Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1912-05-02
POLICE SCORE PICTURES.
Captain Santry Says He Looks
For a Child in Murder Or
Robbery Now.
Would Fix Age Limit at Shows.

girls in Baltimore the next generation
will show an age of criminals greater
than anything America has ever
known is the opinion of Capt. John
J. Santry, of the Northwestern dis
trict, a veteran in police service.
He was one of several Baltimore.
police captains and lieutenants at
headquarters asked for their opinions
in view of the statement of Wilfred j..
Preston, the 14-year-old murderer OF
Frederick Bacr, whom he shot and
then robbed of $40, that he got his
idea from a moving picture film.
Moving pictures? Huh! Why,
I've got mighty little respect for NOV
ing picturcs,' said Captain Santry
warmly. 'They ought to be closed
up-cvery last one of thcm-and if
they keep on running the next gen.
Grafton will be one of criminals and
foxes. Who'd have thought that a
14-yrar-old boy would shoot man
from ambush, then rob him, ignore
his appeal for doctor and leave him
dying on the road! Why, Jesse James
in his palmirst day wouldn't have
done such cowardly trick as that.
But this boy says he saw it done on
/ moving picture finn, and he thought
it was a big bandit thing to do. |
would close every moving picture
house without a censor if | had my
way about it.
But the moving picture people
say their entertainment is also elcvat-
ing in some pictures and that they
bring amusement within the reach of
poor people.
Eyes, they do bring it within the
reach OF poor p, oplc-and that's one
reason why I'd close them all up
every last one of them. They make
it cheap enough to attract children
and fathers, and mothers wholesale.
Boys and girls who ought to have
their minds ON their studies or work,
and parents who ought to have their
minds on bringing up their children
are letting themselves 60 in the NOV
ing picture parlors, watching pictures
that make fun Of matrimony and de-
ccncy and pictures of thieves robbing
houses and thugs numbering men,
holdups and bandits in the west and
train robhcrirs. That's fine clcva-
ton, isn't it?
But do the moving pictures act
ually influence the young mind to
crimc?'
Certainly they do, Outside of
the pictures suggesting crime, children
hay" gone crazy about seeing the pic
lures and they'll do anything to get
money to 60 there. They'll stand
outside and beg, they'll lie to their
parents, they'll steal nickel to pay
their way in, and now this Preston
boy wanted moncy-some of ito
pay his way to see moving pictures
and he killed man to get it,
Let me tell you something" said
Capt. Santry in a burst of indigna-
ton. Society is standing by today
and letting the children go straight
to the devil, and some day society
will pay for it, These children will
all be men and women some day and |
their education is coming out of cheap,
trashy moving pictures-all of them
false ideas of life and faxed up to get
nickels into the box office. These
of children are of the age
when they form character. If they
are allowed to go into manhood and
womanhOod with the kind of ideals
they get from moving pictures, this
next generation is going to be one of
cunning foxes and criminals. Why,
when a big crime was committed
seven years ago-when that 9-year-old
Link boy killed a woman on West
Baltimore street with banana stalk |
and stole the pennies she had saved
in her little store, we began to look
for big game. Who'd have thought
a baby did it? These days, if any
one is murdered or robbed, we try to
find the children who come out of the
picture parlors with crime in
their heads. Our babies are bandits,
and parents are geeting to lie just as
bad, letting them 60 any way they
please. There are 1S moving picture
parlors in my district alone, and
they're putting up new one on
North avenue. If had right to
close them they wouldn't open for
bucinaSc todoy -