&Hers to
the Edifor
THE PURITY DRIVE
At—Definitions of pornography or obscenity apt to obscure whatever issue they are Jreant to clarify, but you would probably iree that nothing which under any definition Auld be described as either pornographic or teseene would stand a chance of gaining dmittance to the columns of the Spectator. °111prther, you would be ready to concede, no t, that in the past the Spectator has never phewn itself reluctant to protest against the ublication of novels which outrage current Ofandards of good taste (a term now ridiculed Ind rapidly becoming obsolete). _With these points in mind you will, I am confident, hesitate to lend what is known as i'eur powerful support to a movement likely 4°,_ prove as pernicious sk the ' purity drive' tnich you so righteously deplore. 1 refer to e accelerating tendency for innocent.people lia rally under leaders whose slogan, if they arc utter it, would be:
Let wealth and commerce, laws and learn- ing die, But save us still our tough obscenity.
The young are being intimidated into treat- t18 pornography as sacred, or at least as the Ilmark of a masterpiece. It must be defended, they are urged, at all costs—pro- ldded. of course, such costs are paid by some- °°dY else.
_Oh, Freedom, what liberties are taken in
e 'Y name! The next step will be an agitation t 'sr Powers to compel the publication of any 120 sufficiently obscene (the connoisseurs r. ye their standards, I gather) and the prose- `ation of all who hinder its distribution. Meanwhile, Sir, would you be willing to demanding that those who are so passionately memanding unbridled obscenity in literature are not necessarily the purest-minded members ef society, and that those who are disposed to think that a well-defined and well-advanced limn of inartistic outspokenness has now been reached are not inevitably among the dirtiest- rrnoded ?—Yours faithfully,
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