The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1945-10-30
UNCLE TOM IN A CHANGING WORLD

Mrs. Harriet BeeCher Stoves "UnCle lom hos
oooin become the center Of O notionol controversy.
otter fourscore quiet but fIourishing years as one or
the hordiest stalks of corn in the field Of American
literature and drama. Only this time poor old Tom
is on the other side Of the controversy.
We may be striking OF q press agents 0o'teo
hook in mentioning the matter. But even it the cur
rent Uncle Toms ~pubIicist has encouraged the dis
sension. it's orioin seems to hove been spontaneous.
1t all began in Bridgeport, Conn., q few weeks
ooo, when q trade union council, q Negro oreonizo-
ton, a group Of ministers and local members OF the
Communist porty objected to q forthcoming theotri-
cal performance Of this beloved chestnut. They soid,
in effect, that it held the Negro up to ridicule, re-
called his former degradation, pictured him as ire
soonsibIe and subservient, and tended to promote
anti sentiment.
Similar groups in New Haven asked that the
show be banned there. BY good luck or good press
ooentry, official bans in both cities we're lifted in
time for the scheduled openings. The free advance
publicity doubtless created O hoppy echo at the box
office, and that should have been the end.
But now the revolt against Uncle Tom seems to
have spread all over the eastern port Of the coun-
Try. The Civil Liberties Union and the National As
ISOLATION for the Advancement Of CoIored People
have stepped in to defend the play against the threat
of an epidemic Of censorship"
This is all q little mystifying to those Of US whose
first book : reading and play going fell somewhere
between the end Of the Civil War and Henry WAL
Ioce's discovery Of the Common Man, and included
an early acquaintance with Uncle Tom. We may
have been told then thot Mrs. Stoves classic famed
the flome Of abolition and stirred up Northern senti-
ment for war, but we never suspected thot her fonot-
icoI liberalism Of 1852 would be called reoctionoy
90 years later. We may have reoIized then thot her
most famous work was onti Simon Leeree. but we
never dreamed that it was onti-Uncle Tom.
To many Of US, "UncIe Toms Cabin" brought
the first toste Of the theoter, Sampled under can
vos' in q wonderful atmosphere Of dust, crushed
gross and moke-beIieve. The tent show actors were
probably otrocious, but we didn't know it. Elizos es-
cope and little Evo's demise we're as real as the hon.
est-to-ooodness bIoodhounds that the stock company
corried. It was all high excitement and syrupy senti-
ment. ond we we're borne through it in bIissfuI inno-
cence Of any social significance.
We should hate to see the oncomine generation
denied those same Joys by the efforts Of welI-neon-
inq liberals. The motives behind those efforts may
be the highest. But in expressing them the we'll
meaning liberals ore again exhibiting that deadly
eornestness, devoid Of humor, sentiment or p~erspect-
i've, which occasionally makes them q bit tiresome.
In this troubled world Of today there ore other
Jobs for the we'll : meaning liberals more important
than bonnine this museum piece Of the liberal, SLOW
ey-hotine Mrs. Stowe os onti-keero. With q little
searching they can find several dozen flesh-ond-
blood characters more menocine to our way Of life
than Topsy or Uncle Tom.
"a. "a,