Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1921)

12 MOVING PICTURE AGE January, 1921 is employed some concerns give him a general notion of the main activities of the industry and outline the routes of advancement. They show him the future possibilities of his job and tell him how he may make the most of his abilities. Such an analysis enables the workman to work with intelligence. He can understand how his efforts fit into the efforts of his co-laborers and how all together make the finished product, thus making possible the payment of his own wages. This procedure awakens hope and ambition and makes a man feel that he is not doomed to stay at a dead level for life. On the contrary, he feels that social capillarity which is distinctive of America, whereby men of one economic and social level quickly ride to higher social strata and achieve new positions of opportunity and responsibility. Films One Company Has Used Successfully This bird's-eye view of the industry is followed up by instruction in a vestibule school or in up-grading classes in which large and profitable use is made of visual material. Thus the most effective vocational education and vocational guidance are given and the industry fulfills a fundamental demand of our democracy, viz., equality of opportunity for all. Some of the films used successfully for this purpose by the Carnegie Steel Company are "The Reason Why," "The House That Jack Built," "The Workman's Lesson," "How a Workman Became a Cashier." 2. To conserve health. According to Professor Irwing Fisher of Yale University the vital assets, or economic value of our people is greater than all our other wealth combined. He proceeds in this manner : if a man earns $1800 a year, that amount represents the return at 6% on an investment of $30,000, the real economic value of the man. On this basis compute your own economic value and you will have a cure for blues when things seem to go wrong. The importance of keeping ourselves fit, trim, and in good working order is seen at once. How many of us are up to standard efficiency? What percentage of the workmen in a large mill maintain 100% physical efficiency? It is quite in order that the management of an industrial plant such as the Ford Automobile Company should require the attendance on the company's time of all employees at illustrated lectures on health and sanitation. The economic losses from temporary sickness and preventable disease run up into the millions of dollars annually. Giving Health Hints on the Screen The State Department of Health of Pennsylvania has over 25,000 feet of film for free distribution on the prevention of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and other preventable and curable diseases. The International Harvester Company circulates hundreds of slides on the care of eyes and teeth, and on the destruction of the fly and the mosquito. 3. Safety first. The value of a hand, a leg, or an eye is indicated by the amount of insurance an injured man may recover on his. accident policy or by the amount stated by the State laws fixing workmen's compensation and employers' liability. To stir the mind, to make a workman visualize the result of his carelessness is the object of our safety drives, and I know of no more effective film than that one so true ta life entitled "Careless America." Other good safety films are: "How Accidents Occur," made by the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company of New York ; and these put out by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company: "Shorty the Car Inspector," "Good and Bad Firing," and "Smoke Prevention." 4. Thrift. At the present time when the purchasing power of the dollar is more than cut in two, and prices have not tumbled noticeably, every one should curtail expenditures and save his money. Current prices indicate unmistakly a high degree of famine in some commodities. It is therefore, a moral obligation for all to save and conserve. Thrift ideas are clinched and made to function by such films as "From Messenger Boy to Bank Cashier," "The Home Garden," "Making the Dessert Blossom," "Wheat to Flour," "Poultry Raising," and "Welfare Work," the latter made by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. 5. Americanization. Flere is a big problem for the industries that employ foreign labor and, as a new tide of immigration is just setting in, the problem will loom larger in the immediate future. The immigrant wants to become an American and we want him to become a good one. Just how to secure a real transfer of allegiance and to inculcate our subtle idea of liberty, which is not license and freedom of speech which is not sedition, is a delicate problem, particularly with those who do not understand the niceties of the English language. Here is a limitless field for visualization, a language all can understand. The Americanization Lecture — Slide series prepared by Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis promises to fill a longfelt want of welfare workers in factories and mills. The lectures were written first and then illustrated. The incidents are intensely dramatic and the slides have been made to appeal to lovers of the movies. The lectures arouse inspiration and patriotism, the slides fix the subject vividly in the mind. The ten lectures point out with absolute sureness the intangible spirit, sound ideals, and fundamental principles of our government. Here are a few of the subjects : "The Sanctity of Property," as the "Logical Inference from the Sanctity of Life," "How Ability Can Increase the Workers' Wage and the Country's Wealth," "The Loyal Classes Who Build the State and the Enemies Who Undermine It," "Why There Is No Excuse for Poverty in Our Country," and "How Bolshevism Ruined Russia." In conclusion, I sometimes think of the whole educative process as the weaving of a network in the brain to catch the impression that comes in through the channels of the senses. To make that net fine meshed so that the slightest impression is retained long enough to become meaningful, to increase the associative fibers of that net by stirring the imagination and arousing ambition— there is a field of endeavor worthy of the best talent our large industries can secure as welfare workers and I know of no means as effective in this work as visual material in the form of films and slides. Encouraging the Religious Appeal PEOPLE in every part of the United States, wherever there is a church, a school, or a meeting house, are to be made familiar with the religious photo drama. This is to be accomplished by the International Church Film Corporation, which has selected "The Stream of Life" for its novel experiment. This film, a dramatic six-reel sermon in pictures, was written by Dr. James K. Shields in the belief that a movie can carry a message and deal with the verities of life without detracting in the least from its popular appeal. Through its various distributing centers, the International Church Film Corporation will place "The Stream of Life" with churches, schools and clubs. The fate of the better picture movement will undoubtedly be influenced by the manner in which "The Stream of Life" is received. In Norway the motion picture theaters were nationalized ; their former owners receive 5 per cent interest from the government and the remaining profits are used to support hospitals and other welfare agencies.