New-York tribune., 1919-10-26

in due time will be returned to the
activities Of the Metropolitan Opera
Company. All that the Star company
is likely to accomplish is to POSTPONE
tie date of that return and tenn
porarlly illustrate the honest endcavor
OF the metropolitan Opera Company to
restore the system of which it was -
unique exempar
We have long had German plays
and German opercttas at a German
playhouse. They have made appeal
speclhcally to the German public.
and the patronage of that public
has never been largo enough to
Keep even a small institution going.
me irving Place Theatcr has essen
TALLY been an eleemosynarv institution
dependent upon the generosity of a few
wealthy German or German -American
citizens. Its rental came out Of the
privy purse of Mr.. William Steinwav
for many years. It has come out Of
other purses since Mr.. Stcinway's
death. If Mr.. Goritz's enterprise had
been let alone it would have died of
lnanition, and no serious harm to opera
would have resulted. AS it is, the re-
turn OF German opera under conditions
desired by those who love it has been
set back for an indefinite period, per-
Only one of the German singers who
lost their engagements at the Metro
polltan Opera House when war be-
tween the United States and Germany
began has returned to the Fatherland.
whose most fendish act Mr.. Gorit2
celebrated in song at the home of
Nine. Gadski. That one is Nine. Kurt.
whose loss to the Metropolitan is sim
ccrely to be dcplorcd. Why the others
cid not follow her example we do not
profess to know, though we can con-
trlve to imagine it,.
The step which Mr.. Gatti took in
the fall of 1917 was not hasty one
In fact, it was postponed almost to
the time when the prospectus for tho
season 1917-'18 was issued. They were
much more prompt in putting an en-
bargo on their singers in Germany.
While Mr.. Gatti was resting in un-
disturbed contemplation of coming
season like that which had ended
in April, 1917, there came an intima-
ton that Germany was preparing
to prevent her singers from hav-
ing that "placc in the sun" which en-
gagcments at the Metropolitan Opera
House offered them. In the first days
Of June of that year there was a meet
ing Of the German Stage Society, at
al
resolution offered by Count Soebach,
director Of the Royal Thcatcr at
Dresden, was unanimously adopted,
which bound the mem bcrs Of the So
cicty to grant no leave Of absence to
any singer who wished to 70 to
America, and not to engage any singer
who accepted an American contract,
the agreement to last for five years.
A prnfccf;yo Mancurn
The action, Count Sccbach said. had
nothing to do with the war, but was
only measure Of self-protcction on
the part Of German theaters. In fact,
he profcsscd to want it understood as
directed against German artists rather
than American managers. 1t was in
tolerable, he said that German artists
after having been trained in their own
country should at the maturity of their
powers make themselves over to Amer
lcan contractors, spend their best years
abroad and come back to Germany with
hn accession Of conceit, as we'll as,
suppose, Of dollars. Artists should
therefore be compelled to choose be-
tween America and Germany. Frankly
he admitted that no injury could re-
suit to German influence in America,
for Germany no longer had any in
try to win Americans by civlities and
sentimcntalitics. There Ind not as
yet been the slightest exhibition Of
hostility toward German art in Amer
ica, and the German singers were as
Indifferent as was the management of
tho Metropolitan to the Berlin pro
nunciamcnto. Is it because the Father
land has no welcome for its tuneful
sons who have waxed fat and arc now
kicking in America that Mr.. Goritz
nover To desert ua2