Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-06
Reform in the Closet, Not I'm the
Police Court.


Police Court.
From the New York Sun.
For success in any effort the au-
thorities may make to suppress in
the drama filth and nastiness depend
ence must be put on public senti-
ment. Executive. judicial and legis-
lative officers cannot enforce in this
or in any other manifestation OF
human activity a standard higher
than that of the community they
serve. Therefore the outcome of the
present appeal to the police to cleanse
the stage in New York city rests on
public opinion. Does the public want
bawdy plays? If it does it will have
them, and the present proceedings
of the police can have no more i'm
portant effect than to annoy the more
alert caterers to the public demands
and exhibit them as martyrs to a new
code of conduct.
The participants in these vile pro-
| auctions are not innovators. They
have not turned aside suddenly from
an accustomed path. They have
merely taken another step in the d.
rection in which the drama has been
travelling for years. The Sun has
heretofore recorded the great change
| that has been wrought in the public
attitude toward lewd dancing on the
stage and in private assemblages Of
the most pretentious persons. The
clothing worn by respectable women
is at least out OF harmony with for
mer conceptions of dignity and de-
corum, and while nobody will lament
| the passing of a day when a lady
| had no legs, the welcome accorded to
q style that eleVates a strumpet's
paint and emphasizes the sex appeal
does not entirely drown the protests
of modesty and good manners.
The marked change in the attitude
| toward loose behavior and prostitu-
ton is evidenced by the wide circu-
lation of printed matter, some highly
technical in form, more disguised as
fiction, concerning it, Not a few
good men and women earnestly be-
lieve that the helplessness of society
in dealing with this evil may be
mitigated by informing the whole
world of its horrors. Where Ho-
garth's "Harlot's Progress was once
looked on as food fit only for the
| strong, today we are told that less
inspired delineators of the inevitable
| consequences of depravity may ac-
complish lasting good by spreading
their lessons before the whole world,
regardless of age, mental prepared
ness OF pnySlcal HdDlC.
Thus has been produced a state of
mind permissive' of much that re-
Gently would have been promptly
condemned, and to believe it's effects
may be permanently excluded from
the stage is to expect the impossible
Let it be borne in mind that the
scenes to which exception is taken
depend in no degree on art for their
appeal They are as Photographic in
their realism as they are pornogra-
phic in their origin. They are moi
witty; they conceal nothing; they en-
list no delicate subterfuges, no Ell.
phemisms are employed. They strive
to reproduce exactly in all its dis
gushing details that which has gen.
orally been judged as unfit for repro.
duction as it is lamentably ineradi-
cable from a world peopled with i'm.
perfect men and women.
, If the emphasis that has been lait
on this one aspect of life lately ha'
created a strong appetite for it's fur
: Their exploitation. that exploita tior
cannot possibly be prevented by re-
sort to criminal PROSECUTIONS. 1t car
only be ended by smothering the un.
bealthful craving, and no public au
! thority can accomplish this. 1t is
work for the home, involving the
moral and mental training of youn,
, and old that will restore distorted
3 perspective and re-establish san,
} conceptions of comedy and befittin,
conduct for ladies and gentlemen
young and old.