The Connecticut labor news., 1921-08-12
Bosses Sins to Be De- Dicted as Virtues, Just as Organized Labor in Connecticut Fore saw and Protested StrenuOusly Before Legislature.

Organized Labor in Connectl- cut was well alive to the dangers of the bill introduced at the recent session of the General Assembly which provided for the establish ment of a moving picture censor ship commission. When the Dill came up for hearing before the judiciary committee, Secretary Ornburn of the State Federation, Eugene Treiber of the New Haven Trades Council, and a score ot other prominent Labor men of Connecticut appeared Ill protest and with the aid of many others not interested ill the moving DIG ture game, succeeded i'll having the bill, as originally intended, killed off.
 Labor's sole end was that 1t had been informed that the opponents of the Organized workers wished the censorship to use as means of further coercing the unions and making them obnoxious to the general public. That this infor- nation was based on fact the fol lowing special dispatch to the LABOR NEWS, from Washing ton this week, indicates. The dis patch follows:
 Especial to The Labor NeWs.)
 Washington, Aug. 1O.-Having se- cured control of practically all other means of communicating facts to the public. Big Business is now going alter the moving pictures. he Fh1ladelphld hanber of Commerce has protested 10 the Pennsylvania board of censors that i,ins are being used to disseminate radl- cal DrC p1. da, and Henry Star Richard son, secretary of the board, says that the matter will be looked nto me hoard can be relied upon to do good job for 1t has a keen eye tor propagan- da not approved by Big Business.
 How keen is told by David Ward Griffith, one of Americas leading pro- ducers. who, i'll protesting all censor ship of the films as dangerous and un- American, points out how the Pennsyl- ,
 with industrial subjects.
 William $. Hart has filed with the cen sors a drama treating an industrial prob lem, titled Whistles" According to Mir. Griffith, the picture as made had a foreword containing these lines:
 Since the day of Plato and Socrates there have been many men ot W1sdom but none sage enough to solve the strug- gle eternal between capital and labor
 In Pennsylvania capital IS the thlng and it's officials are quick to detect any thing that might reflect unfavorably up on employers, so the censors revised thls title to read: One of the eternal strug- gles of life"
 Another title in the Hart picture read "The Chappie Home, a realm winch does not jump at the imperlous call ot the whistle.'
 The censors doubtless feared thai spectators might immediately think oi the palaces on the hills and novels IT the hollows" that dot Pennsylvania anc made this substitution: The domiclle of a manufacturer not typical of those of today; a man not bad at heart, ye who does not realize that his interest lies in seeing that the interests of hl: employees are equally as well protected as his own" That sentence modlhe: the meaning if it does not improve the rhetoric of Harts caption.
 Another caption reads; "You've hac six years to make this place safe You've been thinking of dollars. 4ot haven't had time to think ot lives. This was substituted: "GOu had no r1gh to put off making this place safe, See! The manufacturer intended all along tt remove deadly nuisance, but hadn' o,,ite got around to the job. So many things to do-cutting coupons and th' like.
 The work of the Pennsylvania cen sors attains almost, if not quite, thu o,a1itv of humor Hart had written th1 title: "Connor's widow came to you anf won sent her away with a few filthy dol lars when you killed her husband Ina uo,,ld never do in a State ruled by thu k;nos of steel and coal, so the censor changed it to read:
 ..When Connor's widow came to you why didn't you act like the decent posse of todav?" Gary, for instance, the cen eors might have asked, but didn't.
 When the censor changes the captlo1 of a moving picturer he arrogates tt himself the right of interfering with tn printed word," said Mir. Griffith. "Fo many years it has been unknown il America. It is dangerous business = another step to the censorship ot tn published word i'll all forms"