Old South Meeting House; WGBH Forum Network; City Censors: The Notorious Watch and Ward Society

So good afternoon and welcome to the old south meeting us for today's program in our mid days at the Meeting House series. My name is Jamie Brody and I am the new education director. Today we welcome Neil Miller a journalism instructor at Tufts University and the author of five books to discuss the history development and influence of one of Boston's most notorious and unusual organizations the watch and ward society the watch and warrant to study were Boston's unofficial censors the city and the city's guardians of morality and order from the late 18th 70s to their heyday in the early 20th century. The watching word society defined for the entire for the city entire what was acceptable to listen to to read and to view their powerful influence forever link the city to the phrase banned in Boston in the mid to late 1920s. The board of old South Meeting House was caught in Boston's public battle over freedom of speech and was challenged to define the meetinghouses policy toward free assembly since it became a museum in the late 1870s old South Meeting House has been used for many public events and assemblies notably celebrations of historic anniversaries and gatherings for groups like the daughters of the

American Revolution. But the inflammatory issue is the earliest 20th century birth control socialism and racial tensions concerns many members of the board. Would it lessen the dignity of this patriotic trying to host controversial mass meetings. Their desire to remain a place for civic debate require that we give such challenging speakers a forum others on the board embrace the meetinghouses revolutionary and radical past. They argue that the Tea Party meetings and other revolutionary events were themselves subversive events and not so different than the proposed meetings or forms of the 1920s. Also they believe that a society needed a place to air their views or violence would erupt. Freedom of speech was not only a moral imperative but a practical one for it helped to restore order. By the late 1920s old South Meeting House established that it would open its doors to speakers and programs regardless of the popularity of the cause. This policy which inspires our public programming today sets the standard for our work that

we both value freedom of speech in principle and in practice. Today it is in the spirit of this mission that we welcome Neil Miller. Thank you. Thanks Jamie. An honor to be here at this August Boston institution. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass Boccaccio's Decameron. Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. Theodore Dreiser is an American tragedy. Sinclair Lewis's. Elmer Gantry all great works of American and world literature and all unavailable in Boston bookstores for many years. Eugene O'Neill strange interlude. Lillian Hellman of The Children's Hour Shano Casey's within the gates. All major works of world and American theater but unable to be performed in Boston. Forever Amber. What Makes Sammy Run. God's little acre huge bestsellers in

their time but banned in Boston. To most of us today Boston is a pretty liberal city. When we think of censorship we think of China or Iran or some benighted town south of the Mason-Dixon Line far from Interstate but for many years Boston was also the censorship capital of America and the organization most responsible for censorship in Boston. As Jamie pointed out particular the banning of books was the New England watch and ward society. And in today's talk I'm going to introduce you to the watch and ward and read some bits from my new book appropriately titled banned in Boston. To give you some of the flavor of the book. Founded in 1878 and functioning well into the 1940s 50s and 60s the watch and ward acted as the city's moral guardian determining what Bostonians could and could not read what plays they

could and could not see. It rated gambling dens and houses of prostitution and on occasion even fought political corruption. In its early days it broke up poker games even church Raffles. It was originally called the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice. Changing it to the watch and ward in 1891. The name watch and ward came from an unofficial police force in Massachusetts Bay Colony that patrolled the byways of Boston from dusk to dawn. And in many respects that's what the new watch and ward was. It was an unofficial police force. In some ways a group of vigilantes. As an organization and had no official legal standing and but often it acted with the permission of a judge. When local police forces were reluctant or to be beholden to corrupt forces to do so sometimes it didn't even bother to do that. Now we're watching a war

didn't invent censorship in Boston. After all the Puritans burned the first book in the city back in 16 54 performances of all plays were banned in the city for 50 years starting in 1750. But you know that. The Boston Public Library had a room called the inferno. Which housed books that could only be read for research or scholarly purposes. Among the books consigned to the inferno were walls acts comedy and Boccaccio's Decameron and syringe your burdens the Arabian Nights. But if it didn't perfect if it didn't invent censorship in Boston the watch and ward society perfected it made it into an art form. It's a blend of gentility Puritan righteousness and ruthlessness gave it a particularly Bostonian character. Now I don't know how ruthless we are but

probably the best summation of all watching words views on censorship was given by the Reverend and the kid Peabody the headmaster of the elite rotten school and in a speech at the washing awards annual meeting in 900. I think some of the more hold here actually he said put bad books before young people and the evil things they read stay in their minds and poison their character. I sometimes think that bad books are worse far worse than bad companions. There is something in the personality of a bad person which repels those not already degraded. And the nature shrinks back from the person while the book is a perfectly decent looking Fang and steal softly into the imagination. A number of the early books and plays that the watching were banned were European particularly French. Now

here is Peabody at another watch and ward meeting. I do not see why these things should be foisted upon us. We do not live as the French live. We do not think as the French think we don't have the same ideals as they do when we borrow their plays. We are apt to borrow the very lowest and the very worst. In health. The New England watch in a word was in the lead organization founded by members of the city's first families the Boston Brahmins as they were known and many of its early leaders were members of the clergy. The mainstream for Protestant clergy I might add and were in involved in the social reform movements of their day. There was Edward Everett Hale who was a Unitarian minister and the author of a book man without a country which we had a real high school on. There was Phillips Brooks who was the rector at Trinity Church was an anti-slavery

activist and one of the most famous preachers in the country and he was known for speaking 213 words a minute which was kind of his claim to fame among other things. In 1886 this is society's vice presidents including the presidents of Dartmouth Amherst Brown Colby and the University of Vermont. All of them are Protestant ministers. It's dues paying members most of whom contributed $5 $10 $20 could almost all be found in the Boston social register. In the 20th century it's treasurer for 40 years was Godfrey Lowell Cabot. The richest man in Boston whose Brahmin credentials were impeccable. He was both a LOL and a captain and as you know the LOL Zz only spoke to the Cabots and the Cabots and we spoke to guy. So. He. He was a

pretty impressive figure and a real character as well. Anyway Cabot as you will discover in my book had a secret life which went totally against his public image and the image of the watch and ward society but I can't tell you what that was. You have to read the book the watch and ward was founded at a time. The last three decades of the 19th century when Boston's old families were feeling increasingly that they were losing control of the city. The Massachusetts economy was in decline and it was unable to compete really with the huge. Order the huge corporate structures of the Robber Barons. The historian Thomas O'Connor probably put it best when he said in an age dominated more and more by material forces and secular philosophies Puritan Christianity's old moral concepts seemed alarmingly out of place. Many of the old Boston families

viewed the post-war meeting post Civil War period as completely alien. Traditional moral principles ethical practices and cultural standards seem to have completely degenerated. And this sense of alienation on the part of the old families was heightened by the large number of immigrants that were transforming the city. The Irish Italians Jews Eastern Europeans political power was passing into the hands of the Irish. And in 1884 Hugh O'Brian became the city's first Irish mayor. And Ibo Bryant did not endear himself to the Brahmin elite when he pronounced Boston to be the most Catholic city in America. Or when he closed the Boston Public Library on St. Patrick's Day. And all of the watching war didn't really use overt anti immigrant rhetoric. There was somewhat of an anti-immigrant tinge to it. And after all some of the things the watch and worker say they against were associated with immigrant groups.

Gambling with the Irish opium with the Chinese. Now Boston we should make it clear was not the only place where Vice Crusaders held sway. But in Boston. There were something about censorship in this city that was different from 1915 to 900 27 For example after the arrest of some booksellers due to watch and ward raids book censorship in Boston was enforced by a deal between the watch and ward and the booksellers of Boston called the gentlemen's agreements. In 1915 J Frank Shays who was the watch and ward secretary. He was there in charge of their day to day activities and Richard Fuller the president of the old Corner Bookstore which used to be right across the street a stabber something called the Boston booksellers Committee. It was an unofficial book jury which determine what books would be

sold in Boston. And it was composed of six people three of them chosen by the bookseller. And. Three by the watching the three watching war directors and I describe it this way in my book. The committee would read a current novel. If it was acceptable. Boston booksellers could sell it without any fear of court action. If it was deemed actionable. Unacceptable or obscene in the eyes of the committee. All Massachusetts book dealers would be notified by post card. Anyone selling such a book 48 hours after the notification was subject to watch and ward prosecution. At the same time Boston's newspapers wouldn't advertise or review a condemned title and the police stayed out of the matter entirely rarely prosecuting a book on their own. The old corner bookstores fuller viewed this

system as flawless. If a book seller won't sell and the reviewer won't review the book might as well never have been written said Fuller. Now critics like HL Mencken hated the idea that chase and fuller essentially decided what Bostonians could read that included both books and magazines. It was a literary dictatorship of six people operating behind closed doors and the public in Boston had no idea what was going on. The so. The first challenge to watch and ward Hedger Monye came from HL Mencken himself and Mencken in the 1920s was one of the country's leading intellectual figures. Walter Lippmann called him the most powerful influence on a whole generation of educated people. And it was Mencken who put the first chink in the watch in Ward's armor. After the watch and ward attempted to ban his magazine The

American Mercury Well they didn't ban it. And but when Mencken showed a sold a copy to chase on the Boston Common in front of a thousand people mostly Harvard students. He was arrested. But then acquitted and the watching award which rarely lost a case found themselves in a humiliating defeat. And this marked the first moment of the decline in its influence and those of you who read the excerpt from my book in the Boston Globe magazine in August know that I talk a lot about that particular event. And after this censorship really ran wild in Boston. With the Suffolk County district attorney and the Boston Police Superintendent kind of willy nilly banning books on their own. And that began and censorship became much stricter than even under the watch and ward. And the first book to go was Sinclair Lewis's Elmer Gantry which as many of you know as

a. Secure a portrait of an unscrupulous evangelist that was banned by the district attorney William J Foley and the next to go with theater drivers. American an American tragedy. And then Foley capped it off by announcing the end of the journey. The gentleman's agreement. And other books that disappeared from the shelf were novels by Hemingway fall nerd John Dos Passos. Sure would Anderson. Sure enough as the phrase banned in Boston gained national notoriety. Various writers and publishers began to discover that being banned in Boston actually increased their sales around the country. So Upton Sinclair the novelist and muck raker remember he wrote the jungle which was his exposé the meat packing business right. He just written a book called oil as a novel and it was selling rather poorly. And

oil actually was made into a movie a few years ago which you might remember called There Will Be Blood. It was nominated for an county board member that should have won that one. So he joked with a friend whose book had been banned in Boston asking him to use his connections with the local censor. Censors to get oil banned as well. Sure enough Sinclair got his wish. And on June 4th nine hundred twenty seven a bookseller sold. Sinclair's book to two book Ditto to two police detectives. And that was that. And I'll sort of read some of that. From my book. It starts off as a prank. Then on May 30 First came the suppression of Upton Sinclair's novel oil a panoramic look at the corruption of the California oil boom of the 1920s. The police had objected to nine pages of the

text in which the books for tagon asked a young and naive heir to one while fortune is seduced by a young woman attends a petting party. And is educated about a new ethical code that includes information about contraception. OK so this happens and but the circus really begins in earnest when Upton Sinclair arrived in Boston by train from California. Sinclair was determined to get arrested in the Mencken manner all the more to gain publicity for his book but the authorities were not as obliging as he hoped. They had learned from the antics of the past. Even before arriving in Boston Sinclair had tried to get his name substituted for the bookseller on the indictment but the judge wouldn't hear of it. Then of that June 12th rally at the Boston Common where Sinclair defended his book before a crowd that grew from 25 to 2000 the

Muckraker practically begged the police to take him into custody. Are you going to arrest me he asked the police officer who broke up the rally demanding various permits. We will if you start any funny business replied the officer. I wish you would retorted Sinclair. I would consider it the greatest privilege ever accorded me and if it wasn't for the fact that I might be charged with bribery I would gladly offer you a thousand dollars to place me under arrest. The officer would not apply. Still Sinclair left the rally with a big smile on his face. The author then went to visit police superintendent Crowley the superintendent had personally told Sinclair's lawyer that the book was the worst of the lot and if he sold a copy in Boston he would personally appear to prosecute him. Sinclair engaged in a colloquy with Crowley that according to Sinclair. If you want to believe his

account went like this. Surely Mr. CROWLEY You can't be very familiar with standard literature. Shakespeare for example you don't find any of those bedroom scenes in Shakespeare. Have you ever happened to read symbol on Mr Crowley. Oh now of course you can put it over me in an argument about books but there's terrible things in that book of yours Mr. Sinclair. What for example. Ain't that the book where a girl says she can have a lover because her mother has one and she knows it. Well yes that's in there. Well no that's. Is that the kind of thing to be putting into a book. It happens to be a real case Mr. Crowley. I knew the people well there might be some people. I don't deny but that's no reason for spreading the story. Such things destroy the reverence that young girls oughta feel for their mothers. And such things are to be hushed up not put into books for young girls to read.

The following day and another rally Sinclair convinced a police officer to buy a copy of oil but it turned out to be a copy of the Bible with the oil dust jacket on it. At one public meeting Sinclair read Act 3 Scene 2 of Hamlet which contained what he called in do with goodly obscene language and invited the police to buy the book they refused. He also read them passages from Genesis. Featuring the story of Lot and his daughters. The police wouldn't take that bait either. The only way to fight the Massachusetts law is to make a monkey of it said Sinclair. And clearly that was what he was trying to do. Next he paraded on the Boston Common. This doesn't sit next to paraded on the Boston Common. Carrying a sandwich board in the shape of a fig leaf promoting oil fig leaf edition warranted 100 percent pure under

Boston law. He had persuaded his publisher to print up 150 copies with the book in which a Black Leaf silhouette was substituted for the nine offending pages that the judge had banned. And finally on June 21st he got his wish. Lieutenant Daniel J Hines Ward bought a copy of an American tragedy from publisher two months earlier purchased a book of the real oil from Sinclair. This time without the fig leaves Sinclair was arrested but the judge refused to warn and the case was dropped. We think Mr. Coyne Sinclair you've had your case you've had your share of book advertising. The judge told them. That was that. But Sinclair had achieved his objectives making a joke of Boston censorship and gaining a raft of free publicity for his book. He headed back home to California. When Sinclair stopped in New York City after his Boston sojourn.

The first thing that caught his eye was a four foot high stack of his books at a newsstand in Grand Central Station. That particular stack would be gone in a day. The clerk assured him the books were selling like hot cakes mostly to visitors from Boston who purchased copies before boarding the train for home. In the United States. Sales of oil jumped from a little over two thousand during the first three months of one thousand twenty seven to more than 6000 a month during that summer ultimately reaching 75000. We authors are using America as our sales terror territory and Boston is our advertising department said Sinclair. It's pretty amusing story. Now but watch your word censorship activities didn't just involve books and plays and I would be remiss if I didn't say something about the watch and words campaign against

burlesque and immoral dancing of all kinds. And I want to read to you also from my book one of its attacks on a precursor of Burlesque a dance called the coup de kuta. Also known as the Hoochie Coochie or the coochie coochie. Anthony Comstock stock who founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice had seen this dance at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and he was none too pleased. He said I would sooner lay my two boys in their graves than they should look at some of the sights I saw yesterday. He told a newspaper reporter the entire world's fair should be razed to the ground that the shows did not stop. The reaction was milder in Boston but the watch and ward followed Comstock's lead as was often the case and they managed to get two Cooter Cooter dancers arrested one named La Belle Frieda and the other a man named

Phil Hamburg. So I write when the two cuckoo dancers were arranged a bit for Judge Frederick Ely in municipal court the judge will realize this was no ordinary case. Let's adjourn to the lobby he suggested. The counsel for the dancers had told the judge that defense testimony would include the correct. And exhibition of the coup to coup by the defendants. They needed a larger space than the judge's court room. Judge you I agreed and loved Elfrida require a retire to the privacy of an adjoining room to put on her tights. This is a legal proceeding let me point to the first witness was Albert busting a watch and ward investigator. His evidence primarily consisted of a demonstration of the dance that he had seen the defendants perform. His was a pathetic performance gyrating and moving his hips to simulate what he had viewed on

stage. He did the best he could run a Boston Globe reporter in a wry account of the hearing but at best his apparent object seemed to be to do some injury to his body. After he finished him downs bravely that's occurred occurred. However Judge Eli clearly needed some firsthand evidence to make his decision. At this moment Frieda emerged in costume and began what could be described as a much more polished performance. The judge more accustomed to the prosecution of petty thieves and Sunday Blue Law breakers followed her movements closely from start to finish when she was done and her male male companion began to perform an apparently inferior version. The judge's attention seemed to wander. In the end Judge just discoursed enthusiastically on the subject of dancing in general and proclaimed that he didn't see anything criminally wrong with the coup de

kuta. He ordered Frieda and her companion to be released. As the Globe reporter noted. This is the first time in the history of a court. That a girl run won her case by a dancer in tights. Now the watch imports campaign against burlesque waxed and waned over many years in the 1930s the height of the Depression. They managed to get city officials to close down the legendary old power which was the Boston burlesque palace and Scully Square just down the street. And Mayor Curley who. Himself had banned the words damn damn inhale from the stage in Boston in 1924 was a great fan of the old Howard but he gave in that time and the old power was shut for a month and when it reopened it was relatively tame at least for a while. One of the dancers complained that we should have brought our red flannels. How affective the watching

words campaign against the against burlesque against the old Howard over the years is questionable and choreo the famous burlesque queen insisted in her book this was a lesson. That the old Howard management knew exactly who the watching were agents wore. And they took precautions and she tells this anecdote which believe it if you will in which she said it was the ticket takers job choreo to recognize every censor. And it never fed and he never failed. As soon as the ticker tape taker saw a censor coming he would press his foot on the pedal and a red light would go on. Onstage choreo noted. A stripper might be giving her all for mankind shimmying and grinding with clothes flying in all directions and the crowd yelling Take it off. But once the red light would start blinking in the Footlights hips would

cease grinding clothes would appear as if by magic and the musicians would break into a waltz. And she wrote. By the time the censor reached the top of the stairs and looked down at the stage he would see not the hips swinging here tossing half naked Tigris but a nun on a casual stroll through a most unlikely convent. And in fact the old Howard sort of looked I mean if anybody you have ever been there but it looked I know I haven't either because it closed in 19 the early 50s I believe. But it looked like a church from the outside sort of his gothic architecture. Anyway by the 1950s the watch and ward had abandoned its role as Boston's literary censor and moral watchdog opting for a kinder gentler persona. In 1957 focusing on. Combating gambling and organized crime

it changed its name to the New England Citizens Crime Commission by the late 60s and early 70s it essentially disbanded merging with organizations concerned with criminal justice reform. Now even if the watch and ward wasn't responsible for every single act of censorship in Boston during its 70 years of existence it was the inspiration and created the atmosphere for everything that happened. Over the years. The atmosphere. That it helped create setback Boston in many ways. The watching award helped create a stole the flying intellectual climate and which many of the city's artists and writers fled to New York and other places from which they look back on Boston. For the rest of their lives with a mixture of amused vexation and amused regret as the journalist Elmer Davis observed. But above all the in my view the

story of bill of want of the watching award and censorship in Boston is a story of the dangerous effect of moralists of all stripes who tell people what to read how to think and how to act. The old genteel days of censorship in Boston are gone. But censorship cases continue to appear in high schools and libraries across the.