The Washington times., 1922-02-20
MORALITY
NOT BAD,
SHE SAYS
English Writer Appeals for
Justice" for Decent
/ Film Actors.

Los ANGELES, Feb. e0.-The
following appeoi for fair play to
Hollywood and the motion picture
industry acas Written especially for
The Washington Times 6y Etinor
Gtyn, noted author::
By ELINOR GLYN,
America is supposedly a democ-
racy. 1t had magnificent start,
Its laws being framed at a time
when the world had emerged into
a fair state of civilization-and
yet, as Mr.. Brisbane frequently
points out in its mastery leading
articles, the most appalling cases
of injustice, which would disgrace
a corrupt autocracy, seem to be
continually occurring.
Decries Attack On Movies.
One Of the greatest is going on
now.
1t is the hysterical. illogical at
tack upon the moving picture com.
munity, which has sprung forth as
the aftermath of the tragic Taylor
murder.
My sense of justice won't let me
remain silent about it any longer.
feel as | did once when l was
q child, and hit a big man in the
street with my little parasol because
he was hitting a horse carrying a
heavy load.
Asks An Audience.
My pen is only tiny thing, but
II Is going to run on and write
words to ask those of you who are
good, just fellows and true citizens
OF great country, to listen to me
and then stop and think for your
selves.
The moving picture industry, is.
i am told, the fifth largest in Amer
lea. 1t employs countless carpen-
ters, electricians, painters. plumbers,
artists, craftsmen, architects, de-
signers, writer's and musicians.
Probably the smallest number of
its constituents are the actors and
actresses-and only fractional per-
centage of these are lurid figures
who delight in scandalous excuses.
But the whole community is being
held up to the English-speaking
people of the earth as a rotten sore
on the face of America.
Can anything be more unjust and
Illogical?
A mysterious murder is COM
mitted. and at once. like flock
of vultures, irresponsible reporters
from the East swarm out to the
Coast and get colorful news to tele-
graph back to their centers. They
may individually be the kindest.
hearted beings. who would not hurt
a fly, but they do not stop to think
what harm they are doing to mil.
lions of their innocent countrymen
and women when they spread hide
Gus tales OF Gope-fiends, parties
and other horrors too ugly to speak
Of, giving the impression, culled
from perhaps one isolated and prob
ably hugely exaggerated case, that
every actress whom the public has
grown to love and admire on the
screen, hides some grotesque vice in
her palatial home. where orgies
worse than those of Rome's deca-
dence are supposed to occur night
ly.
Pictures Couldn't Be Made.
Now, use common sense and ask
yourselves how could any business
be done at all, how could pictures
be made, how could work be &C.
complished, IL even a tenth part Of
what is alleged were true?
Dope fiends cannot come up to
time every morning on the set at .
o'clock and do a hard days work:
drunken women and men, putrid with
vice, cannot register on the screen
for all eyes to scrutinize, as beauti-
full, fresh young boys and girls. Di-
rectors cannot, month after month
and year after year, put over dram
attic action and control large COM
panies of people II they are stupid
and sodden with whiskey.
Use your intelligence, sharp -witted
American public. And do not let
sandal.mongers get by with all this
nonsense. You are not softies to be
gulled by freakish exaggerators. Sift
the thing down to probable facts, and
your own intelligence will get at the
truth.
am a stranger who has watched