The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-04-21
pictures Do Not Injure
Ewes, Health Nor Morals.
Says Eminent Physician
Staff Member of the John Hopkins University Refutes the Theorv
of Mrs. Ella FIagg Young, Chcago's Super
ntendent of Schools

only n few months ago, Mrs. Ella
rloec Young, superintendent of schools
l., chicago. strongly advocating the
.oseoae of an ordinance requiring a
eyo-minute intermission between the
,.,nning of films i'm picture theaters.
che held that watching moving pic
,,,es ON "A screen strained the eyes of
ohndren. if continued throughout the
nroeram without such intermissions.
Mrs Youngs hypothesis has now been
,boroughly refuted by eminent medi-
cal authorities i'm an article written by
leonard Keene Hirschberg, NJ. A., NJ.
u If Johns Hopkins University, and
,ublshed in the Chicago sunday F,X-
ominer. March 10. Extracts from the
lengthy article are given herewith:
Everybody goes to moving pictures
nowadays Not only are moving pie
mre theaters cheap. but the perform
ouces are as good, if not better, than
,ou see i'm the two dollar houses. You
have the pleasure. the music. the COM
fart. the entertainment and the in
smction i'm moving picture theater
IN a greater certainty than in many
so.caled legitimate houses and at far
less expense.
What harm is there, then. in visit
inc moving picture theaters? Are the
ewes injured? Is the health of the
patrons destroyed Are the morals of
the young corrupted by them?
The answer to all these queries is
an emphatic NO. Just as the old
age playhouse gradually eliminating all
tin, Of vice from its performance; just
as the editors of all magazines have |
come to understand that the reading
public does not relish even a small |
dose Of the wicked, so the photo-play |
producers have learned that their pub |
lie will have none of the suggestive |
the vicious, or the unpleasant.
Militant prudes and bellgerent NOR
alists who read vice into drinking,
and whose voices are for war against I
any pleasures whatsoever; who spit !
forth their crusading Indignation
against moderate tobacco smoking,
Sunday walks. the stately minuet and
the graceful Boston waltz, have al
ready recognized the trend To censor
or censwe it.
But certain amateur PSYCHOLOGISTS
and opticians continue to attack this
form of entertainment and instruction.
IN their ignorance they declare that
Elective vision, styes, granulated eye
IDS eye strain. pinkeye. inramed lids
GOss eyes and other troubles may
zach and all develop from attendance
at the moving pictures.
DR. Herbert Harlan surgeon general
Of Maryland, perhaps the best opthala-
moosst in the south, and the envoy
Sent ny the governor To study the
Dreadful eye malady tracoma i'm the
wdS Of West Virginia, says these
charges are all nonsense. Or. Harlan,
with whom ! feel upon this matter i'm ,
nearly concord. asserts that the hour
or So spent each day i'm watching the
moving picture show can result in I
no harm To the eyes.
Tonic to Tired Eyes.
IN Tact. ! go even farther and as I
Serl mat two hours day in the dark [
auditorium of picture playhouse.
watching the moving films, is actually ,
d valuable tonic to tired eyes. \
experiments by Professor Knight /,
puhIap In the physiological labora-
@HeS of Johns Hopkins university |