Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-09-28

National Board of Review
Finds in Them No Cause for
Juvenile Delinquency.
To the Editor Of The Star:

AZ your editorial OF september 10,
according to Clipping which We have
just received. there appears q com
ment entitled Movies and Delin-
quency." Which refers, we presume, to
the Statement of the Rev. J. w. R.
Mcguire before the National Confer
ence of Catholic Charities, then being
held in Washington, to the effect that
sensational motion pictures are q con-
er,ou.ory cause of juvenile delin-
sands OF children are forced into the
gutter to become gangsters.
In this regard, If you will be SO
kind as to give us space in your es-
teemed paper, We beg to call to the
attention of your readers an investiga-
poard OF review through the chief pro-
oatlon oncers of juvenile courts
throughout the United States for the
purpose OF obtaining accurate knowl-
cage as to the effect of the motion
picture on children hailed into those
courts, and are inclosing herewith to
you a digest of that report. To the
unbiased mind the conclusions to BE-
drawn from this investigation would
tend to almost entirely disabuse US Of
lhe theory that the motion pictures
are a menace to children and a leading
cause of delinquency among them.
what does appear to us with no uncer-
tam clarity is that the defamation of
the mouon picture at the hands of the
reform element that would regulate it
is based ON facts which appear as
purely surface facts and are not borne
out by probing search of what con-
stltutes the real reactions of children
to the photodrama.
Environment q Factor.
salient point is that whatever in
nuence the motion picture may have
a a,s never be regarded as an in
Huence In itself, but must always be
studied in connection with the en-
.tironmental life and the hereditary
tendencies of the child Thus the
healthy boy seeing the hero shoot the
e,IIa!n in western melodramatic
MN is not beset by a desire to go out
aha 10 likewise to one of his play
mates; whereas the abnormal or So
cially defective child seeing the same
MIN, because of the disorder of his
own nature or because Of the environ
mental FORCES which had worked dis
order in his nature, might be led to
initiate what he had seen on the
screen. In this case the picture could
not be held responsible, but only
those forces behind the childs exist
ence.
The motion picture has not been
developed for the benefit of the feeble
and the abnormal. 1t has been de-
Ve!oped for the amusement of reason
ably healthy and orderly people
children as well as adults. We do
not seek to regulate popular fiction
in our magazines for the guardipx
of our irresponsibles, nor for them
nave we placed ban upon the stage;
both of which mediums of popular
amusement it has frequently been
OIL
source of RELIEF and freedom from the
daily realities of life than is the
motion picture. Why, then, should
we concoct plausible Pigments of the
in order to set verboten
signs around the photo drama? If
they must be placed around the
of a free people, let it
at least be done after q precise and
knowledge of the au-
thentic facts.
As to the Dime Novel.
According to your editorial, the
dime novel of a generation ago is
m entioned as being less harmful than
the movie thrillers" of today. In this
connection it may also be we'll to re-
not fictions, that the defamation OF the
lime novel was only a relative mat
Ter and very largely a manifestation
If the same kind Of hysteria which
would regulate from the ground up
he motion picture of today. Most in
with the minds of children
nave come to realize that the dime
asvel was not altogether an andi.
uted evil, but that, indeed, 1t contain
I'd great deal of healthy adventure
Ind thrill such as did little harm to
it is altogether prob
lble-that the motion picture OF meio-
lramatic attainments furnishes much
'obust recreation to the active and
hrill-devouring mind of childhood.
Again, if we wish to teach our chill
hat goodness is triumph fiction
n itself, which the universal desire to
escape from reality would seem to
make necessary-then we can find
no more consistent preachment of
his theory than is contributed by the
lnnals of the screen.
1t must be acknowledged that all
# the arFaignments of the motion pie
Hre are for one purpose: to create
egal censorship. And by fair-minded
people It must be acknowledged like
wise that censorship in itself is an
,vil, particularly where 1t is put to
work to control a medium for the ex-
of ideas and the manufacture
II commodity the use OF which is
or the enjoyment and recreation of
he people at large, because censor
hip in itself Is only the conquest by
aw of one set of ideas over ideas of
mother set, but it is always the con-
luest of the opinions of a very small
,roup over the opinions of very
arge majority-censisting in the
,ase of the motion picture, of about co.
100. 900 people who daily attend the pie
ure theaters throughout the country.
W. A. BARRETT,
Secretary National Board OF
Review OF Motion Pictures.