CRIME: Hearst v. Ohio

Last week the Ohio board of film censors refused to permit The Big House, Hearst (Cosmopolitan) editorial cinema designed to flay prison conditions in the U. S. (TIME, July 7), to be shown anywhere in Ohio. The board’s reason: “The display of such films is harmful to the boys & girls of Ohio.” Commented Chairman Henry G. Brunner of the state Democratic executive committee: “It is apparent that the state [Republican] administration fears the picture would revive interest in the Ohio penitentiary fire, costing 320 lives because it portrays overcrowding and other prison evils involved in that disaster. It is plain that political expediency makes it undesirable to direct popular attention to governmental dereliction, , . .”