They came form every major union in Illinois, and the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). Some labor representatives attended from as far away as New York and New Jersey. Members of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and other women’s rights groups were also present.

The participants came to join forces to demand that the Illinois state legislature ratify the ERA before its adjournment on June 30. Illinois is one of the fifteen states that have not ratified the proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution barring discrimination on account of sex. Thirty-eight states are needed before June 30, 1982.

They responded with thunderous applause as major labor leaders pledged all-out support for the fight for the ERA and the May 10 national march for the ERA in Chicago called by NOW.

Several important themes ran through the conference. “Labor United for the ERA” proclaimed a big banner above the platform. This was the first time in decades that the major trade unions—AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers, Teamsters, and Mineworkers—in this country have joined together under one roof in pursuit of a common goal.  
 
May 9, 1955
Drug houses licensed to manufacture the Salk vaccine will hit it rich this year, thanks to the miracle preventive. It’s theirs, all theirs, to profit on.

Dr. Jonas Salk, the vaccine’s discoverer, will collect no royalties. As a man of science he refused to patent the vaccine, giving it to the nation. But the U.S. government handed it to the private companies.

According to the May 3 N.Y. Post, the vaccine is expected to bring about $20,000,000 in pretax profits to its manufacturers this year.

Dividends on stocks are expected to climb about 70% this year for Allied Laboratories, from $3.25 per share in 1954 to $5.50. Other drug houses expect similar bonanzas.

Stock market speculators also stand to gain a handsome profit. They quietly bought up stock in the six drug houses a few months ago.

That they didn’t operate entirely on guesswork is hinted in a private newsletter circulated to its clients by Carl M. Loeb, Rhoades and Co., one of the nation’s largest brokerage firms.

“While the Francis report on the Salk polio vaccine was supposedly a well-guarded secret,” says the newsletter, “the financial community with its usual perspicacity and aplomb, discounted (that is, invested in) the findings well in advance of publication.”  
 
 
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