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CHAPTER LIII 265 ment, and when she is discovered to her family she is convalescent. This is designed to spread the propaganda of proper treatment and taking the disease in time. On the other hand, its "The Price of Human Lives" is not propaganda but a purpose play in that it tells of the evil done by the charlatans who fatten on the rich profits ac- cruing from the sale of alleged cures for tuberculosis. This does not advance a propaganda, but seeks to support the propaganda by point- ing out the evils of a condition, just as The Red Cross Seal revealed the necessity for inducing sanitary conditions. 3. Plays of either type are generally done by arrangement between the society interested in the movement and some manufacturer of photoplays. Practically all of these plays are written on order by persons who are told the points to be covered and who read up on the subject that there may be no technical errors. The author is principally concerned with the story, but every fact presented must be correct to the minutest detail. One play, for instance, having to do with a subject of interest to medical men was spoiled for practical use because the actor playing the physician shook down the mer- cury in a clinical thermometer before taking a reading. The lapse was very slight and was not shown in the script, but the directions in the script in such a matter should have stated that the physician first took the reading and then shook down the indicator and cleansed the instrument before returning it to its case. 4. The author who undertakes such a commission must make him- self thoroughly familiar with his subject, both through reading and through conversation with those well posted on the topic that he may be certain that he has made the proper deductions from his reading. At the same time he must be careful to absorb facts rather than enthusiasm, or here again bias will defeat the real object of the propaganda play—which is that the interesting presentation of facts will make facts more acceptable and more easily understood than they would be on the printed page. The appeal through action is im- measurably stronger than appeal to sense by the printed text, and it must be one of the duties of the author to preserve interest in the narrative, through which interest in the personages is gained, while he presents the facts clearly and succinctly. Bias, even in a propa- ganda play, may not be carried to excess. 5. A preachment against the liquor traffic mya be forcful and interesting, but if the characters are overdrawn the play will lack con- viction. A play in which all of the factors for good are represented as cousins to the angelic hosts and all forces for evil are shown as drunken brutes will appeal only to the fanatics, and these are already converts. The propaganda play is expected to make converts among those not now opposed to the sale of liquor and many of these will know that the proportion of non-drinkers is greater among bar- keepers than in almost any other class. They will argue that if