Educational film magazine; (19-)

VI CITIES EVERYWHERE BARRING CRIME FILMS City Officials, Judges, Clergymen, and Social Workers Urge Drastic Measures to Abolish the Menace INNEAPOLIS, Denver, Newark (N. J.), Bridge- port (Conn.), Atlanta, Duluth, Superior (Wis.), and Chicago are a few of the many American cities whose inhabitants are up in arms against .! crime film. The menace to child welfare and the oh- ms stimulation of the crime wave which such pictures pvoke have called down on the heads of the producers, itributors and exhibitors the wrath of the good folk of :»e communities. It now looks as though some of the -;eats will be put into execution and no films in which .me appears, in any form, can be shown hereafter on : screens of those cities. 'Half the motion pictures shown are utterly destruc- ::5 to the moral integrity of our youth,^' declared United , tes District Judge Robert E. Lewis, of Denver, in sen- icing a dealer in narcotic drugs to ten years' imprison- nt in the federal penitentiary. He cited instances of .fading scenes and pictures of notorious persons, saying t these form ideas in the minds of young people. "Chil- n are imitative," he added. "Certain films create an .nediate desire to do the things depicted." The Hennepin county grand jury has been looking into . situation in Minneapolis. Miss Genevieve Stone, prin- • al of the Minnehaha school, told the members of the nd jury how the movies affected her pupils in their tude towards crime. Mayor Meyers of Minneapolis asked the mayors of other Minnesota cities to bar nes in which crime is glorified. "he father of two young men who were sentenced to imprisonment for murder said his boys got the idea holding up a grocer from the cheap movies. "Why, o along the streets and see little boys and girls with guns playing hold-up," he said. "The cheap movies responsible." "I've Seen It in the Movies," Says Schoolboy WTien I say stop, you stick up your hands!" A lad even with a toy pistol greeted a woman in this fashion ■ Minneapolis street. At a local picture theater the Another phase of the problem has cropped up in Al- bany, N. Y., where the state department of charities has declared a ban on films depicting cruel treatment of chil- dren under institutional care. Pictures of this kind, they mamtam, are not true to life and constitute a grossly un- fair criticism of those who labor in the charities and cor- rections fields. State legislation may be asked to put a stop to pictures of this character. NATL EDUCATION BILL FAVORABLY REPORTED 'pHE Smith-Towner bill creating a National Department of. Education in Washington, D. C, and providing federal aid to the states for the promotion of education was favorably reported on January 11 by the House com- mittee on education. One amendment provides that the existing Bureau of Edu- cation shall be transferred at once to the new department of education and that other boards, bureaus and govern- ment branches shall later be transferred to the department Another amendment provides that courses of study, plans and methods for carrying out the purposes and provisions of the act within a state shall be determined by the state and local educational authorities. The Secretary of Edu- cation IS denied the right to exercise any authority what- ever with respect to the administration of education with- in the states, his power being limited to seeing that appro- priations for particular purposes shall be expended for the purposes for which they are appropriated. It is understood that if the bill becomes a law a cer- tain amount of the annual federal appropriation which is tentatively set at $100,000,000 will be used for visual edu- cation; that ,s to say, any state which provides certain funds tor visual education in the schools of that stale will prob- ably receive a proportionate amount out of the $100,000 000 annual appropriation of the department. W 9t FILMS IN ILLINOIS GUARDSMEN COURSE on sank deeply into his impressionable brain An- -l^rh.^ '• ^°*^''A ^^ ^'''"''' Education, include: ' - -- - — ^ . ^ - - ^" .Iutioifa?v"wf °/ '-'''"''" ""^ '"-^ °f French-Indian and r boy m a fourth grade class, when the principal tried low him that criminals get the worst of it, declared: )h, I don't know. They get lots of money, and then ff and have a good time. And lots of 'em don't get hL I've seen it in the movies, too." ergymen of all creeds in Bridgeport, Conn., have de- )(»d crime movies and several have urged a drastic || law to regulate matters. In Duluth, Minn., the ordi- 45 provides that no picture may be shown which is iaiental to the morals and training of any citizen, re- less of age. Pictures illustrating any scene which ,',«ses ridicule or contempt of religion, law, or the mar- :\ State, or of any lewd or lascivious act are forbidden ,ewark, N. J., Director of Public Safety Brennan has led all picture exhibitors that no film depicting crime 'immals at work would be permitted. revolutionary wars; nhZ'^^.r'*''**"^* of Production," with Alms on the settlinR of the Ohio valley and central states; * "The Use of Capital;" "The Division of Labor." with films on the Louisiana purchase the Lewis and Clark expedition and the great plains of the west-' men^r'"5'7if^*"'",' ^"h ftl"« on the trans-Mississippi settiel ments and the railways of the United States; ^^ Interdependence;" PacffiTcoaft;^"^"""""'" ^"'^ ^"^ "" *^« ^"'^''ies and the coZrvatLr"*" ^"^ "" *''*' *'^""' °^ *^"= ^""^"^ ^'^'^« -^"^ safetJ^fi^tT'*' °^ " ^'"''' ^'^^ *"°" "° industrial revolution and "Specialization;" ;;Americanization," with films on the steamboat and emiirraUon- "lrn/7^ of Ignorance;" also the growth of cities and was°e' governmenlr ''°^"""^"*'" *'>^'^"i^en and his relation to the "Keeping Trade at Home;" democraS?*"'"^ "^ ^^^^'■'" '^^ «°^""'"^"' -""i represenUtive