The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

April, 1930 109 The Pied Piper of the Movies has not only enticed our children into the mountain fastnesses and employed a "woman ambassador" to take charge of the pass, but has subjected the whole nation to the censure of all civilized countries. It is time that action be instigated to bring to an end speedily the misrepresentation of the life of the American people at home and abroad. Slogans, politicians, denominational cloaks or brilliant ladies are equally objectionable. The issue is clear-cut and the responsibility rests upon the home, the school and the church. Are you, as a member of these institutions, cooperating with the industry to exploit youth and menace the good will and peace of the world, or are you cooperating with your government in bringing about the appointment of a Federal Motion Picture Commission t o regulate and supervise public utility entering its product in interstate and international commerce? The Vocaitioiial Guidance Magazine (March) "Employment Problem of Motion Picture Industry", by Marian L. Mel, discusses the extra situation in the film business. An interesting article about the problems of a neglected group of individuals ! International Review of Educational Cinematography (January, February) Again this department must take space to laud this inspiring publication, now out in a new dress ! The improved format is most effective as to size, paper, type, set-up and cover design. We cannot take the space to list the tables of contents. Suffice it to say, as we have heretofore declared, there is no smallest paragraph in this international publication but stimulates, in striking manner, the serious reader. One is in touch with the varied aspects of the cinema from every corner of the Occident and orient. One longs for adequate superlatives and then realizes that the publication deserves that highest of tribute, — a simple statement of its excellence and integrity without rhetorical adornment. BOOK REVIEWS The Pageant of America, Volumes 2, 14 and 15. The Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1929. There have appeared the final volumes of the magnificent fifteenvolume series of The Pageant of America, which as a whole is not only the product of the most painstaking, extensive and exhaustive research in the sources of pictorial material touching all phases of American history and national development, but also, from the very nature of the volumes, one of the most difficult projects achieved in the annals of American publishing. As a technical accomplishment the series is noteworthy, as a pictorial history of America it is a colossal work, entirely unique among historical publications to date. The Educational Screen has made detailed reference to the previously issued volumes in the series, in its issues of January and December 1927, May 1928, and January 1929. The last three volumes follow the same general plan as the foregoing — each is introduced by a foreword from the pen of the editor of the series, Ralph Henry Gabriel ; each includes from 600 to 1000 pictures with accompanying text, and each contains a supplementary section of "Notes on the Pictures," as well as an index. Volume 15 includes as well a General Bibliography for each of the volumes in the series, and a Topical Guide to assist the reader in locating more readily the particular volume which contains the material for which he is searching. The three final volumes to come from the press are individually summarized below : Volume 2 — "The Lure of the Frontier," by Ralph Henry Gabriel. 327 pages with 598 illustrations. Here is told the story of the advancing tide of settlement, not in terms of territories or treaties or political questions, but in human daring, human sacrifice and human suffering. Its editor says, of the \ M^ ^M ^^^JB"^ 1 1_ -^y 3p '^ ^^T ^^^ Vol. 2. The Lure of the Frontier The Pioneer Woman, from a statue by Harmon A. McNeil (1866-), courtesy of the Reinhardt Galleries, New York. scope of the volume, "Within the pages at hand an effort has been made to chronicle only the work of exploration which preceded the advance of civilization — the activities of the fur trader, the westward progress of the fringe of settlement, and the long, sad story of race conflict." Frontier life is pictured as it existed in successive stages through tidewater, to the Piedmont, in the country of the Iroquois, through the Great Lakes region, in the Great Plains and the mountain wilderness, in Texas and California, and still more recently, the frontier of Alaska. In each instance the volume tells in picture form, that "story of race conflict" which everywhere has marked the struggles of pioneering forces.