Career
Sumner retired in 1950. The organization, by then named the Society to Maintain Public Decency, was disbanded shortly thereafter. Sumner was born in Washington, District of Columbia on September 22, 1876, the son of Rear Admiral George West. Sumner, United States.N. He was educated in Washington and Brooklyn.
He was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1904.
Sumner"s actions as NYSSV chief were frequently controversial. He arranged for both civil and criminal libel actions to be brought against critics who ridiculed him or the society in print.
At times, Sumner veered from his central mission of policing obscenity to attack general values of which he disapproved. At a National Republican Club luncheon broadcast on national radio, playwright Elmer Rice attacked fellow speaker Sumner, saying, " job is dependent on his finding vice
If he doesn"t find any, his job ceases.
Therefore his testimony is no more dependable than that of a prohibition enforcement officer The obscenity issue is only a smokescreen, hiding an effort to prevent the publication of ideas which are unpleasant to various church groups and to ultra-conservatives."
He died on June 20, 1971.
