Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-09-27

" by moving pictures lnstead OF ny
books!
This suggestion, long championed by
such ardent educators as Mr.. H. G. Wells, is
now meeting with widespread approval in
this country. After many years of patient
obscurity, the educational film is distinctly
coming into it's own; Not only is it greatly
in demand by public schools, universities
and churches, but the general public is
showing unexpected enthusiasm for it.
Producers of educational features find
ing it difficult to supply all the orders they
receive for home projection machines, while
New York moving picture theaters have re-
Gently discovered, somewhat to their own
amazement, that an exceptional animal or
travel picture, properly featured, attracts as
many patrons as an all-star theatrical film.
The fact is that large numbers of people
who would be bored by most travel books
and who would be incapable of concentrating
on a scientific article, are quite eager to alb
sorb information through the comfortable
medium Of the screen. The reading of
books, with the exception Of light, popular
fiction, requires understanding and magma
ton on the part of the reader, while looking
at a film does not. Many unkind things have
been said against the movies, but this may
be said in their favor: They are making the
average American better informed. They
are bringing to the great mass of people who
cannot afford to travel, glimpses of foreign
lands, interesting personalities and curious
facts. In other words, they are disseminat-
ing useful knowledge in a painless, effective
fashion.
The extent to which educational films are
used is now so vast that combination or
non-theatrical producers was recently form
ed to establish exchanges throughout the
United States for the distribution of pictures
Of a purely educational character. This
combination plans to enlarge the field for
their products, but in the meantime it is
kept busy supplying the field which already
exists
Movies I'm Church and Home
According to one Of these producers, there
are $4,000 churches in this country which
regularly use motion pictures, of which the
Roman Catholic churches number $4,000
and the Methodist 10,700. Departments of
visual education have been established in
most of our universities, while projection
machines are owned by nearly so per cent
of our elementary schools
Then there are numerous organizations
and clubs which use educational movies as
a regular thing. Among these are the Y.
M. G. A. and Y. w. G. A., the American Fed
Grafton of Women's clubs, and societies de-
voted to nature study, animal lore, welfare
work, health, civics, drama, history and
travel. The use Of moving pictures among
such societies is growing at such a rapid
rate that the twelve manufacturers now pro-
ducing standard portable projectors are
planning to turn them out during the COM
ing year at the rate of 1900 to 1900 week
in order to keep up with the extraordinary
demand.
The educational film has also become an
indispensable feature of the large manu-
featuring plant, which uses it not only to
advertise it's goods but for educational work
among it's employees. Safety first films
have done more than any other one thing,
it is said, to cut down the number of indus
trial accidents, while they have also been
instrumental in smoothing out differences
existing between employers and employees.
1t is estimated that there are 5000 manu-
facturers in this country who provide NOV
ing pictures for their employees every day at
noon. One large mining corporation has
built nine moving picture theaters for the
benefit of it's workers, one Of which cost
$500 900.
Besides these permanent sources Of de-
mand, there is an evergrowing clamor for
non-theatrical films for use in private
homes. Nobody realizes how many port
able projecting machines are in use in
private homes" says one producer of edu-
cational features. "There are $4,000 of
these in use in the United States, and prob
ably 5000 more which are idle because it
is impossible to supply pictures for them.
For these we are asked to make up pro-
gram with comedy suitable for children, a
travelogue, an educational film, and per-
haps pictures of the habits of wild animals,
or Americanization propaganda.
zone of the very important uses of the