Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-09-30
A JUDGE, A MOVIE SCANDAL
AND THE MOST DREADED JURY
Some Folk In California Have Been
Having First Experiences with the
Force That Rules the Country

Some Folk In California Have Been
Having First Experiences With the
Force That Rules the Country
TNlIAT was an interesting, il wocful, little
l. homily on life and society and the ethics
of these times which Judge Lazarus. of San
Francisco, delivered from the bench when he
instructed n jury to let the most vulgar of
all moving picture comedians out of jail
after a series of hearings that all California
desires greatly to forget.
1--WE are trying ourselves" said the Judge,
meaning that all society was somehow i'm
plcatcd in the atrocious business and some
how responsible for it. 1--WE nrc trying our
present day morals and our present day
social conditions,'
Are We indeed?
From this distance It appears that society
was sitting. in this instance, not in the
dock but in the jury box. and that the
people OH trial and in deadly fear of the
inevitable and unchanging verdict were the
judges and the police. the jurymcn and the
prosecutors. as we'll as tho wild men and
women from the moving picture Gold Coast
and the sorry squad of pseudo -rcspcctablcs
who furtivcy minister to them for the sake
of easy money.
Why, If II were otherwise. should there
have been such sudden frantic effort to
prove ArhuCkle Il black sheep and all the
rest Of the movie world dccorous and free
from wild habits?
Hollywood is ready to do almost anything
to set itself right with the world. 1t would
almost so to church Ell masSe.
A great many keepers of big hotels have
become aware, with bad start. of their
obligations to the decent communities in
which they arc established.
There signs of very real fear. Every
one knows that the force of mass Judgment
can be and often is incxorablc and even
savage.
Society has a we'll developed instinct of
self-prCscrvation. 1t inevitably reacts. like
living organism. to destroy the alien and
self created elements that are always ap-
pearing to cndangcr its health or its life.
That is why the saloons wrrc attacked with
Il peculiar. laundering harshncss. and that is
why every antisoCia institution is now and
will continue to bc on the defensive
Society. which, in the definition suggested
by Judge Lazarus. might be said to comprise
nine tcnths of the general population. knows
how to take care of itself even if it is some
times at n loss for methods. 1t doesn't
always know what it wants. But it knows
what it doesn't want.
1t doesn't want smut in its entertainment
or crooks in public Office or fools in places
Of nd t. l,,e
appointed voice. It's strength is made felt
in a thousand silent ways.
Because there is no need to nut society
on trial-and for no other rcason-thicving
politicians. grating police. the trafickcrs
in indecent things. the opportunists and the
cxploitors who are rich because they ar.
dshonornblc. and all the other Incompatible
riff f-raf in the living current of the times
move in uncasincSs and fear
They do not always dread the courts.
What they dread is exposure to the judg.
mcnt of that society which Judge Lazarus
seems unable to understand
Society is Mt war with such people be-
cause it knows instinctively that they nre
destructive forces within it's own body
So clean plays and clean books and clean
movies continue TO insure the biggest re-
turns to those who produce them. Crooks
in politics may be tolerated. But the heart
of the crowd is with the RooscveltS and the
Lincolns. Similarly it is with the Barries
and the Joe Jeffcrsons.
Fresh realization of the meaning of
that trend of general feeling has been
brought homo to the film producers in n
shocking fashion.
In relation to the movies the public has
been, as you might say, knowingly crcdulous
It has an abiding love of beauty and humor
and romance. and it has liked to believe that
the personalities effectively presented to
it by the camera are MS brightly charming as
they seem in the pictures. The general de-
votion to the movies Is in fact devotion to
personalities.
The crowd because it is imaginative and
generous. will cling to its pleasant delusions
to the last - because they are pleasant
When it is made finally to realize that It
has been bilked again and bamboozled by
still another series of shams; that all its
best impulses have been exploited once more
in n particularly intimate way. the movies
will have lost their hold on the country.
The movie promoters know this, if the
actors don't. And they appear to have a
far better knowledge of public opinion than
Judge Lazarus.