Artistic Censorship

Within the past week an indictment was found against those Manhattanites most prominently associated with the production of Asch's God of Vengeance; also, an attempt was made to interfere with the private performance of Schnitzler's " Riegen," also--within a few months judges in New York have been called upon to express their opinion of Cabell's Jurgen, D. H. Lawrence's three latest novels, the Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter. The law allows artists more liberty than they realize, for proceedings against them are usually extralegal. The statute in New York, the result of the efforts of the late Anthony Comstock has received a liberal interpretation. Ordinarily, to be suppressed: (1) a book, play, or picture must be lewd and not merely vulgar or sacrilegious; (2) it must be objectionable as an entirety and not merely in a part or scattered parts: and (3) judge and jury must agree that it is objectionable.

Artists have difficulties with the activities of private organizations which act as public censors, but the organizations often have difficulties afterward. They are liable for malicious prosecution, and juries do not hesitate to find indictments against them.

Reformers propose that any book or play having an objectionable passage shall fall within the prohibition; also, that the jury's function shall be be curtailed.