The Washington times., 1916-05-17
Photoplay Producer Sends
Frank Views on Censorship
to Members Of Congress.
RIDIcULEs PROPOSED LAW
Declares Captlous Orders Of
censors Would Destroy Art
Of the Picture.

David wark Griffith. who is by
way Of being the most authoritive
person in these United states regard
ing the production OF motion pictures,
declares that II the principles OF CEN
eorsbip proposed in the national
censorship bill before Congress. had
been suggested for literature there
would have been no Shakespeare. n
Dickens. no Thackeray. no Dumas.
no Cervantes, no Hugo, no lbsen,
and certainly no Maeterlinck.
Griffith In the author OF an anti
censorship pamphlet which has.
within the past two or three days.
been placed in the hands OF every
member OF Congress and most OF the
PEOPLE who will have the most to
do with the censorship legislation
that 10 proposed.
The producer of 1.-THE Birth OF the
Nation" and a hundred other films
uses sarcasm and keen analysis in
sorship and his prediction OF what
will happen. Books and newspapers
W.T. be the next to feel the weight of
the humors OF people whose business
in life II is to attend to other peoples
business.
Advocates Talk Nonsense.
1T is painful to listen to the nom
sensc about censorship from the peo-
pic who are behind It," Mr.. Griffith
writes.
These people would not have us
show the glorles and beauties of
the most wonderful moral lesson
the world has ever known-the life
OF Christ-because In that story we
must show the vice of the traitor
Judas Iscariot.
Had the modern censors existed
In past ages. and followed out their
theories to "a logical conclusion.
THEY'VE would have been written no
Iliad of Homer; there would not
have been written for the glory of
the human race that grand cadence
OF uplift called the Bible; there
would have been no Goethe. There
would have been no thrilling, beau
tiful dramas given us as the
grandest heritage of the English
speaking race-the plays of Shake
speare.
Would Avoid Truth.
According to the theory of the
censors. the moving picture pro-
ducers must slavishly avoid the
truth, for fear of treading on the
toes Of races. politicians. and in
dividuals.
dor example-the moving pictures
dare not even hint the possibility of
wrong conduct of the Democrats in
Atlanta; of the Republicans In a
another vicinity; of the police In
Chicago; of the Germans in Mil
waukee; of the Irish in another
community.
make a censorship Of the printed
press unconstitutional and intoler-
able to Americans, make a censor
ship of the pictorial press unconsti-
tutional and intolerable.
Violates Constitutional Right.
1.-THE theory OF the constitutional
guarantee. in brief. Is this: Every
American citizen has a constitutional
right to publish anything he pleases.
either to speech, or in writing. or In
print, or in pictures, subject to his
personal liability after publication
to the penalties OF violating any law.
such as the law forbidding obscenity.
libel and other matter legally unfit
for publication.
But the distinction between this
theory and censorship Is that CEN
sorship passes upon and forbids
printing a picture before publication,
and so directly controverts the most
valuable OF all our liberties under the
Constitution. which our fathers es-
tablished for our guidance and our
protection.
III the pictorial press can be sub
tected to censorship by mere act
of Congress. then so can the print
ed press. And. Of course, there
would be an end, at once. to the free
dom of writing and printing"