Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-03-21
ALDERMEN BEGIN
WAR ON YELLOW
JOURNAL POSTERS
Objectionable Bilib0ards Ordered
Covered Up by City C0un-
Gil CensOrs.

All posters, no matter whether they
are put out by theatres or nor, are to
be examined by the Common Council
poster committee. The discovery that
advertisements were being placed on
the bill boards without being brought
! before the committee caused the action.
The bills were of that blood and thun-
der character that the committee OPP
poses and advertised a serial story now
running in a New York paper.
As soon as Alderman William X.
Seeker, chairman of the poster com
! mittee, heard of what had been lone
he dispatched John Hancock, or the
city clerks office. to verify the report
Mr.. Hancock found that there was d
large number of these posters, showing
a man holding a revolver to the heao
of another man. This is one of the
main things hat the committee mas
tried to stamp out. 1t has ordered thai
where a revolver, sword or other
weapon shall appear it shall be COW
cred over.
I'VE are going to get after this thing
and stop ii once and for ALL" a
Mr.. Seeker. I'VE nave the evil pretty
we'll under control now and we propose
to keep it SO, We nave the right to
compel every bill-poster in the city to
| show us the sheets before they are
hung. We have moi done so because
we have not thought it necessary. The
theatre bills are the only ones that
have not been all right until recently.
These posters that we nave under con-
sideration that have been put up by
the newspaper were never brought to
us at all. We shall at once notify the
bill-posting companies that they must
come before as or stand the penalty.
another point that we are going to
take up is the moving picture u
posters. l am told that the proprietors
of these places go to New York n
get cheap Autographs and then hang
them up outside of their places. They
have no more right to do that than the
other theatres have. Notices are to be
sent out at once to have them submit
their posters to the committee here
after.
81 believe that the class of pictures
we are trying to stop do a great deal
of harm. especially to young boys. l
would like to cut out q great many
more than we do, but we have to go at
this thing gradually. Already we have
done a great deal. but we shall accom-
plish much more before we are done"
Alderman Mount, another member Of
the committee, predicted hat the next
two years would see the end of the pic
ture poster.
"Other cities are doing just the same
thing as we are" he said. years g
there was no regulation at ali. Bill
posters put up their paper wherever
they felt like it. Now Newark and
cities of it's size n kind have taken
to regulating that evil. The theatrical
firms go to great expense to prepare
Autographs, only to find hat only a
few of them will be allowed in most
cities. In another year, or, two years
at most, you will scarcely see o picture
poster advertising a theatre anywhere.
1t will not pay to have them.
"L know in some cities they are GEN.
soring all posters and limiting the num-
Der of posters that may be shown and
the places where they may be put. /
think that may be a good thing, but it
is a legitimate business and ] do not
think that we have the power to inter
fere with it. l think it might be well
to have some such regulation for the
centre of the city, but our authority
does not extend that far. We are sup
posed to pass on the morality Of the
picture and there our power ends"