Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-08
Favorable Comment Is Heard
On Plea for Cleaner Stage

| ably nasty and wholly demoralizing -
| The Columbus Ohio State Journal OBJ
| serves that 1.-The stage has q place in
| American life and should be saved
| from the wreckers who would destroy
| it for a season of profit" The Tulsa
| World is impressed by the fact that
even the FOUNDERS and the mental
and moral Founders are revolving at
the so-called realism being put on the
stage for dollar profits
From the Christian Science Moni-
tor comes the suggestion that Mayor
| Walker should turn from the finan-
cial beneticiaries of indecency to the
| owners of the great newspapers who
profess to deplore-and we believe
honestly do deplore-the decadence
of the stage. If he can persuade them
to ignore any play which fatty shocks
| public decency," says the Monitor
The will have the managers turning
to a higher type of drama almost at
| once. They live on publicity. It is
the breath of their nostrils. Sooner
than lose it, even the worst of them
would be decent" The Flint Daily
Journal also raises the question
whether the producers and theater
managers possess the sound sense to
purge their business OF unworthy ele-
ments before the good and bad alike
come under the ban" The Journal
feels that Censorship, once estab-
iished, is likely to sway in the direc-
ton of intolerance
x x * *
Objections to censorship are voiced
by the Ann Arbor Times News. mo
artist, be he playwright, producer,
actor or painter" insists that paper,
I6{Tnlny n he t.tr - l.;
ability if his ideas are to be under
the restraint, of people who are not
versed in art. When the artist be-
comes machine, his product will
not be art, and censorship is a step
toward machinery. However. there
are certain reasonable limits, involv-
ing the question of morality, beyond
which the artist should not be per-
mitted to stray"
Adding to the weight of opinion
against censorship, the Utica Observ-
er-Dispatch finds merit in a plan "for
those concerned, who cannot come to
agreement and who cannot trust each
other, to agree upon a dictator or
car, as the base ball people have
done in the selection of Lands and
/ the motion picture interests did in
choosing Hays" But the Chicago
Daily News suggests that "the solu-
ton of the difficult problem lies not
in an arbitrary censorship, nor in a
car Of the theater,' but in the es.
Establishment of an enlightened cult
waited, experienced committee of vol
unteer judges of plays"
The Erie Dispatch-Herald, however,
dismisses the movement with the
statement that "on the whole we have
| little confidence in the reform of the
| New York theater. 1t is CONNER
| cial theater. The producers cater to
the public, which, in the last analysis,
| is the real censor"
when the undressed musical shows
sell out weeks in advance and the
/ plays OF real merit have discouraging
| houses" declares the Asheville Citi-
zen, "one does not have to condemn
outright the nude in drama to be-
| lieVc that the stage has fallen upon
evil days. Blame the public equally
with those who are commercializing
art to money getting" But the st.
Paul Pioneer-Press concludes that 'in
| the end public opinion doubtless will
demand clean plays to the exclusion
Of others"