Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-07-12
Let Us Dethrone Hercules and
Return to the Worship of God

The municipal and other authorities in
| every part of the country are prohibit
| ing the exhibition of moving pictures"
which show the brutal performance re-
| Gently enacted at Reno, New. 1t is well
they should. Nothing could be more
brutalizing than such pictures except the
repulsive combat from which they were
| taken. To allow such exhibitions would
be much the same as to set up schools
| in every urban community to teach bru-
tally. They would simply extend the
| limits Of the prize ring from the terri
tory of the dirty little state, which en-
| Joys the Infamous distinction of having
offered II protection when it was out
| lawed in California, so as to embrace
] the whole country.
| But while the impulse 10 reform is on
the nation let us see to it that the
( reformation be not too shallow and too
narrow. 1t Is to be feared that the pro-
hibiting of the moving pictures" is in
most cases sprung only from the APP
prehension that they might engender
racial strife and bring on racial COLI
/ sions. This is reason enough to prohibit
such exhibitions, If there were no other
reasons for suppressing them. But there
are other more welghty reasons for their
suppression, and there are other things
that brutalize which also ought to be
| suppressed
| When brutalism has been infamed in
both races we may well fear a battle of
brutc& It is high time to take steps
to avert such a conflict But we should
have begun earlier, and oui plans should
| have taken a wider range Have we
! not been allowing, mot to sax encourag-
| ing), things which can not tissue in any
thing else but a harvest of brutality and
a big crop of brutes? Why did thou
sands of men and boys hang around bull
| letin boards and buy extras" in order
| to get the first news from the fight?
| Was 1t not because. brutalizing infiu-
ences have been affecting them for years
and preparing their appetites for such
/ things? Such news is repulsive to a
right-minded person; why then was it
/ so eagerly sought after by thousands?
| Was it not because they were not right
minded? Who is responsible for the
vicious education which has so corrupt
ed the minds of many? All of us to
some eXtent,-and some far more than
| others.
The press must come in for a great
deal of blame. If the pictures of the de-
grading spectacle are too bad to show,
| the stories of the indecent performance
were not At to print; and it was an i'm
position upon the homes of decent sub
| scribers to send into them papers reek-
| ing with such demoralizing stuff. When
Mayor Gaynor of New York was asked
| If he would take steps to prohibit the
exhibition of the pictures in that city,
he is reported to have said, mo. 1 have
no more right to forbid the pictorial rep
| reservations OF the fight than l have to
| prohibit the printed accounts of It,"
| There is force in what he said Doubt
less the realistic features of the pic
lures, coupled with the fact that they
are seen by audiences composed Of all
sorts of people crowded together in small
rooms, make them more infiamatory, and
therefore more dangerous, than printed
! pages detailing the several acts of the
abominable brutality. But 1t must not be
| forgotten that the press has done much
to create the interest which draws pa
| irons to the pictures, and 1t must be
remembered also that the printed page
| influences a far greater number of peo-
pie than ever have the chance to see the
! pictures. The fact is, the newspapers Of
| America have made the brutallzing per-
Torrance at Reno possible: without their
aid 1t could scarcely have been possible,
or, If possible it's influence would have
been restricted to very narrow limits
| Our civil authorities are justified in sup
pressing pictures which are scarcely
! less than incendiary in their influence
but they should follow their principle
| to its logical conclusion, and forbid the
setting up of inflamatory bulletin boards
and the circulation of infamatory pa
pers And this should be done not alone
because of the danger of racial conflicts
but also because such things brutalize
| both races. We should guard against
the brutalizing Of our people quite as
earnestly as we seek to avert racial col
! lissions and riots. Brutality is as bad as
violence In fact, it fosters violence. If
we raise brutes. we must prepare to see
them gouge and gore one another. That
is the natural outcome. 1t can not be
otherwise. And while they bite and de-
YOUR one another, they necessarily en-
| danger the whole community. The Span
| ish bull-fght Is not half so perilous and
| brutalizing as this degrading show which
/ has been enacted at Reno and which
! has been exhibited through the printed
page in all the homes of our country.
| Our people would not tolerate such
things If they had not been prepared to
do so by other brutalzing performances
| to which they have grown accustomed
Their sensibilities have been dulled or
their Indignation would burn more holly
now. And sad to say many of our col
| leges, centers at which we claim to fos-
! ter the forces that make for civil
ization, have done much to lower
| the tone of public sentiment by the
| brutalizlng sports which they have en-
couraged and in which they have gloried.
| DR.. David Starr Jordan, President of the
/ Leland Stamford University, spoke no
more than the truth the other day in the
| National Educational Association, when
he affirmed the college game of football
was a most brutalizing thing. He is en-
/ tirely right President Elliot, of Har-
ward, took the same position years ago.
While l was president of Emory College
| / took the same stand, and from then I'M
til now Emory College has not permitted
intercollegiate games Of any Sort
The worst effect of these college games
is not the danger to life and limbs which
they involve, although in football that