Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-24
MOVIES On SHIP
AND TRAIN HIS
PREDICTION
Picture Shows Only in Their In
fancy, Says President Of Ex-
hibitors' League Of America.

NEW YORK, June ga. Neff.
President Of the Motion Picture Ex-
hibttors' League Of America. who has
just arrived to make ARRANGEMENTS
for the annual convention Of the
league. predicts historical libraries
composed of moving picture films,
and ocean steamers and lonE-dis-
lance trains equipped with motion
picture shows. These, Mr.. Nen
prophecies. will be in existence with
in half a dozen years.
Although our league was only or
sanized September II, 1910, we now
have thirty eight State leagues" said
Mr.. Neff. The State Of Maine win
organize another one next Monday.
There are no manufacturers in orr
hague and none 10 connected with It.
We are not an association of man.
ayers but OF men who own theaters. A
man cannot belong to the league un-
less he owns at least part Of a thea
ter. on course we Cooperate with
manufacturers, but we also Cooper
ate with many humane societies. We
are now running tuberculosis slides in
aid Of campaign our Tuberculosis
League IN Cincinnati is waging.
U. s. SURPRISES in films.
The motion picture business is
the largest business In the world to-
day. In the United States alone there
are 1900 moving picture shows, and
tneSe represent an outlay of any,
where from 81 900 to $4,000 apiece.
while some are being built now that
will go beyond the higher figure"
rs 1t true that the best films nova
days are made abroad?" he was ask
ed.
No; America makes the best films
in the world. It has all the other
countries skinned to a finish. Ameri-
can manufacturers make from s5 to
30 per cent of the films used abroad.
Several American manufacturers are
establishing plants in other coun-
tries.
so many new things are contin-
ually coming up in the moving pic
ture business that you can hardly
pick up paper In the morning and
not find some new development The
time is not far distant when every
ocean passenger steamer will be
equipped with a first-class picture
show. That would be a. paying in
Vestment. You have your audience
right there on the boat and it can't
get away. You could give the same
show every night and the chances
are you would gather in the whole
crowd, because there would not be
any rival attraction.
Every long-distance train will
have a car fitted up containing a mo-
ton picture show. believe that every
first-class railroad station in the
country will sooner or later have a
motion picture waiting room. 1t
would be the best way In the world
for persons who are waiting for trains
to kill time. Instead OF having mega
phones roaring out announcements in
different parts of great station,
these would be thrown on the NOV
ing picture curtain and everybody
would read that train was ten min
utes late or that a train was com
ing in on track "a, and so on.
Great Aid to Press.
The motion picture has come ire
mendously to the fore as a dissent
nator of news. 1t has become a ire
mendous auxiliary to the press, be-
cause people see with their own eyes
portrayals of events that the papers
have just told them had happened.
I predict that within a very few years
a great historical library Of motion
pictures will be founded. The his
torian who has been writing the his
tories Of countries for centuries, aft
er all. presents these histories from
the standpoint of one man, who has
gathered his information from other
men. No two men who witness an
automobile accident Will describe
that accident exactly alike, though
both may be truthful. When you
show by a moving picture how the
accident happened, you have rec
ord that cannot be questioned. How
much would we give to-day for pic
lures showing Abraham Lincoln de-
iivering his Gettysburg address or
,{rant receiving the surrender of Lee
ct Appomattox; or. to 80 back FUR
Their of Washington crossing the
DeIa ware. Mere stories Of those events
cannot give the inspiration that NOV
ing nictures could. The public gen
arsIlv does not know that the NOV
inc picture man has planted the
American flag in every city and town
Of the world where civilization eX-
iats and that he has given people OF
ali the countries of the world an op-
,,o,tunitv TO realize what this coun-
~ over here is like AS an educa-
tor especially with regard to teach
ing untraveled people about the
Tinted States, the moving picture
has done incalculable service.