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both aspects; (3) the enquiry of mothers of families, now being conducted and from which we already have reason to anticipate valuable results.
It was stated in " The Social Aspects of the Cinema " that theoretically every expression of individual or collective activity could be regarded as a part of social life and therefore as germane to the study in question. In practice, however, some limit becomes necessary, since our aim is to draw attention to certain specific points. We therefore decided to restrict the study of the social problems of the cinema as follows: can the cinema, regarded as an instrument of knowledge, have any good or bad influence on the public mind, and especially children's minds, and if so how far?
The boundaries having been thus fixed, we sought the essentially practical collaboration of teachers, and the answers to the three questions we have quoted deal precisely with this aspect of the cinema. The response to the questionnaire was exceedingly gratifying, nearly 100 % of teachers granting us the benefit of their experience, observation and reflection. The replies have been arranged and grouped in such a way as to preserve and reproduce for us intact the valuable suggestions and impressions of our voluntary correspondents.
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Immorality and crime.
Anyone who is concerned to safeguard the moral and spiritual welfare of children is bound to enquire whether the cinema corrupts the mind and incites to crime.
Investigations made in every country and the opinions of theorists are agreed that the screen exercises very strong suggestional force. A child's mind is as wax, and the form that it takes will depend upon the educational or anti-educational work of the moulder. Children have not the adult faculties of reason and discernment and easily imitate whatever has become impressed upon their minds. They cannot distinguish between good and evil, between right and wrong. Just on this account the cinema may be considered a two-edged weapon — a means of education at the same time valuable and dangerous.
There can be no question of opposing the cinema as such (we need only consider its great services to moral and cultural education, quite apart from its didactic value). The important thing is to do everything possible to improve the production of films, especially when they are intended for children, and to prevent a potent factor of moral and intellectual uplift from becoming a possible cause of immorality and crime.
How can this be done ? Several v/ays have been suggested, all of them one-sided and incomplete and all of them involving the placing of obstacles in the path of cinema progress. But cinematography, like all art, must be free, though this does not mean that it may be allowed to degenerate