Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-24
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

Every dog has his muzzle, but still
| there are muzzles to spare, so they are
proposing to fit them on the press, in
Guiding both publishers and distributors
of newspapers and of books created
| abroad. The idea is involved in the
tariff bill-a strange combination seek
| ing to protect infant industries and in
fantile readers as If they were all alike.
OF course. there Is the famous BILL
Of Rights" in the Constitution, the first
amendment providing that: Congress
shall make no law respecting an estab-
| lishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or
the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Govern
ment for a redress of grievances"
X X X X
Yet the House of Representatives in
framing the new tariff bill has written
into it provision excluding from this
country immoral articles in print, and
any written matter urging treason, in
surrection or forcible resistance to any
law of the United States, or containing
any threat to take the life of, or inf1ict
bodily harm on, the President Of the
United States"
The Senate amends so that threats
against the life or person of anybody in
the United States bars the matter from
entry.
There Is probably no American who
would argue for such license of speech
or printing as to admit and welcome
treason or conspiracy for the overturn
of our Government by violence, and
further prevention of obscene literature
must meet the approval of all decency,
k,If 1on hot &c aicoI INy, iac
of the pending legislation is not tech
nical in claiming that it violates the
first amendment to the Constitution,
nor protest against the detectives. It
Is practical question as to how the
censorship as now exercised by Treasury
officials, without recourse, shall be safe
guarded against bureaucratic bias and
ignorant or fanatical abuse.
y X X X
It will be recalled that the Consti-
tuition as originally framed did not meet
with popular approval because it failed
to provide a bill of Rights" protect
ing the public from violation of Ger
tain unalienable rights" mentioned in
the Declaration of independence, The
French Revolution, then brewing, was
echoed in America. Only upon the
pledge that as soon as 1t was adopted,
with its machinery for amendment, the
"Bill Of Rights" would be put into it,
as amendments, was the Constitutions
ratification secured.
At no time in all that agitation was
it ever considered that the first amend
ment meant to open the door to trea-
son, conspiracy and immortality and
bind our Government against self-de-
tense. Nor was 1t supposed that bu-
feaucracy should supplant the courts in
applying the laws of exclusion, con-
STRUNG both facts and the law.
X y X X
A recent instance, now cited by an
open press, is the action in excluding
classic of French literature, Can.
dide," by Voltaire, because some official
censor of the Treasury objected to its
ethics and morals. Ultimately the cx-
clusion was rescinded by orders from
higher up"
Next we may expect some bureaucrat
to look with horror on works OF art
because they may picture nudity, which
would shock the unframed In artistic
expression.
Take an actual case for illustration:
Behold that exquisite nude child in its
cold, cold September Morn"
Isn't it terrible that such a picture en-
tered this. country before the new tariff
law? What a pity that it cannot now
and excluded or banished as an unde-
sirable alien! Can't Congress do some
thing about 1t? If she shivers so
nudely in the early morning, what viii
she do when the sunrise breeZes blow?
NAL soft dams Peau froid!''
AS proof that interpretations all de-
pend on the point of prejudice, here Is
the story of that pictures furore as re-
lated by Harry Reichenback, publicity
expert, who caused the excitement.
He says: "When opened a free-lance
publicity office, my first client was the
Russman Art Corporation, and my first
work was for a picture which later was
to be found on the walls Of many mil
lions of homes-'September Morn
"Who does not recall or has not seen
that simple little picture Of girl stand
ing, CARRIED as Eve, ankle-deep In water,
modestly trying to hide her nakedness
from the eyes Of prying world?"
No-he has himself Inisread that
child; she had no thought Of "prying
world" for she stood on the beach ia
water ankle-deep on chilly September
morning, long before the world was UP.
+ a. j asss ~