News
Amid Boston Overdose Crisis, a Pair of Harvard Students Are Bringing Narcan to the Red Line
News
At First Cambridge City Council Election Forum, Candidates Clash Over Building Emissions
News
Harvard’s Updated Sustainability Plan Garners Optimistic Responses from Student Climate Activists
News
‘Sunroof’ Singer Nicky Youre Lights Up Harvard Yard at Crimson Jam
News
‘The Architect of the Whole Plan’: Harvard Law Graduate Ken Chesebro’s Path to Jan. 6
The action of the public officials in repealing the fine and sentence of James Delacey, proprietor of the Dunster House Bookshop, brings the infamous case to a close. It is the only ending to an odious business and the officials deserve more to be praised for their intelligence than congratulated for any show of "clemency."
The facts of the case are too well known. Guided by purely legal and technical aspects the Law demanded a conviction for the public sale of "Lady Chatterly's Lover." To Attorney Bushnell devolved the unsavory task of pressing the charges and securing the conviction; in performing his public duty he had no choice. His plea yesterday for revocation of the charges was naturally based on his and the community's indignation against the Watch and Ward Society's use of falsehood and deception in securing the evidence against Mr. Delacey.
The "Watch and Ward" were successful in their efforts to convict Delacey; public condemnation of the methods employed by this organization, self-created to guide the morals of a Commonwealth, was successful in keeping Mr. Delacey from jail. In this one case the society has given ample evidence of its lack of excuse for existence. A sense of justice can in no way condone the immoral means of the "Watch and Ward" to put an end to Immorality. Mr. Delacey now stands acquitted and his accusers sufficiently stigmatized in the eyes of the world. The only hope remaining out of the whole mess is that the curtain has finally been rung down--on the "Dunster House Bookshop Case" and on the "Watch and Ward."
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.