The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn How We Beat The Censors Most of us had the notion that last year was rather a bad time from the point of view of censorship. During the first months of the year,...
...Congress...
...In Texas, one censorship bill which got through the Legislature provides that authors of textbooks must take a special loyalty oath...
...His far-quoted words at Dartmouth College marked the turning of the tide...
...The Boston or Memphis censors...
...Two newspapers, the News and the Express, answered the challenge...
...Then the Courier-Journal opened up with a barrage that echoed across the country: "Who should tell an American what he can read...
...And then the Legislature voted 202 to 11 against setting up a state censorship board for school textbooks...
...The board finally voted to retain the Declaration...
...Late in the year, some members of the State Board of Education tried to have the UN Declaration of Human Rights cut out of history books...
...Or our own grand jury...
...In New Jersey, a state judge enjoined a prosecutor who had been attempting to ban books which he happened not to like...
...W. W. Jackson, a San Antonio member, denounced the proposed action as "thought control...
...But, as far as taking dictation is concerned, it is of the same mind...
...But it is also true that practically all of them were thrown back...
...In Alabama, the Legislature passed a bill requiring textbooks to carry statements by the authors as to whether they have ever been Communists...
...They defeated the mayor who had appointed the police officer, and the new mayor promptly named a new chief of police...
...Take Texas, for example...
...In San Antonio, the so-called Minute Women prepared a list of 600 books which they wished to have removed from the public library...
...So, except for three Southern legislatures, we did well last year in defending the freedom of the press...
...Then, last November, the people of the town did some censoring of their own...
...to permit citizens of our country to speak freely and write freely...
...As far as this record shows, our free-press forces suffered only three defeats in 1953...
...In Georgia, the Legislature has set up a Literature Commission to decide what books the docile citizens may read...
...It is true that the attacks of the would-be dictators of the printed word were furious and nationwide...
...Take the little town of Shaftsbury...
...The editor of the Express, acting as chairman of the library board, led the board in rejecting the proposal...
...Censorship laws were introduced in state legislatures...
...Federal Judge James McNamee decided that the Chief of Police of Youngstown, Ohio had no right to censor books...
...The head of the city's law department said: "I don't see how it can be done...
...But what is really encouraging about this record is what people have been doing all over the country...
...The record seems to show that the President has a right to the honorable place they have assigned him...
...Finally, two of the three members of the board resigned??after acknowledging that they had never read the book which they had condemned...
...There were efforts to remove lists of books from public libraries...
...Apparently, they thought the new administration would introduce a period of general reaction...
...It was said to be contrary to "Texas thinking...
...If the author of a book is dead, the publishers must affirm that "if he were alive or available" he would and could "truthfully execute the oath...
...But now comes a piece of cheerful news...
...In Minnesota, a judge freed a book brought into court, saying in rather quaint phrases: "It seems to be part of our American tradition...
...It was in June that he ad libbed: "Don't join the book-burners...
...The churches...
...The measure contains one beautiful provision...
...The American Book Publishers Council has sent out a press release which shows that during the year 1953 the people of this country were winning the fight against censorship...
...Don't think that you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed...
...During the first months of the year, a lot of enemies of freedom came out of hiding...
...In some towns, vigilante committees were set up...
...About the same time, the American Library Association and the American Book Publishers Council spoke ringing words: "Ideas can be dangerous, but suppression of ideas is fatal to a democratic society...
...The school board thought it would prove its patriotism by removing a history book from the shelves...
...None of them, if you ask us...
...The Governor and a number of newspapers got into the fight...
...The old Republican state of Vermont is about as different from Texas as it could be...
...In Louisville, Kentucky, a grand jury recommended the establishment of a committee to censor all magazines, comic books and other publications...
...The bookmen say in their summary: "Librarians and lawyers, publishers and newspapermen, courts and citizens, teachers and writers, led by the President of the United States, faced and fought the flames of intolerance and fear...
...Cities passed ordinances forbidding the sale of books alleged to be "suggestive" or "harmful...
Vol. 37 • January 1954 • No. 4
