POISONOUS LITERATURE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—There will assuredly be many among your readers who, even if they do not write to say so, will be deeply grateful for your brave article of last week on "A Poisonous Book." Some of us know it was high time for a leading organ of the Press to speak out, and we rejoice exceedingly that the Spectator should be foremost in the field. May I be allowed to put before your readers some very recent facts regarding the suppression of another very bad book P In the middle of September I heard from a most trust- worthy friend a startling account of a book which was being widely advertised as "the book to read," "the book that would sell, and was selling," &a., &c. On reading it, I found my friend's description absolutely true. It was an obvious duty not to lose a moment in doing all one could to get it suppressed. Accordingly I wrote, among other people, to the Home Secretary and the secretary of the National Vigilance Association, and said that if one of them did not feel able to undertake the prosecution of so abominable a book, which was indeed nothing short of an outrage on our English home life, I should have to prosecute the publisher myself. My solicitor advised me, before taking proceedings in Court, to give the publisher a chance of withdrawing the book. The publisher was away in the country, but I saw his manager, and the result of a very frank conversation was that he undertook to see his principal and give me a speedy answer. He perfectly under- stood that a refusal to withdraw the book immediately meant a prosecution. The book was promptly withdrawn, and subsequently an undertaking was given by the publishers to the Home Secretary "to do all in their power to withdraw the book from circulation not only in this country, but throughout the world."
There remain some points worthy of notice :—(1) The Home Office wrote saying that the Secretary of State deprecated a prosecution on the ground that it would do more harm than good. (2) The book was described as written " by a Peer" and bore a coronet on the cover. It is probably as well that "the person" who could write so vile a book should remain anonymous. But he deserves that all honest men should "write him down" a villain for thus poisoning the wells of literature. (3) Although the book came from a well-known publishing firm—it was prosecuted only last November for another bad book which was destroyed—I am told that all the great libraries and distributing firms in London, with one notable exception—that of Messrs. Boot—accepted the book and sold and circulated it widely. The proof of this lies in the fact that, though it was only published in June, 1909, it was in its sixth edition at 6s. a copy by September 16th, and a seventh was said to be in contemplation.
Some of your readers may ask what they can do to prevent this very serious mischief. May I offer three suggestions P-
(1) Establish at once a guarantee fund to be used under proper legal advice for immediate prosecution. Not a penny need be paid in at present. The knowledge that a guarantee of, say, 21,000 was available, and would undoubtedly be used, to punish those who are responsible for the sale of moral poison, whether as author, publisher, or distributor, would probably act as a wholesome deterrent. This would be the more effective if the guarantee were limited in every case to 210. I have already received several promises if such a fund should be established.
(2) Protest as an individual by saying quietly but firmly that you know such a book is not one that any average clean- minded man would like to see his women-folk reading.
(3) Determine, even at the cost of some personal incon- venience, not to deal with those who continue to sell bad books and magazines, &c., after one warning.
And lastly, to those who may say that the whole matter is an exaggeration, may I add that I have before me a list of no less than ninety-eight books which a single firm has placed [We have dealt with this letter in our leading columns. Those of our readers, and we hope they will be many, who desire to help our correspondent by giving the guarantee for which he asks should communicate direct with the Rev. Herbert 'Bull, Wellington House, Westgate-on-Sea.—ED. Spectator.]
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