Public Morality and Taste.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15772, 13 December 1916, Page 8

Public Morality and Taste.

There has been issued in Sydney a protest of uncommon weight against the exhibition in theatres and picture theatres of "the immoral side of life." The protest is signed bv, amongst others, the Archbishop of Sydney, the President of the Catholic Federation, th© Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the Presi-dent-General of the Methodist Church of Australia, the chairman of the Congregational Union, the President of the Baptist Union, the head of the Jewish community, and the head of the Salvation Army in New South Wales; that is to say, by responsible representatives of practically all the religious communions. In their statement, the signatories admit that "in a small pro- " portion of cases the spectacle of

"human weakness and sin, with its " dire consequences to the individual " and the State, may have a deterrent

•' effect." but this is not true of tho general run of modern sex plays. "When the intrigues of the unchaste," so runs the protest, "the doings of " clever rogues, the scductive arts of " the immoral and degenerate, form " the staple commodity of so many of

'• the plays and picture films now being '•'imported from America and el>e- •' where, wc cannot wonder at tho " lamentable deterioratiou of the moral " tone of the community and consequent increase of disease.'" Accordingly they suggest that the authorities should cxerciso such a supervision as shall protect the moral welfare o| the community. We are in tho fullest agreement with those who believe that

I the predominance* °i' motives in ! plays and pictures and no vein is of an cvi] tendency, and ij. actually having evil results, and we have some sympathy with the feeling tha t almost anything is legitimate which can suppress such books and nlavp. Hut we feel just as strongly that it is not through State action that these evils can be removed and a chock imposed upon the demoralisation of character and the deterioration of ideals which have alarmed thoughtful men every wlieie. The Legislature and tho Government can only do effectively that which is approved by public opinion, and public v Mnion certainly is favourable to making sexual subjects the staple of the popular arts. Tho majority of the successful novels of to-day, and the vast majority of the successful plays, have for their central idea seduction Or infidelity, and the idea is usually treated with such lack of reticence or restraint that those novels of tho 'nineties which were once thought criminally immodest would to-day be considered exceptionally pure. It cannot be that tho whole character of men and women has changed within the past twentv-livc years; it takes longer than that for the moral fibre of a people to degenorate to any marked degree. At the most one can say only that within the past twenty-five years the conditions of life in progressive countries have been favourable to moral degeneration. Life has grown easier for the vast majority; greater leisure, greater prosperity, and enormously increased means of pleasure have come without being accompanied by any corresponding growth of the people'f, capacity to make tho best use of these good things. While it is right and proper that tho Legislature and the Government should exercise some supervision over the morals of the people, we must look for improvement to the growth of a new public opinion, moulded, not by legislative enactments or orders, but by events and the circumstances

of life- It may be that the war, and its vast effect upon the lives of the people, may ultimately bring about the purification of public morals and public taste that is so much to be desiied.