Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1916-10-27
AMERICAS FOREMOST AUTHOR PROTESTS
AGAINST SUPPRESSION Of GREAT BOOK AND
q. ART BY RECONSTRUCTED MORAL CENS0RS!

VOD2O "VUSSS O3SV~~"~
opportunity for a more glorious me
hereafter. We have been convinced
that we are destined to make the Ten
Commandments, in all their arbitrary
perfection, work.
One mil ht show readily enough that
America attained its amazing position
in life by reason of the fact that, along
with boundless opportunities, the Ten
Commandments did not work and do
not work, but what would be the use!
No country in the world, not even
England, is SO prolific in fol de rol re-
forms as this great country of ours.
Personally my quarrel is with Am
erica's quarrel with original thought.
It is so painful to me to see one after
another of our alleged reformers tilt
ing Don Quixote.like at the giant
windmills Of fact.
We are to have no pictures which
the Puritan and the narrow, animated
by an obsolete dogma Of religion can
not approve of. We are to have no
theaters no motion pictures, no books.
no public exhibitions Of any kind, no
speech even, which will in any way
contravene his limited view Of life.
Shakespeare has been ordered from
the schools in some states. The pro-
duction Of Anthony and Cleopatra has
been raided in Chicago.
Japanese prints of the highest value,
intended for the seclusion Of a private
collection, have been seized and the
most valuable of them held to be de.
stroyed. ,-.
BY turns, an artistic fountain in
New York, lone exhibits. Of paintings
in Denver, Kansas City, and else
where, have been attacked, not with
the invisible weapons of the law, as
might be expected, but with actual
axes.
A male dancer OF repute and some
artistic ability has been raided public
ly by the vice crusaders for his
shameless exposure Of his person.
To me this sort Of thing is dull. and
bespeaks the low state to which our
mental activities have fallen. When
it comes to the matter of serious let.
tiers it is the worst.
In New York a literary reign Of
terror Is being attempted. The pub
Usher of Gilbert Cannon's latest novel
is warned before he brings it out that
he will be prosecuted-a work that
probably has no more defect than be.
ing intelligent and true. Similarly,
Mr.. Przybyszewski's Homo Sapiens"
"a by no means Topographic work
is at once seized on its appearance,
and the publishers frightened into
withdrawing it. This was true Of
"Hagar Revelly," and now OF 1.-THE
Genius" as we'll as Of the eminent
August Forel's "The Sexual Question"
Think of the work of a scientist: Of
Forers attainments being banned!
This sort OF interference with SER
ious letter plumbs the depths OF ignor.
ance and intolerance; if not checked
It does and will check initiative and
inspiration at the source.
There is no compulsion on. anyone to
read. One must pay to do SO. What
Is more, one must have taste inner
emily to select, and a brain and a
heart to understand. With all these
safeguards and a double score Of cap.
able critics in every land to praise or
blame, what need really Is there for a
censor to indulge his personal predi.
lection and opposition, and appeal to
the courts If he is disagreed with?
Coming down to my own case, and
"The Genius" may say that up to
the time the book was suppressed, not
a single criticism could have been pre-.
duced condemning It as lewd or oh.
scene. Along comes John s. Sumner,
successor to Anthony Comstock, with
his peculiar point Of view, and his in
terest in so.called pornography, and
IS places are pointed out as lewd, and
II as blasphemous-a crime which is
not even listed In the penal code of
the state of New York.
Personally, l rise to protest. look
on this interference as an outrage.
When is It to end? When will we
lay aside our swaddling clothes, en-.
forced on us by ignorant impossible
puritans and their uneducated follow.
ers. and stand up free thinking men
and women?
Life Is to be. learned as much from
books as from life itself-almost more
SO, In my judgment. .-.a.
Books are the stored honey Of the
human soul, gathered on wings Of mis-.
cry and travail.
Shall the dull and the self.seeking
and the self.advertising close this
store on the cropping human mind?
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