The Axe, 19 août 1924, mardi 19 août 1924

[" DEPENDABLE REVIEWS OF LEADING THEATRES THE AXE NEWS CANADA'S LIVEST WEEKLY PICTURES \u2014\u2014 rimes VOL.HI, No.35.TET eee a reresenee ee MONTREAL, TUESDAY, AUGU T 19, 1924.SEE PAGE THE PAPER THAT TELLS THE TRUTH FEATURES er ES eo \u2014 \u2014\u2014 Annual Subscription: $2.00.Price: 5 cents.HUSHION\u2019S BUDGET URGES HIGHER WAGES BUT POLICY WOULD : BEGET UNEMPLOYMENT An Open Letter to Alderman W.J.Hushion, Asking im How Working Men Could Get $1,803.26 a Year if King Government \u201cSounds Death Knell of Protection\u201d and Factories Close Up.My dear Mr.Hushion:\u2014 You are a candidate for election to the House of Commons in the bye-clection in the St.Antoine Division of Montreal and have declared yourself a supporter of the Mackenzie King Government.The Honorable Walter Mitchell, who formerly held that seat in Parliament, resigned it because of his not being able to endorse The Robb Budget.The Robb Budget has now passed into law and as a loyal supporter of the Government you have accepted it and given your approval to it, That Budget, I frankly admit, is not a Free-Trade Budget.If it were, I doubt if you would accept it.But the Honorable Charles Stewart, one of Mackenzie King\u2019s Ministers, has declared froh his place in the House of Commons that The Robb Budget was intended to \u201csound the death knell of Protection.\u201d So that, although the Budget introduced by Mr.Robb and adopted by the House of Commons is not, in actual fact, a Free-Trade Budget, it is a Budget which has the principle of Free-Trade enshrined within it, otherwise it would not hold any menace against Protection, You address your division as a supporter of that Budget, with all its possibilities for evil against the industries of this country.! am not being unfair conscientiously but am merely taking the Budget as it stands and Mr.Stewart's famous description of it, and claim that I am justified in believing that it is the intention of the Mackenzie King Government to ultimarely remove from the industries of Canada the protection against foreign manufacturers whici, so far, tirey have had aad through which they have developed.\u201cHOME\u2014CLOTHES\u2014FOOD.* I notice, my dear Mr, Hushion, that you yourself have also formulated a Budget; it is before me as I write.On its title page it is described as \u201cHushion\u2019s Budget for a Family\u201d, and it states that jt is published by \u201cThe Duties and Rights Association,\u201d 1195 St, James St, ontreal, With everything that you say in the pamphlet referred to, I am in complete sympathy.The Budget you have completed does credit to your heart as well as to your intelligence, and I believe that the effect of it will be to open the eyes of employers of labor, as well as our lawmakers, to the necessity of working people being paid such wages as will assure them a high standard of living.There are two or three things that you say that I wish to comment on.You say on page 4: \u201cThese families are the life of the nation, consequently they have the right, through the father, to the means of living.As the state holds the father responsible for feeding and clothing his children, and compels him to send them to school until they are sixteen years of age, the authorities should at least see to it that he is given the opportunity to earn enough to carry out his responsibilities,\u201d And on Page 10: \u201cThere are only two prescriptions, the carrying out of which will cure the social and economic evils of the community life of Canada.The first prescription is \u2018A warm house, enough clothing and sufficient food for the family of every worker\u2019 The second prescription is \u201cA sufficient income to provide the \u2018Home, the Clothes and the Food: It is unnecessary for me to assure you that these statements have my approval.I am entirely with you, but I want to ask you very plainly this question: How can Canada guarantee to the father of a family a sufficient income to provide the Home, the Clothes and the Food, that | Who jumped into Henry Duffy's part in \u201cConnie Goes Home,\u201d \u2014 He Has Smiles That Make You Happy DAVID HERBLIN he and his family need if the factories of Canada are closed as a result | and gave a fine performance, Montreal remembers him for his former work with The Hevia Playersof ringing the death knell of Protection?at The Orpheum this week at a few hours\u2019 notice, It is all very well, my dear Mr.Hushion, for you to declare that the duthorities should see that the workingman in Canada is given the ian industries, they are going to take \u201cthe opportunity to earn\u201d from many thousands of Canadian workingmen.I put it to you very simply and very clearly, You are seeking to become the representative o is an industrial constituency.The majority of the fathers of families living in St.Antoine are engaged in factories or services which depend By-Election has Retired in Fgvor of Mr.William M.Birksupon the industries of Canada.If these factories are closed the men and women now working in them will be without employment and ever service, such as railways, for example, will be prejudicially affected by feel the effect of such closing down, because it is axiomatic that this Week's wages are next week\u2019s store receipts., , (Continued on page 2) EE As We Go to Press We Learn Officially That Mr.Leslie a constituency which, \u201cbelow the hill\",| G.Bell, One of the Conservative Candidates in the St.Antoine ~ opportunity to earn enough to carry out his responsibilities.That is a FLAUNTING PATRIOTISM doctrine which you should preach to Mr.Mackenzie King and his Cabi.THOSE pious Parliamentarians net.That is a remonstrance which you should address to them because 34 who never lose a chance to flaunt if they carry out their threatened policy of killing protection of Canad- e their patriotism would be well advised to seniously consider what the glory of nationhood means under the Union Jack.John Bull cannot indefinitely foot the bill for a ; , A navy for Canada's protection and The Election, Therefore, Resolves Itself into a Straight |benefit, If those Canadian \u201cstates- ) |Fight Between Mr.Birks and Alderman W.J.Hushion, the |Men\u201d who are so keenly sensitive .A f A ; .in regard to our nationhood would the closing down of industry.Every store-keeper in the division would | Mackenzie King Candidate.This Should Mean a Clear-cut De- [take matters like the defence of cision on the Issue of Protection vs, Free Trade, the Only Vital | Canada into serious consideration it .Id b h | , Question Before the Electors, + both bar omuch better both eat our cake and keep it, - RE ce \u2014_ ala Weld Wise se 5 È ÇA è 4 à Je TWO THE AXE Why ! Publish John H.Roberts\u2019 Personal Column | The People of Stage S OMEBODY said to me the other day: \u201cYou sec to be very friendly towards stage folk\u201d.And, now | come to think of it, | am.My work this last three years has thrown me into closc association with them and theatrical people in general, and this has been to me one of the most pleasurable experiences of my many-sided life.Of course, | have always known theatrical people.When | was a mere kiddie of nine or ten | used to take an old lady, Mrs.O'Byrne, to the Alexandra Theatre, Liverpool, almost every night.She boarded with us and was the mother of Mrs.Edward Saker, wife of the lessee of that theatre.Edward Saker and his wife were accomplished actors; their names are historic in England, and their theatre was then the leading legitimate theatre of Liverpool, where my boyhood days were spent.| distinctly remember from my bovhood days some of the most famous actors of the English stage, including Irving, Toole, Barry Sullivan, and a host of others.They all called mec \u201cMrs.O'Byrne's boy\u201d.* + *% When I was about twenty years old I embarked on a stage career, making my first appearance on the stage of the old Haymarket Theatre in Liverpool.1 was \u201cin vaudeville\u201d and followed that career for three or four years.It was there I really learned to love stage folk, I found them the kindest of friends, the best of pals, and the greatest exponents of charity, the \u201ccharity that suffercth long and is kind\u201d, as St.Paul describes it, that the world possesses.! gave up that life for reasons of my own and after that took up the reform work which has carried me to many parts of the world and for which Montreal chiefly remembers me.For many years I did not attend the theatre.But 1 never lost my real interest in it.In the course of my work here in Montreal it somehow came to be that | was regarded as the unofficial censor of plays and shows.For three years | censored the shows at The Gayety in a purely honorary capacity.This kind of work threw me into touch with every theatre and manager and from time to time with many actors.And with the renewal of my acquaintance with the theatre came the breaking down of the barriers that a too highly sensitive conscience in regard to things that offend had erected in me.* * # During the nearly three years of a theatrical critic\u2019s life in connection with THE AXE my associations with the theatre have led to close friendship with many players, and | now have friends all over this North American continent, and some in distant lands, with whom I maintain correspondence and who, whenever they strike Montreal, always come to see me or 1 go to see.1 can never forget that when | returned to Montreal in 1921, it was not my own old colleagues in reform work who were the first to give me a welcome home but, as soon as they knew I was back, my old friends of the Montreal theatres, Abby Wright, Tommy Conway, George Driscoll and others of them.God bless \u2018em; I shall never forget.* 4 # What is it | like about stage folk most?[I think first it is their reality.Saturday morning I went to the Windsor Station to give a welcome to Mollie Williams and her company on their arrival in Montreal to open The Gayety season.Mollie and | are old friends and I have already paid tribute to her in these columns and testified to the marvellous care she takes of her girls and the gallant fight she has made for recognition as Burlesque\u2019s only woman producer.Withal I like her cheery optimism and faith, and regard her as an artist supreme in her line.She is not a Duse or Bernhardt but she is Mollie Williams, who puts good cheer into thousands of shadowed lives every week of her life, and that\u2019s a wonderful ministry.So I went down to meet her and her gang.After our photographer had taken a picture of them all, and I was walking down to the office I noticed quite a number of them going into St.James\u2019 Cathedral.That's what I am driving at.God and things eternal are near to actor fotk\u2019s heart though they never parade these things.And these stage girls were going simply and unostenta- tiously into the great church to make their devotions and get some inspiration for the toiling days ahead.* * sk Stage folk live in a land of make believe, tis true, but life to them is a reality.See them when one of their number falls by the wayside.How they rally \u2019round! It\u2019s the only profession that asks no questions.A girl may have gone sadly astray, as many do.In ordinary society or employment she would be marked for sneers, ridicule, scoffing, maybe persecution.In almost any church she would get \u201cthe cold shoulder.\u201d But not so in stage-land.They mind their own business and there's nothing but sympathy for the one who has fallen.No there\u2019s more, there\u2019s understanding and love.They don\u2019t even say, \u201cGo and sin no more.\u201d They simply say, \u201cCome back where you belong.\u201d I unhesi-