Advice to Censors, Indianapolis Times (Article, 1929)

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Advice to Censors

We are not in the habit of telling others how to run their business, but we are moved to make a suggestion to the busy societies for the suppression of vice. These organizations, doubtless with the best intent in the world, are poking their noses into other people's business, trying to lay down what the public shall and shall not read. So we assume they will not mind if we poke into their censorship business.

And outside advise should be welcomed by these censorship organizations at this time, especially because the New York society just has lost its "obscenity" case against "The Well of Loneliness," by the English novelist, Radclyffe Hall.

We suggest that "The Well of Loneliness" and similar contemporary books are not important enough to merit the fierce onslaughts of the "vice" crusaders. Such books have very little circulation and would have even less without the free publicity given them by the crusaders.

But if the crusaders are sincere in their fear that books touching on sex problems are a menace as such to the morals of the public, why don't they try to suppress the books of that kind which have the largest circulation?

Why not begin, for instance, with the Shakespeare comedies? For Shakespeare is not only held in fairly high esteem by the public, but raised as a model before the high school youth of the land, who are required to read him.

Having suppressed Shakespeare, they then might proceed to make the schools safe from the Greek classics.

And to show that there was no anti-foreign malice in such crusade, they would, of course, want to suppress the great American poet, Walt Whitman.

Probably the censorship crusaders would not get very far in their efforts to suppress modern and ancient classics. We hope not. But they might at least win respect of the public for their sincerity and keep their own followers from quoting against them:

"Ye blind guides which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel."