The Press: Publishers’ Code (Cont’d)

Last week in Washington the American Newspaper Publishers’ Association and the Blue Eagle came to final terms. A. N. P. A.’s President Howard Davis, anxious to end four weeks of wrangling, submitted a “temporary” code by which publishers could officially receive their eagles, got it approved by Administrator Johnson pending a hearing. It stipulated that publishers would not be bound by any requirements which might impair the Freedom of the Press, thus quieting a controversy raised by newspapermen who feared the licensing powers of NRA. It included (but left for future discussion) settlement of a second controversial point: that publishers and employes had the right to bargain together without interference by a third party. In addition the code:

1) Barred the labor of children under 16 except if they are able to deliver newspapers without impairment of health and if their work does not interfere with school hours. Children between 14 and 16 were not to work more than three hours a day (between 7 a. m. and 7 p. m.), could not be hired in manufacturing or mechanical departments. 2) Provided for a 40-hr. week and minimum pay of $12 in towns of less than 2,500 and $15 in cities of over 500,000, for all accountants, clerks, salesmen (except outside salesmen, drivers and circulation men) and for all reporters earning less than $35 a week. Reporters earning more were classed as “professionals,” were not made subject to the provisions. 3) Fixed a 40-hr. week and a minimum hourly pay of 40¢ for all mechanical workers. 4) Guaranteed to employes the right of collective bargaining; guaranteed that no employe be required to join or refrain from joining any organization, as a condition of employment. Meanwhile staff writers of eight Philadelphia and Camden newspapers, not at all pleased with being classed as “professionals,” drew up a list of objections, appointed Andrew McClean Parker, star reporter for David Stern’s Philadelphia Record, to present their demands in Washington. They wanted the code to fix a 40-hr. week (as Scripps-Howard and Hearst voluntarily did fortnight ago) consisting of five 8-hour days, with no deduction in pay, and to guarantee that publishers would not seek to reduce wages by paying their reporters on a space-rate basis. Last week in Cleveland one hundred men & women staff writers of the Plain Dealer, News and Press formed an Editorial Employes Association, voted to send a representative to the final code hearings in Washington. Their complaint: “Between exorbitant tolls of syndicates and press services and the unionized requirements of the mechanical trades, newspaper editorial employes have been the most notoriously exploited of all producer groups. The outworn creed of rugged individualism has been enough. The sorry story is that this creed has meant for them a drugged individualism.”