The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-04-25
BERLIN NEWS NOTES

Berlin, Germany, April 25.-German
moralists and artists are Waging battle
over the question of what are the linn
its Of propriety in nude art.
After a long campaign for the pro
lection Of the youth against filth in
word and picture" as the movement is
termed, the mOralists nav succeeded
in getting a bill before parliament for
a law stamping as indecent pictures
which might arouse the phantasies Of
unripe youth"
The Goethe association, an organiza-
ton of artists and literary men n
women. has risen in protest. 1t a re-
cent meeting DIR. Ludwig Fulda re-
ferred to a recent decision Of the I'm
perial supreme court in the cases aris-
ing from the c~ontisCation by the police
Of a great quantity of postcard repro-
auctions of famous paintings. This
court held that the provisions Of the
law stamping as indecent works which
tend to cause Offense to or injure the
feelings of mOdesty Of a normal per-
SON. clearly contemplated a normal
adult person, and that pictures were
not necessarily indecent from the mere
fact that they might AROUSE the phan-
tastes of unripe youth" The court
also ruled that nudity is not in itself
i~ndeCency. This latter ruling, said DR..
Fulda, was Individually a vote of con-
fidence in the creator Of all things.
The measur to which the Goethe
association objects seeks to COunteract
the ruling of the supreme court. 1t
provides that adults may legally take
offense' at pictures, books, ETC., which
they consider a menace to youth. The
term normal person" is replaced by
person." and the provision of the ex-
listing law requiring that criminal in
tent be shown is dropped.
DIR. Fulda, as we'll as the speakers
who followed him at the protest meet
ing, declared that the proposed law
would put all Germans into the nur-
sery." 1t constituted an unreasonable
guardianship of adults in its efforts to
guard children. 1t would mean that
works of art would be judged from the
viewpoint of the immature, and that
would mean in turn that art would be
throttled. The Goethe association, said
DIR. Fulda, was also interested in the
welfare Of the youth and in their pro-
lection against evil influences, but this
was the work of the family. The I'M
ripeness of youth must not be made
the standard for judging works Of art,
Defenders of the proposed law de-
clare that. apart from the recent post
card ConfisCations, which are generally
admitted to have been rather ludiCrous
exhibitions of misuSed zeal, both pic
tOrial and literary art have extended
protection in Germany. The new law
they point out, is chiefly designed tC
do away with immodest exhibitions ir
shop windows.
A very considerable number of art
lists in Germany maintain that there
Is no possible subject which a painter
or sculptor cannot properly handle. II
his work is artistic, they declare, Il
must be free from interference, ne
matter what subject be representa-
The views of this school were recently
summed up by q satirical writer az
follows:
The test of whether a painting il
a true work of art is this: If, Wher
o look at it, it causes no evi
thoughts, that proves that it is a worl
of art. If it does cause evil thought
that proves that you are a hog"
A~eropIanes will be used to bring dia.
monds from the mines of German
Southwest Africa to their shipping
point. The air route will save boil
time and money. zinc 1t will at once
do away with the necessity of trav-
ersing difficult jungle paths, and o
sending a troop of soldiers with eact
shipment to protect it from robbers.
The Imperial colonial authorize:
have laid out a flying field at Caribib
d hundred miles northeast of Swakop.
mund, and experiments will be. begun
there next month by four non-commis.
stoned officers Of the African protec.
torate troops who have been trained
at J~ohannisthal and Mulhausen.
Besides transporting diamonds, thu
machines will serve to bring mail GU
from the interior and for military OBJ.
serVations, chartography, etc. A Yer!
important part Of the aviators' worl
will be the carrying of doctors abou
the colony. With the aid Of the sig
mailing apparatus 1t will be possible t,
summon a physician within a few
hours to as many as 200 villages. B.
roadways it would take him severe
days to reach some of the places.