THE I 1 PROTEST now it is the actors who are kicking against foreign importations and demanding protection r incidental or horizontal or any such contrivance but bat absolute and prohibitory they want the contract laor law so amended that foreign actors will be embraced in its pro vision sand not be permitted thereafter to overcrowd the business here thus reducing salaries and making the occupation a hand to ita mouth struggle straggle for ay a existence the claim of the american actors is that their foreign brethren are accustomed to cheaper methods and poorer living and that unscrupulous managers bring them on here for that reason so the complaint is virtually that aar apr hist rions are being ruined by cheap english acting this is novel and may contain the elements ot truth but it sounds at first somewhat absurd allor nearly all the english actors that have gravitated this way have seemed to us rather high priced and in point of artistic merit they have generally been equal to the average it Is a decidedly new thing for one of the professions to complain of accessions the rule being that among them the fittest survive we believe it was rufus choate who when he be announced to a friend that be intended to become a lawyer pad and was asked if he think the ranks of the law baw were already overcrowded replied there is always plenty ol of room at the top and he went to the top let the actors do likewise and not count on remaining forever in the ranks then they will fare better and so BO will the theatre goina public