Memorandum for His Excellency, the Governor of New York, in opposition to an act entitled "To regulate the exhibition of motion pictures, creating a commission therefor, and making an appropriation therefor." (1921)

17 In short, instead of censoring the performance at the theatre, it is the business itself that has been circum- scribed by a censorship of rigidity, unrelaxing. There is here no emergency that calls for the imme- diate exercise of the police power, like a pestilence or a crisis in the commonwealth. Without this proposed stat- ute or any new statute there are extant penal laws ap- plicable and indeed aimed at the offenses which invite the public and cannot be concealed. Here is a comparatively new industry controlled by law-abiding citizens — responsible men — and involving vast sums of money and the employment of thousands of citizens. If properly conducted the industry in its nature is not alone innocent, but instructive, educational andelevating. It is the pre-eminent amusement and re- ^ of the great masses, attended by 20,000,000 people daily, of whom many cannot afford any other. Inde- pendent of this act or of its defects, the great controllers of the industry, without whose consent and countenance the industry cannot flourish, have come forward with the promise of any needed reformation, which they too desire. Signing the bill puts responsibility on the Commis- sion, yet unchosen and untried — relying on their inten- tion to carry out the most perplexing and difficult pro- visions — untested, novel and sure to present questions new and difficult to men without experience — and the ex- pense is on the State. Leaving it unsigned puts the responsibility upon most experienced men, who know the business thoroughly, whose fortunes and careers are in it, and who have given public pledge in writing to make the needed reforms — and they bear all the expense. Their success or failure will be decided in a few months.