The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-04-01

many dissent and some howl with !
rage when a work like Jude the
Obscure" by Thomas Hardy, one !
OF the most famous novalists in the !
world, is attacked on the same
ground and by inference put in the !
same class.
It has been shown that the Com
stocks have erected machine
which makes it possible for them
sometimes to suppress book, on
their own judgment, by a mere
wave of the hand. But even if ne
goes into court, the author or pub
Usher is given no fair chance, ac-
cording to Mr.. Mencken, who has
studied all Of the decisions in such
cases. ''He cannot allege in his
defense that the offending work was
put forth for legitimate. necessary
and decent purposes; he cannot al
lese that passage complained OF
is from a standard work itself in
general circulation; he cannot offer
evidence that the person to whom
a book or picture was sold or ex-
hibited was not actually depraved
By it, or likely to be depraved by
It; he cannot rest his defense On
the lack of such effect on the jury.
men themselves; he cannot plead
that the alleged obscenity,- in point
of fact, is couched in decent and
unobjectionable language: he can
not plead that the same or a SINH
lar work has gone unchallenged
elsewhere. Finally all the de-
oisions deny the defendant the right
ta introduce any testimony, wheth-
er expert or otherwise, that book
is Of artistic value and not por-
nographic, and that its effect upon
normal persons is not pernicious.
The quotation is from Mencken's
"a Book of Prefaces," and he cites
in footnotes the cases in which
these presidents have been estab-
lished He surely describes a curl
Gus legal machinery to exist in
country which is supposed to be
the home of free press, free
speech, individual liberty and JUS
! tice.
The actual workings of this legal
machine have been exceedingly If
regular. For example, two books
by American authors Of high repute
published by American publishers
in good standing have been at
tackled within recent years. One Of
! these was "Hagar Revelly" by DAN
iel Carson Goodman, and the other
THE Genius" by Theodore Dresser.
During the same time two novels
by the Russian, Artzibashef, have
been published in translation and
have gone unscathed, although they
+, treated sex in far more morbid
and radical manner than either of
| the American books. Such exam
pies of inconsistency could be null
| tiplied at great length. Comstock
| activity has not been a system
attic campaign against anything in
particular; it has merely been a
series of isolated assaults on in
dividual authors and publishers.
! Its net effect has not been to purge
our book stores and libraries OF
anything whatever, but merely to
j.! keep our native authors and pub
fishers in a state of terror and &C.
casicnally in state of bankruptcy.
While a book like The Genius" is
withheld from circulation any one
may go to the library Of congress
and get the complete works of Guy
f! de Maupassant, which are equally
| frank and far more morbid in their
treatment of sex themes. They may
also find there, or in any other
irst-elass library, hundreds of 9TH
er foreign works which are more
inGictable on the same counts than
the American novels which have
been suppressed. The Comstoeks
often fail even to keep out Of cir
culation the books they suppress.
"Jurgen" has been enormously adj
vertised by its suppression and is
now selling secretly in New York
at $40 copy. But the author is
not getting any Of this money.
! Such is the argument against the
Comstocks which is made ty critics
and authors. In its defense it
claims that 1t is defending the
Young against the demoralizing In
fiuence of art. Not only is this de-
Tense weakened by the considera-
ton that the Comstocks have In
fact worked only s2oradically and
without Judgment or system. but
1t is further weakened by the we'll
{, known fact that literature not suit
ed for the very young Is generally
| kept out OF their hands. and is
often unintesliSibie 70 them. Fra