"The great duty of the dramatist is to present life as it really is. A true story, if told sincerely, is the strongest moral argument that can be put on the stage. It is the business of the dramatist so to present the characters in his picture of life that the inherent moral is brought to light without any lecturing on his part. "Moral codes in themselves are, after all, not lasting, but a true picture of life is. A man may preach a strong lesson in a play which may exist for a day, but if he succeeds in presenting real life itself in such a manner as to carry with it a certain moral inspiration, the force of the message need never be lost, for a new interpretation to fit the spirit of the time can renew its vigor and power." John Galsworthy has undoubtedly succeeded in presenting real life. It is this that makes him so thoroughly human and universal. STRIFE Not since Hauptmann's "Weavers" was placed before the thoughtful public, has there appeared anything more stirring than "Strife." Its theme is a strike in the Trenartha Tin Plate Works, on the borders of England and Wales. The play largely centers about the two dominant figures: _John Anthony_, the President of the Company, rigid, autocratic and uncompromising; he is unwilling to make the slightest concession, although the men have been out for six months and are in a condition of semi-starvation. On the other hand there is _David Roberts_, an uncompromising revolutionist, whose devotion to the workers and the cause of freedom is at red-white heat. Between them are the strikers, worn and weary with the terrible struggle, driven and tortured by the awful sight of poverty at home. At a directors' meeting, attended by the Company's representatives from London, _Edgar Anthony_, the President's son and a man of kindly feeling, pleads in behalf of the strikers. _Edgar._ I don't see how we can get over it that to go on like this means starvation to the men's wives and families ... It won't kill the shareholders to miss a dividend or two; I don't see that _that's_ reason enough for knuckling under. _Wilder._ H'm! Shouldn't be a bit surprised if that brute Roberts hadn't got us down here with the very same idea. I hate a man with a grievance. _Edgar._ We didn't pay him enough for his discovery. I always said that at the time. _Wilder._ We paid him five hundred and a bonus of two hundred three years later. If that's not enough! What does he want, for goodness' sake? _Tench._ Company made a hundred thousand out of his brains, and paid him seven hundred--that's the way he goes on, sir. _Wilder._ The man's a rank agitator! Look here, I hate the Unions. But now we've got Harness here let's get him to settle the whole thing. _Harness_, the trade union official, speaks in favor of compromise. In the beginning of the strike the union had withdrawn its support, because the workers had used their own judgment in deciding to strike.