"MUST JOIN UNION"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 107, 2 November 1938, Page 9

"MUST JOIN UNION"

FAMOUS VIOLINIST

(Received November 2, '9 a.m.)

NEW YORK, November 1

The governors of the Musicians' Union ruled that Yehudi Menuhin, the famous violinist, must become a member of the union before playing at a symphony concert. They issued a statement listing many prominent members and commenting that these artists "do not feel that membership degrades their art or limits their freedom of expression. We are afraid that Menuhin was influenced by bad advice. We cannot make an exception, because we must protect his less fortunate fellow artists who need the organisation." It is rumoured that Menuhin may reconsider his decision. A Los Angeles message on October 28 stated that, declaring that the rights of the individual in a democratic country were involved, Menuhin refused to join the American Guild of Musical Artists in order to play at a symphony concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. "I consider. this sort of thing is degrading," he said. "It is as if you should demand husbands and wives to have union cards and regulations governing their hours together, or as if Christ and His Apostles had submitted to union regulations."