The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1928-06-14

Just as we had finished Lucius
Swift's romantic outline of this ma.
tons various institutions, along
came Arthur Garfield Hays tome
"Let Freedom Ring!" (Liveright)
to inform US that liberty is . nice
word if you know how to use it.
Hays is New York lawyer. He
has been identified with . large
number of cases involving liberal
issues, intolerances, and freedom
Of this-and- His militant study
leaves the impression that free
dom will succeed in wringing our
necks if we don't watch out.
"Gradually, so slowly that it is
hardly noticeable, the ideals for
which America stands, the rights
guaranteed by the Constitution, and
our very foundations are slipping
away" writes Hays. "There is no
such thing as freedom of speech or
assemblage on any subject that
really matters"
He tells the story of the Scopes
trial in Tennessee in writing of
freedom of thought and education;
he writes of Roger Baldwin's ar
rest for reciting sections Of the
Declaration of independence in New
Jersey; Of anti-race cases, the Sac
co-Vanzetti trial, the Boston book
banning, the suppression Of periodi-
Gals and newspapers and q great
deal more. He warns against the
growing intolerance and shows some
Of the ridiculous aspects of censor
ALPHABETICALLY in the drama.
It's a book to make you think,
whether or not you agree with At
torney Hays point of view.
Swift's book, "How We Got Our
Liberties" (Bobbs-Merrill) trails
the various institutions to their
various lairs.
So fac. as Boston's book censor
ship is concerned, it has seemed to
us that its worst feature is to bring
into undue prominence books that
do not warrant the attention thus
attracted. The latest example is
bad Girl" which is likely to sell
more copies than it deserves, thanks
to the Boston implication of naugh-
tiness. What perhaps bothered the
Boston judges was the lengthy pic
ture Mrs. Delmar, its author, drew
of approaching maternity.
It's hard to believe that in this
day of super-candid sex discussion,
prudishness still attaches to the
confinement room. Fully realizing
that some excellent, critics have
hailed this work, we found it more
intopoek:np $o,. Sc ,,~ov,n;eo <h~n fow
its achievement. We are not among
those to hail it as an important
Accommodating on critical, rather
than moralistic points, however.
A book on which we find our
selves disagreeing with several ma
jor critics is Clare Sheridan's MAX
ed Truth" (Harpers). We did not
consider it naked, and we might
argue its truth. Truths cannot be
half told and Mrs. Sheridan seemed
to us to bare just enough to sug-
gest more and thus to contradict
the title of the book.
There has been a great deal of
palaver about the sensational quail
tiles of this work, but this sensa-
tionalism seemed to use to be a bit
deliberate. Mrs. Sheridan brings
innumerable famous folk into her
pages-Mussolini, Trotski, Lenin,
and a whole parade Of others. But
she threw little light on them, SO
far as we were considered. Her
book seemed to us to be somewhat
less than good reporting. Nor did
we get an impression of her capac-
ity to feel situations very deeply
a quality that made the Isadora ,
Duncan autobiography so human a
document.
Since the Pulitzer prize award to
"The Bridge of San Luis Rey"
probably is engendering more or
less comment, our particular inter-
est in this selection lies in the COM
plete change of policy on the part
of the Pulitzer judges. The original
demanded = novel that
would uplift American morals and
or something like that,
and was presumed to cover the
American scene. The Thornton
Wilder book has nothing to do with