Music: Weber v. Robots

Advertisements which knock instead of boosting have become rare in the U. S. But last week appeared, in some 600 newspapers throughout the U. S., a caricatured robot brutally plucking a harp over which hung a weeping muse (presumably Euterpe) and beside which sat a howling hound. The caption was: “The robot as an entertainer—Is the substitution for real music a success?” The advertising “story” appended was the American Federation of Musicians’ complaint against substituting mechanically synchronized music for orchestras in theatres.

It is well known that many musicians in the U. S. are out of work because of the new sound films (TIME, May 27, Aug. 19). Interviewed last week, Joseph Nicholas Weber, the Federation’s president, estimated the jobless at 10,000. His Federation will spend as much as $500,000 to warn the public that Culture, as well as the livelihood of musicians, is threatened. He insisted: “We are not trying to hinder the development of any industry.”