Motion Picture Commission : hearings before the Committee on Education, House of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, second session, on bills to establish a Federal Motion Picture Commission (1978)

MOTION PICTURE COMMISSION. 35 censorship in order to meet the public sentiment of England. It is not an official board, but they have one because the public cry for something of the sort is so strong. And that answers the question as to whether it is constitutional as against the freedom of the press. We get our constitutional proAdsions of freedom of the press from England. Milton was the one who started the ball rolling for the freedom of the press, and it is the English constitutional provision which we have inherited in this country, and whatever it means here it must have meant over there, and they have had this done through centuries. So this does not, in my opinion, and I believe in the opinion of our best lawyers, interfere at all in that way. NoAv. there are several amendments which I want to suggest. Each film that goes out will have to have attached to it a motion-picture film seal which will say, "Approved by the Federal board of censors," will be numbered so and so, and will give the title. Now, the board of censors will first have to have that printed on a piece of paper: then they will take a motion-picture machine and run it off, and in order to have it exposed five seconds they will have to have about 8 feet of film. Now, I can not find the actual expense of a foot of film, but so far as I can get at it it will be about 5 cents a foot, and 8 feet would be 40 cents. Now, we do not know exactly what that expense will be and I have suggested this provision. The Chairman. What section is that? Mr. Chase. It is section 11. The board shall have power to charge in addition to the fee for each film such a sum as is necessary to pay the expense of furnishing the motion-picture film for the seal. As I understand it, there are 300,000 of these films, and if it costs 40 cents for 8 feet of film, 40 times 300,000 would amount to a pretty big sum, and you do not want to hamper the commission by that. It would frighten the public to put that sum of money in there; that is, that that would be the expense of the commission. Yet these men are Avilling to pay whatever the actual cost is. So that is one of the amendments that I suggest. Then, I suggest that: The fees received by the conmiissiou shall be paid monthly Into the Treasury of the United States. But the commission shall have authority to receive and expend the money collected for the furnishing of the film for the seal. Mr. Crafts. What section is that? Mr. Chase. Section 11. All of these amendments apply to section 11 except the la^t one. That is, the money from the fees is to go into the Treasury, but the money received for the seals they can take and expend without going through the Treasury. Then the next pro- vision is: Three months after the commissioners have begun to license motion pictures, and at anv time thereafter, the board shall have power to reduce the fee to such a sum as will produce no larger income than is necessary to pay the total expenses of the board. Now, we figure that $1, which is the fee that we have now decided upon, is enough, although the man I talked to said $3 would be about the right sum. However, in Ohio the State board of censor- ship charges''$l, and it has been found in Ohio that that is too much. I have had some information from there that the $1 fee is too much. We would almost be willing to say 50 cents, but it seems wiser to say $1.