The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-02-17
THE STAGE.

'Tis a great pity that the stage, cap
| able, when morally managed, of ele-
waiting and instructing the human race,
should ever become the means of degra-
cation and weakening of moral prin-
ciplee The New York stage is. I'M
fortunately, too often the scene of dra-
matte representa- tons nOxious and vic
ious beyond compare. Fault is found
with clergymen who make sweeping
denunciatiorls of the theatre. 1t is
charged that they do net sufficiently
Discriminate between what is good and
what is evil. There is some truth in
this. perhaps, but there is consider
able Justification for these sweeping
aud unrestricted .denunciatiors in view
of the fact that ait the present time a
large majority of the plays now before
the people of the metropolis of the
country are debasipg, vulgar, and, in
some Instances, positively indecent
The condition of the stage in America
has fallen pretty low when such a
journal as the New York World feels
constrained to utter the following pro-
test:
Are we going to have a censorship of
the drama? And if not, what are we
going to do about it? Are we going to
let it alone, to go from worse to worse,
and reach beyond the lowest depth
deeper still?
1t has gone from bad to worse, from
Camille" to ''Zaza," and from the
nude in LA" to the realistic in The
Turtle to the frank abassment of
The Degenerates" and to the ap0the
os.,s of the nasty in "Sapho." 1t would
not be safe to predict what may come
next. And it all goes on without let or
hin6rance. A private society looks
after immoral literature. The aegis of
the Horton law shields the manly art
of pugilism. Dive-keeping is a subject
of restrictive legislation. Gambling is
clearly prohibited by law. and from
time to time the police advise the pol
icy sharks that an intermissiOn of their
pernicious activity would be judicious.
But how are we, to deal with the indie
cent drama?
1t pays: so much the worse. Very nice
people go to see it: so much the worse.
The press denounces it; so much the
worse. for it thrives by exposure and
advertising. and can securely count on
its clientele. To let it alone is to toler-
ate its growth, and to denounce it is
to stimulate it to perHicious activity.
What are we going to do about it?
What is the attitude of the American
mind toward the immoral drama?
What is the safeguard of deCency in a
liberty-loving land against the public
exploitation of indecency?
We hardly think that a remedy is to
be found in a censorship of the drama
The evil is fundamental. 1t is to be
found in the management of the stage
itself. II is Memo dat quod non fabet
no one gives what he has not got
Isl an old and true axiom. Hence it is
folly to expect moral principles which
have their very basis in Christianity
radiating from men whore lives are a
protest against Christianity, the very
source of all moral rectitude. In other
words to be very plain, the syndicate
of Hebrews which now dictates to the
whole American people the class of
plays which they shall Ge is respon-
sible for the nadtine7s and iecency of
so many plays now before the public.
Whst encouragement can a play
wright animated by Christian princi-
pies receive from men who are unbe-
leVeTS IN Such principles, ana whose
only God is The dollar? At the present
time less than half a dozen Hebrews
in New York control the drama of the
country. To them every actor and ac-
treSs, as well as every manager, must
bow.
ia 1T not time that the Christian peo-
pie of the United States entered an en-
phatic portest against a domination
which experience is daily proving to be
immoral and calculated to subvert all
moral and Christian principles?
There are on the stage many Chris
tfan ladies and gentlemen, but their as
pirations and ambitions are of no avail
against the wishes and desires of the
vulgarians that form the theatrical
syndicate in the city of New York.