SEXCESS

Joseph Wood Krutch defending Mac West in a recent issue of "The Nation" was the author of some extremely pertinent remarks concerning that simple-hearted lady, remarks which bear on certain aspects of American culture which cannot be emphasized too much. Mentioning the play, written and acted by Miss West, as sound though crude dramaturgy, he went on from the play to criticise the audience.

American audiences in general and Mae West's audiences in particular have a unique and proverbial capacity for smut. As Mr. Krutch pointed out, this capacity is also shared by adolescents. Mr. Smoot of Utah probably knows more about pornographic literature than any living American, or European. However, in spite of this hearty endorsement, it cannot be repeated too often that this capacity and this knowledge is not a prime requisite for holiness. Hunger, not holiness, must be the explanation of this strange preoccupation with sex in its cruder forms.

Even Boston, for which a loyal Mayor claims a reservoir of culture, even to landscapping his name thereto in a fair, bold hand, can support little but farces and melodrama on its stage. As a stronghold of sensationalism, Boston thus shows the pruritan virus still at its worst. Until questions of sex can be fairly dealt with, fairly given a time and place, and fairly forgotten for something slightly more entertaining, Mrs. Grundy will sit in our audiences. Until then every stock company must be Comstocked and critics can always expect an infusion of Bowdlerism and balderdash.