The gesture harked back to 19th century wrecking of machines by Luddites. In the composing room of the New York Daily News one morning last week, Bertram A. Powers, president of Typographical Union No. 6, seized a thin magnesium plate and ceremoniously crumpled it. The plate was the first to bear the imprint of type set on Daily News automated equipment—photo-composing machines that translate strips of perforated tape (produced by special typewriters) into film negatives of newspaper pages. For his symbolic and melodramatic act, Powers was arrested and then quickly released on his own recognizance. The stage was set for...
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