CHASE ADVOCATES "NEW PURITANISM"

"As I read officially the product of the New York Publishers of novels, I have to recognize that the writers have 57 varieties of creeping things and abominable beasts in their heart," declared Reverend Mr. J. Frank Chase of the New England Watch and Ward Society in his talk at the Liberal Club luncheon yesterday.

"And it is those chimeras which the Society is fighting in its campaign for the 'New Puritanism.' Sit in my office day in and day out, and hear the moral tragedies recited, and you will realize that out of the heart are the issues of life, and these tragedies are often connected with vile books and pictures. A whole class of unwedded mothers may be the result of a lascivious book.

"An author who shocks the sense of public decency differs little from a lewd and lascivious person, a common night walker, both male and female," Mr. Chase continued. This system of enforcing the law against the purveyors of indecent literature is the American System of Censorship. It is censorship by the people who are represented by the average citizens on our new juries.

Boston Booksellers High-Minded

"In Boston we are fortunate in having a high minded set of booksellers and their association has appointed a Booksellers Committee...which notifies the trade throughout the state and quietly the book is withdrawn. If the book is gold thereafter the law is applied by law enforcement agencies."

But Mr. Chase could not say so much for the Federal Government. "The great force of the Federal Government at Washington through its Postal laws has practically broken down." So the Watch and Ward Society must force the government to realize that "Tammany judges do not represent the whole country, and that public opinion is repeatedly expressed by Massachusetts courts of jurisdiction as high as the New York courts and more truly represents public opinion. Have faith in Massachusetts! For 'Boston is a state of mind.' Some may believe that state of mind is conceited, even ridiculous, but it nevertheless is properly self-respecting in its opinions.

"There are many ways of committing white slavery," suggested the Secretary of the Watch and Ward Society in a momentary digression. "One could do it by crouching in a dark alley with a slouch cap drawn over his eyes and a chloroform handkerchief in one hand and a pistol in the other ready to jump upon the victim and toss her unconscious into an automobile, and lock her up later in a room, or one can open a cafe and enliven it with music and attract young women there as a miller is drawn toward the light, then fill their veins with wine, till their head is light and their senses are disturbed, their consciences numbed, and the natural barriers of protection laid low when all too easily they have become victims of man's lustfulness. But they are in reality victims of Man's cupidity and the price he has placed on their souls is but the price of a glass of beer. The cafes of any community are the white slave marts of womans purity and the slaughter house house of man's honor."