Automatic Age

16
AUTOMATIC AGE
tage of— there is no question about it. No con­
scientious showman would have made the ex­
cessive charge to the supply concerns that was
done at the last show. It does seem that every­
thing in connection with the coin machine busi­
ness has got to be a racket. Many outside con­
cerns who never dealt with us before but who
began to take cognizance of the growth and
extent of the business got bad impressions
through such practices.
There was the high-handed way that the
gate was managed that offended large numbers
of visitors from out of the city. In our booth at
the entrance we saw continual quarreling with
the operator who wanted to take his wife in
and had to go back to get a badge or register
her, and all that. Foolish rules that an ex­
perienced showman could see would antagonize
a large element of visitors were put into effect
by someone on the committee who got the swell
head. The whole thing created an atmosphere
of resentment. Visitors from outside the city
who should have been made to feel at home
were highly incensed. There was anything but
a spirit of friendliness, anything but an atmos­
phere of good-will. Finally this smoldering dis­
content broke out in powerful protest. Such a
large element of dissatisfaction could not have
come from nothing. There must have been some
fire where there was so much smoke. Then
when the old group got together to revive its
organization, instead of hearing the protests
with open minds and doing something to correct
the dissatisfaction, NACOMM requested them to
put their grievances in writing. That naturally
was an insult and very undiplomatic, to say the
least. No business man carrying with him the
assumed dignity of success in his business is go­
ing to be told to put his protest in writing. He
is entitled to the courtesies that are due him as
a leader in the industry.
A u t o m a t ic A ge printed some of these facts
which you all read. In our articles there was no
reflection on anybody in particular and no busi­
ness man worthy of the name would have taken
any exception to the unbiased report of condi­
tions as they prevailed. We heard, however,
that Mr. Seeburg, the convention committee
chairman of the NACOMM called up all the
manufacturers in his group and tried to get
them to boycott the A u t o m a t ic A ge just be­
cause we printed what you boys read in the
March ’38 number. Turn back to this March
number and see if there is any cause for an il­
legal, unlawful boycott against this magazine
for printing the plain, unvarnished truth. It has
been a long time since we heard of some small-
© International Arcade Museum
June, 1938
minded person who wanted to boycott a news­
paper or magazine just because it printed some
piece of news that they did not agree with.
Probably Mr. Seeburg is mad at all the daily
newspapers in Chicago because they printed the
story of that mixup he got in with those women
awhile back. Probably he got up a boycott
against them. At any rate, as long as our con­
stitutional prerogative of free speech gives us
the right, we are going to print the news of the
industry. We are thankful that we are able to
print this magazine regardless of whether or
not we have a single dollar of advertising reve­
nue. If cheap boycotts could stop the free
speech of the press in this country, we would
have been living under a dictatorship a long
time ago. Fortunately there was no boycott on
the part of the manufacturers— with the excep­
tion of Seeburg himself, who according to the
statistics of music machine manufacturers is the
very last on the list in point of production— no
doubt due to the fact that he doesn’t use the
A u t o m a t ic A ge as an advertising medium. It
is a recognized fact that those who use the big­
gest amount of space in the A u t o m a t ic A ge
are largest in point of production.
To go on with the story— the two organiza­
tions proceeded to plan two different shows and
have since cluttered up the industry with so
much bally and propaganda back and forth
that many of those even here in Chicago are
confused. Outside manufacturers are all up in
the air and very much disgusted. It is high
time that the facts back of all this be given out
in an impartial manner so that the outside vis­
itors who are expected to make the show a suc­
cess can know what it is all about. It is a
reflection on the city of Chicago and its coin
machine manufacturers that this situation is
permitted to exist. If we are not big minded
enough to get together it is going to hurt every
manufacturer here. W hat if the operators de­
cide not to come to either show? They are not
going to both. In the final analysis, it will be
the operators and the big buyers who are going
to force an end to the foolishness and an amal­
gamation of the best of both groups toward a
big, successful show.
Charges and counter-charges fly back and
forth and we are going to print here the argu­
ments of both sides so that the outside people
can use their influence in forcing the unification
of these groups.
In order that the reader may understand, we
will designate the group that has been running
the convention since 1934 as the NACOMM
which is not retaining Joe Huber as manager.
http://www.arcade-museum.com/