The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-04-06
Municipal Ownership Will Solve Movie Probms Says Clergyman

Motion pictures are a splendid de- velopment-
 Motion pictures are in danger of commerciahsm.
 There are three conspicuous sore spots in pictures.
 Foul air and danger to the eyes are other evils
 or not can be reached effectively and helped by the instruction, the inspiration and the wholesome hu- nor of the finer picturs
 T a gree with Dr. Sheldon who says that the motion picture is a great medium for spreading Christ's mess age
 Motion pictures are all right on Sunday; but most of them are un- fitting for the Sabbath day. There is danger of commercialism in their showing.
 Municipal control would solve the problem of Nat to show on Sun day.
 Movies and the Church.
 These are just Init or miss mess ages taken from an interview given by the Rev. Gerald H. Beard to tke Amusement Editor of the Times the other day. Rev. Beard needs no in .roducing to the readers of this page or of any other in the paper. He stands for all that is right and pro- gressive in religious as well as civic affairs, and his opinions are words ito conjure with Rev. Beard as the pastor of the Park Street Congregational church, gets the angle of the movies and the church. but he also puts his finger squarely on many sore spots, as he says him. self, that can be approached from any angle. His talk is one to read and remember.
 tThe public exhibition of motion pictures is one of the splendid devel- opments of the last few years says Dr. Beard. +'It takes some folks a good while to rightly estimate a good thing, but the popular appreciation of pictures is large. They make their appeal to the eye as the voice does to the ear. The truer these pictures are to life, naturally, humanly, and tisticaIly-especially to the finer aspects of 1ife-the better, of course, they are.
 Like most good things, pictures are in danger from the greedy eIe- ment in commercial business. For moneys sake, most managers appeal to the common love of sensation, re- gardlesS of quality in art or morals An example is the impudent proposi- ton of Clara Hamon to star her guilty life for the benefit of young girls or for $1,00O a night: Happily, the motion picture men of California have had the good sense to refuse to exhibit any pictures in which this
 
 business generally would take a sirni- lar stand towards all pictures that put a premium on loose morals, Vio- lence, or lawlessness, the outlook for pictures and for society would be far better than it is now. Some Sore Spots. At present the three most con- spicuous sore spots in picture enter talnments are these appeals to. licen- tiousness, physical violence, and de- hance of law. The glamour thrown over deeds of this character and the sympathy they are made to call forth from the audience intensifies the evil. To boys and girls especially it easily seems attractive to be self-induIsent and smart to be a 1aw-breaker.
 Some sort of a censorship will probably have to come, but it should De a censorship that stresses approval Of the good rather than prohibition ana consequent advertisement of the bad,-a censorship that would judge values not so much by the subjects presented as by the spirit fostered bv