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To All Members -10- October 15, 1942 man transfers or goes on active duty, he will immediately be replaced. In this way, all councils will be kept 100% organized at all times. Under the terms of the Railway Labor Act, it is very important that the majority of the pilots and copilots on each air line belong to the Air Line Pilots Association which is their national representing organization under the terms of the Railway Labor Act. The minute we don't have a majority on any air line, we no longer represent the pilots of such air line for the purposes of bargaining to establish contracts, and supplements thereto, and so forth, under the terms of the Railway Labor Act. Therefore, it is not hard to realize why we must keep a high percentage of membership, and at least 51%. We have a section in the By-Laws that provides for a year's probation for applicants before they can become active members of ALPA. Due to current happenings and a fast-moving war picture, we find this section of the By-Laws a handicap. This one-year probationary period should be lowered to six months and, in all probability, even lowered to three months. This amendment in our By-Laws should be for the duration of the war only, and should be washed out when the trend of the profession again slows up to peacetime standards. No doubt, this year's convention will do something on this point. In the interim, it is up to every local executive councilman, and, in fact, every member, to put on a membership drive. At the moment, we have two classes of members -- apprentice and regular. Anyone with less than a year's air line service is eligible for apprentice membership and anyone with more than a year's air line service is eligible for a regular membership. It is the duty of the local chairmen and executive councils to make certain that all those eligible to join are brought into ALPA. Of course, there is nothing compulsory about all this; it is purely voluntary, but unless the members take an interest in bringing into ALPA the ones riding along side of them in cockpits, the organization will soon start going downhill and finally pass out of existence. Now, of all times, it is important that we have a high percentage of members. There has been much talk about pilots' coming into the profession who are not as highly experienced as former pilots and, therefore, should not be taken into the organization. This line of thinking is deadly because the only way the air line piloting profession is going to survive as a profession is by always representing a high percentage of the pilots that are in the profession. If the war has lowered the standards of air line pilots, then the only thing we can do is go along with what is happening and remember the paramount thing to do is get everybody in and keep them in so that there can be no question about who represents the air line pilots on a national basis for the "majority representing" purposes of the Railway Labor Act. We have another little matter that is being sponsored by the ATA and that is the placing of Navy officers in air line cockpits as regular copilots. This is 100% wrong and no one would even attempt it except a carriers' organization under the Gorrell type of leader- (over)
