[From the Madison State Journal.]
It isn't "B. L. T." and "F. P. A." that makes the respective columns of
these most celebrated of the "conductors" great. It is their daily mail.
It comes to them in great bags. They open enough letters to fill that
day's column, and consign thousands, unopened, to the waste basket.
There is a fortune to some newspaper syndicate in the unopened mail of
"B.L.T." and "F.P.A."
* * *
A limousine delegate from the Federated Order of Line Scribes has waited
on us to present the demands of the organization, among which are
(1) recognition of the union; (2) appointing a time and place for
meeting with a business committee to determine on a system of collective
bargaining for Line material; (3) allowing the Order to have a voice in
the management of the column. A prompt compliance with the demands of
the Order failing, a strike vote will be ordered.
We have never limited the output of a contributor; the union will. No
matter how excellent the idea, no matter how inspired the contrib may
be to amplify it, he will not be permitted to do more than a certain
amount of work per day. However brilliant he may be, he will be held
down to the level of the most pedestrian performer. In unionizing,
moreover, he will be only exchanging one tyrant for another, and perhaps
not so benevolent a one. Now, then, go to it, as the emperor said to the
gladiators.
* * *