"All Lustful"

The U.S.'s first state board of censorship on literature was set up in Georgia last week. Its purpose: to keep "obscene" literature out of the state. When the Georgia legislature passed the bill to create the board last month, Atlanta Constitution Editor Ralph McGill warned that the definition of obscenity is "so vague" that the law "lends itself to distortion and abuses." The bill's definition of obscenity: "Literature offensive to chastity or modesty." Last week, when the three-man board took office, it became plain how right Editor McGill had been. Board Chairman James Wesberry, a Baptist minister, was asked whether works of art showing nude women would be banned by the board. Replied Censor Wesberry: "I don't discriminate between nude women whether they are art or not. It's all lustful to me." Editor Hubert Dyar of the weekly Royston Record (circ. 1,256), another censor, heartily agreed, and so did the third censor, William Boswell, a Greensboro theater owner.

Although newspapers are exempted from the law, editors protested that it was an infringement of freedom of the press. The law, said Odom Fanning, president of the Atlanta chapter of the journalism fraternity, Sigma Delta Chi, "could be used to bring about 'thought control,' the odious practice [of] all dictatorships."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.