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The Moral Effect of the Cinema on Individuals
by Mrs Ambrose A. Diehl,
Chairman of the Cinema Committee of the National Council of Women, U. S. A.
As Chairman of Motion Pictures of the Council, it has been my privilege to come to Rome discuss with you the world-wide problem of the Cinema and to tell you what the organized women of America are doing and truing to do.
Our Council is composed of twenty-three separate women's organizations with a total membership of many millions, representing a large cross-section of women's activities in the United States.
My election to this chairmanship derives from work done for many years in two groups: as Motion Picture Chairman of the General Federation ot Women's Clubs in the United States, which single organization has a membership of 3,000,000 women; also as Chairman of the Motion Picture Department of the League of American Pen Women. Therefore it would seem more serviceable for me to report on problems and processes concerning which my knowledge is first hand than to content myself with generalities.
In the U. S. A. recognize our responsibility to the whole world in this field; first, because the American motion picture is so large an entity in the aggregate of the world motion picture supply; second, because the considerations which inspire women to exert their influence on the medium of the screen are universal.
The Unit of Civilization is the family. The atmosphere of that family is women's responsibility. Women of all nations possess the legitimate right and insist upon expressing the right to study at first hand and exert pressure upon every agency influencing the character building of the family. It is natural, therefore, that women throughout the world have made it their province to throw the spotlight on the new, great, modem influence of Motion Pictures.
There is a variance of scientific opinion as to the degree and power of the screen's influence, but we, as women, have felt a decided influence in our family lives brought about by attendance at motion picture houses; therefore we are determined to analyze and regulate the effect. It is our right to make our influence felt on all those phases of life which concern the happiness of our homes and our children.
Important European studies.
We recognize and seek to profit from the important studies that have been made in countries foreign to our own, concerning the present effect and tendencies of motion pictures, in relation to moral, cultural and racialvalues.