Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1920-07-18
D. w. GRIFFITH
ON PICTURE
CENSORSHIP

by man, has found time to write q
latter of comment upon the propose
in the Georgia legislature to enact 4
motion picture censorship law. Ths
letter, written to his personal friend
Arthur Lucas, of Atlanta, follows:
D. W. Griffith Studio.
Orienta Point
Mamaroneck, N. Y.
July IL, 1920.
Mr.. Arthur Lucas, Atlanta, Ga.
Mr.. Dear Mr.. Lucas: You have
kindly asked me to come to Geor-
gia and discuss with the Legislative
committee of your state this rest
less problem of censorship. Only
the fact that my absence from the
studio at this time would impose
an injustice on others detains me.
am engulfed in work, rushing
to finish on schedule time a story
about the people in section of
the country very different from
yours, section where repressed
life, climatic extremities and an
Gent prejudices might excite an
intolerance that could be under
stood if not excused in a more gen.
erous, friendly thinking land.
And | regret the necessity that
Son of the South should be invit-
ed to the legislative hall of GeOr-
gia to make an appeal for free
speech and personal liberty. ]
thought such day had passed.
The people of Georgia certainly
must feel that the motion picture
is a medium of expression as clean
and decent as any mankind has
ever discovered. The people that
would allow the suppression OF this
form of speech unquestionably
would submit to the suppression
of that other form of speech
Southerners have loved SO much,
and used so nobly, the printing
press.
1t is forgotten a,re1Gy the right
of tree speech has Oeen obtained
through centuries of suffering and
agony, rivers of blood, fields lit
tered with our slain--all that 1t
might come to live and survive.
Yet so hungry for reform, so
bold in their determination that
others shall enjoy only what they
enjoy, see only that which they
wish to see, do only as they wish
to do, have some persons be-
come, that they now would throt-
tie free speech, cancel the vital
force of vast new medium of
art and thought, and do it with
oil 81 orb
ness their ancestors expressed just
few years ago in burning print
ers as witches and destroying
printing presses as a handicratt
of the devil. When they realize
that they are doing just what has
been done before with the same
virtuous excuses and plausible
reason, they must smile at the
theory that civilization progresses
and that tolerance and unselhsh-
ness ever will expand.
We know there are good pic
lures and bad pictures. There are
good and bad in all creations for
which man is responsible. When
pictures are dangerously bad or
Extensively conceived, there are
state and municipal laws now IN
YOUR statutes written and intend
ed to stop any obscenity or de-
generate vulgarity. Under the
present cost of production, no
producer could prosper IN making
foul pictures, and certainly none
are so debauched they will make
such things at loss.
Let it not confuse anyone that
the so-called "best people" OF
community recommend censorship.
Refer to your histories and see
where it was the best people who
burned witches, the rulers and
Judges and mobiles and professional
men who damned the printing
presses; and don't forget it was
The "best people" of Jerusalem
who ordered that most pitlfd. OF
all victims of intolerance and
censor, Jesus Christ, stretched
upon the horrid cross and nails
driven into His sweet, clean body.
and recall another figure recently
hailed arounl the world as a saint,
Joan of Arc, burned; and by
whom?
Censorship Is not a neW tnlng;
Germany had it in most refined
excellence. Germany has been
censoring pictures for many years.
Are our reformers inspired by its
benefit from them? And Russia
had it, and still has. Can it be
that its success in Russia recon-
mends it.
If reformers had all their
witches in force, we could never
portray the story of Christ on the
screen. We never could draw
upon the Bible for material, for it
abounds in the free subject re-
forms are inveighing again, that
virtue and beauty and truth may
be shown in splendid comparison.
Ignorance, Intolerance and Self
ishness have adopted reform as
their chosen child and have damn
ed it by the association. When we
have reformed the hearts and
minds of our people by kindness
and education, and cleaner living
and thinking, then reform is a
blessed cause, but to add another
law upon the book you shall not,
to disturb the people IN this day
when unrest seethes with gre alter
flood than ever before; to deny the
A$,rI ,Neiyilao., nf