Since January 30 a stuffy room on the mezzanine floor of Manhattan's Times Square Hotel has been the scene of an inquiry into the domestic relations of one of the most respected members of the U. S. press. The defendant: the New York Times. Its accuser: the American Newspaper Guild. The judge: Trial Examiner Tilford E. Dudley, who will give his findings to the National Labor Relations Board, which will eventually hand down a decision. The charge: violation of the Wagner Act by intimidating and discriminating against Guild members.
The Guild has tried to prove that three Times employes were fired for union activity and should be reinstated. The Times has tried to prove that they were fired for incompetence and should stay fired. But of far more importance than what happens to the three employes is the fundamental conflict between Guild and Times, where the Guild has never felt strong enough to strike.
The Guild has tried for five years to organize the Times, but the Times has so far refused to consider any contract that does not contain an open-shop clause. The Guild is forbidden by its constitution to accept the open-shop principle, although in contracts with other publishers it has frequently agreed to open-shop conditions by omitting any mention of a "Guild shop" (a modified closed shop). By bringing the home life of the Times into the open the Guild hopes to make it easier for Timesmen to join up, eventually to get a contract.
Most sensational piece of evidence unearthed by the Guild was a memorandum from Managing Editor Edwin L. James to Publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger, found on the desk of Times Auditor Harry Weinstock. The memorandum referred to a Communist leaflet circulated through the Times. It said: "The spies report that some of the auditing people are back of this. Maybe it will amuse Mr. Weinstock to try to find out who."
Last week the Times's, lawyers put the men who run the paper on the stand. Managing Editor James testified that the memorandum was "a joke" and the word "spies" referred only to "voluntary informants." Colonel Julius Ochs Adler, general manager of the Times, said that the paper had once had an espionage system but has eliminated it. Publisher Sulzberger admitted the Times had kept close watch on some of its employes, defended the practice as an effort "to avoid raising issues with the Guild." While he was on the stand Publisher Sulzberger took the opportunity of declaring himself on the fundamental conflict between the Times and the Guild.
"[I said] if we were ever obliged to write a closed shop contract . . . that the New York Times would be for sale, because I did not believe it would be possible to get out an honest newspaper under these conditions, and that I did not want to be associated with any other kind."