The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-18
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existing there and in other large
 cities. "saiacious plays" 1t declares
 'are being presented today which
 would not have been tolerated in any
 American city few years ago. The
 limit of indecency seems to have been
 reached in New York. whore ihtolera-
 ble appeals to the baser passions are being made from the stages of . dozen theatres; the cheaper music halls and
 theatres. catering to the vile and the | vicious. seem to have abandoned all ideas of decency. Appeals to morbid sex instincts and discission of topics
 which should be heard only in the physician's private ofice, are so com mon as to cause little comment. and the sad and peculiar feature of this is that 1t is the women who give these plays the support. without which they could not be continued"
 This is not speaking we'll of the people who patronise the class of plays spoken of. for 1t Is the people themselves who are responsible for the degradation of the stage. There are to be found some theatrical promoters and managers who are wholly unin- fluenced by questions of decency or morality in the matter of the attrac- tions they exploit. Their Idea of what should be exhibited is controlled en- tireiy by the box receipts. The play may be the very limit of salaciousness but if 1t pays they will keep it going. If the people of any city refuse to patronize and encourage vulgarity on the stage there would be no trouble about such performances because they would soon be taken of.
 If our Boston contemporary is cor rect in charging that it is the women of New York who make these filthy exhibitions profitable it is certainly a severe indictment against the sex. No doubt. however, in a great city like New York there are plenty of women of the lower sort to make an indecent play profitable. However this may be. 1t will be good thing if the better sentiment of the city of all denomina- tions will unite in the good work of purifying and eievating the stage. If their efforts fail to meet with suc- cess then the authorities should take hand for the protection of decent people, and especially the young of both sexes.
 There is nothing wrong or hurtful in the stage itself. If play is moral. vsted and educating. A good clean play, with no taint of indecency in language. action or suggestion can be witnessed by the best people without hurt. To witness such . play Is not only a harmless but an eleveting method Of spending a little time oo- casionaily. but of late. as The Trsvsler remarks. there appears to be some thing of an elrort to drag the theatre down to the level of Chauoer's time. This should not only be discouraged but prevented.
 The authorities of any properly gov erned city can prevent or punish in- decency on the public streets and they should be equally ready and able to prevent or punish it on the stage. When the young people, the boys and the girls, go to a theatre and see and hear foul words and fouler actions they are certain to be injured thereby. The youthful mind is easily influenced that anything calculated to degrade them and lower their conceptions of purity and virtue should be placed be- fore them. Tn short, the stage can be made an influence for either good or evil and the authorities of a city should not allow it to be made an in- fluence of corruption and degradation. We wish success to every city which is working in the interest of purity and cleanliness in places of amuse- ment if a way can be found to &C., complish that object. We notice that @ writer in an English Journal takes the position that the remedy lies in endowed theatres" as he calls them; that is, theatres sustained and con- trolled by the government He speaks of the hurtful plays that are kept on the stage because they pay. and adds:
 With an endowed theatre the case Is different. Even at an endowed the atre the fate of a play will depend lie, but here 1t will be on the publics deliberate and considered judgment, not upon It's momentary whim. The endowed theatre puts up a play for a few performances. It is not necessary that 1t should create an immediate fu- rore and i'll the theatre for a year. All that is required is that 1t should have a success with the more critical public who foTm It's early audiences. If they like 1t, the piece goes into the time to time as that critical approval spreads to wider circles and the de- mand for further performances makes itself heard among the general public. This is the only way in which the best work ever can succeed on the stage.
 The New Orleans Picayune declares that this is "an absurd sort of argu- ment. The government Is expected to take charge of the theatres and put up plays that have passed muster with the government censors. and if people