El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-10-16

! ~-~-~g y
n RACTICALLY every moving picture
~ film exhibited in the United States
is approved by The national board
Of censorship Of motion pictures. This
board is a voluntary organization, and
the films are submitted to it upon the
voluntary action of tine manufacturers.
The unanimous action Of the film
makers in consentlng 10 the establish
menU and maintenance or this censor
snip is unique in the history of the the
atrtcal and amusement business. That
Z the censorship is not merely a per
functory affair is attested by the fact
that last year the board of censOrs re-
Jected no less than 100000 feet of
original negatives, all Of which was de-
strOyed, at an actual loss to the manu-
facturers Of 100000. This enormous
sum represented what actually had been
spent in preparing the film negatives,
and did not take into account any pos
Sible future profit that might have been
made if the films had been permitted TO
go into the regular channels Of the
Censorship National.
The board Of censorship, although or
gained originally for service in New
y ork city rapidly extended Its control
through the cooperation Of the manu-
facturers, until IL was justified In as
suming the title national" At the
head Of the board is o general commit
tee, consisting OF one representative
from each of 10 social service Organiza-
tlOns in New York, such as the Fedora
ton Of WOmen's clubs, the Y. H. O. A.
the Charity ORGANIZATION society, and
the Peoples institute. Then there are
nine members at large, appointed from
the ranks of well known sOc1olOglsts-
Ordinary details Of business fall under
the control of an executive comm rice
of three members Of the general com
mittee, of which Rev. DR.. George VIII
liam Knox, of Union Theological sem
mary, is chairman.
The work Of the general committee
is supplemented by that Of the ADVISORY
committee, which consists of 50 mem
bers, including such men as DIT. Lyman
Abbott, DIT. Felix Adler Andrew Carle-
gle, Samuel Gompers, bishop David ID
Greer, Jacob RHs and Dr. Albert SnaW-
Work g. OHerous.
The actual work Of Censorlng PIC
lures, In itself an Onercus task IS uele-
gated to committee of % 10 men ana
Is women, recruited from the ranks OF
social workers OF New York City. This
committee on censOrlng- IL is udIuly
necessary to say serves without pay
The only paid Officers OF the DoaEu dLS
three office secretaries and the LOLa-
expenses of the board amount to less
than $4,000 a year including rent print
ing and other office expenses 1Aese
expenses are met by voluntary CONF
buttons collected by and through the
PEOPLES institute AS q matter of fact,
the greater part of the funds contrib
uted comes from moving picture men
manufacturers, mlddlemen ana eAn4oi-
tors.
Although the national board Of cen
sorship is not vet three years oldi u
now censOrs and controls the output on
all the moving picture films desllned 70
be distributed to exhibitors In the orQl-
nary channels of the motion picture
trade. Two classes Of pictures 90 not
come within the power OF the Doarl-
The first are films known 70 the trace
as special releases" These may De
placed on the market by syndicaJes OF
individuals with whom the board mas
not made censOring arrangements oucn
companies may be formed OUTSIDE the
regular ranks Of the motion picture
manufa cturers OF may represent a com I
binatiOn of manufacturers Tot lns p1t
pose Of marketing some special picture /
at an advanced price
Three Special Releases
In the is months preceding the last g
annual meeting of the general commit ]
tee. only three such special releases nal /
been made. Two Of these were pictures /
Of prize fights and one was the famous .
picture Of Roosevelt in Africa These /
pictures were not censored. or course I
the Roosevelt pictures were not once
tiOnable and the prize fighting pictures
were Objectionable only on the grounl
Of opposition to prize fighting itself IL I
happened that neither Of these prize
fighting pictures was profitable since
they were prohibited by the local au-
-hCrities In so many cries Other sps
cial' releases which are not censored
IRE privately owned travel pictures s1cn
IS are used by travel lecturers, Holmes
EImendorf Howe and others
The other class Of pictures Wnlch 40
not come under the censorship are pic
lures produced and circulated secretly
md criminally. 1t is unquestionably a
fact that some such pictures frankly
have been produced ana eA-
"a e. DOH. %
pictures never have been shown In reg
llarly licensed moving picture theaters,
Ind are shown only before people VINO
ire expecting an obscene prO0ucuOu
md who know that the local autnorl-
les Will interfere IL the existence OF
he exhibition becomes pubucly known
Three or four years ago general pup
lie objection 20 moving picture SHOWS
iictures exhibited became so general
u to greatly Derturb the farseelng men
D the business. Some Individual notion
icture men resented criticism and pro
ested against interference on the
-round that the molten pictures were
C least Of as high moral tone as Lne
in the regular rheaJers- But
he majority of the men In the business
we're wise enough 20 recognize 80
hey were catering TO a vastly larger
lumber Of people than the regular the
tiers and that a much greater percent
Sc Of their patrons were children
Manufacturers Agree.
Early in 1909 a committee appointed
" the Association of Motion Picture
Exhibitors of New York City called on
he Peoples institute, a sociological or
-anizatiOn, for advice regarding the {
lsturbed condition of business and the
rowing public hostility to motion pic
1res AS q result o. this action the
GARD of censorship was organized and q
he Exhibitors ASSOCIATION agreed to
bide by the decisions Of the censors- {
S it was manifestly impracticable FOR
ne censoring cOmmie-ee to inspect all &
he pictures fin the more than 400 NOV
~ picture theaters of New York City, 6
be board called upoa the manufacture
rs, offered to inspect their product be- q
IRE 1t was placed on the market and to @
otfy them of any Objectionable pic
Tres, so that the manufacturers would I
OF suffer in reputation through at :
.mpting to place in theater a picture I
hich, being condemned by the censors,
-Ould be refused by she exhibitors BY D
lne of 1903 so many Of the manufac- 3
lrers had consented to this agreement O
lat 20 percent of all the motion pic q
Tres produced were submitted TO the !
snsOrs; by December of that year the 6
oGrd was I'm control of practically all . I
sgularly licensed films. As New York