The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-11-14
ELIMINATE THE DEPRAVED


ton, that the moving picture, so far as
school children are concerned, may be in
dicted upon eleven counts.
Included in these he enumerates that
they interfere with school work and exert
an injurious effect upon the morals of the
developing child.
He further says that the view of life
which the moving pictures presents to the
spectators, is erroneous overdrawn and false,
calculated to give the wrong impression Of
current events, while the sex and vampire
films which are shown to children are calcu-
lated to corrupt the morals lead to deprav-
lty, engender illicit tendencies and lead to
moral turpitude of the grossest kind. AS a
result of this, the gentleman asserts, children
of seven years (mere tots whose minds should
be as unsulied and pure almost, as were
their bodies upon the day they were born)
have acquired precocious knowledge Of sex
questions, while the pictured disregard to
the marriage VOWS together with the pictured
disrespect for the more intimate marriage
relations lead mere children to commit acts
which would be most reprehensibe in per-
sons many times their elders.
In addition to the deleterious effects upon
Tic lllOIdlS VI lHG CHllUTcIl, lHS CHAIRMAN
states that the eye strain is too great for
anyone who attends the picture shows as
often as do the school children, which is an
average of from three to four times week.
There can be little doubt that there is
much truth in the statements Mr.. Hurley has
made, in the arguments he has advanced.
There is no question but scenes of sordidness
and immortality are reproduced, today, upon
the screen which would not have have been
tolerated in honka-tonk theaters ten years
ago. And there is no doubt that both the
directors of the companies which produce
pictured plays, and the owners and managers
of picture theaters are prone to cater to the
depraved, to the sordid, to the immoral and
the lustful, creating and showing pictures
calculated to arouse animal desires in the
breasts of those so young that such passions
should sleep dormant for years to come, while
the same sensations are carried to point
beyond the safety mark, with many of those
who have reached years of maturity, causing
them, while under the spell of the picture to
lend an all too hearkening ear to the bland
shments of the INSCRIPTIONS.
The picture show, as an innocent place of
amusement as place wherein tired man
and worried woman may while away few
hours of untanished recreation, and wherein
the schoolchild may pass a pleasant evening,
relaxing from the cares of study, should be
of high standard, with pure drama and
clean comedy flashed upon the screen.
There is line of demarkation between
the upright and the fallen, between the
moral and the depraved. This line should
be drawn just as taut and just as firmly in
the show to which you take your wife, your
children, your daughter, or some other mans
daughter, as it is drawn in your own home,
at your own fireside.
There would be Just as good an excuse to
entertain the evil-minded man. bringing him
into the bosom of your family and listening
to jokes and quips and quirks of filthy de-
tail, as can any excuse that may be found
for sitting in a darkened picture show with
your wife, sister or sweet,.r.rt beside you,
gazing upon scenes of filmed depravity, i'm
morality and disregard of law of man, God
or devil
The educators Of the United States are
working strenuousy, early and late, in an
unselfish effort to advance the cause of a
better education. They should at least have
the moral support of the parents who should
see to it, personally, that their children are
not permitted to become precocious and con-
taminated through being thrown in contact
with the immoral and the communicating.
They should demand that the element of
evil be eliminated from the screen. There are
plenty of good pictures, of clean pictures, and
the theatrical manager who refuses to show
only the suggestive kind should be ostra-
ciZed and made to realize that the moral at
tribute in man is greater than is the de-
praved element.
Good pictures are entertaining, educating
amusing and instructive Depraved pictures
are degrading.