Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-03-07
MISS EMMA GOLDMAN

1913 EMMA GOLOMAN VIII icS-
N ture in Mammoth hall, SIT South
~ Broadway, tonight on why l
Am an Anarchist" She will debate in
the same hall Monday evening with
Rev. Edward Adams Cantrell on Free
Love vs. Social Regulation" The lat
ter subject has been frequently dis
cussed by Miss Goldman on her last
lecturing tour which, with THE Drama
as a Dissemination of RaGicallsm, is
one of her most important lectures.
One of Miss Goldman's interviewers In
the San Francisco Bulletin quotes her,
in part, on the latter subject as fol-
lows:
"Then came Gerhard Hauptman, who
is at once the greatest dramatist, the
greatest poet and the greatest reVolu-
ZIONIST living in Germany today. HIS
first play, Before Sunrise was con-
sidered so extreme that he was unable
to get it produced at any of the re-
spectacle theaters and had to put 1t on
under most trying circumstances IN
a little place back of beer garden.
The play treats the agrarian question
and the corrupting influence of money
on the peasantry, as well as the
gloomy fact that poor people, who are
least able to care for their children.
always have the greatest number.
Hauptman was audacious enough 10
imagine woman in labor just off the
stage and her groans are heard by the
audience.
1.-THE play created an impression that
almost amounted to social unheaval.
Every one flocked to see it and opin-
ion as to it's merits was flercely di-
vided. On one occasion physician
leaped up in the midst of the perform
ance and, waving a pair of surgical
forceps over his head, shouted. Here!
Look at this! Just see what we've
brought into our theaters and put on
our stage!' He made his rumpus, was
thrown out and forgotten" The speak
err smiled a little twisted smile and
added, "but Gerhard Hauptman wasn't
forgotten"
Theme of "The Weavers"
81 have a friend" she went on, "whc
was with Hauptman when he collected
the material for The Weavers,' his
most Socialistic play. They lived to,
gether in the weaving district and
learned thoroughly the lives of these
unhappy people. 'Hanelle,' his dream
play, also resulted from this expedi-
ton. In fact the original of the girl
Hanelle was the little girl of the
house in which they lived. She was
the daughter of drunken father, who
beat her and made her life an aching
misery Hauptman used to take the
child in his lap and pet her, and as she
gradually came to understand his ten
derness, something absolutely new to
her, her shyness disappeared and her
character expanded and expressed it.
self much as it does in the play. Haupt-
man has developed and Powered in
somewhat the same way, slipping I'M
consciously from material studies into
the real of the ideal, where he is seen
with perfect artistry in that most Won
derful of plays, The Sunken Bell
Germ in America
1.-TWO other German dramatists ought
to be mentioned. One of them is Max
Halbers, whose Youth deals with the
development of love in the adolescent
heart and the stupidity of society in
meeting the new demand. Wedekind
is the other, and he treated the same
problem in Springs Awakening In
this play boy gets a girl of IA into
trouble without in the least under
standing the consequences of his act.
The girls mother kills her with quack
medicines, trying to conceal the truth
while the boy is sent to the reforma-
tory to expiate a sin which he utterly
fails to comprehend and about which
no one takes the trouble to tell him.
"The same process can be traced In
all other countries and is even begin
ming to be felt in America" she ex-
pounded after the immense efflor-
essence such as that apparent in Ger
many, sometimes comes the reaction
and the schism. For instance, when
the Socialist party reached it's zenith
it naturally became limited and no
longer free in its theories. Paradox
cally enough, one of the great Socialist
leaders found himself ranged against
Hauptman, whom he found it necessary
to denounce as a degenerate Suder-
mann, on the other hand, has recanted
his early radicalism and conformed. so
that he is now referred to as the board
ing school dramatist.
Scandinavia illustrates the tendency
of which / speak, as well as Germany.
Ibsen, of course, has been popularized
to a certain extent in America, but re-