The New York herald., 1922-03-08
HOLMES DEMANDS
CLEANSING OF STAGE
Pastor Warns Managers Cen
sorship Will Be Forced by
Indecency in Plays.
CALLS 8 OUT OF 80 UNFIT
Remedy Is Desperate, but Can
Be Averted Only by Gust
ing Filth.

The danger OF the establishment OF a
theater censorship. because of the pres
ent run OF indecent plays, which tends
to bar many Of the very finest of artistic
creations. was pointed out last night
by the Rev. DR.. John Haynes Holmes
pastor Of the Community Church. Park
avenue and Thirty-fourth street.
DR.. Holmes says. as a passionate
lover" of the theater, that he is opposed
to censorship. but that its imposition
will be inevitable unless public opinion
asserts its disgust at the filth Of many
stages. Beside the attitude of the
theatergoing public he points out two
other remedies--a code OF honor among
honorable managers that would prevent
the production of indecent plays and
similar action by organizations of actors
and actresses.
How long do the people OF New York
propose to stand for the present inde-
scribable situation in our theaters?" said
DR.. Holmes in a statement to the pub
lie. Have we actually become so de-
moralized in thought and sentiment that
we are going to permit continuance of
conditions which are intolerable to
every decent minded man and woman +?
Have we got to come to the desperate
remedy of a censorship in order to rid
the city OF the filth which now en-
cumbers and pollutes its life?
To-day the theater, along with the
opera house and the symphony hall. is
my chief source of recreation and in
spiration. 1t is just because / love the
! theater so much that / am compelled
to declare my conviction that the theat-
rical situation in New York to-day is
an unmitigated scandal, stencil in the
| nostrils of every decent citizen"
DIR. Holmes said that he had counted
nine plays out OF thirty-nine advertised
in the daily newspapers that he con-
sidercd indecent and inappropriate on
any stage that makes claim to being
civilized" Such plays. he said, were no
more entitled to display on the public
stage than garbage or sewage in pub
| lie street.
Sounding a warning that censor
ship is bound to follow such license. he
said the blue Stockings and "Puri-
tan fanatics" should not be blamed but
the theatrical manag ars who are re-
sponsible for the appearance of such
plays.
"a censorship has no place in a
democracy" he continued, because it
involves the substitution of a govern
1 nent OF persons for a gov srnment of
law, an opinion for principle in social
order. A censorship. however well ad-
ministered is an intolerable interfer-
ence with the free activity of the crea-
tive spirit. If genius is to express it.
self and art TO flourish they must not
| be bound down under a censorship.
"As practical matter of fact a cen.
sorship simply does not work. It is the
filthy stuff, somehow or other. which
gets through the sieve, while great ar
tistic works are suppressed. Censor.
| ship in England has not cleaned the
London stage, but Il has kept from
the boards such plays as Ibsen's
Ghosts" Maeterlinclk's "Monna Wanna
and Shaw's THE Showing Up OF Blancc
Posnet." IF we had a censorship o
plays in New York to-day I should not
be surprised to see the "Demi-Virsin'
licensed and Back to Methuselah" ban
/ ished"