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78 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY McCracken, since executed, folloAved a little girl out of that theater, waylaid, attacked, and murdered her. Now, if criminal A'iolence of this kind, chastely presented in well- balanced plays, can arouse murderous passions in borderline cases, such as this—I am thinking of police evidence that the man had a previous record of degeneracy—can we safely assume that the effect of ill-balanced sensational crime and sex films, such as are now on the increase, are having no serious effects at all upon many incipient offenders, and even to an extent upon the apparently normal but highly impressionable youngsters who are in the usual way well behaved. I feel it must be true, also, that shocking details of crime and inti- mate sensational revelations of illicit sex adventure in the steady stream of movie and television shows plays a sinister ])art in enlarging, if not creating, a desire for what are sometimes called stag or party ])ictures, namely the type of pornography witli which this subcom- mittee has been predominantly concerned. As sure as marihuana leads to heroin, morally vicious pictures create a desire for pornography. And I would connnend probabilities of such connections to investigation by this subcommittee and to the leaders of the motion ]:)icture and television industry, whom I would like to say I believe to be imbued with a fine sense of citizenship and resjionsibility to the public in the main. From those who defend a ])olicy of no restraints because movies and TV deal in intangible ideas and not tangible commodities, I have heard the argument that young people by habit have come to regard the show as something to be enjoyed, not necessarily believed and certainly not imitated. If this were true, would you think that so many people, especially the young ones, would take examples, say, from the happier aspects ancl characters currently popular? We see that millions of youngsters now clamor for Davy Crockett hats. And millions of children i)lay gangsters with wooden guns and with an Edward (1. Robinson snarl. It would be easy to say this is a passing craze, but do we know that; are we sure? Are we certain that these ideas Avhich take root in the young mind do not bear fruit later? I think other matters prove that we would be wrong in taking that line. Now, if it is important—and the commercials do tell us that it is— that the physical health of the children shall be protected by giving them the right kind of cereals for breakfast, it seems to me much more important that their moral health should be protected by giving them the right kind of ideas from the motion picture and television screens. I acknowledge very freely that producers try to cater to every hu- man type in Hollywood. The current emphases in screen drama are usually drawn from what the ]Droducers conceive to be subjects of major current interest to the public. There is an identity, of course, upon stage plays and novels, and today it is sadly evident these sources, often with the aid and approval of many who would call themselves literary or dramatic critics, are increasingly politic. I would ascribe tlie present trend toward crimi- nal violence and salaciousness in pictures and television partly to this pollution and partly to the following causes: