The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-06-06
PROTECTION FOR
 STAGE CHILDREN Many Child Actors Are Blighted in Physique and Ability by Premature
 Work Most of the Stage Children Drop Out of the Pro-
 fession The Majority of Successful Actors Did Not Start
 As Children
(By Everett W. Lord, Secretary for New England of the National
 Child Labor Committee)

Child Labor Committee)
 Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau.)
 Is acting on the professional stage for children under fourteen work or merely study? Theatrical managers exploit the high salaries paid some child actors. Theatrical people usually ''No actor who goes on the stage af- ter childhood can attain more than mediocrfty"
 The part of a child in a play sell dom suggests much of toll. Emphatic claims are made that theatre children are scrupulously protected while on the road. Therefore very many op- pose the enforcement of child labor laws in such a way as to prevent young children from appearing on the professional stage. It is feared such a policy may deprive the world of gen. fuses.
 The Supreme Court of Massachusetts, has decided that acting is work, and as such is forbidden for children un- der fourteen years of age" An inn mediate effort was made to have the law so changed that 1t should not ap- ply to stage children. Some of the most popular pieces in New York in the past season have had children in prominent parts. The author of one of these plays addressed a public meet ing in Boston to urge the necessity of change in the law so that his play might be given. Practically ev- A petition favoring such a change, said to bear over 10000 signatures, was presented to the LegisIature.
 The National and State Child Labor Committees opposed the measure, and in spite of the influence brought to bear, it was defeated. But many have been the queries regarding the basis for the opposition. There are certain obvious differences in the work of children on the stage and children in a factory, but unless the results of stage employment can be shown to be different from the results of employ ment elsewhere, there seems to be no good reason for exempting the thea tre from the operation of general child labor laws.
 There are plays, it is said, which cannot be presented unless children are included in the cast. This claim as President Emeritus Eliot of liar ward has pointed out, greatly belit- ties the skill and power of the actor. the part for twenty years after she became a mother. Dozens of plays having young children in the cast have recently been presented in Bos- ton and Chicago with older substi- tutes for the children, or with the children's parts omitted. Among these plays are Peter Pan, The Awakening of Helena Ritchie, A Fool There Was, The Silver Star, The Patriot, On the Eve, The Volunteer Organist, The Cir GUS Man, the Battle, The Squaw Man, The Hamlet of Broadway, School Days, and The Travelling Salesman. Not only were children's parts taken most cases the audiences knew noth- ing of the substitution.
 It has been claimed consistently that actors of the first rank cannot>be pro- duced unless so employed from their very infancy. This claim is, however, far from the truth. Comparatively few eminent actors of the present day began their professional career as chil- dren. Who's Who on the Stage gives the actual or approximate age at the time of the first appearance in 496 cases. Only eighty-eight of this num- Der began their stage career when under fourteen years of age, and this recognized as those of the best actors of the day. In other words, more than eighty per cent of American actors of prominence began their life work after childhood. ~
 The following are some of the prom inent actors who have attained em- thence without having been employed as children. Among those who began between the ages of fifteen and eigh- teen are: Viola Allen, Mary Anderson, Margaret Anglin, Ethel Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt, Emma Calve, Max ime Elliott, Rose Eytinge, Nat Good win, Edna Wallace Hopper, Cissie yOf1 o1n1 Eleanor Robeson, Annie Russell and B. s. Willard.
 The following were over eighteen when they made their first professional Blanche Bates, Digby Bell, James Carhart, Mrs. Leslie Carter, Ida Conquest, John E. Dodson. Robert Edeson. William A. Faversham, John ston Forbes Robertson, William Gill lette, James K. Hackett, William De- Wolf Hopper, Wilton Lackaye, Lily Langtry, Bruce McRae, Robert B. ManteIl, John Mason, Henry Miller, William Norris. Eben Plympton, Mrs. James Brown Potter, Charles J. Rich mond. D. H. Sothern, Denman Thomp- son, Beerbohm Tree and Sir Charles Wyndham.
 The plea is made that by going on the stage opportunity Is given children to prepare themselves for an honorable and lucrative profession. We cannot Know all the WIlO udFC OCCh employed on the stage; there is no Who's Who of cemeteries and living failures. We have good reason to be- lieve, however, that a large percet- tage of the children who have been in theatrical employment have not found it the open door to preferment. In the year 1895 there were employed on the stage in New York City 320 children under the age of fifteen. If early employment leads to success, we might reasonably expect fair propor- ton of these children to become ac- tors, of recognized standing. Of the entire 32O there can be found at this time, fifteen years later, only five who are on the stage in any capacity.
 Education in the commonly accept ed sense of the term, is wholly impos- sible for a child whose attention and interest are wrapped up in stage life. Even though they may be under the care of a teacher stage children with difficulty obtain the rudiments of a general education, and the training for their stage work does not com pensate for this lack. During the day a child should be at school; after sev en o'clock in the evening the place for a child is in bed, and no rear engagement of hours for sleep can com pensate for robbing nature of the nor