Page:Southern Presbyterian Journal, Volume 13.djvu/920

 say that the North Carolina supreme court has made it illegal for Baptists to conduct their affairs in accordance with Baptist doctrine. In spite of the fact that the minority has won a legal case in favor of the Southern Baptist Convention, we wonder whether the Convention in good conscience can accept the verdict. Will they insist on retaining the local property at the cost of having their beliefs on the nature of the Church settled by the civil government?

It is also interesting to note that the socialistic Christian Century hails the decision of the court. This radical periodical wants uniformity and ecumenicity enforced by civil decree when possible. The ecumaniacs generally favor centralization of power; they want to control property; they do not object to state churches, or even to the Greek persecution of evangelicals. It would seem that the separation of church and state is a last remnant of Romanism that proves hard to part with.

THE POSTAL DEPARTMENT TAKES A HAND IN A VITAL MATTER

"A growing volume of unwanted lewd and obscene matter is being sent through the mails into American homes, and the Post Office Department is intensifying its 'Clean-Up-TheMails' efforts to stop this offense against common decency," Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield said today.

"Risque snapshots, pornographic magazines and books, and lascivious slides, 'party' films, and records are being widely offered for sale as shown by a 73 per cent increase in the last six months in cases dealing with indecent materials sent through the mails.

"This is a serious and nation-wide problem of public morality which affects all our citizens. In our common interest this misuse and prostitution of the mails should be stopped by a sensible preventive program of the Post Office Department, acting for the people as directed by the law enacted by Congress.

"We know from experience that any enlightened effort of this kind—no matter how intelligently administered—is occasionally open to attack and ridicule which is frequently deliberately inspired by those who make money from the sale of lewd materials. Sometimes we are criticized because our purposes are not fully understood by the very people we are seeking to protect from pornographic material.

"In other instances our efforts to keep the mails clean produce an almost inevitable cry of 'censorship' by certain groups who confuse license with liberty. Their viewpoint, while sincere, seems to suggest an abysmal ignorance of the nature of the problem and the threat it imposes to the moral fiber of the nation.

"We are not concerned with bureaucratic snooping. No issues of abridgments of the freedom of speech or of the press are involved. "We are not arbitrary censors of literary efforts nor of works of art, either ancient or modern.

"What we are vitally concerned about is the great mass of unwanted pornographic material being offered for delivery through the mails into the homes of American citizens.

"We know the great majority of adult Americans want this obscene material—which they have not asked for—kept out of their homes and away from their children, whether it is generated at home or mailed into this country from abroad. This vile stream of commercialized obscenity persists because there is money in it and we must be alert lest the greed of the individuals and 'sham' publishing concerns who sell it damages the moral standards of our young people.

"Many criminal, educational, and religious authorities see a definite connection between this disgraceful upsurge in obscenity and the startling growth of juvenile delinquency in the nation.

"Other experts believe this increase in lewd and lascivious material is reflected in the sickening growth of criminal assaults on girls and women.

"While the Post Office Department has no authority to prosecute mailers who offend against common decency, we are required—by law—to refuse to carry obscene material through the mails.

"Fortunately the power to exclude pornographic material from the mails is a highly effective preventive measure in that it usually PAGE 6