Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-04
VIM, DEM|LLES SAYS
CENSORSHIP EVILS
THREATEN PICTURES
Declares Producers Must Have
Mother Goose Rules
Removed.

An art cannot develop in bondage,
and if the art of the motion picture IS
to develop, if it is to become the great
power for moral and social improve
ment for which it is undoubtedly des-
tined, there must be freedom of express
sion left to those who are making 1t
their life work. according to William
DeMille, producer of Paramount pic
lures. In an article on censorship in
the Los Angeles Times Mr.. DeMille
wrote the following:
1T has been reported to me that
one of the Ohio state censors said re-
Gently that she was going to give the
people of the state of Ohio not the
picture they wanted, but the pictures
they ought to have. Here, in a nutshell,
is the evil and injustice of censorship,
thoroughly expressed by one of the
censors themselves. Looking at the
matter from my own point of view,
this censor's statement means to me
that my % years of hard work, study
and effort to be artistic are to be
calmly put aside in order that some
one with an autocratic, if inferior,
brain shall have the right to stand be-
tween me and my audience. From the
time that / first entered the theater
as q writer, / have conceived the func-
ton of a dramatist to be the setting
forth Of the problems of human life IN
such art form as would move the mass
of the people through his message to
them. But apparently this is not to
be. | may no longer speak my mes
sage to the people of this country; l
may no longer receive their reaction
to my work, for a little group of peo-
pie, who must disagree with much that
| have to say or they would not be
censors, are empowered by law to
stand between me n my public.
Artist Must Be Free
in spite of the fact that numerous
individuals have disagreed with me as
an artist and as a philosopher, | can
truthfully say that in the course OF
long years of effort, | have never writ
ten anything for publication, L have
never put any play upon the stage, and
| have never put any picture upon the
screen which / am not willing to stand
behind and defend as being an earnest
effort to tell a good story as beauu-
fully as / could. And | resent the dis
elimination which is being exercised
against this new art by subjecting it to
restrictions to which no other art is
subjected. An art cannot develop IN
bondage, and if the art of the motion
picture is to develop, if it is to be-
come the great power for moral and
social improvement for which it is I'M
doubtedly destined, there must be some /!
freedom of expression left to those
artists who are making it their life
work and who cannot possibly do good
work if a lot Of interfering ~busybodies
have the authority to change the form
of their expression, distort their phil
osophy, ruin the beauty of their art,
and reduce all Characterization to sym
bolic figures on the order of those
characters in Mother Goose" which
are supposed to be so easily understood
by the youth of the land. 1t seems that
we have come, in this country, to a
point where we are not content with
le%gislating every phase of morality
we are now starting in to legislate mat
ters Of taste. What will be left of in |
dividual liberty when this scheme of
things is completely worked out!
1T is difficult for me, as an artist,
to understand hat q kiss which lasts
for five seconds is immoral, but be-
seconds duration. 1t is difficult for
me to see how we are going to attack
the powers Of evil when we are forbid |
den to show the thing we are attack
ing and, in some states. even to men
ton it. / am one of those who have
never been able to see the immortality
in the fact that a child is about to be
born.
Public Amply Protected
Under restrictions such as these, no |
art a possibly find an expression |
worthy of the name of art. The public
is already amply protected by laws, in
every state, which prevent the exhibi-
ton of anything indecent or immoral.
These laws are wise and necessary,
but the great evil of censorship is that
~ ic NOT q noffor ~ low hut . o,hot; |