Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-28
In the Spotlight

H HE controversy aroused by DR.
Charles Edward Locke, in his at
tack on the theater last Sunday,
has not yet subsidized. George Broad
hurst, one Of the foremost American
playwrights, now in Los Angeles, is
among those who have ventured to dis
agree with Mr.. Locke in his sweeping
denunciation of the modern stage.
Among other things DR.. Locke says:
THE theater discounts personal char
acter and integrity, it burlesques char
acter and jeers at the home and the
church. 1t ought to be pursued and
driven out, as we would be rid of OBJ
scenity, arson and smallpox. It is a
pestiferous contagion, and should be
quarantined and fumigated. It is a de-
spoiler of our boys and places a pre-
MUM on RIGHTEOUSNESS and murder"
In the foregoing DR.. Locke makes
positive and challenging assertions. A
man of his standing usually has some
thing on which to base such statements
before he makes them. Such substanti-
alton has not yet appeared. DR.. Locke
either knows these statements to be
position sufficient to give weight to
dogmatic utterances without offering
reasons for his statements. If he de-
tends his assertions on the ground that
the pulpit gives sanctit-- and authority
to his words, there is nothing more to
be said. 1t is not a controversy for
these columns. If, on the other hand
he is willing to take his stand on or
binary human observation and judg
ment, he has fallen pitifully short of
making his case. He has made state
ments attacking an institution by
which thousands Of honorable men and
women make their living, and in which
hundreds of thousands find what they
believe wholesome amusement. He Of
fers no proof and mentions no single
instance in which the itheater has done
the things he charges; directs his an
athena against no particular play, and
suggests no remedy. Furthermore, he
launches this diatribe in a way which
shows a most sweeping and elaborate
ignorance of the mai tier in hand.
He deploreS the departure from the
classic ideals and says the stage has
fallen in it's standards of morality
Possibly clergymen read only expur-
gated editions of the classics, but how
would the Aedipus Tyrannus compare
with the most rancid of modern plays?
He mentions Euripides. What would
happen if the original version of Alces-
tbs were staged on Broadway? Suppose
the dramas of the Greek theater of
Dionysus were to be put on on mod
ern stage. Suppose . a, good morals
commission should pass Judgment on
the relative indecency of Sophocles, and
any modern playwright whom Dr.
Locke might mention. What would the
verdict be? In the matter Of indeli-
cacy, how would the comedies of
Plautus compare with modern farces?
What about the Elizabetheans and the
predecessors of Shakespeare? Suppose
the doctor considers the dramas of
Webster, Marlowe, Dekher, Lodge,
Nash, Haywood, Greene or Peale.
Would any of these plays be tolerated
on a modern stage? Would the police
allow a play of Corneille, Moliere- or
Racine to be produced in Los Angeles?
In scoring the modern stage on the
grounds Of its detection in morality, the
doctor has not the slightest thread of
an argument, and he knows it. The
elimination of Objectionable matter
from the drama has kept pace with
similar progress in literature and the
stage at no time suffers in comparison
with contemporaneous literature on
this score.
He cites William Winter in his con-
tention that the theater has become a
dissemination of filth. It is true that
Mr.. Winter denounces certain question
able plays. but he has shown by a
hundred other utterances that he re-
CARDS the theater as one of the most
powerful agencies for good. 1t is alb
, surd to quote Mr.. Winter in defense of
such rabid, ill-considered and vitu-
perative denunciation of the theater as
that quoted above. But suppose that
Mr.. Winters remark is significant-the
fetch of authority looms large to the
clerical mind-suppose that it is sig
niftcant, what about authority on the
other side? DR.. Locke makes a string