The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-04-26
Who Puts The Sense
 In Censorship?

"'Is there any sense in censorship ?'' { iIFquireS Jesse L. LIaSky, vice presl- dent in charge of production of Para mount pictures, in the current of the Pictorial Review
 His reply is not an academic dis cuSSion, but rather d citation of in stances from the only four states that have tried to-blue pencil the films.
 Some of the amusing conflicts of opinion in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kan saS and Illinois are thus described by MT Lasky:
 crown of the censors was flashed in PennsyIvania It is rich jewel in deed Pennsylvan1as estimable board of cenSO<S decreed that no kiss on the film should exceed eight feet. Do you know what that means? It means that no two people may be shown the screen kissing for longer than five secOndst How they arrived at the decision that eight rect of film was enough for a kiss, l do not attempt to guess only know the facts No son can kiss his mother or any wife her husband for more than five seconds in PennsylVa- nia Heaven knows why don [. Neither am psychologist enough to tell why in Pennsylvania it is immoral to intimate the coming of mother hood in any manner whatsoever The censors there have barred pictures of women knitting garments for babies that were to come they have ehml- mated the showing Of a cradle beIore a baby came to fill it
 Wanted a Reason
 "One producer complained of these arbitrary and meaningless ruling and asked for a reason. He was told IL was because the children believed that storks brought the babies and that they did not want to disabuse any child'S mind So he went back to hls studio and made q picture in which a stork hOvered over a scene And oI1t son known only to themselves But the harassed producer was not SaIs- fled and went to court, with the result that the mandate of these ridiculous cenosrs was reversed.
 And censors, like physicians. don't always agree among themselves. In Kansas for instance, they will not permit the showing of The Birth of a Nation. Pennsylvania passed it when it was first produced and Ohio ad- mitted it atfer many months of de liberation. The Pennsylvania cenSOrS attempted to prevent the showing of The Miracle Man but were unsuc- oeSful- Incidentally Tine Miracle Man has been almost universally hailed as one of the most uplifting Inotion-pictures ever produced
 'In Camille Dumas's immortal drama, Pennsylvania censors wsnted to have Camille married to Ar mand,' but the courts said it couldn't be done. The merry censors said The Easiest Way was an immoral
 
 them They saved the soul of Penn ssylvania. by cutting out of one picture the immortal title, If we only had little one of our own,' spoken by a perfectly respectable married woman to her own husband, and they pre- vented the showing on the screen, in The Eternal Magdalen, the Biblical quotations He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone and Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more These lines were immoral. the censors said. The cen SorS said, mind you, and yet these words of the Masters are repeated in every church in Christendom.
 Two States Agree.
 "ohio and Pennsylvania do agree on one thing-that it is wrong to show in the news weel1hes scenes il- frustrating clashes between labor and capital A year ago, while the news coal and steel strikes, with pictures of the rioting, Ohio barred scenes of the coa1-strike riots and Pennsylvania would not allow theaters to show scenes of the trouble in the steel yards If that isn't interfering with personal liberty, what is?
 .sPennsylvania barred 'Marys An lzle,' Dangerous Hours,' The Palliser Case The Woman in the Suitcase and The Cup of Fury but Ohio said they were all right. Ohio censors one-piece bathing-Suits, but the august censors in Pennsylvania say that it is quite all right to do So
 .@Peurs>yIyania passed The Cheat which ran for many months, but when a new print Of this picture Was sent to Pennsylvania, the board re- jected it. When the board learned that The Cheat had been passed once. it changed it's mind and allowed the picture to be shown again
 Eddie Polo has returned to Uni versal City from two weeks at Byron Hot Springs. recuperatng from the