The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 94 The Educational Screen "Whereas, to achieve this end it is essential that a dis- cussion of audio-visual aids to instruction be included as a part of the regular program of most sections of the Texas State Teachers Association, "BE IT RESOLVED: That this Section request the officers of the Texas State Teachers Association to arrange for an outstanding national speaker for our next annual meeting one year hence to discuss on the regular general program audio-visual education, and that each section of the Association be interviewed by the officers of the Visual Instruction Section regarding the inclusion of a discussion of audio-visual education as a regular part of each sectional program one year hence." You educators who have carried high the torch of visual education have had too little help from manu- facturers and distributors of visual education machines and materials. We who produce and distribute and service these dynamic devices have shown too little vision and have thought too much in terms of sales and profits. We have been all too often persistent peddlers of projectors and pictures for profit instead of conscientious consultants concerned with improving human living and bringing permanent peace to the world. Manufacturers (producers), dealers (distri- butors) and educators (consumers) all have one com- mon goal—to see that visual education is utilized to help transform children and adults into useful citizens. We who are visual education dealers three years ago banded together to form the National Association of Visual Education Dealers to professionalize our business, and develop it into a responsible and efficient sales and service group rendering an intelligent national service. The preamble to our Constitution states clearly our objectives: To promote practical, ethical and progressive methods of doing business among its members; To assist schools, colleges, churches and other or- ganizations in obtaining maximum results in the use of audio-visual aids ; To furnish visual education data and reports to enable its members to render a more effective service; To develop and promote better cooperative relations among producers, distributors and consumers, and all others serving the visual education field, and To approve, encourage, and promote sound fair trade practices, and to eliminate unfair trade practices. Committees are being organized from among the three groups—educators, producers, and dealers—to study our common problems and develop plans for solving them. These committees will deal with such questions as cooperation with architects, cooperation with libraries, development of visual education courses and conferences, cooperation with educators, and legis- lation and governmental cooperation. Following through in our pledge to join hands with visual educators and visual manufacturers, our Asso- ciation has offered its fullest cooperation to our nation in the war emergency. When President Roosevelt by Executive Order on December 18, 1941, designated the Director of the Office of Government Reports to act as Coordinator of Government Films for the dura- tion of the war, and authorized production and distri- bution of motion pictures "deemed necessary to inform and instruct the public during the wartime crisis", we sent a committee to Washington to cooperate. A Com- mittee of Seventeen, representing educators, manu- facturers and distributors of educational films, and visual education dealers, working together unselfishly as a unit with the knowledge, consent and cooperation of the Federal Government, developed a plan to mobil- ize the nation's more than 25.000 16mm motion picture projectors in the war effort. Arch JVIercey, Deputy Coordinator of Government Films, in speaking to this committee said, "The job of the American people at this time is to get the maxi- mum use from this particular field. I think the 16mm field should be mobilized as a resource in the national efifort. just the same as any other resource is mobilized. It would seem desirable that the 16mm people, regard- less of what element they represent should individually and collectively exert every possible effort to see that no 16mm machine is idle. I think an idle 16mm ma- chine might be likened to an idle machine tool, because it is a machine tool of information and morale and instruction." The committee recommended the registration of all existing 16mm projectors in the United States and their mobilization for use, day and night, with school and community groups. An abstract of the full report and recommendations of the Committee of Seventeen is appended below. Already the Federal government is planning production and distribution of films by the hundreds for the home front and the battle front, for America and for all the world, so that we "shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free". Billions are being spent for guns, tanks and planes. Surely our Government will invest the few thousands needed to dramatize for us all in films the facts and figures and feelings to make sure the final victory and universal establishment of the four essential human freedoms. Abstract of Recommendations of the Committee of Mr. Lowell Mellett, Coordinator of Government Films THE proposals submitted are made solely with the view of assisting you as the Coordinator of Government Films in a task that carries with it enormous responsibility, both in America's war efifort and for the entire future of visual education. In hundreds of thousands of gathering places, the social and cultural life of the American people is now focused—in schools (public, parochial and private, from kindergarten through college)—and in churches, clubs, lodges, cooperatives, trade unions, service and trade associations, as well as in the latest forms of defense agencies as now organized. All such groups, called together for a common serious purpose, can most efifectively be informed, inspired and trained by the widest Seventeen (as submitted on January 27, 1942, to , Office of Government Reports, Washington, D. C.) possible use of the non-theatrical motion picture. By this medium the same essential message or lesson can be given in the same uniformly effective way, regardless of the size of the audience or the prominence of the auspices. In this great task the principal needs are: (1) A plan of organization that will motilize the widest possible support for the showing of Government films; (2) adequate films and prints of each; (3) Physical distribution facilities for booking, shipping, inspecting, repairing, and keeping reports on films shown: (4) Projection equipment and personnel. I PLAN OF ORGANIZATION A. Apiwint Regional or State Coordinators of 16mm Gov-