Magic, Inc

Nearly as many hands went up as before.

That's the point of the whole matter. We've got to have magic to stay in business. If anyone gets a strangle hold on magic in this community, we are all at his mercy. We would have to pay any prices that are handed us, charge the prices we are told to, and take what profits we are allowed to - or go out of business!'

The chairman interrupted him. Just a minute, Joe. Granting that what you say is true - it is, of course - do you have any reason to feel that we are confronted with any particular emergency in the matter?'

Yes, I do have.' Joe's voice was low and very serious. Little reasons, most of them, but they add up to convince me that someone is engaged in a conspiracy in restraint of trade.' Jedson ran rapidly over the history of Ditworth's attempt to organize magicians and their clients into an association, presumably to raise the standards of the profession, and how alongside the nonprofit association had suddenly appeared a capital corporation which was already in a fair way to becoming a monopoly.

Wait a second, Joe,' put in Ed Parmelee, who has a produce jobbing business. I think that association is a fine idea. I was threatened by some rat who tried to intimidate me into letting him pick my magicians. I took it up with the association, and they took care of it; I didn't have any more trouble. I think an organization which can clamp down on racketeers is a pretty fine thing.'

You had to sign with the association to get their help, didn't you?'

Why, yes, but that's entirely reasonable-'

Isn't it possible that your gangster got what he wanted when you signed up?'

Why, that seems pretty farfetched.'

I don't say,' persisted Joe, that is the explanation, but it is a distinct possibility. It would not be the first time that monopolists used goon squads with their left hands to get by coercion what their right hands could not touch. I wonder whether any of the rest of you have had similar experiences?'

It developed that several of them had. I could see them beginning to think.

One of the lawyers present formally asked a question through the chairman. Mr Chairman, passing for the moment from the association to Magic, Incorporated, is this corporation anything more than a union of magicians? If so, have they a legal right to organize?'

Norman turned to Jedson. Will you answer that, Joe?'

Certainly. It is not a union at all. It is a parallel to a situation in which all the carpenters in town are employees of one contractor; you deal with that contractor or you don't build.'

Then it's a simple case of monopoly - if it is a monopoly. This state has a Little Sherman Act; you can prosecute.~

I think you will find that it is a monopoly. Have any of you noticed that there are no magicians present at today's meet? We all looked around. It was perfectly true. I think you can expect,' he added, to find magicians represented hereafter in this chamber by some executive of Magic, Incorporated. With respect to the possibility of prosecution' - he hauled a folded newspaper out of his hip pocket - have any of you paid any attention to the governor's call for a special session of the legislature?'

Al Donahue remarked superciliously that he was too busy making a living to waste any time on the political game. It was a deliberate dig at Joe, for everybody knew that he was a committee-man, and spent quite a lot of time on civic affairs. The dig must have gotten under Joe's skin, for he said pityingly, Al, it's a damn good thing for you that some of us are willing to spend a little time on government, or you would wake up some morning to find they had stolen the sidewalks in front of your house.'

The chairman rapped for order; Joe apologized. Donahue muttered something under his breath about the whole political business being dirty, and that anyone associated with it was bound to turn crooked. I reached out for an ashtray and knocked over a glass of water, which spilled into Donahue's lap. It diverted his mind. Joe went on talking.

Of course we knew a special session was likely for several reasons, but when they published the agenda of the call last night, I found tucked away towards the bottom an item "Regulation of Thaumaturgy . I couldn't believe that there was any reason to deal with such a matter in a special session unless something was up. I got on the phone last night and called a friend of mine at the capitol, a fellow committee member. She did not know anything about it, but she called me back later. Here's what she found out: The item was stuck into the agenda at the request of some of the governor's campaign backers; he has no special interest in it himself. Nobody seems to know what it is all about, but one bill on the subject has already been dropped in the hopper-' There was an interruption; somebody wanted to know what the bill said.

I'm trying to tell you,' Joe said patiently. The bill was submitted by title alone; we won't be likely to know its contents until it is taken up in committee. But here is the title: "A Bill to Establish Professional Standards for Thaumaturgists, Regulate the Practice of the Thaumaturgic Profession, Provide for the Appointment of a Commission to Examine, License, and Administer- and so on. As you can see, it isn't even a proper title; it's just an omnibus on to which they can hang any sort of legislation regarding magic, including an abridgement of anti- monopoly regulation if they choose.'

There was a short silence after this. I think all of us were trying to make up our minds on a subject that we were not really conversant with - politics. Presently someone spoke up and said, What do you think we ought to do about it?'

Well,' he answered, we at least ought to have our own representative at the capitol to protect us in the clinches. Besides that, we at least ought to be prepared to submit our own bill, if this one has any tricks in it, and bargain for the best compromise we can get. We should at least get an implementing amendment out of it that would put some real teeth into the state anti-trust act, at least in so far as magic is concerned.' He grinned. That's four "at leasts , I think.'

Why can't the state Chamber of Commerce handle it for us? They maintain a legislative bureau.'

Sure, they have a lobby, but you know perfectly well that the state chamber doesn't see eye to eye with us little businessmen. We can't depend on them; we may actually be fighting them.'

There was quite a powwow after Joe sat down. Everybody had his own ideas about what to do and tried to express them all at once. It became evident that there was no general agreement, whereupon Somers adjourned the meeting with the announcement that those interested in sending a representative to the capitol should stay. A few of the diehards like Donahue left, and the rest of us reconvened with Somers again in the chair. It was suggested that Jedson should be the one to go, and he agreed to do it.

Feldstein got up and made a speech with tears in his eyes. He wandered and did not seem to be getting anyplace, but finally he managed to get out that Jedson would need a good big war chest to do any good at the capitol, and also should be compensated for his expenses and loss of time. At that he astounded us by pulling out a roll of bills, counting out one thousand dollars, and shoving it over in front of Joe.

That display of sincerity caused him to be made finance chairman by general consent, and the subscriptions came in very nicely. I held down my natural impulses and matched Feldstein's donation, though I did wish he had not been quite so impetuous. I think Feldstein had a slight change of heart a little later, for he cautioned Joe to be economical and not to waste a lot of money buying liquor for those schlemiels at the capitol'.