SAVE THE SYMPHONY

Last Saturday's walkout of thirty-seven players of the Boston Symphony marks the climax of dissatisfaction over conditions in the organization, conditions for which the Boston musical public must bear the brunt of moral responsibility. Many of the best musicians in the Boston Orchestra have withdrawn during the last few years to go into other orchestras where the pay made it possible for them more easily to keep soul and body together. And those who did not go have apparently stood it as long as they can.

The conditions which have caused Boston to be without a full Symphony are quite obvious. Every other prominent orchestra in the country has allowed its members to unionize. In New York the Philharmonic pays its violinists a minimum wage of seventy-five dollars a week; in Detroit but few symphony players receive as little as forty-five, while in Boston many are paid thirty-five dollars. As the men are prevented from unionizing their time is virtually at the mercy of the conductor and the trustees. Overtime pay, for extra work with the orchestra, earned by the more highly salaried musicians in other cities, is unknown here.

The members of the Boston Symphony have no time they can depend upon to earn money through lessons or outside work, and thus to fatten their meagre incomes. Under these conditions their demand for a union is no more than a demand for justice.

A few years ago the Boston Symphony Orchestra was generally conceded to be the best in the country. Now, no one would make such a claim for it. If Boston is to retain a place on the musical map of the United States it must strengthen its orchestra.

More money is needed to support the Symphony. With the passing of Major Higginson, no one has been left responsible for its financial deficiencies. There is but one way to meet the situation. A drive must be started among the music lovers of Boston, to establish an Endowment Fund with which to provide decent living conditions for the members of the Orchestra, and to meet the annual deficit.