The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-04-27
IT'S ALL CENSORSHIP
'Otables at Banquet Pay
Tribute to Director of
All FilmdOm.
OFFRE PRAISES EDITORS
|ostmaster- General Adds to
Eulogies of His Predeces-
sor in Cabinet.

To Will III. Hays last night in the
otel Commodore fell the double
Pnor of being the guest at dinner
the publishers of the United States
ID being visited by no less distin-
iished a parsonage than Marshal
fire. The Marshal entered the room
moment after the former Post
hster-General concluded an appeal
the press of the country to help the
otion picture to gain tie high sta
bn 1t seeks.
In the long history of banquets, sell
pm has mere American been so
ted as Mr.. Hays was. Several hun
led of the most prominent magazine
hd newspaper editors in this country
ld virtually all of the heads Of the
'otion picture industry were present.
IFS successor in the Cabinet, DIR.
ubert Work, paid him the compl-
lent of saying lie had taken the post
ice at it's lowest ebb of morale and
inverted 1t into q great going con-
IN In few months.
Such editors as Arthur Brisbane and
8. Mcclure added what little they
'uld to the laurels already jammed
pom the head of the youthful or
3nizer from Indiana. Representative
|adden of Illinois, Francis II. Sisson,
|ce-president of the Guaranty Trust
Pmpany and Louis Wiley Of the New
|prk Times also spoke. Finally Mr..
|ays made a protest against censor
| Up Of the press. of the pulpit and Of
Q motion picture.
The Film Industry.
He said, in part:
ITO the publishers of America /
|ould come for the motion picture in
|isry as one approaches AN older
fother. The motion picture is essen
lally, OF course, a source of amuse-
|ent, the principal amusement of a
eat majority and the sole amusement
millions, and as such its Importance
measured only by the Imperative
|cessity of entertainment for our peo-
r. In this your concern is constant.
|"You, who are the custodians of the
finted word i'm America, have arrived
your present position of stability as
|e fruit of six centuries of develop
|ent. From the Gutenberg Bible to
,,,I
deed long and slow procession OF
|vention and development, through
boden blocks, metal type and hand
Imposition to machine composition;
trough hand power and flatbed to ro-
Try press from no mails to air mails |;
ON no telegraph to wireless.
I'VE are in confusion because OF the
|ry rapidity Of our growth and de-
klopment. Your standard of ethics,
10 relationship OF your papers to the
|iblic, your sense Of What can be done
hid what must not be done, your re-
possibilities for the expression and
|lidance of public opinion-all that has
bme about with the ease of an in
Erited fortune, you received 1t from
bur redecessors-from your ancestors,
to speak. in the trade, as gift, a
tquest.
WHAT John Milton did for you I'm
|e fight for the freedom of the press
hat Benjamin Franklin did for you
hat was done for you by Horace
Feeley, by Charles A. Dana, by Jo-
|ph Pulitzer. by Col. Nelson and Henry
PATTERSON and by other heroic figures
your long pull for finer and better
|rvicc and for the constitutional pro-
|ction of your freedom from the ag-
tessions OF official control--all that
|e must achieve here and now.
I'VE. in contrast with you. have moth
Is from the past. We must make all
|ese things and achieve all these things
II ourselves. The men who first took
this new thing are still alive. Our
Fst duty must be to keep our insti-
|ton free. There must be no seeking
r. any monopoly OF ideas. no attempt
put over any pet ideas of the in
|stry's own for which our only sane
bn is our own pride OF opinion.
either, and this Is even more impor-
int, must there be any prescription of
by opinions of others responsibiy held.
Re must In short take on that same at
Jude OF trusteeship for public opinion
bd public thought which you gentle
len OF the printed word have evolved
your own.
Nwxs4 Is. ~