Show 9 t 0 1 I E Enemy emy of the People 1 rr THE PHE HE word revolution has many people cowed 1 Events in Russia are exerting a terrifying influence upon new ideas I everywhere Whoever Whoever Who Who- ever whispers revolution now must be a secret This has been curiously sly revealed a an attack attack at at- at tack on Robert Whittier an manager actor in L New York who has revived d Ibsen's drama An Enemy of the People in which he plays the I principal role Two New Yorkers have ju just t been fined ten dollars each in the police court because they gave Whittier a black ey eye and otherwise marked their disapproval of the plays play denunciation of middle class conservatism Mr Whittier has received also anonymous letters and telephone calls threatening his life and calling him an agent of soviet Russia I i r And yet the poor actors actor's offense is no more than this He takes the part of Dr who has discovered that the medicinal baths which are making the fortune of his native Norwegian Norwegian Nor Nor- town have become polluted When the doctor declares the baths must be rep repaired ired to prevent t the e spread of of contamination he is Cheered cheered by the people But when it becomes evident evident that the repairs will require an increased local tax rate f for i everybody to pay he is reviled and called an enemy of the people Dr thereupon denounces the middle class the Compact majority He asserts the intellectual minority leads the van of progress progress progress ress and is the only class which is always right To this disturbing indictment adds a denunciation of the governing clas clasp and says a revolution is necessary to give it brains That is enough to make a So two representative New Yorkers pr proved ved the genius of Ibsen as a dramatist of life by doing to Whittier in th the flesh as ts s nearly as they could what the compact majority did to in inthe inthe inthe the play Thus by an extraordinary irony of fate Ibsen's drama written in I 1882 as a plea for popular leadership to be drawn from an aristocracy aristocracy aris aris- of intellect is now denounced as bol bol- propaganda If Ibsen were alive he I. I would say the attack on Mr Whittier is abundant justification n for th the play |