During the big Depression of the 1930s, Cleveland Press reporters took one 15% pay slash, then two more of 10% each. The National Recovery Administration limited the work week to 40 hours, but newsmen were left out. Instead, reporters got a 16-point "firing code" that let its authors, the American Newspaper Publishers Association, fire a man for swearing or wasting copy paper. A survey by the infant American Newspaper Guild revealed that a reporter with 20 years' experience was paid an average $38 a week, about half what the unionized printers got, and...
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