The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-06-05
Temple HaH Mass
 Meeting Is AHowed
tContinred from Page D

bune of Jan. 30, 1897:
 Spain in Flames" at the Cameo is terrifying and gripping film Made up of sliillfully edited anc arranged newsreels, it presents tn, loyalist side of the Spanish civi war in terms that are calculated to shock the most complacent ob. server of world events. It is essen. tially an eloquent and powerful plea for the Spanish people ir their desperate and heroic fight against fascism. In addition it pres. entS a brutal picture of modern warfare with all its hideous impli. cations for non-combatants n sequences that are not easily for. gotten. No matter how remote thc struggle in Spain may have seemed the Cameo offering will bring it tc you whole and terrible. It is a film that SHOULD BE SEEN BY EVERYONE WHO IS AWARE, OR WANTS TO BECOME AWARE OF THE FORCES THAT ARE ABROAD IN THE WORLD TO- DAY.
 The actual shots were made by Spanish government cameramen and they have been placed in a sequence that does much to ex- plain the Spanish conflict and re- lates 1t to unacceptable international questions.
 The film is not only frankly ant violently partisan but its arguments are enormously convincing.
 Archibald MacLeish, the poet says: Tt would be easy enough tc talk about the new Spanish films at the Cameo the way the book re- Viewers talk about the books they want to read. It would be easy enough to say that these films OUGHT TO BE REQUIRED SEE ING FOR EVERY CITIZEN WITH A PAIR OF WORKABLE EYES They nail down the Spanish war They locate it in space and time and emotion. They hitch it to its causes, they present it for what it Is, fascist invasion ot free land." (End of quote from Herald Tribune.)
 From the New York Times for Saturday, January 30. 1897:
 Part documentary film, part propaganda, Spain in Flames at the Cameo is grim and horrible record of the ravages of the Span- iSh civil war. The first half of the picture, The Fight For Freedom, was filmed by official cameramen. of the leftist Spanish government; the second half, No PaSaran,' was made by Soviet photographers. Naturally 1t is 8 one-sided picture, both in its selection of scenes and its narra- tive accompaniment, but NO EDI- TORIAL BIAS CAN ALTER OR DISGUISE THE UNASSAILABLE FACT THAT MODERN WARFARE. WITH ITS RUTHLESSLY CRUEL EFFECT UPON CIVILIAN POPU- LATTONS, IS A HIDEOUS AND INDUSTRIOUS THING. SPAIN IN FLAMES IS A VIVID PICTURE OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED, AND IS HAP PENING, OVERSEAS" {" (End of quote from Times.)
 This film opened at the Cameo theater on And street on Thursday, Jan. 28, 1897 and continued at that theater for three weeks. Since that time it has been shown in some sixty cities in this country and has been witnessed by thousands of people. True, it was banned in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The reac- tion to this violation of civil hber- ties is well expressed by these ex- cerpts from an editorial in "The Nation" for March 27, 1887:
 "It is difficult to understand how politician as shrewd as Governor Earle could have permitted himself the luxury of expressing his real feelings so openly. Spain in Flames has met similar fate in Ohio, probably for similar reasons. But unlike Gov. Earle, Gov. Davey has carefully avoided the issue. The Cleveland Press and the other papers have been waging lively fight on the stupidity of censorship, so far to no avail. Legislation is now being taken by the sponsors of the film, the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democ- racy, and the American Civil Liberties Union is planning to in- troduce legislation at the next ses- sion of the Ohio legislature to change the sound track of the board of censorship.
 Legal action is also under way in Pennsylvania to force the board of cenSors and Governor Earle to reScind orders which have no basis in law. An even more effective protest could be made by the most progressive force now operating in the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. We refer to the Committee for Industrial Organization. It is the workers of Pennsylvania and Ohio whom the boards of censors have in mind when they oppose the showing of Spain in Flames It IS the workers of America, above all others, who should understand