Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-01-26
MOTION PICTURES AS
EDUCATIONAL COURSES
Extension Work" in City and Country
Shows People How Things Are Made.
photography Utilized in Agriculture,
Industry and Civic Enterprise.
BY FRANCIS HoLLEY
Director of the Bursau Of Commercial Eeonorni,

! Imagination with the shaclSes of words7
! Words mean little to a child 1t Ia the pic
! ture that creates the lasting impression, and
| with children of larger growth the same is
true. Most OF us prefer sort of illus
| traton in the books we read be 1t but dia-
gram to make concrete and vivid that VIII ch
! otherwise is but an abstract thought. Even
statements of facts of historical events are
but words unless they create in the mind an
impression OF reality Of vividness. T at
which the eye beNolds stamps on the brain
an imprint more asst ng than that which is
simply read about. 1t s the old axiom of ex-
perience versus tradition
We can not all in actually experience tte
thrills, the horrors the delights, the terfors
of being rescued by handsome outlaws frcm
the crushing wheels of the onrushing train;
or of having vast millions left to us by tha
fortunate death of an unknown reative who
makes us his beneficiary. But by means OF
the moving pictures we may assume these
Ready to Wear" experiences. with our
eyes we see the thing on the screen and the
imprint on our minds is so vivid that we
react to 1t though it an actual per-
sOnal experience. How Cften do we hear IN
the juvenile police courts the plea of the
delinquent 'I saw it in the movies"?
Whether this is perfunctory excuse or not
corded on the brain, forms an integral part
of our minds and becomes a stimulus, an in
centive FOR future action
The Public Wants to Know
The philosophy of education has changed
from that Of the superintendent of one of TIE
large high schools of Philadelphia, who de-
clared very recently that If he had his way
there would not even be a blackboard in his
pphn 10. n..t,r
mental image. If this old doctrine be true
how few images we must have in our minds;
perhaps this accounts for some of the mental
abrasions which occur among our acquaint-
ances.
The progressive scientific instructor keeps
abreast of the times. The public is more in
terested in conditions of the material world
than in higher mathematics. Four ffths of
the children in the schools and even greater
percentum of the parents prefer to study
those things which vitally interest them.
City sanitation the filtration of the water of
the community In which they live, is not only
only interesting, it is vital.
The Public Ought to Know
If the Government has the privilege and |
the right through legislation to investigate !
the business relations of the great corpora
tions and to ascertain whether or not they
are in restraint of trade, how much more has !
the public the right and privilege to know
under what conditions things are made and |
produced under what conditions labor is |
called upon to serve. Mothers have the right
to know where the food which Is given to
their children is prepared.
The president of a great coal company in
explaining how impossible it would be to
show coal mines stated that all you could
I,-ac hi,
ink crawling on his hands and knees through
a hole in the wall with a pick and shovel
climbing up on ledge and there picking
all day in the coal with the dust so thick
that you could not see him two feet away.
We suggested to him, If that were the condi-
ton under which he worked his men, we did
not blame him for not wishing to disclose
to the public at large the conditions existing
in his mines. He then offered a picture of
punlping station pumping water 300 feet be-
low the earth's surface. But when we asked
to show pumping station pumping air to
the poor miner on the ledge so that he could
be seen three feet away he declined A coal
mine is easy to photograph as a lunch
table at picnic.
The Bureau of Commercial Economies has
been founded primarily to disclose by mo-
tion pictures, to the whole public not only
to those who can afford college course, but
even to the poorest of the poor, how things
made and under what conditions they are
produced.
Afraid of the Truth
photography has produced all sorts of in
dustrial films, some truthful reproductions
OF conditions actually existent; others manu-
factured for the coming of the motographer
We have had films presented to us containing
n playlet, romance and horde of people
emerging from a factory at the ringing of
the monday bell. Investigation has proven
that this mass of humanity was an excursion
carried to the factory for the purpose OF
being photographed But the weaving of a
playlet or romance around an industrial
picture does not relieve the manufacturer of
his responsibility, The paying of large sums
for the circulation OF such Aims through the
medium of the motion picture houses does
not answer the requirements of the public
for informationi nor does 1t justify the ex-
emption of such manufacturers from their
to display under what conditions
they produce the output of their factory and
shop.
More than $50 of the largest manufacturers
and producers of America have furnished
films to this bureau showing honestly how
the product of their factories is made In
every instance where a peremptory refusal
has been given to motographing an establish
ment, investigation has disclosed that es-
is not of character which lends
itself to photography. and the reasons for this
are the unwholesome surroundings under
which the employees work and the unsanltary
under which the output OF that
factory reaches the public
The evperfauee of fhar aaf vaar has .Ia.,l,, |