The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-08-21
Who Are the Forces
Behind the Legion
Of Decency" Drive!

It is interesting to see that III
Duchess County Squire, the r.
Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Pres
dent Of the United states, has bee
sailing around on his Hawaii tri
with six of the "blacklisted" inde
cent Aims. Fog over Frisco, Mm
der in the Vanities, Cockeyed Cavs
liers, Crime Doctor, Party's Owe
are six films at which the Bishps r
Detroit and Chicago TIT their nos
heavenward
Here Is Decency!
/ InnOCuous escape from reality
Beyond Bengal, Circus Clown, In.
visible Man. Murder in the Private
Car. Murder in Trinidad, The Mys.
terry Of Mr.. x. Son of Kong, Secret
of the Blue Room. etc.
g. Virtu0us, dociIe, patient tale
to induce Social stability" CTht
Grown Of Thorns. The Fightinl
Ranger, Honor Of the Range, Qui'
ter Thirty-Day Princess, You Car
Buy Everything. The Poor Rici
Smoking Guns, Baby Take a Bow
The Most Precious Thing in Life,
David Harum. We're Rich Again,
A Very Honorable Guy, etc.
3. Anti-struggle, distorted reality,
pro-war and pro-fsscist. House Of
Rothschild (whitewash Of the inter-
national war-msking family of
bankers, Cavalcade (tear- Jerking
affirmation Of the inevitahility Of
war, and invitation to have stif
upper lip" and sacrifice for inpe-
rialist war;, The Mad Age dis
torted collection OF newsreels Of la
Dor and other struggles since the
war labor's fights viewed as
madness, She Learned About Sail
ors. Come on Marinesl (glorihcation
and ballyhoo for joining the Navy
and Marines Stand Up and Cheer
tjingoistic laugh away the depres-
sion" ballyhoo for NRA), Oper-
ator 10 (glorification of the military
spy, produced by Richard Boleslav-
sky, Russian White Guardist and
former spy, World in Revolt com
pilation Of newsreels that distort
the worldwide wave Of strikes,
struggles and revolutions as being
discreditable violence caused by Ia
bor), No Greater Glory vicious pro-
war ballyhoo, directed at the entire
populace, especially the women and
children, affirming that there is mo
greater glory than to die for your
country" A tear-perking pro-war
film that embodies in it the tresch-
erous character of the whole CRU
SADIE for decent" films.
THIS anti-labor, jingoistic, pro-war
code Of "decency" has already
been accepted as a model by the
Motion Picture Producers and Dis
tributors Association through Will
Hays and Joseph I. Breen, a solu-
ton which follows faithfully the
formula advanced in 1920 by Secre-
tary Lanel
The great masses of moviegoers
who have been leaving both movies
and Church in the past few years.
will recognize in this program Of
'decency" striking resemblance to
the kind Of decency brought into
their struggles for unemployment
relief and for the right to organize,
strike and picket, by the repre-.
sentatives Of the Church in the
NRA. anti-labor Arbitration Com
missions" May Rossi and Arch
bishop Hanna Of San Francisco, like
Father Haas of Minneapolis, carried
the Chmch's standard Of decency
into the great General Strike and
into the Minneapolis strike -
standard of decency that was ex-
pressed in practice as bloody aid
to the savage fascist-like assault on
the embattled workers.
The standard of "decency" of the
Interfaith Church crusade, 1t is APP
parent. is standard erected in sup
port Of system of society that IS
maintained by political reaction.
economic oppression and cultural
decay. 1t is standard Of values"
devoid Of any value to the working
class, to the movie audience. or to
the art Of the motion picture-on
the contrary: the Church crusade
presents grave dangers to the art
of the movies, to the audience. and
to the working class as a whole.