KREISLER AND PATRIOTISM.

At a time when Socialists are suspended from the New York assembly and the term "Red" so often applied in hit-or-miss fashion to those who venture to voice their ideas, it is satisfactory to note that this wave of general hysteria and intolerance has not reached Boston artistic circles and that there is no agitation to prevent Kreisler's concert in Symphony Hall tomorrow. The wave of feeling against him which spread over the country during the fall was a disgrace to the intelligence of the American people. Even more ridiculous were the arguments which this controversy called forth. In one western city the editors of a newspaper which ventured to advocate Kreisler's playing were publicly arraigned as pro-German. Anyone who defended Germanic music or mentioned Kreisler's gifts to French and British musicians was denounced as unpatriotic.

Naturally this hysteria is not taken seriously by intelligent men and women. But the point is that intelligent men and women do not count when it comes to branding a man publicly as unpatriotic. And patriotism is linked up in the press and in the public eye with all sorts of things to which it has no relation. True patriotism is not of the boisterous variety. It is to be found in those who believe sufficiently in our democratic institutions to invite and investigate criticism and dissatisfaction.

Any branch of life which can pursue its way today without having the patriotic issue dragged in at the expense of its real values is helping to stabilize opinion. By continuing its intelligent attitude the Boston musical public is performing a real patriotic service.