New Britain herald., 1916-12-02
70nn Topics

l The discussion among the charter
 revision committee members or the l school boards agitation regarding
 some sort of a moving picture cen l sorship for New Britain is causing | considerable comment, pro and con. 1 In this connection 1t should not be | overlooked that the wish of the | school board is not to pass censor
 ship on the pictures to be viewed by
 adults and older minors, but is simply 1 to have pictures censored that are to 1 be seen by children under fourteen l years of age those who are in the plas- 1 tic period of adolescence. And to find i a solution the members will be hard 1 put. Many mon of intelligence l throughout the city hold to the con- ] Nlction that in numerous pictures that 1 are interesting and point a genuine moral to the adult are some little scene, quickly forgotten by the older observer, that is suggestive enough in US sexual limitations to remain in the young child's mind as the salient part of that picture. It is admitted that things which deal with the forbidden and hidden have strong attraction to the young child. People do not like to discuss 1t, but it is folly to deny 1t. V being, unless he be out of the ordi- nary, can see in his own memory | that this is so. Thus, the school board feels that the witnessing of such
 pictures perVerts childs mind to a certain extent. But how to avoid it? Forbid the young children from seeing
 these pictures is applicable insofar as it concerns the young ones who at- tend the shows alone. But how about the countless children who go with their parents? Can the school board or any other committee presume to dictate to parent to what entertain ments he shall take his child? If any committee tried it the result would certainly prove interesting. But 1t must be admitted that to a certain extent at least there may be some evil result from a child seeing certain pic lures. No matter how small a fac tor these pictures might be, If the result is not good it should be over come. But how? Since 1t does not seem probable to hope for producers to omit all suggestive scenes which
 to an older person are harmless and often helpful, it would appear that
 the only hope the local committee would have would be to minimize the
 danger as much as possible by abso- lutely enforcing the law prohibiting minors from visiting shows unaccom-
 panied by their elders. Safety Com
 missioner H. M Steele has commend
 ably pledged himself to try and make
 the theater policemen enforce this law. But that would not be enough.
 A small fine now and then would
 have no great terror for some men.
 Therefore, it has been suggested that if a state law could be passed in this
 connection whereby any theater man
 upon his third conviction for violat-
 ing this law should be sent to jail.
 not giving the judge any option of
 imposing fine, the practice would
 automatically stop. Strict measures
 arc the only ones that will enforce
 any law. Take for instance the saloon
 keeper who is prohibited from allow
 ing minors to loiter about his place. Saloon men really try to enforce this
 law And why? Because they know
 that if they violate it and are de-
 tected it means they lose their i-
 cense. Stern punishment, but effec- tive. So would be a law sending the ater magnates to jail for repeated violations of the other law.
 With the holidays coming on in a
 few weeks it is not amiss to warn the Christmas shopper about count
 ing her change, holding onto her
 bundles and pocket book and other little things that would give an effi-
 cient crook the opportunity to reap a golden harvest. Chief of Police w.
 J. Rawlings has done well to Issue
 such preliminary warning. Tn a Christmas trading crowd 0 pickpocket
 would have an ideal place to ply his
 trade. While it may be generally stated that clerks are honest, never theless they are human and subject to
 fatigue. Thus their brains may be
 less alert and they are more apt to
 make error In counting change so be
 sure to count your change, thereby
 saving yourself and likewise save
 casting a cloud of suspicion on some
 honest clerk.
 This fall has been a wonderful one
 indeed, and one that has been a true
 God-send to many of the poorer
 people who would have suffered had
 they been compelled to burn much
 coal at present prices to keep warm.
 The mild weather on Thanksgiving
 Day, as contrasted to the cooler day year ago and the decidedly cold
 Thanksgiving two years ago, has given
 many of the older people a chance to
 talk about the good old days and
 from the trend of their conversation
 one might assume that in the old
 days when they were children Thanks giving days were generally accom-
 panied by blizzards, that the wind
 nd ho
 chimney, making those of this gen. eration think that the seasons have changed materially. Records show