The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-26

New York, City, Sept. z4.-Ieach
it by moving pictures instead OF
books.
This suggestion, long champion
ed by such ardent educators as h
G. Wells, is now meeting with wide
spread approval in this country.
After many years of patient OBJ
SECURITY. the educational film is dis
tinctly coming into its own. Not
only is It greatly in demand by pub
! lie 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 projection machines,
while New York moving picture
theatres have recently discovered,
somewhat to their own amaZement,
that an exceptional animal or travel
picture, properly featured, attracts
as many patrons as an all-star the
atrical 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-
tific article, are quite eager to alb
sorb information through the com
Portable medium of the screen The
reading of books, with the excep-
ton of light, popular fiction, re-
quires understanding and magma
ton on the part of the reader, while
looking at a film does not. Many
unkind things have ben 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 afford to
travel, glimpses of foreign lands,
interesting personalities and cur
ious 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
combination of non-theatrical
producers 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 prod
ucts, but in the meantime it is kept
busy supplying the field which al
ready exists.
Movies in Church and Home.
According to one of these produc-
ers, there are A 900 churches in
this country which regularly use
motion pictures, of which the Ro-
man Catholic churches number IT,
600 and the Methodist 10,7O0. De-
partments of visual education have
been established in most of our
universities, while projection ma
chimes are owned by nearly 60 per
cent of our elementary schools.
Then there are numerous organi-
cations and clubs which use educa-
tional movies as a regular thing.
Among these are the Y. NJ c. A.
and Y. W. c. A, the American Fed
GRAFTON of Women's clubs, and So
cieties devoted to nature study, ami
nal lore, welfare work, health,
ciyics, drama, history and travel
The use of moving pictures among
such societies is growing at such a
rapid rate that the II manUfactur-
ers now producing standard port
able 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 extra
ordinary demand.
The educational film has also be-
come an indispensable feature OF
the large manufacturing plant,
which uses it not only to advertise
its goods but for educational work
among its employees. Safety first"
films have done more than any
ether one thing, it is said, to cut
down the number of industrial acct
dents, while they have also been
instrumental in smoothing out dir
ferences existing between employ
ers and employees. 1t is estimated
that there are 5000 manufacturers
in this country who provide moving
pictures for their employees every
day at noon. One large mining cor
poratIon has built nine moving pic
ture theatres for the benefit of it's
workers, one of which cost s40O 900.
Besides these permanent sources
OF demand, there is an eYer-groWing
clamor for non-theatricaI films for
use in private homes. Nobody
realizes how many portable project
ing machines are in use in private
homes says one producer of edu-
cational features. There are %. 900
Of these in use in the United States.
and probably $4,000 more which are
idle because it is impossible to sup
ply pictures for them. For these
we are asged to make up a pro-
gram with comedy suitable for
children, a traVelogue, an educa-
tional film, and perhaps pictures
Of the habits of wild animals, or
Americanization propaganda
One of the very important uses