"Many a time I have watched the grimy little merchants who flock around the back doors of the big newspaper offices at midnight in heat or rain or cold waiting for the bundles of papers from which they can make at best only about a dollar profit I have wondered who feeds them who washes them who cares when they come home. Then I have contrasted them with the clean well-fed children who come and go through the stage entrance of a theatre and I have never hesitated in my opinion as to which are the better off. And it should not be forgotten that these two groups of children come from pretty much the same class. Have the objectors on principle to the employment of children on the stage ever walked late in the evening through one of the streets of New York's lower East Side with its dense throngs of juvenile humanity.

"I wonder If the laws which affect the employment of children on the stage were made uniform in the various states great advantages would follow both for the children and for the theatrical manager. Certain states such as Massachusetts Illinois Maryland and Ohio have very drastic regulations. They prohibit the appearance on the public stage of any child under the age of sixteen. Other states such as New York Pennsylvania and many more allow them to appear in stage plays but with restrictions as to work that might be physically injurious. Presumably, the authorities in all these states have made careful investigations before writing on their statute books the laws which govern the work of professional children. If so is it more harmful to a child to appear in the theatre in Massachusetts or Illinois than in the state of New York. And why I do not believe any theatrical manager would argue for laxity in the laws which safeguard the well-being of child actors. But all managers would prefer to have such laws standardized.

"A dramatic production is a delicate work of art which is brought to perfection only after infinite thought care and preparation. The various elements which compose it cannot be changed without throwing its intricate machinery out of gear. All plays are eventually sent on tour and once having conformed to the laws of the state in which they were produced to alter them to suit the changing requirements of different localities becomes fatal in many cases to their artistic beauty and symmetry and ruinous to the manager whose skill labor and financial investment they represent. To all who may harbor a belief that the child actor is a poor little bond slave placed in the theatre before its time to earn its living I would say that invariably it loves its work and its lot In the great majority of cases it is an unfortunate child compared with well to do children in normal domestic circumstances whose only thought is to breathe and eat and grow up.

"If the fortunes of all our lives were distributed more equally and justly especially among our little folk, I would deplore a condition that makes it necessary for any child to earn a living for itself or for others. But the conditions which affect people are not the same. Some children are destined to luxury and comfort and some to want even to neglect I can only add that if a child must work no child really should have to work at all the employment it finds in the theatre is more pleasant and less likely to do it physical harm than any other that is accessible to it. The problem of the child actor is one which invites our wisest consideration. That it is a problem we who are in the theatre know only too well. Yet the harshness of the problem is softened when we stop to consider for a moment the attitude of the child actor toward its work It is work of which a child never wearies work which to it means only play. Does any theatre goer imagine that his own enjoyment of Barrie's Peter Pan was greater than that of the child actors who capered in its fanciful scenes?"

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