Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1916-04-25
GREATER THAN THE CENSOR.


which the idea OF governmental su-
pervision OF peoples habits and
amuscments involves, the Meridian
Star truthfully and pertinently says:
There is always grave danger in
censorship, graver we fear than
many people appreciate-a danger OF
resort In secret, rather than in the
open where public opinion has far
reaching influence, an influence that
is more forceful than all the censor
ships ever devised"
1t is an economic fact that people
will search out what suits them it IL
is to be obtained anywhere, whether
the thing they want be good, bad or
indifferent. Laws may be made to
compel people 20 an outward obedi-
ence, but they cannot affect peoples
likes and dislikcs. and the usual re-
suit OF such laws is to drive people
to seek in secret something probably
worse than that which they were de-
MED in the open. Outwardly the re-
suit OF such legislation is to produce
n contempt for law. because so many
people feel morally justified In dis
obedience on the sly. From another
angle, IL Is not the right of one man
or set OF men to set rules for the
likes and dislikos or for the conduct
only to prevent one man from in
Iuring another and when law goes
further than that il is an injustice.
a damage to society and the state,
and is usually dead letter by com
mon consent This truth was recog
nizod by Paul, even In religious
sense. for he maintained that II was
wrong for men to set up rules and
penalties for the conduct and dis
cipline of tnsir brcthrcn-evcry mans
conscience should render an account
OF how nearly his life tailed with
his religion, not from the standpoint
of man made crccds but tested by
the divine commands. What APP
pears to be sinful or suggestive of
evil 10 one man may be perfectly
proper and even good in the opinion
of another. II is great mistake for
either church or state to attempt e,
prescribe limitations on the conduct
of mankind based on anything else
than the fundamental principle of
all righteous laws--thc fear of God
and justice to your fclow-man.
Aside from the fact that censor
ship is wrong in principle and that
the power OF public opinion is
surer and safer guide to the purity
of our amuscments than the dicta of
lawmakers. the great objection to
such supervision has come from
the fact that ignorant, uncultured
and preiudiced censors usually get
age than the good that was expected
OF them. In most cases they have
not labored to raise the standard of
what was offered to the public, but
have tried to hew things down to
the line OF their own peculiar no
tons The man has not been born
yet who is qualified to tell the pub
lie what is best for them. There
are many who have given good ad-
vice, and some advice that was not
so good; but when some of these
men get the chance to get whack
at the picture business or the stage
they generally proceed to suppress
many OF the things that are most
beneficial most instructive and most
elevating, on the plea that they are
not good for certain people to see
II these men could censor human
life, probably they would cmasculate
II and give us n dcnatured existence.
n life SO free from all possible sug-
gestlon OF evil that there would be
! lIll' soou ieit II tney nau tnclf
way, TO be consistent. they would
blue pencil' the holy scriptures and
cut out such things as they believe
would injure someone to read. II
these men had been on hand at the
creation OF the world, they would
have doleted the serpent and given
this planet a race of beings who were
snlcss because they did not know
how TO be otherwise. without dark
ness we cannot appreciate the light:
without evil we would not know
what good is; and as life is mix
ture OF good and evil. OF happiness
and sorrow, there is no virtue to
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