as present
conditions permit, reflect artistic aspiration, would derive from such
an institution new and steady encouragement.

The interests of dramatic art can only be served whole-heartedly in a
theatre organised on two principles which have hitherto been
unrecognised in England. In the first place, the management should
acknowledge some sort of public obligation to make the interests of
dramatic art its first motive of action. In the second place, the
management should be relieved of the need of seeking unrestricted
commercial profits for the capital that is invested in the venture.
Both principles have been adopted with successful results in
Continental cities; but their successful practice implies the
acceptance by the State, or by a permanent local authority, of a
certain amount of responsibility in both the artistic and the
financial directions.

It is foolish to blind oneself to commercial considerations
altogether. When the municipal theatre is freed of the unimaginative
control of private capital seeking unlimited profit, it is still wise
to require a moderate return on the expended outlay. The municipal
theatre can only live healthily in the presence of a public desire or
demand for it, and that public desire or demand can only be measured
by the playhouse receipts. A municipal theatre would not be
satisfactorily conducted if money were merely lost in it, or spent on
it without any thought of the likelihood of the expenditure proving
remunerative. Profits need never be refused; but all above a fixed
minimum rate of interest on the invested capital should be applied to
the promotion of those purposes which the municipal theatre primarily
exists to serve--to cheapen, for example, prices of admission, or to
improve the general mechanism behind and before the scenes. No surplus
profits should reach the pocket of any individual manager or
financier.

IV

There is in England a demand and desire on the part of a substantial
section of the public for this new form of theatrical enterprise,
although its precise dimensions may not be absolutely determinate. The
question is thereby adapted for practical discussion. The demand and
desire have as yet received inadequate recognition, because they have
not been satisfactorily organised or concentrated. The trend of an
appreciable section of public opinion in the direction of a limited
municipalisation of the theatre is visible in many places. Firstly,
one must tak