Show WRONGS THAT GO UNCORRECTED It takes stakes something spectacular to arouse us to action The things that we e are used to towe towe towe we tolerate we C are moved only bythe by bythe bythe the out of the extraordinary extraordinary nary Sometimes this trait works out for the b best st sometimes It does not noL noLIn In New York there are a great many theatres A number of or these theatres have been fined of late i with plays and revues In which the common principles of ot decency and good taste have been flaunt rI flaunted ed cd New York officials now have arisen In wrath and demanded that the stage be cleansed The theatrical situation was a spectacular one It gripped the th popular Im Imagination A few blocks away from New NewYork's Yorks York's theatre district there are certain mean shabby str streets es There are miles of ot frowsy dingy tenements miles ot of pavement pavement where children have to play In gutters cutters and alleys and vacant lots blocks ot of human habitations whose Inmates never see a tree tre or a blade of ot grass unless unless they the make a long tr trek k to one ot of the city's parks In these districts children grow up entombed In poverty po and mis mis- misery misey ery ey and surrounded by vice Many Man children indeed do not grow up u at all They struggle through a afew afew few years ot of o malnutrition and In- In Insufficient sufficient sunlight and then die Others grow up Into gangsters gangster gangsters and thugs Those who manage to tight their way through to honest citizenship feel all their lives the deprivations they had to undergo In childhood Oh yes eS New York is giving that problem her ber attention too I There Is a a housing commission commission which has been b en studying the sit sit- situation situation sl for tor year A number of ways of o remedying matters have hav been een suggested but no action has hns ha been tak taken n The thing It seems requires much study besides the public is apathetic and wouldn't understand it If real drastic meas- meas urea ures were proposed Look at the contrast The theatrical situation situation was g spectacular The cleanup cam cam- campaign p en enabled certain people to appear as champions of all of society's virtues without really of- of offending o fending anyone Important This other situation fat far ar more deadly is not spectacular It Is drab No on one can win any espe- espe especial especial cial fame tame by br tackling It It IL There are aro many Influential foes toes ot of change So while we will haTe hare stage cleanups every year or so ao for forthe forthe the next century the terrible g slums will be there for tor childrens children's children to see and see and Ignore It takes the spectacular to move e Us And Anil this doesn't apply to New NewYork NewYork York alone |