Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-09-09
CONQUEST BY cENsoRs2

W faith in censors and belief in their
usefulness spread through all the English
speaking world. Even many of the people
who try to keep an intelligent and interpre-
tative eye on the drift Of contemporary
events have failed thus far to notice the con-
tinuing progress in victorious lands OF a
characteristic malady Of the Germany OF
the Kaiser. -
Censors with official powe" to establish
standards Of art and literature and to gov
crn or restrict expression Of individual feel
ing may be useful now and then. 1t Is not
of such censors as now exist that sensitive
observers are moved to complain. 1t is
rather of the disposition Of great and grow
ing masses of people to defer to them and
accept them and give their minds into their
keeping that appears Mt times to indicate
some weakening of the spirit Of self-rcliance
that used to be the dominant characteristic
of the Anglo. Saxon and his associate pio-
neers Of the New Civilization.
Sir Gilbert Parker, when he arrived in
this country yesterday, was not off the ship
before he seized an opportunity to deplore
all the PHILOSOPHERS created in recent years
to sustain the belief in censors Of one sort
and another, especially the belief in those
that function as watchmen and watchwomen
over the art Of literature and the moving
pictures, Sir Gilbert said it all when he
observed that the only safe and tolerable
and efficient censorship is the censorship Of
mass opinion.
1t may be interesting in this connection
to try for n moment to imagine what would
have happened II administrative bureau
cracies. established in accord with some
ideas now fashionable, were functioning to
impose their standards on writers Of the
past and to outlaw work which they re-
garded as dangerous propaganda Ger
tainly the bureaucrats in London would
have called out the guard for Dickens.
Dickens was, first of all. a propagandist
against many institutions Of the sort which
the typical bureaucrat regards as sacred.
Zola in his greatest hours was a propa-
gandst. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote in
Uncle Toms Cabin novel of propa-
ganda that would have been promptly sup
pressed 'in the interest Of the public peace
If n let of the small jobbers in the politics
of the time had had the power to suppress
it. Charles Reade was n propagandist. So
were John Bunyan and Cervantes. They
merely gave to criticism of hated or doubt
full institutions new form. Indeed, every
great writer is preacher at heart, and
some Of the best and most obscure and most
hated of them have been ministers of God
laboring in alien vineyards.
another. To say that censorship of books
and painted pictures is needed or that a
tightening censorship. even over the movies.
is justified is to say that art at last has lost
its freedom to grow and that it may never
again take forms too noble 70 be understood
by the sort Of politician who gets the easiest
job. The worst thing about censorship OF
the movies Is that ii seems at times like n
preliminary to censorship of painted pictures
and books and plays and even the Church.
Religious censorship-or attempts at it--are
visible even now in more than one quarter.
The right Of ministers Of the Gospel to say
what they feel to be right has been openly
challenged. What we are witnessing is an
effort Of theorists to bind the spirit Of man
and make it silent and reform it in the like
ness of n bureaucrat.
1t Is not enough to say that many movies
need censoring or to admit that producers
grossly abused the privileges of their free
dom in the earlier days of the industry
The principle represented by the remedy Of
censorship is more to be feared than the
bad pictures to which no one need 60 and
worse than the offenses which it is supposed
to prevent For our civilization is the prod =
uct of free opinion and unhindercd inspira-
tiOn in the individual. 1t has grown strong
by criticism. Criticism has kept it clean.
The best way to be rid of fools who talk
! and write is to give them n hearing. They
| must have something better than what we
| have or they must get out of the way. Pro-
| greSSivc human intelligence quietly over =
| wheIms them.
II is not wickedness or disorder that the
censor makers fear. 1t is progress. And it
| is change