Evening star., 1955-02-15
House Exen1pts
NeWsreeIs in
Censor Bill
Amendment Wins,
50 to 81, Now
Goes to Senate
By Gene Goodwin
Sfar Sinff corraspondani

Dy 0enG 6oo0Win
Siar Stoff Correspondent
ANNAPOLIS, Feb. 15.-In the
first full-scale debate of this
session Of the Maryland Legisla-
ture, the House of Delegates last
night decided to exempt news
reels from the State motion pic
ture censorship bill.
The vote was SO to 81 in favor
of a newsreel exemption amend
ment offered by Delegate jerome
Robinson, Democrat, Of Balti-
more and two Prince Georges
members.
The Senate now must vote on
the amendment, which was
tackled onto a bill designed to
bring Maryland's censorship law
in line with Supreme Court
decisions.
House opponents of newsreel
censorship saved their amend
ment from what appeared to be
certain defeat by an old parlia-
mentary device known as ex-
planning ones vote. When the
voting machine showed the
amendment losing go to So. Mr.!
Robinson's supporters started
leaping to their feet, one at a
time, microphone in hand, to
explain their votes. under House
rules.
Explanations Swing Votes.
The explanations" won over
one vote after another. until the
amendment supporters finally
succeeded in changing the to-
tails on the automatic voting ma
chine boards to the final So to 81.
Among those who switched
from opposing the amendment
to an "eye" vote were Delegates
William B. Wheeler and Charles
w. Woodward. jr., Democrats.
of Montgomery County. The
other members of the Montgom-
cry and. Prince Georges delega-
tior1s voted in favor of the
amendments. Prince Georges
Delegates Carlton r. Sickles and
Lansdale G. Sasscer, jr., Demo-
Gratis, were two of the sponsors.
Delegate Robinson said con-
tinuation Of the censorship of
newsreels amounts to "an
abridgement of the freedom of
the press" He pointed out that,
of the six States that still censor
movies - Maryland, Virginia,
Ohio, New York. Pennsylvania
and Kansas--only Maryland and
Virginia censor newsreels.
Boone Fights Amendment.
House Majority Leader A.
Gordon Boone led the fight
against the amendment. He
called it IAN opening wedge to
do away with censorship in
Maryland"
Delegate Blair Lee III, DEM
ocrat. of Montgomery, said
Maryland should distinguish be-
tween entertainment and news
In censorship of films.
"The things we see in the
newsreels are the same things
we see in our newspapers" he
said. What valid reason do we
have for censoring them in view
of our ancient and honorable
tradition against censoring
news?"
The amendment had been
asked at hearings before the
House Judiciary Committee by
Washington area movie exhibi-
tor Sidney Lust, but was OPP
posed by Sidney B. Traub, chair
man of the Censor Board, and
by Catholic clergymen.
Assessment Bill Deferred.
In the Senate, meanwhile,
Senator H. Winship Wheatley,
jr., successfully moved to delay
action on the House-passed an
nual assessments bill until Feb
ruary %. He said he wanted to
get figures from the State Tax
Commission estimating how
much added revenue the State
and political subdivisions would
get under the provision in the
bill for moving UP the start of
annual assessments from July,
1856, to next July.
The bill would have the effect
of thawing out one year sooner
the freeze on assessments now
in effect around the State. The
counties and Baltimore City
would be able to put new ap-
praisals on their tax books inn
mediately, without waiting for
the end of the three-year cycle
in July, 1856.
Moyyiond Seeks IT, s. Helm