CHESTERTON ON THE CENSORSHIP.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 781, 2 April 1910, Page 9

CHESTERTON ON THE CENSORSHIP.

In the "Daily News" Mr. G. K. Chesterton discusses the libraries' new censorship, with special, reference to the -banning of "Ann Veronica!" In the ■course of his article, he says:—. • ' . ■'■• "Ann-.Veronica" is not■ an ■ immoral book in any imaginable sense; but thai is not the priniary point. The primary point:.is this, that it is no business.'of'. ■ the State or of' any coercive powers to ' suppress immoral books. The business, of the'eoercive and collective power is to suppress indecent books; books that, •violate fixed verbal and physical cus l torn in.such a way as to he a public nuisance. We have a right to be guarded against bodily .indecency as against bodily attack; but do not let us call in the. police- to protect,'our souls'; we must protect. out souls with . .the'swordof. the. spMrit.... If once I-.am supposed-to test books by. whether',..,l. •; ;tniiil: them, profoundly and- poisonously. > immoral, I could'furnish a very, long list to the,police. I should at once ask the magistrates to. forbirl sale of. ; Froude's "History of England," : Burke's "French Revolution," Hobbes's "Leviathan," Smiles's "Self-Help," Carlyle's "Erederick the Great," all the.works of Imperialists, eugenistsj sThebsophists, and Higher Thinkers, and at least half the works of Socialists and of Jingoes. .If once r we begin to speak of whether things do harm to men's souls, our liidex Expurgatorius will begin to. fill the British Museum'. '.'Ann Veronica" does not urge immorality; it does not urge anything; it intentionally ends with a note of inter- ■ rogation, t myself even read it as' a note of irony; theupshotof the.tale, if anything, seemed to>: be.- to be ..rather ; against modern revolt than in its'.favour. It is the story i ;.of..;a Suffragette v/ho escaped from J3rixtonijntb Bohemia . whero'she was' mostly ■miserable-; she i Eventually found happiness in falling in l is ; the one thing of- the lot that she might have done.as easily in . Brixtph. ■ . '-. ■ '~ ..'■ But;the question is not whether my. . spiritual version is correct; the question of-indecency, is, comparatively .speaking,, a question of fact. jAndi the.'factvis that... the book is no more'ih.decent .than Brad- " shaw. Suppose' thatrfiteTS-aS 1 ! (as ititisn not), spiritually evil; suppose ,it -were as profligate as Proude. or "'as ,fpul ,as Smiles'and "Self-Help,"..the point is. that''- these: spiritual..'repugnances .;must ; not be Enforced politically, or we' shall, lose the very name of >.