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Show Children on the Stage In the New York Dramatic Mirror re cently there appeared a full page article ar-ticle on the "Stage and Stage Chi! dreo." bv Blanche Bates. Vuriously enough, this article by a talented ac tress has not been reprinted. On the other hand, a letter from the general secretary of the national child labor committee to the publisher, asking the privilege of reprinting the article with proper credit, brought a flat refusal on the ground that it was at variance with, the views of the magazine. The reason for this silence on the part of those who clamor to exempt tne atrical interests from the operation of child labor laws is not far to seek. Mis? Bates challenges every argument that has been advanced in favor of child labor ob the stage. She maintains that such exploitation is vn jurious to the child and to the theatre. Regarding the development of dramatic ability, she says: "In acting, the one fundamental, absolute ab-solute requisite is imagination imagination imag-ination which can analyze and entirely comprehend a character in all its mental men-tal and physiral aspects, and then can assume them so vividly that others are compelled to nee the character in the fame wav. This is precisely what the stage (Iocs not teach t he child. The stage instructs him to imitate, not to imagine. ' Discussing the unnatural surroundings of the stage and the tendency of chil dren to imitate the unusual, she says: "A child is more apt to be completely and irrevocably ruined by the arti flcialitv of the stage than to be ele vated and embodieif." Her answer to those who claim that great artists have been developed through earlv life on The Tage Is: ' "It is quite as fair to say that these actresses have achieved their rank at the front of their profession in spite of their early connection with the tge ss to insist that they won success be-ratine be-ratine of their environment. Without the handicap thev might have pone on Ttnrven irifrteT"tietjhtii.'Th(r Surrey." |