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)

42 MOTIOX PICTURE COMMISSION". right to say ^Yhat pictures shall and what pictures shall not be shown in this country is more powerful, Avithin the limits of the industry, than any other component part of it. He can make and he can break a manufacturer. Of course, as I say. that is granting that the personnel and the motives of the commission are entirely above sus- picion. Now, of course, administrations change and politics change, and I do not have to point out to you where great avenues are ojpened to people w'hose motives, perhaps, are not entirely above suspicion. It would be a tremendous injustice to the manufacturer who had mil- lions and millions of dollars invested in this industry to have one, two, or three men to determine absolutely what in his pictures is right and what is not right. The Chairman. Now. who would determine that? Mr. Bush. Who would determine that? The Chairman. Would it be the public after they had been pre- sented to the public? Mr. Bush. Why, it would be for the public, for public sentiment to control the w^hole situation. If there are any pictures, the ex- hibition of which constitutes a violation of the law. the law now on the statute books is ample to deal with them. Mr. Powders. Just a question at this point. You say administra- tions change and politics change? Do you mean to indicate by that statement that one political party is more likely to appoint a com- mission which would do wrong than another? Mr. Bush. Oh, no; not at all. Nothing was further from my mind. I meant to intimate no such thing. I only meant to convey this idea: I should have said the personnel; I should not have mentioned the word politics. The personnel is liable to change, and it may be that abuses will creep in. I do not know of any instance in human history, and I doubt whether any of the gentlemen now within the reach of my voice know of any instance in human history where the possession of absolute arbitrary power over others has not been wittingly or unwittingly abused to the injury of those over Avhom it was exercised. Our struggle from time immemorial, in English speaking nations, has been against arbitrary power. Mr. Powers. Now, I have been aw\ay and I have not read this bill, as a matter of fact, and T w^ould like to know what are the provi- sions contained therein, the things that this bill proposes to do. Mr. Bush. Well, as I understand it, Mr. Chairman, the bill pro- poses to appoint three commissioners—am I right in assuming that? Mr. Fess. Five. Mr. Bush. And these commissioners are to pass upon the charac- ter of the pictures that are to be submitted to thom. In fact, the language of the bill, and that is one of my objections to it, is ex- tremely sweeping and indefinite and would make a cover for the exercise of irresponsible and arbitrary power. Mr. Powers. Now, are all the motion pictures produced in this country to be submitted to this commission of five people for censor- ship before thev are put before the public? Is that the idea of this bill? Mr. Bush. That, I understand, is the purpose of this bill; that is, before they can be put into interstate commerce. Mr. Powers. But, of course, it could not interfere with them if thev remained in the State?