The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1923-04-12
~ORS PRINCIPLES
Montana Record Heraldl

AA4OAANSNAAN tN-N
At New York there is almost a con
t|inuous battle over the question of
censorship for novels and plays, and
nothing ever seems settled. Now anC
then an incident occurs bearing upon
the matter, which brings the old diff.
ference in views sharply before pub
lie attention-the difference that lies
between what our ancestors thought
and what we think about ancient in
situations and moral considerations.
This was illustrated lately at an Iowa
town when a committee of ministers
induced a movie theatre manager to
eliminate from a Charlie Chaplin
comedy the part in which the COM
edian, playing the roll of a minister,
made sport of the old custom of say
ing grace at the table.
Doubtless the majority of the
thoughtful people of the country will
approve of this example of censor
ship, even though they may be very
liberal in their religious views. Some
of our institutions, prominent among
which are the church, religion, the
schools, marriage, the army and the
navy, have for their sole aim the
promotion of individual, social or
national good. To be effective they
must have respect. Ridicule tends
to weaken them. While they are ac-
cepted and maintained by the Ameri-
can people, the sounder view seems
to be that they should be protected
from ridicule.
Those people who think an ''artist"
should be allowed to do anything in
a book, picture or play will dissent
from this view on the theory that
''art" should be unrestricted except
by its own sense of dignity and fit
ness. But this assumes too much
that all writers, playwrights and
painters will be sufficiently self-re-
strained, which is nonsense, for some
of them are crazy and others are
criminal.
The difficulty in the matter of GEN.
sorship is the old, one that attends
all attempts. to adjust human affairs.
Plays. books and works of art, in de-
lineating life, should be allowed the
very greatest degree of freedom con
with social good. But this
freedom must be limited where it in
fringes upon the rights of society.
At New York-where art centers
in this Countrywide writer makes fun
of judges who ban books, ~contending
that only literary artists are quail
fed to intelligently censor a book.
They maintain that no matter what
the subject or how it is treated, if the
aim is art, it should not be censored.
But the non-artistic public dis
agrees, holding that, no matter how
lofty the aim of the writer, sculptor
or playwright, if the work of art is
likely to injure society, the young or
the old, because of its improper
character. whether that strikes at
propriety, morals or the dignity and
respect dut to valuable institutions,
it ought to be suppressed or censored.
While the issue is never settled,
the strong tendency of some schools
of art today to break down and de-
grade institutions upon which the
moral welfare of the American peo-
pie depend has created a decided re-
in the public mind which prob
ably will result in the wiping out of
much of the postwar license in nov
els, plays and other forms of art so
noticeable at present, and the crea-
ton of a censorship in America more
than it has ever been.