Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-17
Al Jurlst on
4 the Follies OF
Censorship
placing the Dramatist Un-
J.r Jurisdiction Other
,,,;se Foreign to Law
!, RA1NBR1DGE COLBY

s,oving picture Is TO-DAY tns most
lns ne. soIrn OF the drama " nas become
kpnsassn field Of the most giIteu writers
the onosem N a,,,st talented players 1t Is true
and inc IA then some cheap theatre,
that: now sneciel appeal to the lewd fel.
+ nnakhs ~ baser sort, Is guilty or onenses
lows .. snoanov but this Is matter for
asais,,.o acting under existing provisions
nc ponee ae,ai law. which are adequate and
q so,,s uS But these offenses are by no
ssrs confined to the moVins-plcture
,S.otres. which, with few eNcep.ions' aIe ue.
hea.vs, serious art, and seek to attract
yossu .ssnectable patronage, which, hap
Vns n. .or rsi ia the larger patronage
~, these circumstances to ADOPT 80
o-sS,,od a means of regulation as cen.
..hIn and to single out one Drancn or
sssiye art for humiliation ana outlawry,
si,lorgh II is predomlnantly cream ana nom
- a backward step into the darkness
es' ,.sradss the dramatist by placing him
..s.r y a summary Jurisdiction otherwise un-
snsvn 10 our law. 1t puts the property
"a ron,itatIon of a great body or deserving
..nrknnen at the mercy OF a secret Tribunal,
.sytch az one stroke can silently annihilate
~ labor of months and years, without CIV
,nv any reason, and subject to no appeal
~ ,gs would not suffer such treatment to be
,'st.d ont TO the burglar or the pickpocket
ABIDE from the objections to censor
min which have been mentioned. namely,
,be arbitrary character of its power, Its
tsndency to corruption, the injustice of It
thAre ls the further consideration that 1t
ms always been denounced and opposed by
the great guilds of art and literature. 1t
"a banal proposal-narrow, stupid, pro-
viucial--condemned by its operation and
observed results and hated by every man of
culture and enlarged understanding in the
world.
AL a recent inquiry into the dramatic
censorship in England a Parliamentary
(, comu,lttee received the testimony of many
eminent wrlters-poets, novelists and dra-
matte authors including Sir Arthur w.
pinero John Galsworthy, Thomas Hardy,
Henry James, II. G. Wells, Joseph Conrad,
israel zangwilI, Arnold Bennett, Granville
Barker Bernard Shaw and others of al
most equal fame. All sounded a single note
THAT the censorship tends to deprive the
theatre of intellectual life, of the Importance
10 which free choice of subjects and illus
tration directly ministers, and to confine
II to the trivial and the puerile. The late
Henry James summed up the case for art
and truth In few words.
'.It Is difficult" said he, ito express the
depth Of dismay and disgust with which an
author of books finds 1t impressed upon
him, In passing into the province of the
theatre with the view of laboring there,
that he, has to reckon anxiously with an
obscure and irresponsible Mr.. So-and-So.
who may by law peremptorly demand of
him that he shall make his work square at
vital points with Mr.. So-and-Sos personal
and, Intellectually and critically speaking,
wholly unauthoritative preferences, preju-
dices and ignorances and that the less orig
inal the less important, and the less inter-
esting II Is, and the more vulgar and super
fetal and futile, the more 1t is likely so to
: square.
4 He thus encounters an arrogation of crit
ical authority and the critical veto, with the
power to inforce its decisions. that is with
out parallel in any other civilized country,
and which has in this one the effect of rele-
eating the theatre to the position of mean.
minor part and Of condemning 1t to ignoble
- S~""ies poverties and pusillanmities."