Fifteen years ago, in 1935, Broadway theater audiences were being fed to the ears with doses of "social significance." Playwrights of every political hue were laboring to bring the social evils of the day before the people. They wrote their messages into some of the best plays the American theater has seen. From 1935 to 1937, plays like "Bury the Dead," "Waiting for Lefty," "Dead End," and "Winterset" dealt with the problems of war, labor strife, and crime. The evils existing under our capitalist economy were by far the most popular targets.

In the past two years, Hollywood has suddenly discovered that movies with a social theme pay. Films like "Gentleman's Agreement," "Lost Boundaries," "Pinky," "Crossfire," and many others have rapped racial and religious intolerance. The reason why the problem drama's trans-continental trip has taken 15 years is found chiefly in the moviemakers" ultra-conservative concept of public taste, as well as in their own intellectual immaturity and indifference. But now that they have fund that social evil means cash in the till, these Hollywood producers are all for exposing it.

There is an obvious difference in the type of problems considered, however. Broadway's plays were chiefly dramas of the evils existing in our economic system. Hollywood had been attacking bigotry-a stand that is commendable, but hardly controversial in most parts of the country. In other words, the movie industry has really escaped from ultra-conservatism to mere conservatism.

Today, although any play on Broadway caught with its "social significance" showing blatantly would be laughed off the stage, plays with effectively disguised messages are still produced. For the most part audiences agree with the hero of Odest. "The Big Knife," who says, "If you've got a message, call Western Union." Shows like "Finian's Rainbow" and "The Respectful Prostitute" continue to draw because their messages are sugar coated with music, comedy, and good old-fashioned sex. The point is that theatrical producers did, and occasionally still do, present plays critical of the vices arising from a capitalist system, while Hollywood never has and probably never will.