Judge Ben B. Lindsey on the child, the movie, and censorship (1926)

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L The Child — The Movie — ■^\^ and Censorship C\ % By JUDGE BEN B. LINDSEY ADIES and Gentlemen As stated in your program, "This is an open conference with a free platform — all are welcome." I trust that I may be of some service. Even though we differ in methods, our purposes are the same. We want clean, wholesome motion pictures and we want to protect the youth of this country against any evil in this popular form of entertainment, as well as to secure for them the best that is to be had in this new, marvelous method of human expression. And whatever may be our differences, I wish to express my own appreciation of the value of an association like this in bringing about a free and open discussion that may help to disclose to us real remedies against the evils that we all oppose. I have friends here in this conference with whom I differ as to methods to that end, but I have the highest respect for the sincerity of their purposes, as I believe they will have for mine. For my views on the subject of governmental censorship are well known. They have been formulated after nearly twenty-seven years of experience in a Juvenile Court that came into existence under our Colorado law of 1899 — the same year as that of the Juvenile Court of your own great city of Chicago, which, next to Denver, I count as home, because here reside some of my dearest friends. VIEWS ARE WELL-KNOWN When it was suggested that, having engagements in and about Chicago, under the auspices of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau, having its main offices here, I might be of service in presenting my views on censorship at this meeting, I said I would prefer to do so under the auspices of some disinterested group. As a result of this preference, you have heard read the request of Mrs. Virginia Palmer, Chairman of the Motion Picture Division of our Colorado State Parent-Teacher Association, requesting that I be heard here. However, I wish to assure you that this is not by way of any apology whatever in presenting these views under any auspices, interested or disinterested. There can be no crime in any event for a man to do that when his sincere views are as well known as mine are and as, in recent years, they have been expressed literally hundreds of times. In nearly every public lecture I have given on childhood and crime during recent years, I have stated over and over again my opposition to governmental censorship of the movies as a remedy for evil. 3