Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-12-09
NARROWED IN PHILADEZP ZPHLA

evenings must have been like when there
were no movies If their present reaction is SO
passionately devout. A movie audience is a
more moving spectacle than any of the flash
ing shadows that beam before It. If all this
marvellous attention-energy, gathered every
evening in every city in the land could be
focused for few moments on some Of the
urgent matters that concern the world now
say the League Of Nations-it would be a
wonderful aid to good citizenship The movies
are blindly cropping their way. by means of
current-event films, war films and the like,
toward an Ella in which they will play a
leading and indispensable part in education
and civic life.
TT SHOULD be function of every large
= city government to provide municipal
movies" by which we mean not free notion
picture shows. but reels of film distributed
free among all the motion-picture theatres in
the city exhibiting various phases of munich
pal activity and illustrating by suggestion
how citizens may cooperate to increase the
welfare Of the community. We hear good
= deal about STRENGTHENING evils, about rapid
transit problems, about traffic congestion,
about the evils Of public splitting, the danger
of one-way streets and score Of other mat
ters. All these could be Interestingly illu-
minated on the screen, with serious intent, and
yet with the racy human touch that always
enlivens the common affairs Of men. And
when some discussion arises that concerns
US ALL such as the character of the proposed
war memorial, various types Of memorials
could be illustrated in films to stimulate
for our environment. None of us know our
own city as well as we would like to- Let
the city government. through some film
bureau, show us our own citizens at work
and play and 80 quicken our curiosity and
civic pride or shame, as the case may be.
A MOTHER public clubhouse which the
~ marooned business man finds delightful
and always full OF good company is the rail-
road terminal. big railroad station is an
unfailing source of amusement and interest
From newsstand to lunch counter, from bag
gage room to train gate 1t is rich In character
study and the humors of humanity in fux.
People are rarely at their best when hur-
ried or worried. and many of those one meets
at the terminal are in those moods. But,
Tor any rational student OF human affairs Il
Is as we'll to ponder our vices as well as
our virtues and the statistician might tabu.
late valuable data as to the number of
tempers lost on the railway station stairs
daily or the number Of cross words uttered
where commuters stand in line to buy their
monthly tickets The influence of the
weather. the time of year and the time of
day would bring interesting factors to bear
upon these figures.
VJHERE Is Just one more pastime that the
i castaway of our imagination finds anus
ing, and that is acting as door-opener for
innumerable cats that sit unhappily at the
front doors OF little shops on cold evenings.
They have been shut out by chance and sit
waiting in patient sadness on the cold sill
until the door may chance to open. To open
the door for them and watch them run
inside, with tail erect and delighted gesture,
is a real pleasure. With a somewhat similar
pleasure does the marooned wanderer ulti-
mateIy reach his own front door and rededi-
cate himself to the delights of home.
SOCRATES.