No Offense

The employee agrees . . . that he will not do or commit any act or thing that will tend to degrade him in society or bring him into public hatred, contempt, scorn or ridicule, or that will tend to shock, insult or offend the community . . . or prejudice the producer or the motion picture, theatrical or radio industry in general.

--Standard Hollywood "Morals Clause"

One of the ten writers, producers and directors dredged up last year by the congressional investigation of Communism in Hollywood was 44-year-old Screenwriter Lester Cole, a balding little man who earned up to $1,350 a week turning out such epics as The Romance of Rosy Ridge and Fiesta for MGM. Like the others, he had refused to say whether or not he was then or ever had been a member of the Communist Party. After he was cited for contempt of Congress, M-G-M suspended him from his job, giving as its reason the charge that he had violated the "morals clause" in his contract of employment. Cole, and four of his colleagues, struck back, filed suits for reinstatement and back pay.

Obviously the real question was the right of an employer to kick out anyone who is a Communist, acts like one, or refuses to say whether he is or isn't one. But when Cole's suit came before a federal jury in Los Angeles last month, the trial turned into nothing more than a legal test of MGM's morals clause. Judge Leon R. Yankwich, charged MGM, had made a cocktail-party observation that all of the accused should be rehired. Judge Yankwich denied it, refused to disqualify himself. In the trial he made it clear that, so far as he was concerned, Communism was not an issue in the case at all.

He instructed the jury to consider only four questions. Did Cole's defiance of Congress bring him into "public hatred"? Did he "offend" the public? Did he "prejudice" his employers? Did M-G-M forfeit the right to break his contract because it waited a full month to fire him? Said Yankwich: "If the studio knew, when Cole came back from Washington, what his conduct had been there and nevertheless continued to reimburse him, then I instruct you that M-G-M then waived its right to take action against him."

After only four hours of deliberation the jury brought out its answers: no to the first three questions, yes to the last. Judge Yankwich ordered M-G-M to put Cole back on its payroll and fork over $74,250 in back salary. M-G-M lawyers, who argued that the judge's instructions amounted to a directed verdict for Writer Cole, got ready to take the case to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

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