Motion Picture Commission : hearings before the Committee on Education, House of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, second session, on bills to establish a Federal Motion Picture Commission (1978)

38 MOTION PICTURE COMMISSION. something that was a little suspicious it could be looked into by the commission. However, I think the general public would feel that a board of five would give a fairer interpretation of public sentiment than a board of three. If only three decided in a critical case there would be 2 to 1. and the public might not quite like such a decision. But for efficiency and economy three highly paid men would seem to me very satisfactory. STATEMENT OF REV. H. N. PRINQLE, ASSISTANT SUPERINTEND- ENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL REFORM BUREAU. Mr. Pringle. There are in the United States at minimum esti- mate 18,000 motion-picture shows, as I have learned by correspond- ence and conversation with men connected with different film com- panies and film exchanges in New York, Pittsburgh. Boston, and other towns. The attendance at the picture theaters in the T'^nited States aggregates daily about 10,000,000 persons; a large proportion children. In reference to the educational aspect of the subject under discussion I may state that in the United States there are approxi- mately 20,000.000 children in the public schools: so that the attend- ance at the picture shows represents four-fifths of the daily school attendance and far exceeds that of churches, libraries, and other in- stitutions of human betterment. Now\ what do those picture shows present? A part of the pro- gram may be of such quality as would be appropriate to present in any church on Sunday evening: another part may be mediocre, of small educational value, but that is not an objection, as the theater is not an educational institution, but recreational, and should be judged from that standpoint; a third part of the program is objectionable, be- cause it presents murders, robberies, holdups, assaults, burglaries, and nearly the whole catalogue of crimes. Such combinations of good and evil are presented daily in Washington. Pittsburgh. Xew York, and throughout our country in the picture theaters. Every few days you may see in the n.ewsiiapers allusions by crimi- nal court judges to the connection between juvenile crime and the demoralizing presentations just mentioned. Another class of fihns present indecencies, in which iinproi)er sexual relations are made the subject of meniment. The treatment of these films often lacks the high purpose of such writers as Hawthorne, Eliot, and Kipling, who em- ])hasize the consequences of immorality rather than the acts. The chief object of many sex films is to furnish s(nne thrills or to get laughter and aunisement tvom the embarnissment of the ]):irties who were caught by the disclosures. Competent inspection and effective censorshij) is needed. The Fed- eral (Toveniment for years has stationed inspectors at all the ineat- packino- houses in the"United States to see that tainted and diseased meat does not go out for consumption. That work could be done by the States, but it woidd not be so efficient and econoniical. This bill ])roposes the examinntion and censorship of picture films so that tainted and diseased amusement may iH)t be sent out from about 50 film mamifacturing and imi)orting'firms to 18,000 uiution picture theaters to injure inillions of immature ])ersons A\ho daily see these productions.