Publisher Will Urge Action Against Censors in Boston

Thomas J. Wilson, director of the Harvard University Press, announced last night that he will urge the American Book Publishers' Council to take "necessary action" against two Boston officials who are censoring magazines on sale at newstands.

George C. Hyland, Commissioner of Public Works, last month ordered that newstand licensees must not sell publications that are "objectionable to the Commisioner." His assistant, Arthur J. Kiley, has already prohibited the sale of several magazines.

"No man in this state has the power of censorship," said Wilson. He is a director of the Council whose members publish ninety per cent of the pocketbooks sold in the country.

"Nobody but a judge in court may legally suppress the circulation of books or magazines," he added.

Hyland said that he did not like to set himself up as a censor, but considered it an obligation to "stop the sale of smutty and salacious material on public display." There have been no objections so far to the new license restrictions, he claimed.

Kiley made a tour of newsstands last week and ordered dealers to stop selling those publications whose covers seemed to him "lewd or obscene."

Newspapers and magazine salesmen must obey the Commissioner's orders at the threat of having their licenses revoked. The Department of Public Works licences all street vendors.

Representative Wilfred S. Mirsky '29, a member of the legislative Committee on Legal Affairs, agreed with Wilson that censorship may only be applied through regular court proceedings.

"Public officials, however, have gradually tried to assume the right to censor," he stated. Mirsky has repeatedly opposed measures planning to establish censorship outside the courts.