Philadelphia Discord

The Philadelphia Orchestra is threatened with dissolution; Conductor Leopold Stokowski is at his wits' end with grief and vexation.

The local Musicians' Union, through one Thomas Rivel, its president, has demanded a new minimum salary for the players, said to range between $75 and $85 per week. The union also wishes to prescribe the number of men who can be dropped by the management in any single season.

Arthur Judson, manager of the orchestra, has asserted that the financial terms suggested by the union would add a burden of no less than $100,000 per year to the upkeep of the orchestra, and has called attention to the fact that there is already a deficit of $25,000 this year. The present minimum salary is $60 per week.

Meanwhile Conductor Stokowski has lamented as follows: "It is a great sorrow to me that this dispute has taken place. I certainly don't want anything to happen to my orchestra. I don't want to leave Philadelphia and I'm very fond of my orchestra. Then, too, I wanted to take it abroad. The French Government has invited me to conduct it in Paris, but I can't make arrangements with this dispute going