Last week an old foreign film called "Ecstasy" was shown for four performances in New Lecture Hall and drew large crowds four times. This week the Cambridge City Council ordered the city's license bureau to be stricter in giving licenses for the exhibition of films.

If the Councilmen mean their action to be a bar to the future presentation of such films as "Ecstasy," then we feel that they have taken two steps in the wrong direction. First, they have decided that the authorities should keep a closer watch over what people are and are not allowed to see. Second, they have applied too harsh standards to a picture that represents an early, unsubtle attempt to put across through symbolism some of the emotions and problems connected with marriage.

It is the first step that is the dangerous one, because it assumes that people are not capable of judging intelligently what they see and hear. Once this is granted, there is no limit to the harshness or irrationality of restrictions that can be imposed.