June 24, 1907 (Monday)

CLERGYMAN ARTICULATES ONE OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CENSORSHIP -- IT'S OFTEN SELF-DEFEATING: The Rev. Robert Collyer (shown) of New York's Church of the Messiah, has come to the defense of the novel "Mary Barton," which the London County Council wants removed from the shelves of elementary schools. He presents one of the classic reasons why censorhip is often self-defeating. Here's a quote of his in today's New York Times:
Now that the London County Council has put its official stamp of disapproval on the book, I suppose every child in the schools will want to be getting a copy so as to see what it contains. That is human nature.

RESEARCHER IDENTIFIES THE CORRECT "JOHN HART" AS SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: Thanks to Dr. Charles Godfrey of the adjutant general's office of the state of New Jersey, the identity of the "John Hart" who signed the Declaration of Independence has been nailed down. He says the overlooked signer was John Hart of Hunterdon County. He was elected as a Congressman on June 22, 1776, according to today's New York Times.
(The painting above by John Trumbull shows his version of the signing. The signatures of the New Jersey delegates are also shown, top to bottom: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark.)
The U.S. and New Jersey and numerous historians have confused him with John De Hart, a Congressman who resigned June 1, 1776. Worthington Chauncey Ford, who is chief of the Division of Manuscripts in Washington, D.C., has written Godfrey to declare that the federal government has been wrong and to thank him for identifying the right Hart.