Evening star., 1916-01-15
Or. Wilbur Crafts Makes Sen
sationaI Statement at
Movie Picture Hearing.
SPIRITED COLLOQUY OVER
GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP
House Committee on Education
Listening to Arguments For and
Against Hughes-Smith Bill.

have obtained an idea for a brand-new
serial reel, entitled 1.-The Rival Censors.
or Who Gets the JOB" at the hearing
on the Hughes-Smith film censorship
bill before the House committee on edu-
cation last night. 1t developed in the
heat of the hearing that the national
board of censorship, which is vol
unteer body of social experts. had sent
its chairman, Cranston Brenton. to do
what he could to puncture the idea OF
federal censorship in the Hughes
Smith bill. and after he had done his
best to shoot the idea full of holes,
Rev. DR.. Wilbur F. Crafts Of this city,
who has SO far been practically the
sole defender of the bill, got up and
board is Influenced in divers unethical
try.
II deny it," shouted Cranston Bren-
ton, leaping upward.
Angry Murmurs Heard.
And all DR.. Crafts did was to smile,
while there were angry murmurs, like
the Roman mob in the distance" run
ming through the capacity audience,
which gathered in the democratic eau
Gus room to attend the hearing. There
was another tense scene in the even
ing's performance when Representative
Platt of Poughkeepsie, who is evidently
movie FAM" solemnly asked DR..
Crafts if film in which a man smoked
a cigarette or corncob pipe should be
considered an immoral exhibition.
The hearing opened with a prediction
by Chairman Hughes that bill would
be reported that would be pleasing and
just to all, and that under the reform
ed and uplifted and esthetic principles
that would actuate the motion picture
industry of the future he was sure DR..
Crafts would become an exhibitor him.
self. Later DR.. Crafts acquiesesed in
a part of this prediction by saying he
believed censorship would double the
movie business.
Mr.. Brenton's Statement.
Cranston Brenton. chairman of the
national board of censorship, told the
committee he was former clergyman
of the Episcopal Church, also former
ly member of the faculty of Trinity
College and something of an expert
along sociological lines. After saying
that the motion picture is the greatest
single educator and the greatest foe
to the saloon, he made the fat state
ment that he is utterly and absolutely
opposed to government compulsory
censorship. and argued at length that
the voluntary censorship of the ma
tional board, wherein the censors and
the producers act voluntarily all
around, is the ideal method.
'Tf I were to write a Sermon" he
said, 'I could write 1t without some
one coming to my study to censor it;
If I were to put it into lecture form
or book form could do so without CEN
sorship, and If I were to put 1t into
motion picture form. l would claim
the same right. with the full knowledge
that If I put into it any evil or corrupt
thing 1 could be prosecuted for it,"
He said the national board sees SO per
cent of the films shown.
Producer Of Films Heard.
Walter Irwin, a large producer of
films from New York city, declared that
the exhibitor does not want the pur-
pie pictures" and that a federal censor
ship would be step backward Into
the darkness of the middle ages" He
also invited the committee to see The
Battle Cry of Peace" a film produc-
ton that had been censored in Pennsyl-
vania. declaring that he would furnish
the committee with list of the cuts
that had been made by the Pennsylva-
mia censors SO that the committee
could get a flrst-hand view of what
censorship does. He declared that some
of the greatest moral lessons are taken
out of some films by censors.
DR.. Crafts was asked by Representa-
tive Powers of Kentucky what he
knew about the personnel of the ma
tional board. He replied that he be-
lieved the board is Influenced by the
motion picture interests. and declared
York had withdrawn from the board
because of the manner in which the
board is conducted.
Greeted by Burst Of Applause.
When he gave an illustration of some
of the things in films that should be
cut out-namely, wild west hold-ups.
etc-Representative Platt asked him:
'.They don't censor these in the news
papers, why do you want 1t in the
flms?"
A burst of applause greeted the in
uuiry, and DR.. Crafts replied that the
life as to be more effective than any
other form of expression. He also said
that a censorship cannot be operated
against the stage because "an actor
doesn't say the same things in one
town that he says in another: he uses
a different expression to convey diff
ferent meaning in various towns. ac-
cording to the feeling of the local COM
munity.
Isn't 1t true that a book or a play
or a picture can be just as bad as a
film?" asked Representative Dallinger
Of massachusetts,.
DR.. Crafts reiterated his opinion that
the motion picture is capable of great
er harm because II is SO vivid.
IT don't follow your reasoning" re-
piled the Massachusetts man, because
to me it is exactly the opposite. Are
not the same things in the best lit
erature, in the Bible. for instance, that
you complain off"
Not a Parallel Case.
There are four murders in Ham
let" retorted DR.. Crafts, but when /
see Hamlet I don't want to go out
and kill some one. When a boy sees
a wild west show he wants to shoot
the place up just to make life inter-
esting."
Howard Clark Barber, superintend-
ent of the Society for the Prevention