Hughes, Berlin Attack 'Censorship' in Boston

"The Boston theatre is subjected to scrutiny which could make plays replace McGuffey's Reader in the first grade," Elinor Hughes, drama critic of the Boston Herald, told the Law School Forum last night.

But the executive secretary of the New England Watch and Ward Society, Dwight S. Strong, declared that "Banned in Boston" is almost an obsolete term.

In various shades of agreement and disagreement at the discussion of "Censorship in Boston" were The Rt. Rev. Msgr. Francis J. Lally, editor of the Boston Pilot, and Gerald A. Berlin, director of the Commission of Law and Social Justice of the New England Division of the American Jewish Congress.

Inconsistency

Berlin generally agreed with Miss Hughes in her opposition to censorship and emphasized the inconsistency and poor execution of censorship laws. Msgr. Lally, however, noted the need for censorship by law when it does not come from within. He said that "human freedom is not free at all," giving an example of the green light which gives one person the freedom to cross the street, although a red light binds someone else.

Strong stated that in the last five years only one book has been removed from sale by due process of law and that the Watch and Ward Society has taken but one action to exercise censorship--to prevent the sale of pictures of nude men and women on the backs of playing cards.

Book-burning Hit

In his disagreement with censorship, Berlin included "book-burning," banning of certain books from U.S. posts overseas, and denying public places to "progressive" groups, as well as books, magazines, and plays objectionable to some people on moral grounds.

Msgr. Lally backed his statement about limitation on freedom with examples about the control of newspapers, calling the American press an "almost totally censored press."