ART FOR WHOSE SAKE?

Censors, vigilance societies, and the whole tribe of guardians of the public mind, are well aware that print is their arch-enemy. Against the watchful custodians of the mails, social heresy or political immorality has little chance. The rostrum, too, is carefully safeguarded, as New York learned last year when it tried to hear such public speakers as Mrs. Sanger and Mr. Zero. But there is another ulcer at the heart of the body politic which was only recently discovered. That disease is Art: the diagnosticians are the American Legion and the American Defense Society.

The first symptom was Miss Isadora Duncan. Her husband was a Russian poet, and she herself of doubtful sentiments: wherefore she was detained at Ellis Island, on whispered rumor that she came not altogether for art's sake. However innocent her previous color, such a reception could have only one effect, and her Boston exhibition was to be expected. But, Cincinnati, fore-warned, was spared from her baleful influence. Madame Gadski followed her; but the American Legion was awake to its duty. "Music hath charms", they remembered, and decided that her voice should be no incantation, like the Lorelei's, to woo her hearers into political philandering.

The last arrival is the Moscow Art Theatre, recognized as the greatest dramatic group in the world. But the players are sovietized: they plan to return to Russia when their work is done; they will have a subtle influence over their audiences (all their plays are in the original Slavic); worst of all, they have pledged a fraction of their proceeds as a tax to the Russian Government--and they are charging five dollars a seat. It is no wonder that the American Defense Society sees here a plot to subsidize sedition. At the end of their eight weeks' engagement, they will be ready to overthrow the Constitution.

Let our reformers and propagandists learn from this latest discovery, and profit by it. The next of the Wild West Shows that tour Europe can carry the message of International Prohibition. Peggy O'Neil's next London-and-Paris appearance should be used to spread the gospel of Monroe. And when Henry Ford again visits a war-mad Europe, his mission should include not Jane Addams and David Starr Jordan, but Maude Adams, Frances Starr, and Al Jolson. The true purpose of art has been revealed.