New-York tribune., 1919-11-09
I -

glance that machine is out OF gear.
10 have the patience to tinker with
such rundown piece OF machinery,
one must be an older and more ex-
perienced mechanic.
At any rate, Nh Thomas is comfort
Ingly convinced Of an America that can
be translated into p ays. and of plays
that will translate America.
WAS it the American scene that YOU
tried to preserve in your plays of the
states 2" | asked.
mot so much the American scene
as the pattern into which human rela-
tlonshlps fell in each scene. You know
some one once said that there were no
bad men, only bad land, which made
bad men. Well tried to show the re-
lations Of men and women in American
lie under varying social Influences In
Alabama the woman was pedestaled
by an ideal of chivalry; in In Miz-
zoura she was just a good yoke mate
and in Arizona, being scarce, men
fought over her. Human relationships,
even broadly grouped. vary astonish-
ingly IN country like ours"
But isn't that largely because we
are still frontier people 7"
Il suppose it is partly that. Our
stencil is simpler We have not been
crowded into complexities as older
so many adjustments. and we do not
have to probe so deep for our reac-
tions. Our emotions still lie on the
surface"
but when we have become more or
less standardized, as other people
are"
I'VE shall still have plays. They
may not be the same sort, of course,
but they lie in our temperament. Be-
cause we are an intense and eager
people we know what we want and
drive straight for it, and that involves
the smashing Of obstacles.
I'm drama the effect of ample living
Is gained by crowdng a group of in
eldents into short space of time.
Now the more you crowd your world,
the more obstacles you place between
man and his desire whatever that
may be, and the more rich and varied
your incidents are likely to be- So
that 1t does not seem to me that how
ever you standardize your world
though all the picturesque frontiers
of America disappear, and We even
reach the point of being ticketed and
tagged and licensed through every act
in life-that can diminish in the least
the material for plays"
DO you think every American play
must sustain our tradition for humor?'
Perhaps not arbitrarily SO, but i,
would be hard to think of genuinely
American play without it. 1t is, in a
way, our symbol. We are practical
people who always seek a short cut
We want a symbol wherewith to ex-
press ourselves, something almost
stenographic in its brevity. Don't for
get that your native American is most
often a natural and practical scientis,
who can measure a cord of wood with
his eye. who can calculate the height
OF a tree or the width of river with
shrewd and swift eye. And in life
humor is that stenographic symbol by
which he measures and expresses what
ne sees. Even our slang is a drive a,
something swifter and straighter in
expression, an effort by throwing
things little out of line to reestab-
lish little more vividly the true pro-
portion"
Nv nat would good American play
contain 2"
well. it should be built on some
theme of our national life. And il
should be clothed in the characters
and characteristics Of our daily life
] II it were we'll done, 1t would be some.