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Show Censorship and Sense When the supreme court recently knocked out the Minnesota Min-nesota press-gag law, the ordinary citizen was reminded nce more that efforts at censorship are still being- miide, j tnd that eternal vigilance, now as always, is the price of iberty. What the ordinary citizen failed to realize was the fact that there is actually in force, today, in the United States, 'jensorship of half a dozen kinds each variety of which affects him directly, although he may not be aware of it. The National Council on P'reedom from Censorship, composed of upwards of a score of the nation's leading i writers, recently issued a little booklet showing just what 1 types of censorship are now in existence. There are mov-'ing mov-'ing picture censorship boards, postoffice censors, customs 'censors, radio censors and various "back door" censors (who operate through the city policemen. ! Most of these censors fight chiefly against "obscenity." But just what is obscenity? Here are the attitudes the different censors display: "Maryland bars a kiss on the neck, but winks at a drink-t)ing drink-t)ing scene. Kansas censors can't stand the sight of a : whisky bottle but kisses on the neck are entertaining. In 'Virginia all passion must be blessed by a marriage cere-!,,mony. cere-!,,mony. Ohio doesn't like pictures dealing with jail breaks J:and considers an actress in her underwear as 'indecent' ! though lingerie advertisements in the newspapers are not. fi'New York, of all places, bars scenes showing a policeman or ! an official accepting gratt. Pennsylvania, the strictest state board of all, is likely to bar anything." So much for the movies. Then there is the postal censorship. The postoffice solicitor can bar books or - papers from the mails on the grounds of obscenity, and the t courts will very seldom over-rule hinu The customs cen-'sors cen-'sors can prevent the importation of foreign books. Often :V the books that the customs men frown on are passed as (legally pure by the postal censors; and books barred from the mails are often given a clean bill of health by the customs cus-toms men. r; frjany books that are sold everywhere cannot be dram-il1 dram-il1 atiz9d as plays. Many plays cannot be made into movies. Many expressions used in the talkies cannot be broadcast i' by rauio. borne books can be sold m one city but not in c: another. Some plays can be produced in one city but not j in another. ) All of this, of course is rather ridiculous. But it is !i n'.so a little disturbing. "Despite our traditional reverence r' of freedom, we are more bound around with a web of cen-j cen-j soiohip today than we usually realize. 'I 1 1' |