HALL CAINE'S BANNED BOOK.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1889, 25 October 1913, Page 7

HALL CAINE'S BANNED BOOK.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE LIBRARIES. Mr. Hall Caino, in an Open Letter to the Committeos of Freo Libraries on tho Choice of Novels in "T.P.'s Weekly, " maintains that the proper test of a book is its aim: "Ono of tho grievous errors of library committees (if I may say so) is to assume that if a story contains scenes of immorality it is necessarily an immoral story," ho writes. "That is by no means so. The great story of David and Batbsheba is a story of immorality yet it is in-tho highest degreo a moral story. Therefore, do not concludo that because you seo m a book bad people and wicked scones, tho book itself is consequently bad and wicked. Tlioro are mauy bad pcoplo and wielded scenes in lifo, and to writo thorn in tho right way may bo tho most moral thing an author can. do." ' "When a novel, written out ot a clean h o! irt " Mr. Hall Caine adds, "attempts to deal with somo of the vital moral problems which' affect tho lives of the young and old of both sexes (however outspoken it may bo, with.n tho limits of deconcv), is it not a very grave responsibility which you undertake when you cxcludo it from your libraries?