Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

60 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XIX, No. 2. greater. Every dreamer of motion picture dreams — and we confess to being one — knows in his heart that if those who should could see them, pictures would end the war. Lights Out IF well-illuminated fronts did not attract patronage, theater managers would not so cheerfully pay big light bills. The fuel administration order to turn off all unnecessary lights two evenings each week, now in effect, therefore necessarily cuts off two-sevenths of the patronage gained by such lighting. Indeed, as one of the proscribed nights is Sunday, the proportion is really much larger than that. There is no way to get around the order (unless some resourceful exhibitor should care to coat the front of his house with luminous paint, like an officer's Ingersoll wrist watch, and let Nature take care of his lighting). So the theater men not only will make the best of the dark nights, but many of them will go further to assist in the national movement to conserve fuel. One method of practical thrift we have already described — the substitution of efficient electrical conversion apparatus for the wasteful rheostat. (MOTOGRAPHY for December 1, 1917, editorial page.) Another distinctly technical electrical method we have mentioned before is the coming use of the Mazda lamp for projection in place of the arc. This system, recently perfected and to be described in an early issue of MOTOGRAPHY, shows a saving of from forty-eight cents to as high as six dollars and forty cents per ten-hour period. And the saving in electric current — which saves coal for the nation as well as money for the exhibitor — is even greater than that. The third possible method of saving light — and consequently coal — lies in the adoption of the "daylight saving" plan. This scheme is probably already known to most of our readers. It is not our purpose to argue here for its adoption, but merely to outline some of its claimed advantages in cutting down outside lighting, leaving the decision as to its indorsement to the good sense of each individual. The daylight saving scheme is really a reasonable and practical proposal with a rather ridiculous superficial appearance. The idea is simply to turn the clock forward one hour as soon as the daylight begins to lengthen perceptibly. At present we waste an hour of daylight in morning sleep, and pay for it in the evening by an extra hour of electric light. If we could make the sun change its schedule, so as to rise an hour later and set an hour later, we would gain just an hour of expensive artificial lighting. If we would all set our alarm clocks an hour earlier, go to bed an hour earlier, we would gain the same result. But the first is impossible, and the second is psychologically unattractive. So we simply pass a law making the act of setting clocks ahead one hour standard practice, and we gain that extra hour in spite of ourselves. There is nothing the matter with the scheme. It is perfectly good and reasonable — only, unfortunately, it looks a little silly. If it were not for that it probably would have been adopted here long ago, as it has been in Europe. Such a bill is now in Congress, and a little screen work by exhibitors could help it through. All of which goes to show that there is more than one way by which the picture theaters can help the nation save coal, and thereby gain a profit for themselves. Exhibitors: Send in Your Tax Protests WE are printing once more the request of the Allied Exhibitors Legislative Committee, because the committee reports that the response so far has been quite disappointing. It is almost incredible that the only chance of relief from a tax they consider unreasonable should be so ignored by the men most directly affected. There was plenty of indication that such relief was wanted. It must be plain to all that there is no other way to get it. Yet the committee is forced to work in the dark, for want of some of those very protests which have flowed so freely in a less formal way. If this week's appeal brings no larger response, we can only conclude that the exhibitors like the present taxes, and have no desire to see them changed. Of course, if that is the case, the committee is wasting its time in trying to help them. P. H. W.