The Press: Newshawks’ Guild

Fat, romantic Colyumist Heywood Broun of the New York World-Telegram likes to back lost causes, pat underdogs. Some two months ago he hatched a plan which looked like a sure loser—the forming of a New York newspapermen’s guild. He well knew the standard arguments against it. Out of many similar attempts in the past, only those in Milwaukee and Scranton, Pa. had effectively survived. Publishers were hostile. Newsmen, especially in New York, were too proud, too individualistic, too footloose to sign lodge cards. But that was just the kind of set-up that Colyumist Broun likes. He began talking up the idea to his friends, holding meetings in his Manhattan penthouse. Last week in Manhattan a full-blown Newspaper Guild of New York* adopted a constitution. It had the signed support of 500 working newspaper men & women in the city, was going hard after membership. Any editorial worker (including photographers, librarians, cubs) on a daily newspaper or recognized press association may join. The Guild is corresponding with similar groups in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Duluth, St. Paul, El Paso, Dallas, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Boston, Chicago and Honolulu, looks forward to a national organization. Newspapermen do not expect it to affiliate with the American Federation of Labor. Purpose of the Guild is “to improve the conditions under which newspaper men and women work; to protect their rights of collective action; to raise the standards of journalism, and for mutual help.” Its immediate aim is to wedge four points into the NRA newspaper publishers’ code: 1) minimum wage; 2) 40-hr., 5-day week; 3) dismissal notice; 4) standard NRA provision for collective bargaining, which publishers want to “interpret.”

* No. 285 Madison Ave.