OUT OF THE DAWN

A new day is on the verge of brightening over Boston, for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is to be relieved of its present position as the butt of literary circles throughout the world. The bill has been reported favorably to the State Legislature to amend the law relative to obscene literature, which, as it now stands, has been responsible for the banning of about fifty books in the past year. The new measure would entirely eliminate books from jurisdiction under this law, and a book would be judged by its context as a whole rather than by a single phrase or paragraph.

This will mean the end of cataracts of abusive editorials and magazine articles directed at the traditionally and puritanically sane Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Now is the opportune time for the honorable members of the legislature to take a bow. Their efforts at driving away the overhanging clouds of Watch and Wardism and general Comstocking will not go unrewarded by universal shouts of acclamation.

From the viewpoint of the reader, incidentally, the proposed legislation is of minor significance. The Boston dweller who must have his "Oil" will simply no longer be obliged to travel to Cambridge to get it. The languishing Boston bookshops will again take on their line of pristine Republican prosperity. And, for the Book of the Month Club, Lewis, Deeping, Sinclair and Dreiser may now be enrolled once more on the national eligibility list.