WGBH Journal; Blue Laws, Boston Bail Fund, W.P.A. Writers, Louis Lyons

Good afternoon and welcome this GBH Journal and I'm Marcia her. Today Show will consist of four featured reaction to the temporary Massachusetts repeal of the blue laws will be discussed. We'll hear about a Boston ballot fund designed to help people meet their bail payments. Following that will be a look at WPA Writers and to close Louis Lyons comments on the needs. Our first feature focuses on the blue laws. If you're a Massachusetts resident you are undoubtedly aware of the fact that you are unable to shop on Sundays. The blue laws forcing Sunday closing were temporarily repealed the four Sundays preceding Christmas. Now that the heavy shopping season is over the

reactions of merchants retailers and store clerks can be assessed. Mike Marshall has this report. One of last year's most controversial legislative issues involved the Massachusetts blue laws. These laws prohibit retail stores from operating on Sundays. In October compromise legislation was passed that allowed stores to remain open on the four Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. With the end of the holiday shopping season merchants workers and consumers are reassessing the merits and disadvantages of Sunday openings. They're also weighing the success of the four week experiment. Bay State merchants have mixed feelings about how the four openings went. Small retailers generally felt that the consumer response was somewhat inconsistent in the first two weeks were really really slow. Virtually had no people in the story and in the second two weeks we well know it was really one Sunday out of the four we were it was really in here

and really crowded the first two Sundays before Christmas were pretty slow going for Sunday after Thanksgiving the following The last two were really busy very busy and indeed would you say that you did your business and some of the other missions in the area did choose to step in. From the shocking reports that I got yes we were we were much busier than any of the other stores of this type. With larger retailers had somewhat more positive sentiments about the openings department stores and retail chains reported a brisk business throughout the entire four weeks. Most felt the consumer response was generally enthusiastic such a view was expressed by Hershel Denker an executive with the Boston area as air corp. The results of the four Sunday opening were very gratifying. They certainly provided convincing additional convincing proof of any were needed that consumers do indeed want to have the opportunity to shop on Sundays.

The stores were all extremely busy building up to a high spot I would say on the third Sunday. And we had enthusiastic crowds do a lot of shopping. Business volume was only one issue of concern during the 4 Sunday openings. Another was the effect of Sunday hours upon workers. The legislation allowing the opening stated that employees could not be required to work Sundays. Those who chose to do so were to be paid time and a half. Retailers claim these measures kept workers from being pressured in the Sunday hours and those that did work received adequate compensation. But these contentions are refuted by the employees unions. They are opposed to Sunday openings because they may lead to a seven day workweek. The unions claim that experiences in states with Sunday hours support this fear. Irving J-Rich president of the New England joint board of the retail wholesale in the partment store Union cites an example of course on the

right. It is voluntary however. From past practice we have for example Washington's birthday at one time it was a paid legal holiday. This client in New York opened up on Washington's birthday it was given television sets away for 25 hours and it would also add to inducements to bring the public again. And what happened is a vengefully washes birth it was no longer a paid legal holiday at least feel that the same thing is true of certain openings in that you have said the openings are limited. Well right now it's on a voluntary basis. They're paid either for I don't want Turkey in their Sunday openings or continue we feel that there would be attempts on the part of the edge a bit of a Sunday as part of the regular work week at straight pay and compulsory work. Management executives generally discount the union's fears. They cite the law as

having protected workers from coercion in his Sunday hours. Some such as Herschel banker of Zare feel the union's fears are arbitrarily based. We don't have any reason to think that a justified complaint. We treat them as voluntary in almost two words. I don't know what stores they're talking about what it is that they're complaining about. The comment was completely new to us when we saw the newspaper. It's always been a policy of ours to pay time and a half on Sunday irrespective of whether an employee has worked 40 hours or not. Those most directly affected by the dispute over Sunday work hours are the employees themselves. Most workers enjoy the extra income and agreed that the Sunday openings were a convenience to the consumer. Yet many complained about the loss of a free day. What would you like to see happen in the future. Would you like to see more Sunday openings. I really I thought on that point I'm not too sure. We were working at that point

six days a week when they open Sundays we're working seven days a week so by the end of the month I was pretty hairy I was ragged as well as the rest of my guys and unless a better system could be worked up within our own company as far as time off I would not like to see Sunday openings. Do you feel your employees would have had any reservations about working on Sundays. I was sure they would including me. I said I really objected. I felt that for that one Sunday it was fine for people coming in and it was. I know that a lot of people working really had trouble getting in and we made a lot of money that Sunday that was really nice but it was the Christmas season was very difficult as it was all of us that worked here were really ragged. The debate over Sunday openings in Massachusetts is sure to continue. Most retailers and shoppers favor the extra business hours yet store employees and their unions do not want an extra workday. These conflicting interest will surely maintain the controversy over the blue laws in the coming legislative session for GBH

Journal. This is Mike Marshall. What happens if you are arrested in your high that you can't manage to pay it. You can go to a bondsman who will pay or return for a fee. Or you can go to jail and stay there until the day of your trial. Another recourse which exists in the Boston area is a $30000 for the Boston bail project originally founded in the 1960s as a Permanent Fund to Bell arrested anti-war and black liberation activists out of jail. The bell Project Services anyone who does not exceed twenty five hundred dollars. The fund is administered by a collective of women who spend part of their time visiting women and men in jails around the state. And part of that time raising the public's consciousness on the

problems of being poor and arrested. Of course the Squire and Priscilla Howell are members of the Boston Bell project collective. They spoke with reporter Amy sands the biggest question I have is why you sort of the beltline in the first place because certainly if someone doesn't have the money for building go to a bondsman and pay a certain amount of money and get their bail money well I guess there are several different than the things you know respond to that. First of all the bondsman can pick and choose who they are. And we've seen cases where bondsman has refused to bail people out. I remember one case of someone we bailed out where everybody's mentality refused to bail him out because a person was a Puerto Rican and they and they had a policy not to be all Puerto Ricans because they felt that people from Puerto Rico would take off and go back to Puerto Rico. And so no bonds and would touch it. And so if you have the fossil record if you've ever gotten in bed with a bondsman. If one buys one can refuse just because he doesn't want to. To bail you out if one finds one refuses to bail you out. It wasn't a pretty close we've seen other cases of this too where one bondsman won't

touch a case then the other bondsman say well if he won't then I'm not going to. Secondly the bondsman are in business to make money and so when people pay a bondsman they never get their money back whether or not they show up for court whether or not they're quit and they've lost that money. Thirdly a lot of times the bills are so hard that people aren't able to pay what a bondsman would charge which is 10 percent of the bill at the most. So one has a $5000 bail which isn't considered a high bail in Boston $500 is really beyond what a lot of people have. Their statistics show like 55 percent of the people in jail make made it have a rest less than $3000 a year income and sell who has 250 just sitting around waiting to be used. And so even when the bills aren't really hard people don't have the money and the bondsman isn't any help at all. OK now one thing that you mention in this leaflet that you've put out about the bail fund is that people who can't make

bail make their bail and therefore put in jail stand a greater chance of conviction at their trials because they've been in jail and I didn't really understand what that statement meant so could you explain it. The Manhattan Legal Aid Society did an interesting study several years ago in regard to your question and what they found was that people that stayed in jail up until their trial were found guilty twice as many times as those people who had very similar similar situations who were out free before their trial. And also they found that these people who were forced to stay in jail because they couldn't pay bail were were sentenced eight times as many times as those who were free. So it's been proven that people who.

Have to stay in jail all the way up until their trial risk a much greater chance of being found guilty and a much much greater chance of being sentenced in the end. Yeah and I guess I thought that probably the next question I'm going to ask was why. OK and there are several different factors involved. One is that if someone is in jail instead of out of jail it's harder for them to prepare a case to locate witnesses. Lots of times you will see television shows and you see one called the Public Defender where these lawyers were were private investigators and you know everything all rolled into one ran around got witnesses you know prove the case and everything. In actuality the way the city courts work you have to find your own witnesses. Bring him in. Introduce him to your lawyer explain to your lawyer what is your witnesses are going to testify to. You know your lawyer doesn't have time because of his caseload to do all of that. So if you're in jail you have no way of getting in touch with witnesses. There are all kinds of other things like making restitution in cases keeping your job so that you look

better when you appear in court all those things that would go for you if you were out that fall apart when you were in jail. And secondly when you're in jail the pressure to plea bargain that is to plead guilty whether you're guilty or not just to get the jail sentence. You know the jail time over with is really Greg. And one thing is that jails where people are held before trial is so much worse in conditions than most prisons where people would be sent after they were convicted that the pressure to get your jail waiting time over with at least know what your sentence is going to be is hard. Whereas if someone's out they don't have as much incentive to plea bargain to the first till it's offered. And even if they're going to plea bargain in the end they're more likely to hold out for a better deal. So the plea bargaining thing is really strong. The other thing is that when you're in jail and you go to court in custody the prejudice against you is really high and you look like a prisoner because you are you know you look more demoralized because you probably are. And you look more dangerous in some way to the

judge or to the jury. And so those kinds of things really go against people. Economic period such as the one we are now in many time trying to survive. So it's only natural that federally funded projects such as those administered in the 1980s under the Works Progress Administration are looked to as possible precedent setters. Interest in the considerably. Many of the artists funded under that project are quite well known. What is not as well known is the fact that many writers which were also sponsored

by the federal government. And banks of Boston College is currently taking inventory and editing works produced under the Federal Writers Project. She spoke recently with Vivienne to Kat. The most important thing to remember about the writer's project is that it really was work relief and that you didn't necessarily have to be a writer to get on it you had to be literate and you had to be able to qualify for relief. And so it was kind of a make work project in that sense. I think the kinds of work that they did the kinds of interviewing that they chose to do reflected First of all to some degree I would say the Popular Front sensibility of the time which had to do with the kind of glorification of ordinary working people rather than looking at say community leaders or what have you. The other thing is that there was part of the Writers Project called social ethnic studies unit and this unit interviewed

people from various ethnic groups. And I understand from correspondents that I've seen about it that one idea that they had was that this was in the late 30s remember. By increasing the tolerance for ethnic diversity which they thought would result from these studies and interviews they were doing it might be one way to help present their or prevent the rise of fascism in Europe which they were very aware of at the time. So this was sort of using the writers and using the arts to help the government's political purposes. Yeah I guess so. I mean the first and the most important thing about it was it was like they wanted to keep the writers busy and unlike the artists they did not for the most part they did not let the writers just go home and be writers and do their own creative work. There were some such as Richard Wright who did do that but they had to find projects for them and the first projects were the guidebooks and I think that during this time during the late 30s there was sort of a New Nationalism in America and American intellectuals were turning away from

European models and so it fit into that to look at this country and the guidebooks. The reason that they're the best known product of the Writers Project is because they were published the interview material which is what I'm working on was never published because it was collected toward the end of the project and the work came along and everything just kind of stopped. I don't think the directives were quite so centralized that it would really be accurate to say that the government was turning the writers to their political purposes. I wouldn't say that there was any central directive to use the writers for one political purpose or another. The writers that you interviewed did they feel this was an important time in their lives it was just like passing the time and better than starving. Well I found both things I've gone back and interviewed as many people who were on the Writers Project as I could find and. I feel fine by and large that the writers do not look upon the experience with with his much fun as the people who are on the WPA arts project. And I think that

probably the major reason for that is that the artists were allowed to do their own creative work they would come in once a month or whatever with an easel painting and although they were interfered with in certain ways you know Nevertheless they went on being artists whereas the writers were turned put to doing craft writing to doing the writing for the guidebooks and to doing these interviews and with a few exceptions as I said were not allowed to do their own work although I have some people for example Richard Wright has as has said that the project was very important for him in that it gave him support and just self-identification as a writer. And I think that this is especially true for the black writers on the project that it was what was important to them. Of course they're all glad that they had a roof over their heads and some small amount of money but I don't think there's overwhelming gratitude particularly did it create writers are there

specific writers you can think of who were not writers before and but were literate got this job and then went on. Oh sure yeah I think so. Theoretically get together on the project you were supposed to have written something about that was pretty loosely defined and there were people that you know were just barely writers or who may never even have earned a living as a writer. And I think that probably Well Ralph Ellison had done some writing for the project but basically he had been a musician and he feels that probably being on the project was was something that set him on a path of writing. What's happened to all the material. And why is it only being recognized now. What happened was the project's shut down at the end of the war to be at the beginning of the war rather and the Writers Project just closed down in general disarray and not much attention was paid to doing a

survey of where the material was and so forth originally as it was being collected. It was intended to be published but that never happened and it just kind of since then has been just smouldering away. The Library of Congress for quite a long time had its portion of the material or at least some of it in a warehouse in Mill River Maryland that the public didn't have access to. I think now there is just increasing interest in all the New Deal arts projects. There's a research program of that research program in the Federal Theatre Project now at George Mason University. There have been several exhibits in New York and New England on the New Deal arts project and particularly it's interesting but other countries seem to have much greater interest in this particular the writers project than in this country because German television has just finished making a four part series on the arts projects including the writers the music

their project and the BBC is done a program on the Writers Project on the art project. But I think one of the reasons that there's reawakened interest now is first of all because people are starting to seriously Rexan in the question of the relationship between the government and the arts. And second of all because there's been a depression you know latter day depression and so there's more there's talk about another WPA Writers Project or arts project. Look at the news in which the focus is on the Government's announced plan to give Boston 10 million dollars for a test program a variation on last throes proposal to

attack teenage unemployment through a wage subsidy reported here Monday is a government plan announced today that grants 10 millions to Boston one of six cities selected for a test program. This will fund part time jobs for 16 to 19 year old youth called disadvantaged who agreed to stay in school or if they've dropped out to return. Some 5000 such jobs have reportedly been lined up in private employment or city agencies under the Boston plan that will apply the program to four city areas of high unemployment Blue Hill Avenue Hyde Park Columbia Point and the waterfront where seventy five hundred youth have been found eligible. The government will fund this program in Boston for nine months. It will run for 18 months. In other selected cities that are Cincinnati Denver and Seattle. But Boston is dividing the funding with Detroit These

two cities time I didn't selection among scores that applied for the federal subsidies teenage unemployment is reported nationally at 17 percent in Boston 15 percent and among teenage blacks 25 percent. The aim of the program is to direct the youth to careers by enrolling them in jobs that offer a future this while they finish their basic education. A test will be the extent to which private employment can provide the jobs instead of depending on stop gap public service work. Common is pressure on the minority government and let our State Department call home our ambassadors to discuss what St.. Now calls a crisis. The Communist Party has for years filled a void of political power and Italy's municipal governments. When the last national election failed to produce a majority the communists agreed to support the Christian Democratic minority government in its efforts

economic recovery. But these are failed and the communists have been under pressure from their own rank and file to demand a role in the national government. On December 3rd a prime minister and reality rejected this. Violence has intensified with communist youth battling neo-Fascist in the streets of Rome. The administration in Washington now states that President Carter's Jan. 4 speech in Paris that resent taken as a warning about the French Communist Party was aimed more at Italy. He said it's precisely when democracy is up against difficult challenges that its leaders must show firmness in resisting the temptation of finding solutions you know on democratic forces. Prime Minister and Riyadh is reported considering calling a special election on the issue. A bright but brief chapter of journalistic history comes to its former close with the announcement by gotten a call who is now 75 of the dissolution of Cole's

publications that published the picture magazine the call's brothers Gardner And John the publishers of The Des Moines Register founded by their father and the Minneapolis Tribune. In 1937 they found a look in a move to share in the instant popularity of a new form of picture magazine pioneered there before in life a scion of Henry Luce's Time magazine. His time was itself a sensational innovation in the 1920s. So was life with its live news pictures in 1936 like Time Life quickly had imitators but only looks shared substantially in the immensely successful new field. But it was in one generation story as looks. Start followed life by a year. So did looks closing in 1071 follow a life falling in 1969. It's hard to realize in so short time ago news pictures made so scant a part of daily newspapers and almost no part in magazines. The day of the artist

sketched the crayon drawing had hardly closed as the characteristic news illustration. What I believe was the first news photograph to accompany the report of a presidential inauguration in a Boston newspaper was in 1924 Calvin Coolidge first Masters president in 100 years was the inspiration for The Boston Globe's burst of enterprise to get an inaugural follow into the next morning's paper. Till then the inaugural had been depicted by a drawing along with a photograph of the president but a Globe photographer was assigned to go with me to Washington to cover the Coolidge inaugural. He had specifically time directions for his pictures would have a nine hour train ride to Boston and the Congress didn't come in for the event till noon. But of course there were preliminaries to photograph the ride to the Capitol the assembly of notables on the portico. The first available pictures were rushed to a well tipped train man who handed them to a messenger waiting at the South Station to rush them when they go back home. It was a cliche then that a picture was worth a thousand

words. Timing was of the essence of life and luck developed techniques to publish live news pictures over the weekend to become predatory competitors of the daily paper. But this soon changed facsimile transmission released a newspaper from dependence on trains or even the later planes. As fast as the news wires. But what shortened the day of the picture magazine was television. It could be instantaneously even before the morning newspaper the picture lost its priority of advertising appeal for two years after life. But in 1970 communications closed it and sold its other operation to the New York Times and exchanged for a quarter of the stock for the Times which got Nichol's is now distributing. Thing.

Good thing.