University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Feb. 18, 1953 Letter
State Film Board Should Be Killed
Kansas has fewer draft rejectees than any other state. Of that we can be proud. Kansas ranks fourth among the states in the proportion of citizens with a secondary education. Of that we can be proud. Kansas is one of six states which still retain movie censorship boards. Of that we cannot be proud.
Naturally the group guarding the morals of the movie-going populace is not known by such a blunt name. It is officially the State Board of Motion Picture Review, with three appointed members and offices in Kansas City, Kan.
Drawing on eight "standards," the board can slash out footage guilty of: "Ridicule, adverse criticism, or abuse of any . . . public official or law-enforcing officer; evil suggestion in the dress of comedy characters; loose conduct between men and women . . . and, whenever possible, barroom scenes and social drinking (a remnant of prohibition days), and prolonged or passionate live scenes, when suggestive of immorality."
Needless to say, this leaves a great deal to the whims of three people.
Until 1940 the board issued biennial reports which listed deletion made or films banned in toto. Since then the reports have dealt only with financial matters, so that it is no longer possible to tell what we are not seeing on the screen. But here are a few of the more inane cuts made during the year 1939-40:
"Eliminate Mountie being struck on the head with a gun. Eliminate Mountie being struck with club by Indian. Eliminate Mountie being struck with chair."
"Eliminate dialogue, 'Stranger, anything might happen after we've had a couple of drinks.'"
"Eliminate all dialogue regarding monkey glands . . ."
Eliminate an anglue regarding your game.
"Eliminate close-up action of eccentric dance . . ."
"Eliminate the word *tree* from officer's dialogue, 'She takes her mutt down to the corner tree.'"
And so it goes. Three scenes were deleted and two other cuts made in Fox's "Prison Farm" in 1938, which was a biting social commentary on penal mismanagement. Also in that year the film, "The Birth of a Baby," produced by the American Medical association along with other social welfare and educational groups, was banned in toto.
Perhaps the board was necessary at the time it was created, but it is so much deadwood today. Fly-by-night companies which capitalized on sex and sadism have gone by the wayside, and the industry itself is doing a remarkable job of self-regulation—the only democratic answer to censorship.
The Production Code administration (once known as the Hays office, now the Johnston office) sees that all scripts conform with a stringent code before they are filmed. And there are unofficial bodies such as the National Board of Review, the Catholic Legion of Decency, and the Protestant Motion Picture council—all of which are so influential that producers adhere closely to their standards.
Here movie morals are determined by groups representing a broad base of people, not by three autocratic members of a state censorship board wielding splicers in the solitude of their office.
Over the years there have been numerous attempts at creating a national movie censorship board. All have failed. Censoring agencies are still entrenched in some 90 cities, the most notorious ones being Memphis and Atlanta. We hope that this Kansas legislature will censor one more state censorship board.
The movie industry and movie-goers have grown up. Have the law makers? —Jerry Knudson
POGO
Letters
The statement in Friday's editorial page newsletter that FACTS' leaders are "worried" about finding sufficient candidates for All Student Council president in the spring primary deserves explanation. While individuals may drop remarks as to possible candidates, worrying about candidates is no problem for a party whose primary concern is principles.
FACTS Leader Denies Reference
To the Editor of the Daily Kansan:
FACTS will continue to be the clearing house for campus problems and the expression of democracy on the campus rather than merely a vehicle for the elevation of students to political office. As a matter of information, there are about 25 FACTS men and women on the campus who have served on the Council and, therefore, are eligible to run if they so desire. With this in mind, potential candidates is a small problem, subordinate to FACTS' ideals and hard work designed for the benefit of all.
Dennis Henderson FACTS president
Student Disagrees On Kansan Policy
To the Editor of the Daily Kansan:
I was really disappointed with the way you published my letter, which was far away from being the letter I sent to you. I was hardly able to recognize it. I feel sorry for that policy your newspaper follows and I wonder what will happen if all newspapers shorten and change the letters they receive from their readers. A newspaper must be objective and must respect everybody's opinion. It can correct the mistakes in spelling, in punctuation or capitalization of a letter but not to omit things that alter the whole meaning of a letter and the purpose for which it was written.
My letter, as it appeared last week, was a meaningless and illogical letter. No one could understand why I mentioned several things and to a few persons I know I had to explain what happened and what I wanted to say. But what about the others who don't know how badly my letter was killed?
I wrote my letter to show how communism worked in my country but the omission of the most important arguments about the executions of innocent people and the abduction of 30,000 Greek children to the countries of the Iron Curtain made my letter worthless reading, and everybody wonders now why I wrote it. If you had considered my letter too long to publish it, you merely ought not to have published it, but since you decided to publish it you had to respect my letter. Now it is too late for any correction but once more I want to express my sorrow for what happened.
Kariofilis Mitsakis
Editor's note: When we took over this page we said that we would be glad to publish anyone's letter, as we still are. The one restriction we have is space. We thought that Mr. Mitsakis' letter was interesting and wanted to run it, but due to our space limitation we could not use all of it, and had to use our discretion in cutting the letter.
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"Did she make a good speech Professor?—I was so busy checking 'gesture', I didn't stop to think."
Russo-Israeli Break Scheduled by Soviets
Russia's break with Israel did not come with the great surprise that the Kremlin hoped to effect.
In fact, the bombing of the Russian legation seemed almost too pat an alibi for the Reds. During the past few months Russia has been doing all in their power to appease the Arabs.
Arab nations have oil; oil that Russia would give her eye teeth to get hold of. Before Russia started this great overture of friendliness toward Iran and Iraq, Soviet-Arab relations were not very close
At a United Nations session in 1947 Russia voted for the partition and establishment of a Jewish state. Nothing could have angered the Arab league more than this.
Britain is fast losing all control of this section, and as far as Russia is concerned, the Jews have played their part and they are completely expendable now.
As has been seen in the last month, this Russian move was not through a love of Zionism. At the time it was an expedient move by Russia to ease the British out of the Middle East.
The Middle East at present is ripe for communism. Russia's first major action to move into the oil lands is to show the Arab league that she was only fooling when she voted on the Jews' side.
It seems that whenever the Soviet band plays the friendship overture they rise to a great crescendo, but usually the one they are serenading ends up playing second fiddle to the Russian wind and brass. —Don Moser
Nature and Destiny of Man' Captures Basic Life Concepts
Editor's Note: This is one of a series of reviews on books on religion, being carried as an introduction to Religious Emphasis Week.
THE NATURE AND DESTINY OF MAN, by Reinhold Niebuhr.
New York: Charles Scribner's sons. 621 pages.
"The Nature and Destiny of Man" is a book which every person who is interested in understanding his own nature and destiny should read. ___
The book first was presented at the University of Edinburgh as two series of Gifford lectures in 1939. The series of lectures then were bound into two separate volumes and later combined into this single volume.
A longtime clergyman and editor of Christianity and Society, Dr. Niebhrus has the power within his grasp to extend his argument over the entire history of human thought. He is able to discuss the Greek philosophers with the same understanding that he applies to men such as Karl Marx, John Dewey, and Sigmund Freud.
In his book, Dr. Niebrouh has captured the basic concepts of human life. In a world alternating between total war and universal peace, he issues a challenge to the world to reexamine its widely accepted beliefs of Christianity.
The conviction that there are resources in the Christian faith for an
understanding of human nature is the basis on which his study is built. He believes that this understanding has been lost in modern culture, and he shows that the Biblical-Christian view of man's fate gives a more meaningful interpretation of history.
The Saturday Review said that "With almost incredible learning and with a series of insights as brilliant and as penetrating as any in contemporary philosophy, Prof. Niebruh brings all secular philosophies to judgment before the bar of loric."
The New York Times reviewed the volume as, "Covering the immense range of a great spiritual transition, the entire book is of the first importance to contemporary thinking."
The book will give every reader an awareness of the tremendous philosophical resources of the Christian faith. To most, it will mean re-affirmation of Christianity.
—Bob Longstaff.