Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1916-05-02
BIRTH B Of A NATION
MANAGERS + ARRESTED r | ! !
Three Men Taken Into Custody for
Showing Prohibited Film in
ii. Des Moines. @

TT. Des Moines.
Des Moines, May 1.-The district
court refused an injunction to pre-
vent the showing of the film, 'The
Birth of a Nation" this morning
and the city. will institute prosecu-
ton of the threatre people.
In spite of the vote of the city
council few weeks ago prohibiting
the showing of 'The Birth Of a Ma
ton in Des Moines the managers
LOT the show undertook to exhibit it
Sunday.
During the afternoon performance
Assistant Chief of Police w. p. Nc
Dowell and sergt. William Kelly en-
tered the theater and placed three
|of the employees of the house under
arrest and took them to the central
station on a charge of violating the
lefty ordinance regulating plays cal
|culated to incite riots.
At the police station the men were
booked and then released on their
own recognizance to appear Monday.
The arrests were made in a quiet
manner, and but few people in the
theater knew they were being made.
A writer, in the Des Moines Regis
ter and Leader makes the following
criticisms of the production:
Among the many libels and false
hoods of the play the greatest is the
Justification of history as to Thad-
deus Stevens, republican leader in
the house Of representatives during
the reconstruction period. The pro-
ducers of "The Birth of a Nation"
took no chance Of Jail sentence for
criminal libel by mentioning Stevens
|by name. They concealed his iden-
|tity under the name of Austin
|Stoneman, leader of the house."
In this play, Thaddeus Stevens. or
|Stoneman, is in love with a mulatto
|housekeeper, guides the destiny OF
South Carolina under black voters,
and finally rebelling against racial
|intermarriage when a mulatto poll
|tician wants to marry his daughter,
he witnesses her glorious rescue by
the Ku Klux Khan from the mulatto
land black soldiers of the United
States. This. it is stated on the
screen, occurred following the cleo
|tion of 1871.
The Ku Klux Khan, according to
1.-THE Birth Of Nation" was organ
lied in 1871 for the restoration OF
white political supremacy and the
protection of the honor Of white
women.
+ The above is correct, historically,
Except in the following details:
1. The Ku Klux Khan was organ
lied in 1S66-before the ballot had
been given to the Negro.
2. Assaults upon women by Me-
lgrees were altogether unknown in
1.-THE south at this period.
g. The Kh Klux Khan devoted it.
self wholly to murder. arson. tor
Iture and robbery upon the person
land homes of Negroes who tried to
Hive honestly and industriously.
4. Thaddeus Stevens died before
the Negro was given the ballot.
5. Thaddeus Stevens at the time
The was pictured as middle aged,
humorous man making love to the mn-
|latto, was an aged cripple nearer 80
than 20 years old
6. The blacks never sought to in
|termarry with the whites. OF q
100000 mulattoes in the south,
practically all have white fathers.
Z. There was not one black sold
Ter Of the United States army in the
entire south after the close of the
war.
1.-THE Birth of Nation" .endeav-
|ors from one end to the other to
heap insults upon the uniform of the
union veteran. In depicting the at
tempted rape of southern white
girl. Griffith clothes the. Negro as
sailant in the uniform of the United
States army. Practically all of the
United States soldiers appearing in
the play, when there Is any detail as
to their faces, are either Negroes
chosen for their ugliness, or the most
|disreputable looking white men that
could be found.
In the meeting between General
Grant and General Lee at Appomat-
tox, Lee is the very picture of digni-
fed grandeur. Grant appears as an
|uncouth boor. He slouches across the
ct q oo with n ciUar cfuck infO his