Exhibitors Herald (Jun-Dec 1917)

Ifll EXHIBITORS HERALD fg pillilllliiffilfllM ! : I:l I ■ ,.::;[ ||H1|J We have been criticized, in a friendly way, by several exhibitors and in an unfriendly way by others, because of the 15c per reel per day film tax. The unfriendly critics say that we ought to pay this tax ourselves. They charge us with the lack of patriotism. They declare that we will ruin 50% of the exhibitors in this country if we pass the tax along to them. They assert that they cannot pass it along to the public because the public won't pay it. The friendly critics tell us that we are quite right in passing the tax along to the public through the exhibitor, but that we made a serious blunder in not explaining the situation more carefully to the exhibitors. To this last charge we plead guilty. Our only reason for not having told the story to the exhibitors sooner was that the tax took the whole Industry by surprise, for the Senate Finance Committee unanimously declared against the film tax, and from the information at hand we believed that the lull would emerge from the conference committee of the Senate and House devoid of such a tax. Thus we were left as confused and unable to act as all other branches of the Industry. Moreover, the tax went into effect on October 4th and was accruing against us while we were conferring with each other. To have attempted to confer with committees of exhibitors would have meant endless discussion and much delay, resulting in the accumulation of a burden that we could ill afford to assume. We took too much for granted. We assumed the exhibitor would understand that it was a financial impossibility for us to pay $100,000 per week out of our own pockets, just as we understood from the beginning that it would be an impossibility for the exhibitor himself to pay the various taxes imposed on him. Our wdiole idea has been to pass the tax along to the public, just as every other tax in the world is passed. As for the charge that we have done an unpatriotic thing, we are satisfied to let the government say whether we have done our part or not. But as for the claim that we will ruin fifty per cent of the exhibitors by asking them to pay about one dollar a day in film tax and pass even that small amount on to the public, it is absurd on its face. A far greater danger to the exhibitor lies in refusing to act as the channel for passing the tax along, thus forcing many of us to discontinue business. In such an event, with his source of film supply shut off, how long could any exhibitor stay in business?' Not fifty per cent would have to quit, but one hundred per cent. Furthermore, the public will not refuse to pay the tax. It has not refused to pay the war tax on passenger fares, on Pullman accommodations, on telephone calls, on theatre admissions, on tobacco, on beverages, on bonds, on cameras; and it is even now paying the tax on chewing gum, cigars, cigarettes, deeds, .express, radio messages, games, graphophones, insurance premiums, jewelry, playing cards, automobiles, patent medicines, letters and scores of other luxuries and necessities. We do not say that we WON'T pay the tax. We say that we CAN'T. We have not been arbitrary in the matter, regardless of what any exhibitor may think. We used the utmost care to determine whether our action was fair. We knew it was legal, but we considered fairness far more important than the mere legal right to pass the tax along to the public. We discussed the situation from every possible angle. We called in the best available experts to check our figures and prove their correctness. ffiuunnuiii[iiMi[HmniuiiiTutHTmnnnn!iMiiMiLi!iiiiiiHiMiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii liiiiiiiiniii mammmitmmmmmtimtimamm iiiiniii in iiiiniiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiuiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiuiinniDii 28 THE PUBLIC M