3t the League in the pguote the platform 2 87 . “The Illinois Agri- cultural association will not become a Nonpartisan league or be controlled by Bplsheviks. It will not run amuck at every opportunity nor start out gun- ning for other interests. It will be a sane, sensible, businesslike organization.”. . The editor called on D. O. Thompson, secretary of the association, at his new office at 1103 Com- monwealth Edison building, and found a conserva- tive, conciliatory, cagey gentleman, who apparently deprecated what he felt he had to say, but left no doubt of the attitude of his association toward the ‘“ultra-radicals” of the Nonpartisan league. PAGE TEN = THE MOST : INTERESTED MEMBERS— voice in determining the kind of plays to be pre- -sented by the stock company. Gradually they will influence the writing of new plays which will re- flect the spirit of the struggle of the producers and consumers against the exploiters of the wealth of the world. They are going to rid themselves of the present necessity of seeing only such plays as the “tired. business man” wants to have shown on the stage. . But the theater is only one item on the program. Already they are conducting four centers at which lectures on political science and current history : are given each week, and where many of the leading musical artists of America have given their services. The music is arranged by a commit- tee of which Josef Stransky, conduec- tor of the great Philharmonic orches- tra, is chairman. Moving pictures, chosen from the best scientific or historical films to be found in the metropolis, are another - feature o these programs. g ARTISTS TO SERVE THE PUBLIC The artists of color and line are of- fering their co-operation too. One of the first plans accepted by the com- mittee has been the making of first- class etchings, in considerable num- bers, and their distribution among the members of this organization at $2_ instead of at from $25 to $35, the usual price paid by the well-to-do. Good etchings for residences have al- ways been made in small quantity, be- cause the buyers have been few. Now come these wage-working people who want to develop their own love of beauty in their own homes, offering a market unknown. before in the world. Young artists are beginning to suspect that they need not forever depend upon Wall street art collectors for their livelihood. ; In short, the United Labor Educa- tion committee raises the question of the soundness of any of the old theories of social caste. If the or- ganized wage-workers demand a bet- ter theater, a better type of political science lecture, a better class of music, what becomes of the pretense of the Morgans to being “our best people”? And if the organized farmers develop - their chautauqua system along similar lines, what will be left, after a brief while, of the social nose-tilting of our banking and insurance circles? The government is not particularly alarmed by the discovery of this new situation. It’s the polit- ical gangsters who have pandered to the people with cheap and depraved entertainment who are~ worried. He thought the News “perhaps” overstated the case in saying his organization was going to fight the Nonpartisan league, which, he said, he did not know much about, and allowed that the League might not be “ultra-radical in North Dakota, but they would be in Illinois.” Then, he added, his association did not propose to let ultra-radicals run amuck in Illinois. Mr. Thompson said his association expected to conduct “some” co-operative enterprises, mostly in selling wool. But not-to any considerable extent. It is evident that there is no desire to interfere with “established business.” ' He added: “There are now about 400 cl-operative elevators in the state and they do not want state-owned ele- vators such as exist in North Dakota under new laws.” Sl Mr. Thompson then was asked whether the as- (Continued on page 21) .