Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-03-08

ing out political plums and without a
thought of accomplishing any con-
structive work.
Many have been the suggestions and
propositions. including the Hughes
Smith bill, advocating federal censor
ship, and the more recent Towner bill.
which is aimed at wiping out all the
harmful elements in the moving
pictures by making it a criminal
offense to ship any obscene, lewd or
laScivious' motion-picture film by ex-
press or freight in interstate COM
merce. All have their good points, but
none seem to satisfy the majority of
the manufacturers, who apparently
take ii as a personal affront that the
authorities should even think of plac-
ing restrictions on their productions;
basing their right to object on the con-
stitutional provision which gives to
every individual freedom of speech
and of the press, etc.
Would you tolerate having your
newspaper delivered to you with much
of the matter it contained obliterated
by the hand of the censor?" asks the
man who feels that censorship is a
great bugaboo being foisted upon a
helpless public by group of profess
sional reformers down at Washing
ton" Perhaps not" answers the
thoughtful man who has neither per-
sonal nor financial interest in the
proposition, but it seems to me to be
matter for the people to decide. The
newspaper prints the news, and If it is
the right sort of a newspaper (here he
pauses to enter into a monologue on
the right sort of newspaper, one that
successfully endeavors to serve its
readers with the truth and not a ium-
BILE of distorted facts. fancies and
opinions. it will prosper and he read
and respected. If it oversteps the
bounds, it loses prestige and an out
ragged public opinion puts it where it
belongs"
But is the motion picture situation
analogous? Is not the movie" pri-
marily a form of entertainment? Is
it not produced wholly with the idea
of amusing, and occasionally. but not
as general rule, of instructing its
patrons? One canot as yet truthfully
say that it is one of the strongest and
most vital educational forces in the
community to-day, because the per-
centage is small of really instructive
and character -molding films. in COM
parison 10 those which have no lesson
nor point to them. That does not
means that the motion picture cannot
be made a power for good among the
younger generations as we'll as a source
of satisfaction and education for
grown-ups. but in the opinion of many,
including the Governors of the Com
monwealths of Pennsylvania, Ohio and
Kansas, the time for the removal of
the check upon movie productions has
not yet arrived.
As Creator of Public Sentiment
1t may be an old-fashioned idea that
the church and the home are perhaps
the best and most kindly places where
the growing child with the inquisitive
and restless mind may obtain infor-
nil 90 fn
and all it has in store, yet the efficacy
of putting that idea into practice is
not in the least weakened because 1t is
not the product of modern thought.
For those who do not receive such
knowledge in the home we are sorry.
but certainly that is no excuse for CIV
ing them that knowledge through the
unadulterated medium of moving
pictures, in such a form that the
puerile mind can but assimilate uneX-
planned facts the hidden meaning of
which only the mature mind can ap-
preciate. In other words. the youth
full retina records every impression,
but the youthful brain is not capable
. of separating the chaff from the wheat,
and all is absorbed into its conscious
ness, with ofttimes dire effect 1t is
sravely doubted whether the wisdom
of the producer in his capacity to feel
the pulse of the community and Judge
of those pictures which he knows will
fill the Golfers of the purchasers of his
reels extends to the point where he
can accurately register the psyche
logical action OF the undeveloped mind.
or the developed mind either, for that
matter, with reference to those scenes
which pass before it on the screen.
The statement can not and will not
, be denied that the motion picture is
one of the strongest creators of public
sentiment to-day and that the power
which it wields is enormous. The pro-
ducers have not used that power alto
gether wisely in the past and it was for
that reason that censorship became a
necessity. And it is for the preven-
ton of the very element that made
censorship necessary that 1t is to the
best interests of the producer TO elimi-
nate all Objectionable portions and put
the motion picture on such a plane
that its influence will be all for the
good. and the doubtful element will
not be able to enter into it's calcu-
lations. When this condition comes
about. the censor will rightly be out
of job. but then only will ii be time
to remove him. 1t is for the salvation
of moving pictures that the films be
kept above reproach, and the long
headed producer acts on that opinion
Not by any means has this infant in
dustry reached its final level in the
classification of relative values wherein
every new industry must eventually
find its proper place. and the moving
picture houses cannot count on the
comparatively low price of admission
TO their shows to hold the better class
of patrons in the face of repeated vio-
lations of good taste. There must he a
constructive and educational value to
the pictures as a whole to give them
Dermanence. The first flush of nov
city has mad n long period of duration.
but it will wear off in time, and the
legitimate stage will come again into
its own at the expense of the notion
picture industry unless the latter builds
it's house upon a rock that can with
stand the attack of every kind of time
and change.
Why We Need Censorship
An examination of the elimination
sheets of the Pennsylvania State Board
Of Censors is sufficient TO show the
actual need of such a board and is the
strongest vindication of its right to
exist in +he face of the argument that
politics is the only justification for its
establishment and other equally short
sighted arguments. Individuals who
are close followers of the motion pic
ture declare most emphatically that
there has been a remarkable increase
in the number of good. clean, whole
some productions on the screen since
the putting into operation in this state
of a censorship board. In those fea-
lures which are from time to time
eliminated. or absolutely condemned.