The New York herald., 1922-03-13
Wise WARNS STAGE
TO CHANGE POLICY
Rabbi Says Censorship Must
Come if There Isn't q
housekeeping.
ATTACKS A. H. WOODS
Tells How He Warned Man
ager He Would Dis
credit Jews.
NOT A JEWISH QUESTION
Says It's Unfair to Blame a
Race; Cites the Finer Things
of the Theatre.

s,uotcsS On Inc lfulh ABOUT the
Theater" yesterday afternoon before
the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Han,
in which he declared that the theater
to-day us driving us into State con-
troll, and State control means censor
ship, bad as it IS" DR.. Wise declared
that he did not wish to attack the
theater or the players, but to deal
with the theater as an acute moral
problem, which he declared it had
| become
Either the theater will be reformed
from within, that is to say by authors.
producers and players and ourselves"
said DR.. Wise, "or it will be reformed
from without, despite all the evils
which outward revision or reforma-
tion viii be found to entail. Censor
ship will como as it ought to come un-
less q great and instant change comes
over the spirit OF those that control
the theater and over us who give it
life and sustenance.
censorship would be undesirable. hut
II Demi-Virgins' and Crossing the
Ruoicons' cannot be put out OF Broad
way theaters in any other way then
Tor one shall welcome censorship. and
work for censorship. and do what in me
lies 10 make censorship inevitable. Gem
sorship. 1t is true, may do no more than
drive dirty and salacious plays under
cover or under ground. which is exactly
what ought to happen TO them.
The Way of the Saloon.
Let them be bravely repressed and
driven into the dark, fostering corners
OF vice. if they cannot wholly be sup
pressed. Prohibition came In part. as
1t ought to have come. because distillers
and brewers insisted upon the inviolable
rights Of the saloon. The theaters win
fare as did the saloon If the same policy
of madness, tempered by malignity.
prevails in the councils OF the theater."
DR.. Wise declared that he was not
bigoted in ennity against the stage and
it's people, but that he was rather a
friend and patron OF the theater He
was not concerned. he said, either with
unreasoning attacks on the stage or on
the defamers OF the stage by It's defen-
ders DIR. John Roach Straton he char
acterized as an honest man, though not
wholly fair and reasonable In his atti-
tude toward the problem of the theater
THE thcater," said DR.. Wise, "is and
will continue to be. The theater Is more
than pastime or n luxury--it is a
highly important national institution.
which may become either a liability or ar
asset. IL merely pasti,ne. as is base
ball, IL would be enormously important
for the greatest number OF American
people are accessible to it. Whatever
the present day status of the theater
may be. this is no more to be the last
.s,-I 80 ha rra han 20 r,v L. 80
replace Beethoven and Bach. Schubert
and Brahms.
The Jewish Angle.
Most unfair Is It to deal with the
theater as II II were In any real sense
q Jewish question. To call II that Is to
obscure the real issue. Jews do good
things In the theater and fair things
and bad things. But Jews can never az
ford to do that which is evil If II must
be said that the producer OF the'Demi-
Virgin Is jew By birth. why not men,
tion that John Golden, producer of three
or four of the finest, cleanest plays of
decade. including Turn to the Right,
Lightn',' Thank You and The First
Year Is Jew.
Some of the finest plays In the
theater of the nation have been done
by Alice and Irene Lewisohn, founders
OF the Nelghborhood Playhouse. two
high minded and gifted young women
who have given themselves In the fin-
est spirit 10 the furtherance Of the
interests Of the drama. In the Theater
Guild not few Jews are active and
outstanding and the guild has IN truth
rendered most distinguished service to
the theater.
what are the facts about the theator
Of New York to-day. In !t there are
being presented many good, whole
some, clean, worthwhile plays, some
plays which are not uniformly bad but
spottily suggestive, such as two OF the
Belasco productions and some plays that
are vile beyond words. The Demi-
Virgin Is not play at all. It Is just
I theatrical flith, gutter garbage or the
| fouest. rankest kind. As | sat through
| a performance / thought of the degrada-
| tion OF a great art, that of the theater.
the humiliation of n calling. that Of the
players, and the deep damning insult
offered to a people by its presentation.
Says Woods Ignored Plea.
| Dr Wise quoted letter which he
wrote In November. 1921, urging A. il.
Woods. producer Of "The Demi-Virgin."
TO take the play Off the stage He
| appealed TO Mr.. Woods on the ground
| that both he and Mr.. Woods were Jews
and that the jew as q race would be
/ judged by the action of Mr. Woods in
producing the play and he declared that
| Mr.. Woods had great responsibility in
tho matter. The Rabbi, however. said
! that he received no reply TO this letter.
Rabbi Wise declared that whatever
might be said OF the stage, the funda-
mental responsibility for conditions lies
with the people. the only available CEN
\ sore az ptiblfc taste and tho uuhlfr
mind
I'VE could make this thing impossible
II we wlied." he said, 80 that no man
would care TO present on unclean play
unless he were sure OF q market for It.
| An admirable method OF approval is
suggested and offered by the white list
OF the Catholic society dealing with the
| question. There can be no censorship
on our part while the world Is too much
with us and we are too much in the
| theater. The thenter must not be suf-
/ fered to become our daily and indispens-
able necessity
The Arhffar@ of Taste.