Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1910-07-28
THE MOVING PICTURE
A Primary School For Criminals
So Says w. A. McKeever
WORK OF SCHOOLS UNDONE
A Campaign OF Opposition What Good
Housekeeping Magazine" Has To

Apropos of the moving pictures Mr..
William A. Mckeeyer, Professor of
Philosophy in the Kansas State Agri-
cultural College, writing for the Au-
gust number of Good House Keeping
Magazine, calls them the primary
school for criminals - and writes as
follows:
"What is to be done with the NOV
ing picture shows? All over this
beautiful land of ours. in the cities,
towns and villages, we find these
'nickleodeons. lyrics and 'electrics
at work six or seven nights in the
week, grinding out their reels of
excitement and enchantment before
the eyes of the motley throng of men
and women, boys and girls.
''It is a great popular craze-2opu-
lar partly because it is cheap, but
chiefly becauss of the fact of its rea-
listic nature. For some generations
in this country we were called upon
to do battle with the yellow back
the dime novel-which fight has
been practically won by US. The
cheap, trashy story has at last been
driven into the more remote and less
enlightened corners of the fiimsy per-
iodicals. But precisely of the same
character as the cheap story, and ten
times more poisonous and hurtful to
character in its results, is the NOV
ing-picture show when in the hands
of man whose first concern is to
draw crowd and make it pay.
stTboca VaOuipx nj oNa
degrading than the dime novel, be-
cause they represent real flesh and
blood forms, and impart their lessons
directly through the senses. The
dime novel cannot lead the boy farth-
er than his limited Imagination, will
allow him to go, but the moving pic
ture forces upon his view scenes that
are new. That is, they give him
first-hand experience.
"If the reader will make a round of
visits to a large number of these
shows, he will agree with me as to
their Objectionable character. He
will find depicted again and again,
in living form, all sorts of acts of
criminal and depraving nature.
And around it all is thrown a SEN
timent such as to give the mind of
plastic youth tendency to regard
the coarser forms of conduct as
common thing in our daily walks of
life. There he learns precisely how
robberies holdups and murders are
committed: how officers of the law.
such as policemen, are false to their
oath of Office and to the demands of
plain, everyday duty; how devices for
| divorces are originated and how the
various members of the family violate
the most sacred laws that bind to-
gether the home circle and give it is
charm and perpetuity.
"If the citizens of any community
should assemble with the purpose of
laying plans and devising means
whereby to teach immortality. OBJ
seenity and crime, can think of no
better way definitely and certainly to
bring about such results than the use
of the moving-picture show as it is
now conducted. 1t is serious mat
ter, this picture business. We tax
ourselves heavily for educational
purposes and employ teachers in the
schools to inculcate, among other
things, certain higher moral prin-
ciples. In fact, we agee that the end
of all teaching in the schools is moral
character, and then we permit and
license these cheap and vitiating
shows to run, and We permit our chill
dren to attend, and not only unlearn
all the moral lessons of the school, but
learn directly many of the immoral
lessons that were once confined-to the
worst centers of our largest cities.
In fact, the moving picture organi-
cations might be this:
"A red-light district in easy reach
of every home. See the murders
and the debauchery while you wait.
1t is only nickel.
(Continued)