The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1922-06-13
SPEECH DELIVERED BY
WILL II. HAYS
At a Dinner rendered Him by the
Publishers of the United
States

The following is the speech del.v'
cred by Will H. Hays, president Mo
t;on Picture Producers and Distflbu-
tors of America, Inc, New York City,
at a dinner rendered to him by the
publishers of the United States, April
2s, 1922:
To the publishers of America /
would come for the motion picture
industry as one approaches an older
brother. The motion picture is es-
sentionally, Of course, a source OF
amusement, the principal amusement
of a great majority and the sole
amusement of millions, and as such
its Importance is measured only 'oy
the imperative necessity Of enter
tainment for our people. In this your
concern is constant.
You, who are the custodians of the
printed word in America, have arriv-
ed at your present position OF sta
bilitv as the fruit of six centuries OF
development. From the Gutenberg
Bible to the newspaper and magazine
Of today is indeed a long and slow
procession of invention and develop
ment-through wooden blocks, metal
type and hand composition to ma
chine composition; through hand
power and fat bed to rotary press;
from no mails to air mails; from no
telegraph to wireless.
All of these processes, which are
essential parts of your business, have
come to you as the slow and orderly
development of six centuries of pro-
grsss, with frequently century laps
ing from step to step.
But consider how different it is
with this other mechanism for the
distribution of intelligence. What
with you has come about slowly
through six centuries has with our
motion picture industry come about
in the Incredibly brief space of twen-
ty years. Is it any wonder that we
have problems in our industry which
you gentlemen of the printed word
solved decades or generations ago?
Amazing Rapidity of Growth
We are in confusion because of
the very rapidity of our growth and
development. Your standard of
ethics, the relationship of your pap
ers to the public, your sense of what
can be done and what must not be
done, your responsibilities for the
expression and guidance of public
opinion-all that has come ABOUT with
the ease of an inherited fortune
you received it from your predeces-
sors-from your ancestors, so to
speak, in the trade-as' a gift, a be-
quest. 1t did not come without diff
Guilty nor without. struggle, but that
struggle has been distributed over
fifteen or twenty generations, and
you have your standards, your rules,
your accepted practices, your knowl
edge of what is right and what is
wrong; you have that Like the British
people have their; constitution and
like the American people have their
freedom-as a bequest from the
great figures of your past.
What John Milton did for you in
the fight for the freedom of the press,
what Benjamin Franklin did for you,
what was done for you by Horace
Greeley, by Charles A. Dana, by JOS
.eph Pulitzer, by Colonel Nelson and
Henry Watterson ahd. by other hero
ic figures in the long pull for finer
and better service and for the con-
stitutional protection of your free
dom from the aggressions of official
control-aH that we must achleYe
here and now.
We, in contrast with you have no.
thing from the past. We must make
all these things and achieve all these
things for ourselves. The men who
first took up this thing are still alive.
The pioneers of our institution are
the men who are still in the business.
We in the motion picture industry
are at this moment in the very midst
of achieving those standards of our
relation to each other and to the
public and "a our responsibilities to
the world. And it is exactly for the
purpose of aiding in the arrival at
those standards that our association,
the Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors of America, has been or
ganized. Quoting from the formal