The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-25
NUDE ART BOTHERS. GERMAN M0RALlSTS
Hot Battle Is On Over Ex hibition of Undraped
 Figures By Shops

Berlin. April 25. German moral ists and artists are wasing battle over the question of what are the limits of propriety in nude art
 After long campaign for the @pro- tection Of the youth against filth in word and picture as the movement is termed. the noralists have succeed ed in getting a bill before Parliament for law stamping as indecent pic lures which might arouse the pi1an- tasies of unripe youth.
 The Goethe Association. an organ izatIon of artists and literary men and women, has risen in protest. At a recent meeting, pr. Ludwig Fulda referred to the recent decision of the Imperial Supreme Court in the cases arising from the confiscatlon by the police of a great quantity of postcard reproductions of famous paintings This court held that the provision Of the law stamping as indecent works which sstend to cause offense to or in jure the feelings of nodesty of a nor mai person clearly contemplated a normal adult person, and that pie tures were not necessarily indecent from the mere fact that they might s.arouse the phantasies of unripe youth.'' The court also ruled that nudity is not in itself indecency. This latter ruling, said pr. FuIdas was in dubitably a vote of confidence in the creator of all things.
 1 The measure to which the Goethe Association objects seeks to counteract the ruling of the Supreme Court. It provides that adults may legally take ohfense', at pictures, books, etc, which they consider a menace to youth. The term normal person. is replaced by \ person, and the provision of the existing law requiring that criminal
 intent be shown is dropped
 Dr. F'ulda. as well as the speakers who followed him at the protest
 meeting. declared that the proposed I law would put all Germans into the 1 nursery It constituted an unrea- sonabie guardianship or adults in it's efforts to guard children. It would mean that works of art would be 1 Judged from the viewpoint of the inn mature. and that would mean in turn 1 that art would be throttled. The was also interested in the welfare of 1 the youth and in their protection against evil influences. but this was 1 the work Of the family. The unripe- l ness of youth must not be made the standard for judging worfS of art.
 Defenders of the proposed law de
 clare that, apart from the recent post 1 card, confiscations, which are general | ly admitted to have been rather lu- tdicrous exhibitions of misused zeal | DDLn QlCtOIls1i anu l1t6Ld1y dIt nave l extended protection in Germany. The
 new law, they point out. is chiefly de l signed to do away with immodest ex- l hibitions in shop windows.
 very considerable number of ar 1 lists in Gernony maintain that there 1 is no possible subject which a painter or sculptor cannot properly handle If his work is artistic, they declare, ii l must be free from interference, nc matter what subject Is represented The views of this school were re
 gently summed up by a satirical writer as follows:
 '.The test of whether a paint l ing is a work of art il this:, eff, when you look at 1t. ii causes no evil thoughts, that proves that it is a work of art. If it does cause evil thoughts, that proves thad l you are hog.'''
 Aeroplanes will be used to bring diamonds from the mines of German Southwest Africa to their shipping sI point. The air route will save botf time and money. since 1t will at encs
 do away with the neeessity of tra' syersing dih7cult jungle paths and Q