The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-02-01
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. G.
MOVIES AND MORALS.
Washington, d. G.

the churches some time ago decided
that they could not get along without
movies. so the movies have now de-
cided that they cannot get along with
out the churches. Thus, new and
unexpected, friendliness has very re-
Gently developed between the cloth
and the film. Movie producers are
seen arm in arm, in deep confab, with
eminent preachers: film stars are be-
ing photographed by their press
agents while attending church serv-
ices, and moving picture studios are
opening wide their doors to visiting
parties of missionaries and deacons.
The cause of this large and sudden
fraternal spirit sponsorship. The
connection may not be at once appar-
ent, but it is easily explained.
All their lives. the movies have
hated and feared censorship. All
their lives they haYe fought it, bitter
fy, obStinately and unremittingly.
Yet censorship of moving pictures has
never been totally vanquished. Vari-
GUS states have continued to keep it
clearly in mind, while congress has an
annoying way of bringing the matter
up in idle moments, with remarks
about the advisability of a national
censors' bureau. But, worst of all,
the reformers have recently opened
their 1921 campaign with an eloquent
attack upon present-day film stand
ards and an emphatic demand for ma
tionwide censorship.
Now, the movies are just as deter
mined as ever that their business is
not going to be supervised by some
But experience has taught them that
fighting accompishes little good ;
that, verify, it is the meek who in
herit the earth, and that there is
much to be said in favor of complete
disarmament. So they are addressing
the rafOrr0PrS i'm this 10
I'VE know that there is great room
for improvement in our film products.
We know as well as you do that they
are rather saturated with sex, but we
can also prove to you, by the size of
moving picture box office receipts, that
sex saturation pays. and it is there
fore what the public wants. However
We will make this propositions: We
will guarantee to make clean. whole
some film dramas. fully clothed and
perfumed, if you will guarantee in re-
turn to get the public to come and see
Them
Petticoat Control.
For the benefit of the women of the
nation, who are recognized leaders in
the campaign for better moving pic
lures, the movies have adopted the
simple, homely phrase, cleaning
house" They are going to clean house
turnout the industry, and the women s
Scouts, and the Campfire Girls and
the Jewish Big Sisters and the Y. W.
c. A. are going to help them do it.
All of these agencies have recently
been enrolled in a League for Better
Pictures, with a headquarters here in
New York and with some of the city's
best known society women on its hon
orary list. Mrs. Oliver Hartman. Mrs.
Lewis Gouverneur Morris, Mrs. James
Lees Laidlaw, Mrs. Winifred SackvilIe
|Stoner, Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, Mrs.
Arthur Choate and Mrs. James Speyer,
are all interested in the movement.
The idea is to make the League for
Better Pictures an official bureau of
censorship. altho the word censorship
is carefully avoided. It's offices will
become a general clearing house for
complaints, suggestions and approva1s.
1t will have its own projection room
for showing pictures, to which all NOV
ing picture producers interested in the
plan will send their products. Mem
bers of the league will be notified when
"a picture is to be shown, and when
an audience of censors is gathered to-
gether. cards will be passed around,
upon which each person watching the
him will write his or her opinion.
Later, these cards will be collected,
like ballots from jury. and the gem
eral verdict rendered on the picture
If it is merely passab1e, it will simply
receive the o. K. of the league. If it
is Objectionable no comment at all
will be made. And if it is particularly
good, it will be decorated by the medal
or the league-a really very nice
medal designed by Gutzon Borglum
At this point, the projection room of
the league in New York fads out, and
the scene shifts to the headquarters of
any woman's club anywhere in the
United States. All the housewives and
prominent women of the community
are listening with gratifying interest
TO an eminent clergyman on the plat
form, who is explaining why people
should go to see only moving pictures
that have received the endorsement
of the Better Pictures League.
Get Preachers Support.
THE o. X. of the league is abso-
lutely to be trusted" he asserts posi-
lively, hence this picture, l feel sure,
may be seen with perfect safety by
any member of my congregation, or
anybody else's congregation. 1 can
more than recommend the picture be-
ginning at the same theater next week
as it has received the medal of the
league, but 1 sincerely hope that none
or you will go to see that question
able film which is appearing further
down the block, for it has been re-
leased in ignominious silence"
After this, the meeting breaks up.
except for a few officials who remain
in the small, front office for a brief
business caucus. One of these is the
president of the club, who picks up a
letter from the registrars desk, with
hint of coming discipline.
My dear ladies' she begins Sc
verely, glancing about the feminine
circle, 1--WE will simply have to put a
little more pep into our campaign for
better pictures here. This is a letter
from the New York league, which says
that we are not holding up our end of
the movement. The scanda1ous fea-
ture which appeared here last week
without the leagues endorsement drew
larger house than their selected film,
and We all know that the same thing
is likely to happen this week Now,
we've got to pull together, and make
the town support our pictures.
Promise me that you will call on
everybody you know today, and make
them go to see that league picture to-
night. whether they want to or not
Meeting adjourned"
The next scene in the scenario for