SUPPRESSION OF VICIOUS LITERATURE
By G. B. T.
THE art of printing has been the means of placing the word of God in the hands of the people, and also placing the best and purest literature within the reach of all. The forces of evil, however, have not been slow to recognize its value, and to use this great invention to debauch and ruin the race. Speaking of the work of Anthony Comstock, who has for "upwards of forty years, now, been carrying on his crusade as secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and as post-office inspector invested with the specific power of preventing the use of the mails for circulating obscenity," Charles Gallaudet Trumbull sums up his work as follows: "Since he commenced, he has destroyed something over fifty tons of vile books; 28,425 pounds of stereotype plates for printing such books; 3,984,063 obscene pictures; 16,900 negatives for printing such pictures; 3,646 persons have been arrested, and of these, 2,682 have been convicted or pleaded guilty, and 2,180 have been sentenced. If the matters which have been seized were to be transported, this would require sixteen freight-cars, fifteen loaded with ten tons each, and the other nearly full. If the persons arrested were to be transported, sixty-one passenger coaches would be needed, each with a seating capacity of sixty persons, sixty cars filled, and the other nearly full." Not a tithe, perhaps, of the evil literature that has been published has been destroyed. This does not take into account, either, the tons of trashy and suggestive literature that is circulated everywhere, and which can not be suppressed. G. B. T.