IT IS fashionable in literary circles to snicker at Arthur E. Summerfield, the former Chevrolet dealer who may have produced one of the most publicized cases of poor judgment in the history of criticism. But the Postmaster General merely carried the logic of traditional Post Office procedures to their proper conclusion. Through the years, these procedures have led to the seizure of Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata, Boccaccio’s Decameron, Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls and Caldwell’s Tobacco Road as obscene literature, and Sholom Aleichem’s Bewitched Tailor, abolitionist pamphlets, discussions of the French Revolution, the Economist (London), and a Russian chess book as political propaganda. Vested with these traditional powers of censorship, Summerfield, a man who admits to reading little fiction, decided that D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover “taken as a whole, is an obscene and filthy work”; literary critics and at least one federal judge decided otherwise. Snickering at this difference in judgment seems like misplaced energy. Rather than examine the critical faculties of Summerfield, it would make more sense to examine the censorship powers of the Post Office...

Evangelist Billy Graham today said he almost wept when he learned Rep. Douglas Stringfellow (R-Utah) for years told a false story of wartime service. "He lost his character. Now, he has lost his friends. How terrible! How tragic!” the North Carolina minister told 16,000 persons, the largest crowd to attend a crusade sermon here. Graham cited the example of Stringfellow in a sermon on "America's Greatest Sin." The Utah congressman last night tearfully repudiated his story of World War II experiences with the Office of Strategic Services. Stringfellow's admission substantiated an Army Times story that questioned his service record. “The great sin of America is we are putting all our emphasis on the material, the secular, the body and so little on the soul," the evangelist told the crowd that filled Pelican Stadium in the cool, sunny afternoon...