The Washington times., 1915-10-07
THE BEST
Photopldy Department In
WASHINGTON
What the Anti Trust
Decision Means To
Patrons of the
~ Photopldy.

One OF those curious legal situa-
lions. where the stable door IL
locked. not only after the horse has
been stolen. but after the stable
itself has been carted away and
nothing but the door remains, 10 re-
Elected In the recent decision OF tho
Federal court in Philadelphia against
the so-called motion picture trust.
The old motion picture trust ceased
to be q menace to anything but the
trust itself a year or two ago, ana
the arguments that caused the or
been dead, DO far as any effect they
might have on motion picture maxi
lnS and exhibiting generally IL con-
cerne0. Tor even longer time than
Because of the many inquiries that
nave been made regarding the effect
OF the decision and because of tine
interest that was manifested in the
trust Tor long time by picture pa
irons. 1t might be stated that ina
trust itself has had little or no er-
rect on the exhibition of pictures
since the beginning of feature photo
pay production-althou the bet
yer class OF manufacturers in the
trust have been breaking away from
tne tenets that made the trust pos
sipIe Tor q longer time than that.
IN the beginning 1t appeared as
though the trust was supreme in the
motion picture field. It was called
pany. and was the joint owner Of the
Edison. Armat. and other American
patents regarded as important In pic
ture making.
1t attempted to form a monopoly
oI Ine motion picture business In this
country and the General Film COM
pany was organized by the so-called
licensed manufacturers-th oper-
ating under permission of the Mo-
uon Picture Patents Company-for
inc purpose Of serving exhibitors.
Iron-ciad rules were adopted and the
General Film Corporation was made
the distributor Of films and the en-
tho formation of the General Film
program OF releases. Exhibitors were
compelled to take General Film pro-
grams as whole or get nothing,
The idea was to keep the control OF
the picture business in a very close
corporation Of interests.
The very compactness of the or
ganization was Its own defeat. Tho
foreign makers ~ motion picture
machines which did not infringe any
OF the Motion Picture Patents Com
panys patents supplied the 90
called unlicensed. or independent"
manufacturers with their machines
and their material. The trust at
tempted to coutrol these factors by
taking In the Kalem company, gem
eially credited as a subsidiary Of the
Eastman Camera Works. which
manufactures most of the film used
In this country. and the Pathe COM
p0ny. the French concern which
manufactured a non-infringing cam
era and projecting machine. But
this did not work. as there
were other supplies for Aim and ma
chimes which made possible the
i. versal services with programs that
were offered as independent" OF
the trust. Each of these concerns
vas really as much Of a manufac-
tGrers trust as the General and each
turned out pictures that compared in
every way With the average of GEN
eral Film output ard hit the Cen
eral Film program very hard
blow.
Then II was that the organizers Of
the trust who were earnestly work.
fnc To make good pictures saw their
error. There we're some of the sub
sitiary companies that were not SO
Inspired and turned out cheap pic
lures. which the program rules
made the exhibitors accept. J.
Stuart Blackton. the president of the
big factors ia the Motion Picture
Patents Company, told the photo
play editor OF The Times only a few
weeks ago that the greatest evil
that was ever inflicted on the manu-
facturers was this compulsory pro-
gram feature. which. by the way.
the photoplay department Of The