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the publicity film being nothing more nor less than a means of diffusing educational and therefore social ideas.
Roughly speaking, and without going into details, such is the general scope not only of our own work, but also of the task to be pursued by all those interested in the problem, to whom the International Review appealed ever since its first issue to help in the common endeavour by the contribution of articles, the enunciation of theories, and in the essentially practical field of the collection of data and information.
The enquiries which we have examined and are about to examine — among the latter I may mention the enquiry made in America by Mr. North, of the Department of Commerce, and the enquiry carried out in Italy by Dr. Cimatti, of the Laboratorio Fossati of Turin — are of a practical character, being less concerned with studying ideal possibilities than with the tangible demonstration of actual facts.
We are now able to set forth roughly the results of an enquiry made by Dr. Elkin with regard to the influence of the cinema on Russian children (i). M. de Maday's enquiry, and those carried out by Mr. Finegan and Dr. Lampe, dealt entirely with the children in certain schools. The enquiry described in the article « A Discussion of Motion Pictures in their relation to Children and Education » had a wider scope. Dr. Elkin's enquiry is still more far reaching. It descends in the social scale to those children who do not attend school at all, and for the purposes of the enquiry, it distinguishes between children of the different social classes to which the enquiry applied.
{Dr. Elkin). In his story « The Basin Street Crime », Alexis Tolstoi describes the influence of the cinema on children. He cites examples of children committing crimes under the influence of the cinematograph.
The cinema occupies a very big place in the life of children. As far back as 191 1 a Judge of the Childrens' Court in Liverpool called attention to the fact that in England about 13,000 children aged under 13 attend the cinema daily. In 1913 Professor Zak made a similar enquiry in this country, and noted that 40.9 % of the 1,193 children attending schools in Moscow, declared the cinema to be their favourite amusement. 100,000 children frequent the New York cinemas every day.
So far, we do not possess much material on the question of the influence of the cinema on children. During these last years two or three articles have been written on the subject, as for instance « The Cinema and School-children » by M. Pravdoliuboff, published in the Review « The School of the Future » (No. 2, 1927) and « The Influence of the Cinema on school-children » by Madame StantcikofT-Rosenberg, published in the Review, « The Worker and Education » (No. 2, 1927).
We have recently carried out an enquiry with a view to ascertaining what it is that attracts children to the cinema. We put a number of questions concerning the different aspects of the cinema. These questions were as follows :
1 . Do you like the cinematograph ?
2. How many times a week do you go to the cinema?
3. Why don't you go there oftener?
4. What films do you like best ?
(1) Kino i Kidtura, Moscow, No. 3, 1929.