The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-01-14
KLAw ATTACKS KANSAS LAW.
Says Misdirected Zeal Has Proved
Hamper to Stage Child.

New York, Jan. 14.-Marc Klaw,
head of the Klaw & Erlanger theatrical
syndicate, today attacked the child la
Dor law of Kansas as applied to stage
children, in an interview given out
! here. He endorsed the statement If
Charles Burnham, president of the AS
ISOLATION of Theater Managers of
Greater New York, who at the annual
banquet of the association called atten-
ton to unjust laws in force in several
states. In part Mr.. Klaw said:
This matter is of a danger now very
imminent. I refer to the efforts of GER
tain misguided persons to narrow the
big work of the American drama oy
practically eliminating therefrom all
stage children. The so-calIed Nationa!
! Child Labor Committee of this coun-
try, with misdirected zeal. has been en-
abled to have laws placed on the stat
ute books of Illinois, assachusetts
| Louisiana, Kansas and the Province Of
Ontario, prohibiting children under IA
years of age appearing on the stage st
all. Francis Wilson, Robert Hilliard
Mrs. Minnie Madden F4ske and other
Of our most reputable artists can testi-
fly to the handicap this has been to
them in presenting some of the very
best products of American authors AL
ready under the operation of this law
! the states mentioned cannot enjoy such
plays as King john "A Midsummer
Nights Dream Maeterlinck's Blue
er dramatic classics.
I'VE have sat idly by while bigotry
his run riot in this direction, and
while the men and women composing
this child labor committee may be most
reputable, they are going about their
work with a fanaticism, an indiscretion
and a mercilessness worthy of the Sa-
lem witch-burners.
Child Neglected Too Long.
THE stage child of this country has
been neglected all too long. There has
| always been too much or too little dono
| for it, both operating to the disad-
vantage of the child. There turks a
suspicion that back of the child labor
| committee there are many people who
are simply using this agitation to gain
a little publicity and to serve personal
ends. 1t reminds me of the story of
| Dionysius, the tyrant, who robbed the
/ statue of the Olympian Jupiter of its
mantle of gold and replaced it with a
wooden cloak, saying that the gold COW
! ering was too cold in winter and too
| heavy in summer, and we must look
after Jupiter
1.-The theory that a child should not
| be allowed to walk upon a stage until
it is IA years old, if its career is to be
| that of an actor or actress, is simply
! absurd. I am informed that at the last
meeting of our committee with the
| committee of the child labor law even
so eminent man as DR.. Felix Adler
made the assertion that there was no
necessity for child to go on the stage
until it is IA; he hoped to have a law
passed prohibiting it until it was Is,
the bill of preparation-in fact, he had
a dramatic school attached to his
| Ethical Culture society.
| "Of course the absurdity of this con-
tention only shows how far afield even
| a sincere man may be led. Yet these
Co f50 010J lob
performed by the musical prodigy who
must stand on it's little feet four or
five hours a day practicing, if he hap
pen to be violinist, or to work at a
piano an equal number of hours If that
instrument is to be the expression of
his genius. We need only recite the
fact that all the great stage geniuses,
from Edmund Kean to Julia Marlowe,
went before the footights as children,
to successfully dispute the idea that a
man, woman or child can learn to act
in any way except by acting.
Not Debarred From Education.
This child labor committee has also
been exploiting the fact that children
of the state are debarred the chance of
elementary education. Now, the veriest
tyro must be acquainted with the fact
that condition precedent of stage
work is the ability to read and write,
and as actors and actresses are con-
stantly learning and reciting the best
thoughts of the best writers, it seems
absurd to say that they are debarred
from education. ~
These misguided good folk want 40
place the stage work of children in the
same category that they do the little
ones who toll for eight or ten hours a
DAY in the factories and mills. Any
one who has watched the care and
tenderness with which stage children
are treated and surrounded will know
that there is no excuse under heaven
Tor putting them in the same category
with mill hands or factory workers.
Laws for the sane, rational protection
of the child's health, morals and safety
We are all in favor of. but until the
stage as a whole is condemned as a
dangerous institution there is no rea-
son why those who are to make it Their
careers should not begin at an age
j when their minds and bodies are