The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (Apr-Jun 1922)

1 May 6, 1922 THE FILM RENTER & MOVING PICTURE NEWS. ITHE ENTERTAIN MENT TAX? — ! Budget speech a half hint at New Legislation. }REMAINS SOLID—BUT IT MUST MAKE ITS VOICE TAIN MANNER AT ONCE. two or three weeks that he wil} be compelled to take cognisance of our demand, to listen to our arguments, to examine our figures, and to inquire into our case. And if he does so, we are so satisfied as to the justice of our demands, so sure as to the obvious necessity fur a removal of, or an amelioration of the chief cause of our present troubles, that the Chancellor will be convinced of the need for official action, and we shall gain our point. But we shall not dou so by sitting down and complacently folding our hands, or by wringing them in despair. Nor shall we attain our ends by showing signs of disorganisation and dissension in our ranks. If the Chancellor is convinced—and we can convince him if we take concerted and well-considered action at this juncture—that we arc the power we say we are; that we are united in our determination to use that power in remedying the gross injustice under which we suffer, he will make concessions. If he finds there is recrimination and dissension in the trade he will be encouraged to ignore our demands, and all the work of the past six weeks will go for naught. AN INSTANCE OF WHAT CAN BE DONE. The Northcliffe Press, backed hy the power of unlimited circulation, has demonstrated within the past few days what can be achieved in this direction. Hundreds of thousands of petitions, bearing several millions of signatures, descended like an avalanche upon the members of the House of Commons during the week preceding the Budget statement, demanding a reduction in general taxation. What was the result? So deep an impression did this demonstration of public feeling have upon the Government that an eleventhhour repentancc—-a change of political tactics, in effect —-resulted in a reduced income tax, a lightening of imposts upon certain trades and industries, and a direct pledge to reduce Governmental waste, and to apply vigorously the economic axe. What the Northcliffe Press has done hy means of its widely circulated newspapers, we can do if we are forced to it, and make up our minds to do it. The journals in question have an audience which at most numbers two to three millions of people. The audience of the kinemas totals some Google where in the neighbourhood of twenty millions, or more than one in three of the entire population of this country. We are fully conscious of our power, but we have no desire to invoke its aid, or to employ it for propaganda purposes unless circumstances compel us to do so. The Government will be wise, however, to recognise the power of the screen and to realise that it can be directed and wielded to attain justifiable ends if circumstances should prove to be such as to justify its emaplovment, For the moment we leave it at that. WHAT THE TRADE MUST DO. But the exact position must be made clear to the Chancellor without delay. The Kinema Tax Abolition Committee exists for this purpose, and its first act should be to call together the entire trade in every big centre throughout the country, in order to make the voice of the industry articulate. The Government, and every individual Member of Parliament, must be incessantly bombarded with strongly-worded resolutions demanding fair play. Single resolutions forwarded with courteously-worded communications are a waste cf time. They must be sent in sheaves and battalions. Every member of the industry must be made to realise that now is the moment for action. Copies of resolutions to be adopted at such meetings must be supplied to every person who votes for their adoption, and each must pledge himself to forward his copy to his own Memier of Parliament. The Northcliffe Press put up a great show of opposition and voiced its demands in a way which appealed to public imagination. We can do identically the same thing in a far more effective way. Instead of hundreds of thousands of petitions, embodying our resolutions, we can inundate the House of Commons with millions of such documents. And the time to do it is NOW. The policy of ignoring our just claims which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has adopted on the advice of the permancnt officials of the Treasury is merely a hint and an incentive to prosecute our campaign with renewed vigour. The next three weeks will seal our fate for another twelve months. Let us act without delay. We must pull together, show an undivided front; exert our united will; make clear the justice of our case; and recognise as sensible men . that whilst we cannot hope to have all that the circumstances justify, HALF A LOAF IS BETTER THAN NONE.—L.W.