Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-24

shivering In the early fog. and trying
| to take her cold bath while shivering,
"even as you or l." It makes beholder
SILVER in sympathy. Poor kid! But
read the rest of the publicity expt rs
story; 49,,
moral picture then; it is not today. 1t
was just simple little picture, which
would have passed on, unnoticed and
| unsung, but for the guileleSSneSS Of that
| jealous old reformer, Anthony Com
stock, then head Of the Anti-Vice So
| ciety.
when the Russman Art Corporation
engaged me to exploit the picture, they
told me that great many prints had
| been made and were not selling. I
wasn't surprised. 1t wasn't real work
| of art, and it wasn't sensational. But it
was up to me to make 1t both.
II had my employers to put an en-
largement on display in the window of
an art shop on West Twenty-third
street. I then went down to Green
wich Village and hired 10 boys and
in front of the window. I coached
them how to act whenever anybody
stopped to look at September Morn
Finally, I called on Comstock,
launched upon bitter denunciation of
this immoral display, and insisted that
he accompany me, SO that he could see
with his own eyes how it was under
mining the morals of the youth of our
fair city. He fell.
Together, we walked down Fifth
avenue to Twenty-third street. When
| We came to the window where the pic
ture was on display my youngsters were
standing there pointing at it and max
ing grimaces intended to convey the
impression that they were getting a
great thrill out of it.
"Comstock took one look and was
Mortified. He ordered the picture re-
moved forthwith, but the shop owners
refused to obey. The Anti-Vice Society
head appealed to the courts. The news
papers leaped to the story with great
glee. September Morn became famous
overnight. Songs were written around
1t, vaudeville artists joked about it.
reform ministers denounced it, and in
the next six months 100000 men and
women bought 1t at 81 a copy. For
this job I received exactly $45, out
Of which had to pay the children who
helped me so cents apiece"
X X y X
While the above is the story of legit-
innate enterprise, does it not indicate
infinite possibilities of blackmail under
inefficient bureaucracy? It is a demon
Stration that, as Shakespeare put it,
Nothing Is either good or bad, but
thinking makes it So" It also demon
strates that what is bad" today may
be perfectly good tomorrow, and that
the crucial test of the beneficence of a
press censure is the method of its in
depreciation. Upon any arbitrary test,
the Holy Bible could not pass an Ameri-
can censorship; 1t didn't pass the censor
ship of Rome when it was translated by
any person but Roman Catholic, and
there are many passages which today
cannot be read in mixed company. Yet
who dares call it immoral? Will the
new tariff law exclude it? It is an
alien library.
What are the accepted standards of
blaSphemy and profanity, as defined in
literature that passes through our mails
unchallenged? Within the last few
weeks, $4,000 prize for the best novel
based on the World War has been won
by a story whose opening paragraphs
reek with baldest profanity and bias
phemy, In an effort to show the "rough-
neck" character Of American soldiers.
Don't stop, for C-'s sake. Every
time we stop, this damn mule lies down.
Keep that G-dam mule quiet"
Is "Candide" more profane? Is the
beam in our own eye SO transparent
that we see 1t not, while suffering such
pains over the mote of imported claS-
sizes? The new censorship applies only
to imports.
Native American anarchists are not
affected by the tariff regulations barring
undesirable BolSheviki. Is that what a
protective tariff" Is for?
Copyright, 1923, by Paul v. Collins.)