The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1922-06-09
WILL II. HAYES
AND THE MOVIES
Men Who Had Vision

Men Who Had Vision
Too, mechanically and financially
as matter of organization and
technique, it has been much the same
! Here was a great new invention that
| burst upon the world. Here was q
| great vacuum of need and demand to
/ be filled. Men who had the vision,
who saw the opportunity and the
| possibilities of profit. rushed into IL.
Their accomplishment in the last de
cade has been like an Arabian
Nights story. And there can be lit
| tie wonder that these crowded years
| have been in some respects a period
of chaos. In the old days when gold
was discovered in California there
was mad rush for it and in the
strife of feverish competition men
struggled and fought. 1t is a far
cry from that to the development of
this industry, but there is not an en-
tire absence of analogy. Certainly
there is no analogy between the de-
velopment of this industry and any
other industry. We have had COM
petition of the fiercest kind. There
has been no time for adequate re-
Election. The mere physical and me-
chanical expansion has been so great
and so rapid that there has not been
time and there has not been the
mood to consider in the midst of
these early years of mad scramble
to consider adequately the moral and
educational responsibilities and OPP
portunities inherent in this new
thing.
Now, at the end of this period of
increditably compressed physical,
financial and artistic development
these men find themselves not only
the responsible leaders and custodi-
ans of one of the greatest industries
Of the world, with limitless CONNER
cial possibilities and perhaps more
income than all the public utilities
Of the country combined. with a total
investment in real estate, studios,
equipment and properties of over
$500,0 100000, with possibly over 50,-I
600 people constantly employed and
$50,000000 paid annually in salaries
and wages, with SS00,000,000 paid
annually for admissions and possibly
$500, 100000 spent annually in pro-
duction with an annual turnover in
the business of 81 100000 00-not
only are they the leaders and GUS
todians of such an industry, but also
they find themselves the responsible
leaders and custodians of an instru-
ment and means of an entirely i'm
measurable usefulness in educational
and moral influence.
Scope of the Opportunity
Now let US see what we have.
First of all, note the scope of the
opportunity. In the United States |
in all the big cities and in all these
maple shaded towns and villages that
compose America-there are perhaps
fifteen thousand motion picture the
aters and in those theaters sixteen
million seats. Taking into account
the at least twice day performance
and applying the collected statistics,
We estimate that within every TWEEN
ty-four hours beween Maine and
men, women and children come to
ton picture screen. They come with
no other preoccupation. they come
indeed in a mood which has DELHI
erately put out of their minds all
other distractions. They come not
Oul VI uuCy, do LIley SO 10 WOIh VI
to school; they come not out of
solicitation, as they go to political
or other public meetings; they come
out of their own wish and inclina
ton. They come, in short, in
mood of relaxation, of reception-in
precisely that state of mind and
emotion in which a master psychol-
ogist, great teacher. would want
them to come, having in mind the
desire to make the strongest i'm
preston upon them. to have them in
the most plastic state for the receiv
ing and holding of impressions. If
a man had the wish to influence the
thought of the nation towards COM
mon ideals he could not more intel
ligently create a situation better
adapted to that purpose.
Now that is our opportunity.
What then shall we do with it
The first and most important thing
is that there shall be no attempt to
do too much with it. First of all
there must be no notion of implant-
ing particular ideas. Our first duty
must be to keep our institution free.
There must be no seeking for any
of ideas. no attempt to
'put over" any pet ideas of the in
dustry's own for which our only
is our own pride of opinion.
Neither-and this is even more i'm
portant-must there be any proscrip
ton of any opinions of others re-
sponsibility held We must in short
take on that same attitude of truS-
teeship for public opinion and public
thought which you gentlemen of the
printed word have evolved as your
own. We must take on that same
code. chiefly tacit and only partly
written, but nevertheless wholly
binding, that governs you of the
and periodicals in your
relation to the public and in your
relation to each other. We must
avoid the faintest faint of the propa-
gandist in our attitude towards the
agency that is our trusteeship. This
institution of ours so far as it af-
fects the ideals, the opinions, the
standards of taste and conduct of
he people must be as free as you
lave kept your institution of the
printed word-with channels open to
he expression of any honest and
reasonable idea within the world of
lrt, of public opinion. of everything
within the field of education. Just
is We must embrace and carry on
hat American tradition of insistence
upon freedom of resistance to of
'icial or political censorship of the
press, the pulpit. college teaching or
If public speech and public assem-
,ly, so must we obey, as you of the
press obey. the obligation not TO
orce upon the public we serve any
arbitrary standards of