The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-09-28
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Director.
Washington, D. G.
THE PICTURE VS.. THE BOOK.


booksl
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 educa-
tional film is distinctly coming into its
own. Not only is it greatly in demand
by public schools, universities and
churches. but the general public is
showing an unexpected enthusiasm for
it. Producers of educational features
are finding it difficult to supply all
the orders they receive for home pro-
projection machines, while New York
knowing picture theaters have recently
discovered, somewhat to their own
amaZement, that an exceptional ami
NAL or travel picture. properly fea-
tured, 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 scientific
article, are quite eager to absorb in
formation thru 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
D6en SdlQ against the MOVIES Out InlS
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 pro-
ducerS was recently formed to es-
tablish exchanges thruout 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 CT the producers,
| there are $4,000 Cnurches in this
country which regularly use motion
pictures, of which the Roman Catho-
lie churches number 1900 and the
| Methodist 10.700. Departments of
visual education have been established
| IN most of our universities. while pro-
| lection machines are owned by nearly
| 60 per cent of our elementary schools.
Then there are numerous organiza-
tions and clubs which use educational
movies as a regular thing. Among
VI. l.. n. l.,
c. A, the American Federation of
Women's 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 growing
at such rapid rate that the twelve
r2anufa lecturers 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
| large manufacturing plant, which
uses it, not only to advertise it's goods,
! but for educational work among its
employees Safety first films have
| done more than any other thing II is
| said, to cut down the number of in
| dustrial accidents, while they have
also been instrumental in smoothing
| out differences existing between en-
ployers and employees. 1t is estimated
this country who provide moving
pictures for their employees every day
at noon. One large mining corpora
ton has built nine moving picture
| theaters for the benefit of it's workers,
| one of which cost 100000.
Besides these permanent sources of
| demand, there is an ever-growing
cIamor for non-theatrical films for use
in private homes. Nobody realizes
how many portable projecting ma
cnlnes 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 pro-
badly $4,000 more which are idle be-
cause it is impossible to supply pic
lures for them. For these we are
asked to make up a program with
comedy suitable for children, a
travelogue, an educational film, and
perhaps pictures of the habits of wild
animals, or Americansization propa-
ganda.
zone of the very important uses of
the non-theatrical picture is putting
characterization into homes in a Ian
guage that even an illiterate iTnmi-
grant can understand.
Science Taught by Film.
"You can teach all sorts of scien-
tific facts by films which you can't
with books, because people won't take
the trouble to read them. Health
boards, for instance, can put their
lessons across in pictures as they can
IN no other way. We have one pic
ture called Unlocking the Hookworm'
which is unknown to the theater-going
!; public, but it in great demand by the
international health board for use in
all the southern states.
"A motion picture has been made
OF every major operation. We have
! Inns SuOW4ilS microscopic organisms
and demonstrating physiological pro-
cesses, as, for example, the circula-
ton of blood. Then, of course, they
have it all over textbooks in teaching
chemistry. biology, and other scientific
: subjects in the schools"
) The producer handed US his author :
ity for this last statment-an article
by Mr.. H. G. Wells, in which he says:
81 ask for half a dozen projectors
or so in every school and for a well
stocked storehouse of films. The pos
sibilities OF certain branches of teach
ing have been altogether revolution
ized by the cinematograph. In nearly
; every school nowadays you will find
a lot of more or less worn and dam
aged scientific apparatus which is sup
posed to be used for demonstrating the
I elementary facts of chemistry, physics
= and the like.
Now that is the sort of thing which