The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1921-12-17

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This suggestion. long championed
/ by such ardent educators as H. G.
Wells, is now meeting with wide
spread approval in this country. AZ
ter many years Of patient o~bscurity.
the ~educationl film is distinctly COM
ing into its own. Not only is 1t great
ly in demand by public schools, uni
versities and churches, but the gen.
eral public is showing an unexpected
enthusiasm for 1t. Producers of edu-
cational features are finding it diff
cult to supply all the orders they re-
ceive for home projection machines.
while New York moving picture thea
tres have recently discovered, m
what to their own ~amazement, that
| 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 in
capable Of concentrating on a scien-
tifc article, are quite egar to absorb
information through the comfortable
medium of the screen. The reading
| of books, with the exception of light.
popular fiction, requires understand
ing and Imagination 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 af-
ford to travel. glimpses of foreign
lands. interesting personalities and
curious facts. In other words, they
are disseminating useful knowledge
in a painless. effective fashion.
The extent to which educational
films are used is now so vast that a
combination of non-theatrical produc-
ers was recently formed 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 IN CHURCH AND HOME
According to one of these produc-
ers there are $4,000 churches in the
country which regularly use motion
pictures, of which the Roman Catho-
lie churches number 1900 and the
Methodist 1O,700. Departments of
| visual education have been establish
| ed in most of our universities, while
projection machines are owned by
nearly so per cent of our elementary
| schools.
Then there are umerou organiza-
lions and clubs which use educational
movies as a regular thing. Among
these are the Y. M. C. A. and WV. c..
la, the American Federation Of wo-
mems Clubs, and societies devoted to
nature study, animal lore, welfare
work, health. civics. drama, history
and travel. The use of moving pic
lures among such societies is grow
ing at such a rapid rate that the IL
Manufacturers now producing stand
ard portable projectors are planning
to turn them out during the coming
year at the rate Of 1900 to 1900 a
week in order to keep up with the
extraordinary demand.
The educational film has also be-
come an indispensable feature of the
big manufacturing plant. which usesit
not only to advertise its goods. but
for educational work among it's en-
ployees. Safety first" films have
done more than any other n thing,
it is said, to cut down the number Of
industrial accidents. while they have
also been instrumental In smoothing
out differences existing between en-
ployers and employees. 1t is esti-
mated that there are 5000 manufac-
turers In this country who provide
moving pictures for their employees
every day at moor One large mining
corporation has built nine moving
picture theatres for the benefit of its
workers. one of which cost $500, 900.
Besides these permanent sources of
demand. there is an ever-growing
clamor for non-theatrical Aims for
USE in private homes. Nobody realiz-
es how many portable projecting ma
chimes are in use in private homes"
says one producer of educational fea-
lures. There are $4,000 of these in
use in the United States. and prob
ahIv 16 000 mora which are idle he