The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-12-10

jected to such test! Imagine what
would happen, if such censor were
to stumble upon a copy of Loves
Pilgrimage!
Reverend Chase died, and the police
and the booksellers, lacking his divine
guidance, got into dispute, and that
is how the present situation arose,
with so much free advertising for
can American Tragedy" and ELMER
Gantry" and COLL" But truce has
just been arranged, and the voice of
God will again prevail in Boston's
book business. The Watch and Ward
Society has got q new secretary, the
Reverend Charles Bodwell, and re-
porter asked this gentleman what he
thought of Upton Sinclair's idea that
the Bible and Shakespeare are OBJ
scene under the Massachusetts law;
he answered: Certain paragraphs in
both books should be cut out of edi-
tons that are open to the general
public"
This Massachusetts law is built like
bear-trap. 1t specifies any book
Containing; so they can pick out
any passage they don't like, without
considering the whole book. The
judge who issued the warrant in the
case of "Oilw admitted to me that
he had read only the passages COM
planned of by the police; and lawyer
who stood nearby and heard the con-
versation was very much excited, and
offered to testify to this outrageous
state of affairs. replied by advising
the lawyer to look up his Massachu-
sets law. Under this law, the judge
was under no obligation to read the
book. The instructions given to a
Jury, and upheld by the Supreme
Court of Massachusetts were: "You
ere not trying any book. except this,
and only such parts of this as the
government complains Of" And in
order to make quite certain that there
could be no fairness in the trial, the
learned Judge went on: sit makes no
difference what the object in writing
this book was, or what it's whole tone
is"
Finally, the test of literature is
its effect upon the young. Manifest
| ly tending to corrupt the morals of
YOUTH" says the law. Modern writ
ers are confined to the juvenile de-
partment; they are not permitted to
discuss the problems of adult life
from an adult point of view. Some
youth is easily corrupted-when it has
been brought up under Catholic or
Fundamentals auspices, and kept in
ignorance of the elementary facts of
! life.
The superintendent of police in Bos-
ton is large Catholic gentleman by
he name of Mike Crowley. He was
much excited about my book, and told
my lawyers that it was "the worst
Of the lot" and that if | sold a copy
in Boston, he would personally APP
pear to prosecute me, and ask the
Judge to give me year on Deer Is
7d 81 7 went to call on this offic;@
and sold him a copy of my book in
his headquarters, and incidentally We
had discussion, completely revealing
] IS to the Catholic point Of view.
ant quote it all. because Mr Grow
lay was obscene in his description o.
obscenity. But he demanded to know
Why we writers had suddenly taken
0utting such things INFO books. at
My in the last few years you've bee
Icing it,"
"Surely Mr.. Crowley" said, "you
can't be very familiar with standard
literature. Shakespeare, for example
-"
"You don't find any of these bed
room scenes in Shakespeare"
"Have you ever happened to read
| 'Cymbeline,' Mr.. Crowley?"
"Oh now, of course, you can put
it over me in an argument about
books. But there's terrible things in
that book Of yours. Mr.. Sinclair"