Where I Stand 1959 — Hank Greenspun: Morals can’t be legislated

Friday, Sept. 8, 2000 | 9:43 a.m.

Note to readers: This column by Sun founder Hank Greenspun appeared on January 31, 1959.

Let's not be too hasty.

A supposed cleanup bill was introduced in the Legislature Thursday to ban the nudes from Nevada entertainment. State Sen. Floyd Lamb, with possibly all the good intentions in the world, believes "that the public should not be permitted to watch this type of show."

This newspaper has done its share in attempting to bring a realization to hotel owners that burlesque is not the salvation of financially pressed resorts. There are more wholesome methods of luring the patron without feeding them lewdness and even downright smut.

If "bare bosom" reviews are to be chased from the Strip, it would be preferable that public opinion be the instrument instead of legislation.

Our legislators must learn the facts of life, which can only come about through a knowledge of history.

You cannot legislate morals.

Censorship is a needless effort and in most cases bears no fruit other than to increase the desirability of the object banned or censored.

I feel it's an insult to our citizens to question whether they have enough intelligence to pick their entertainment or choose the books they read.

Whatever a person's tastes -- that's what they will indulge in.

The bill submitted to the Legislature to censor and ban shows is not the answer to the problem -- if one exists.

Entertainment tastes -- just like food, books, clothes and even kids -- differ. Some people like children while others think they're abhorrent.

If we permit censorship or a complete ban on one facet of human relationships, who is to say whether some day legislation will not be introduced to ban the conception of children.

I am always horrified at any effort to curtail the right of inquiry in a free society. If any phase of entertainment is to be made a criminal offense -- books, ideas or even classical music may be next on the list.

Efforts have been made in the past to ban certain religions through legislation but they have failed, and rightly so.

Somehow, the very idea of a censor causes the mind and spirit in man to rebel.

Legislating against nudity will not eliminate it. Those who shock easily at this type of entertainment are not compelled to witness it. But any attempts to ban it may whet the appetites of those who formerly had no interest in it. It may almost become a duty to patronize a show which has been banned for no other reason than to vindicate a person's right to see or read what he pleases.

Attempts to legislate morals in the past have been unsuccessful. The prohibition law against alcoholic beverages is a classic example.

The Eighteenth Amendment warned the people that they could not drink whiskey under penalty of going to jail.

The people replied they're going to drink themselves blind, which is about what many of them did.

All the law accomplished was to make criminals of people who were essentially decent citizens before. Bootleggers became rich and in turn bribed public officials into becoming criminals.

The results are still with us today in a powerful crime syndicate that controls half of the country. Many of the bootleggers of old are the gang leaders of today, and their needs are so great that no industry is immune to racketeering.

Burlesque, like houses of prostitution, cannot be legislated out of existence.

Those who seek this form of distraction will find it, except that it will exist at a higher cost with the connivance of officials who otherwise could have been able public servants. The temptation of money sometimes becomes too great to withstand, especially when the law is not popular with the people.

In a democratic society, greater good can come about through creating a sense of responsibility among its citizens than forcing something upon them against their will.

It is up to the individual hotel owners to weigh their responsibilities to the community instead of legislating them into an awareness of it.

A free people only buys that which pleases them.