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a & + | or NY 100-1615 at —_ Ll Fre "When 30 publishers turned down Abbie's latest book he decided to publish it himself and asked for help from Tom, who had experience on the business side of underground publishing. Tom was supposed to develop aiternative distribution channels so that no commercial distributor would rake in the profits, "But Abbie didn't like Tom's work and called off the deal, Tom spent $300 on a lawyer and demanded $5000 for the work he'd already done on the book. Abbie says he offered Tom $1500 without luck. "Then someone suggested that a panel of Movement people might provide truer justice, Tom and Abbie agreed and stated in writing that they would abide by the decision, "Phey picked three people to arbitrate: Mayer Visnner, a rock musicologist and war resister; Craig Karpel, a free-lance writer who has outlined a system for informal arbitration of consumer-shopkeeper disputes; and Dr. Howard Levy, the former Army doctor who served 26 months in jail ror refusing to teach dermatology to Vietnam-bound Green erets. "At the two-day closed hearing in New York, Tom and Abbie informally introduced witnesse:, They were allowed to cross-examine and teli tneir own versions of the dispute. "The straight press was soon scoffing at the whole preceeding. The New York Times and its news service quoted Tom as saying that if he wasn't happy with the decision of the arbitrators he'd sue, Tom never said that, and the reporter who quoted him later apologized for his error. In fact, both Tom and Abbie had signed an agreement to go to court only to enforce the mediators' decision. ne ee Se mn eg re et Ete soe