Should Minister Be Criticized for His Daughter Attending Dances, Movies? March 2, 1921

A Raleigh minister who led in the fight for censorship of motion pictures has been made the target of several moving picture houses there because his daughter, it is alleged, goes to dances in the regulation costume and returns home in the early hours of the morning. In view of this fact, slides asked the public, was it right for a minister-father to condemn picture shows. The minister, Rev. Milton A. Barber, is one of the best men in the state and his friends are aroused.

Passing over the question of whether the picture houses were wrong in a personal attack on Mr. Barber, the broad question naturally arises: Should people in responsible positions so conduct themselves or permit their friends to conduct themselves as to weaken their influence for good?

The other side will have quite a following; and they will urge that it was quite legitimate for the picture shows to resort to personalities in the matter that has been uppermost in the public mind as much as objectionable pictures.

St. Paul’s injunction about giving offense might be read with profit.

From the editorial page of the Hickory Daily Record, Wednesday evening, March 2, 1921