The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-02

~Ix months ago I opened a large
 theatre in Hartford for the pur- 0 pose of running a high class motion picture house, and to dem onstrate. if possible, the teaching and reaching power of motion pie lures.
 The causes underlying my experi- meut were, as I said at the time, chiefly these:
 RST-That the motion picture theatre has an attractive power sur passing anything ever offered to the public for recreation.
 SECOND-H is not costly. in fact, in well populated sections, the best service may be offered for and 10 cents. It is the cheapest way that the poor can be entertained, and therefore, added to its attractive power is the fact that the price of admission places it within reach of everyone.
 THIRD-It speaks in all languages, Little children can instantly catch the meaning. And foreigners who cannot read our books can and do read our pictures. Therefore, they are in a peculiar way great teach ing agency, moulding the thought and speaking to the great mixture of foreigners who are Americans in the making and to children who are Americans in the growing stage.
 FOURTH-The temptation of the producer of films is to cater to the wishes of the exhibitor, who in turn usually believes that the sensational and suggestive will appeal strongly . to the shallow and the prurient. This was so much the case that Nation al Board of Censorship was estab- lished And even under the not harsh censorship of the board the makers of films and the exhibitors of the pictures chafe and fret con tinually, if we may believe the mo- tion picture magazines.
 As evidence that the censorship as now exercised is not strict enough for many, may state that Chicago has established a Municipal Board of Censorship, which, I have been told, alters in some way nine out of the films allowed by it to pass hoy E0 r1or In other words, about one film in twenty is passed intact. l cannot vouch for the above figures. My in- formation came from a film sales man.
 FIFTH-With large number of people the motion picture theatre does not find favor, and its possi- bilities to amuse and instruct as well as uplift are ignored. A number Of men past middle life have told me in the last few days that my theatre is the first that they ever entered, and that they had never seen or thought that they cared to see mo- ton pictures. Another man said that he sent his young son away to school in order to avoid the attrac- tions of the "movie houses"
 SIXTH-N Nothing so far as l have observed has been seriously attempt ed by the churches to either guide or to use this tremendous force that is now in contact with untold millions every afternoon and evening of the week.
 The pulpit has scolded about it in that delightfully."- safe wAy that the pulpit has of scolding. Such work as that would be about as effective for correcting the situation as a Summer zephyr would have in blow. ing over a mountain.
 The experiment was made along the line of social service, and while lack of capital, my own lack of busi. ness experience and the poor loca. tion of the theatre made 1t financially unprofitable. I am certain that the net results to the church were con- siderable.
 Owing to the nationwide publicity given by the Hearst Sunday papers, the venture was called to the atten- tion of practically every one inter- ested in social service work, and the