Music: Strike Spreads

The dissatisfied Chicago theatre musicians who are clamoring for bigger money (TIME, Aug. 25), threatening to walk out on Labor Day, are rapidly infecting their brethren all over the country with the spirit of revolt. The insurrection has spread from Chicago to St. Louis, Cincinnati, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Syracuse, Boston, within a week’s time. Requests for a 10% increase in material appreciation have swelled to demands for as much as 50% additional salary. The original band of 700 strikers has grown to a body of 4,000 or 5,000 unwilling performers. Theatre owners stand by their original compromise-offer of a 5% increase in salaries, which would bring them up to from $60 to $90 per week. If the deadlock continues, Sept. 1st will find our eastern playhouses deprived of the dulcet rustle of violins as the lovers dally in the garden, and of the eerie wail of the clarinet as the butler hides the revolver in the sideboard.