The Mankato free press., 1916-04-14
BETTER MANKATO MORALLY; DISCUSSING J
VARIOUS PHASES OF COMMUNITY Il l..
MOVIES, THEATRES AND NEWSPAPERS
They All Come In For Careful Dissection By
One Local Organization
CLA|M THE CITY PARKS SHOULD Be POuCED
Interesting Paper Read By George M. Palmer
Before the Mankato Social Science Club at
Meeting Last Night

nc uaHce seems 10 give them Spec1a1
opportunities of carry out their nefarious
designs.
The moving picture show is a COM
paratively new thing but it has taken
fast hold upon the public everywhere.
While furnishing cheap amusement and
capable of doing much good, great deal
of complaint has been made as to the
kind and quality of pictures shown. /
am not speaking of the local situation
particularly, but it probably does not
vary much from the experience of the
country generally. In many cities the
movies are censored and such should
be the case in Mankato, but is not.
There is now before congress a bill
known as the Smith Hughes bill formed
jointly by welfare workers and high grade
motion picture producers, to regulate in
terstate films by motion picture commits
sion similar to the interstate commerce
commission. Thee need for something of
this kind is very apparent. In brief
filed for censorship by the attorneys of
a number of film companies the follow
ing language is used 1.-The production of
vicious pictures is constantly increasing
just because they are more prOfita BILE. If
the industry is to endure if decent peo-
pie are to stay in the business, this cam
Ger must be cut out. A federal regula-
tory commission should prove a fearless
surgeon and we therefore favor such a
commission" l quote from the report
of Pennsylvania censors, I'VE believe as
result of observation that at least 20
per cent of the pictures manufactured in
this country are plainly melodrama or
are so influenced by melodrama as to be
assigned properly to this general class.
At least 20 per cent of the remainder
are comedies for the most part of
coarsenesS unknown at any time in the
history of the American theatre. upon
the cheapest variety of stage. The melO
drama is distinguished for its lurid de-
lineation of one or another kind of crime.
The Moving Pictures.
1.-THE habitual visitor to the moving
nictlra hOuSe! therefore lives in a world
in which women are betrayed; men and
women murder other men and women
or kill themselves; fight follows fight;
until every standard of conduct of the
beholder is in the most imminent danger
of debasement. No valid excuse in the
name of the drama or of any part can
be offered for many of the pictures which
even large and leading manufacturers
now send out over the country. The ex-
hibitors themselves realize the indis-
penSable need of censorship and in many
cases in communities of the better class.
where there are not state or municipal
boards, they run the reels in their thea
tres and view them before public show
ing is made. The confidence of the peo-
, strengthen the industry, it will bring
, substantial advantages both to manu-
| facturers and exhibitors"
Cardinal Gibbons says in recent let
| ter: "Films and moving pictures have
a wide formative influence and hence
should like to see them Instructive and
: moral at the same time entertaining ann
artistic. TO secure such we must both
| try to stop off the flood of degrading
pictures, and appeal to our people to de-
mand good films
schools at Albany at hearing on state
! censorship said among other things: THE
old dime novel and nickel shockers were
Sunday school weeklies alongside the
stuff that is now projected to appeal to
| the imagination and the consciousness or
the unwary. have no hesitation in say
ing that the greatest enemy we have to
encounter in our educational activity for
clean, strong character building is the
uncensored movie. This is my convic-
ton after covering sixty-five schools and
discussing the matter with over $4,000
children"
The movies are capable of doing a
great educational work. This was recog-
nized by all who have seen the flm, The
duction and one that has done great
good in my judgment. You remember
the controversy in Minneapolis over the
Birth of a Nation" a film that has
any other ever produced. As work Of
art it is a very wonderful production,
but opinion varies widely as to the pro-
priety and the advisability of allowing
it to be shown. In my judgment it should
have been prohibited, as it served no
useful purpose.
titled Virtue was denied the right OF
showing by the censorship committee.
have heard criticism of the local houses
for some of the films shown, but l can
not speak at first hand knowledge, for
! go but seldom. 1 believe that the films
shown in Mankato should be such that
!, there can be no question as to their
effect upon the children and young peo-
pie who make up the bulk of the audi
ence
The Curfew Ordinance.
: We have in Mankato a curfew ordi-
nance which is supposed to keep small
] children off the streets after nine o'clock
Y p. M, but although we are reminded ev-
] cry evening of the ordinance by the
whistle that is all the attention paid to
t it by our authorities. In looking up this
matter my attention was called to the
t union passenger station, where l am told
! from thirty to fifty young boys congre-
/ gate every evening many of them to get
the twin city papers but as one ex-
pressed it, every paper boy brings two
: others with him and these boys are there
anywhere from half an hour to two hours
every evening"
I'll Drunken men are of frequent occur
/ irence and the surroundings of these boys
: are anything but beneficial. Much com
plant is made about many children ant
= young girls continually coming to the
e station, and frequently the station mas
ter has had to order them out of thu
: building. The matron informs me tina
n it is almost daily occurrence to pick III
. in the women's toilet rooms whiskey ant
t beer bottles and that cigaret stubs arr
q much in evidence; that the station Ii
Y frequently used as meeting place; tha
: the police are frequently called on ac
Y count of objectional characters, but tina
: no police supervision is given excepting
t as a call is made. 1t would seem as
q this serious condition should be promptl.
J. hand at least on the arrival of trains an,