Arizona republican., 1906-02-21
rHEATgR AND ITS CRITICS.

The proposition that half a dozen writers can make the success or fail ure of a play assumes that the opin ions of those half-dozen writers are ac- cordant: that the theater- going reads only the opinion of that half-dozen, and instantly adopts them-which is preposterous. The truth is that when a half a dozen experienced writers on the drama in New York reach the con- clusion that the play is bad, their con clusion is right, and the play will gen erally, fail-not because those writers condemn it, but because it's deficiency is inherent in itself. and perceived by the public. It has been noticed that certain plays that have met with de- served and general condemnation in the press have. nevertheless, attracted audiences, because, for various reasons, good, bad or indifferent, the public wished to see them. Many things prosper that are not plays at all.
 Moreover, the public to a consider able extent. is the press. All persons like to read published views that ac- cord with their own, and indeed. most persons will not tolerate anything else. It is only the philosopher who derives pleasure from consideration of opin- ions opposed to his own. To accuse the newspaper writer of crippling the pub lie judgment is ridiculous; first, be- cause the average reader of a newspa- per, if he finds his views continually antagonized in one paper, will seek another that echoes them; and sec ondly, because judgment (meaning the intellectual process of examination ap- piled to art) is a faculty possessed by only few persons, and used by only a few Of those who nOSSaSS if
 The public, in general, is swayed by feeling, not judgment; and, largely as q consequence of regnant commercial ism in the theater. it has ceased to regard acting as art, and has come tO look upon 1t as merely a pretext for amusement.
 The incidental allegation that news paper writers who condemn plays are necessarily "prejudiced" comes as q matter of course. Theatrical agents have always talked that way. It seems utterly impossible for them to under stand or believe that the faculty of judgment rests upon knowledge or ex- perience, and operates independent of the will.
 The alleged "baldness about the New York critics verdicts that is not to be condemned must prove indeed an af- fIiction, especially to such managers as have avowed, in so many words, that they are shopkeepers. It would be well if people associated with the theatec would awaken to the fact that the duty of the reviewers of the acted drama, while recognizing the interests of theaters, and doing justice to all of them, is, nevertheless, first to the read er-the general public; and that the only way in which he can do any good is to advocate things that are splen- did and ennobling, and endeavor to in duce his public to take that view. His only course is to tell the truth, and for every conclusion to give reasons that will enforce conviction.
 If the praise of newspaper writers is a thing worth having Git seems a trivial object of ambition) it is easy to secure it. The way is to produce fine things, and continue to produce them, regardless of all that is said. Such course, while it may not yield an in come of a million a year, has always enabled its followers to. remain in business" and has earned for them the respect and support of the community. New York Tribune.