It has become a national hobby of ours, in the absence of much good
sense, to indulge in these thrilling and adventurous battles against
evil until we are becoming so ridiculous that only a modern Cervantes,
with another Don Quixote, can bring us to our senses. Each time, in
each onslaught, we have some one thing for the “goat.” Then we all
assemble for the chase. For many of us, it is great fun. For others, it
is a grievous concern. At one time it is the legalized liquor traffic;
at another, it is the cigarette or the automobile, the racy literature,
the dance or jazz music. Each time it is this or that one thing that is
causing all the sin. I do not know what it is going to be when the kids
begin spooning in the clouds in the aerial autos of tomorrow. Neither
the censors, nor the parents, nor the laws can follow them there. At
the present time the “goat” is the movies.
We have the admission of the advocates of censorship that evil among
youth may come from other agencies besides movies. Some of these
agencies are automobiles, music (jazz or grand opera), department
store windows, newspapers, books, magazines, ordinary pictures, etc.
Now their logic must be that the youth of this nation are lost beyond
redemption unless we apply their censorship for evil in the movies, to
evil in all these other agencies. Unless this is their purpose, of what
shall it avail us to get evil out of the movies by censorship--unless,
by the same methods, we extract it from all other agencies of
usefulness or happiness?
On the other hand, if our youth are not to be lost because of our
failure to apply censorship to automobiles and other agencies, then
why apply it to the movies? In the case of the movies, as in the case
of all these other agencies for both good and evil, why should we not
depend on existing laws against crime, and in addition, what is far
more important, why should we not trust to the =good old institutions
of parents, homes, real education, real religion and the development of
scientific truth to fortify youth against evil, by equipping them with
strength in their own souls to conquer it.= I tell you that it cannot
be done in any other way.