The law is the essence of common sense, fairness and intelligence. Every statute is presumed to embody them and no construction inconsistent with them or application at variance with them will be sanctioned by judicial authority. The intent of the anti-obscenity laws is to suppress current obscenity in print and picture.

No express exception is made in favour of any class of publications as a rule because of the danger of leaving gaps in the law through which immoral writings might enter. Since the war a constant stream of vile books, translated into English from Italian, French, German, Russian and other European languages-some even from the Latin of degenerate Rome-has been flowing from the American press. These works are "touted" by hired "literary critics" as ancient classics although they have nothing which should be regarded as constituting a claim to this title, and nothing to recommend them to public notice except their shocking filth.

Even medical books are not specifically excepted from the operation of the statutes usually although the courts have always held such works, if standard, outside the purview of the prohibitions of the law. The ease with which pseudo medical writings whose mission is to destroy soul and body instead of to cure and assuage bodily ills, could get through the law under such an express exception contained in a statute is obvious. Indeed just such writings

have frequently been the subject of prosecutions. Notwithstanding the multitude of statutes condemning the general circulation of obscene prints and pictures as a crime, no prosecution has ever been seriously attempted against any work of genuine merit in any field under American law.

Massachusetts furnishes a case in point. The anti-obscenity law of that state expressly prohibits publications" containing obscene, indecent or impure language." That law is admirably enforced and although any obscene part of the publication is thus made the basis of criminal prosecution no attack has ever been made in that state upon any worth-while book. Thirteen other states have incorporated provisions into their respective antiobscenity laws containing language similar to that quoted from the Massachusetts statute, thus making a publication which contains anything obscene, no matter how small a part of the entire work the obscenity may form, a warrant for criminal proceedings against the publisher. Massachusetts, the literary queen of America, affords present proof of how admirably an anti-obscenity law may be made to work when it is intelligently construed and honestly enforced.

To speak of suppressing a publication for obscenity is misleading. The prosecution is directed against the person who sells or circulates an obscene publication, not against the publication. Never is a publication wholly obscene. It only

contains obscene matter. When convicted for selling the book, the publisher or seller is still free to eliminate the obscenity and put the publication on the market with impunity. It is only the obscenity in the book which is suppressed and the publisher is punished for putting it in the book.

This nation was planted in the fertile soil of sound morality. We have grown great and our democracy has triumphed through the sterling virtues of our citizenry. The American home has ever been the fountainhead of morality, the sanctuary of youthful innocence. We must guard it from contamination and corruption if this nation of ours is to fulfill its divine mission of showing the way to other nations toward a higher and nobler national life.

American literature formerly was wholesome, ennobling, inspiring. We have fondly looked upon our beloved country as morally superior to European countries. It has now become the cesspool into which drains the foul sewage of degenerate foreign writings and pictures. We are becoming a byword in the mouth of all the world. What matters our great wealth and our material progress if our spiritual life is contaminated and debauched? What judgment would George Washington pronounce upon us for tolerating such abhorrent conditions? Let Americans answer those questions in the light of these significant words from the Farewell Address:

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labour to subvert these great pillars of human happiness-these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens."

Our country is sound at heart. If the people realized how bad conditions really are, they would vote five to one for their abolition. But they do not know and the organs of public intelligence keep them in ignorance. They are unorganized, uninformed and inarticulate. When they do find out, they will be stirred by a mighty wrath and demand to know from their public servants-legislative, judicial and executive-why they have so long permitted the traffickers in obscenity to debauch the morals and pollute the souls of our children with impunity.

As we love our country we must put down this monstrous evil and punish its promoters. They have clothed fair Columbia in the scarlet trappings of the harlot. We must replace that shameful raiment with the white robes of purity, which are hers by right, to typify before all the world the cleanliness of the lives and the lofty aspirations of the great mass of the American people.

V

AUTHORS' CONDEMNATION

N°

O extended dissertation on the vicious influence of current "literature " will be attempted. Its vileness is generally

recognized and deplored. How bad conditions are let distinguished writers tell who surely cannot be accused of "literary ignorance," intolerance or fanaticism.

There is, for instance, Edwin Markham, who wrote on the decadent tendency of present-day fiction in Current History for August, 1923. Of the "free-speaking novels pouring from the press,' he says:

"Even a brief inspection of this fiction shows it to be a filthy current of sex-obscession, tainted with dregs of sex-perversion-a current that spreads pestilence wherever its putrid waters flow."

Further on he writes:

What these new writers call 'love' is the brute attraction of the herd or the easy promiscuity of the harem. All that religion and the higher poetry have laboured for since the caveman is by them obliterated. The interest they show in sex is largely pathological; they see it chiefly in its diseased and erotic manifestations, never as the sacred mystery of existence.