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)

134 MOTION PICTURE COMMISSION. Dr. Chase. I desire to, because I think that is very vital to the Avliole situation. Perhai)s, if it is considered just as well. I will wait until there is a larger number of the members of the committee present. The word " censor " refers to the old Roman usage, and many law- yers are apt to use the Roman meaning of the word, because in old Roman times there were two men who were called censors and their unanimous verdict allowed a man to be taken otf the voting list and there was no appeal. It allowed practically his office as senator to be taken away from any senator by the unanimous opinion of these two, and in times of great immorality in Rome the attempt was made to correct public corruption by granting this arbitrary power to the two censors. I want at this time to call your attention to a section of the bill which ought to remove the fear that my opponents have that this Federal board will have any arbitrary power to refuse to grant a license to a film because the picture is contrary to their taste or con- trary to what they think is artistic. ]My opponents have a fear that somehow the trade will be injured because the power of this com- mission will be absolute, far reaching, and arbitrary. I want to call your attention to the fact that (ai the third page, in section .1. the bill distinctly says: Tbnt the coiumissiou shall licfiise every hlui submitted to it and iiitenderl for entrance into interstate commerce, unless it finds that such film is obscene, inde- cent, immoral, inhuman, or depicts a bull fight or a ])rize fight, or is of such a character that its exhibition would tend to impair the health or corrupt the morals of children or adults or incite to crime. Clearly, the bill makes it the duty of the commission to license every film submitted to it. unless a film has in it something that is expressly forbidden here in this l)ill. The things forbidden can be summarized as those which tend to corrupt the morals or the health of children and adults. My opponents say that that is so vague that though a commission can tell what a freight rate ought to be. never- theless a commission can not tell what is moral and what is immoral. I w-ant to call your attention to the fact that there are two standards of morality, one the standard of morality of the play- going people, and the other the standard of morality of the whole people. The argument has been presented to this connnittee that because the motion-picture manufacturer wants to make money that lie will not produce an obscene or indecent or immoral picture, be- cause such a picture will not attract large audiences. Therefore, my opponents argue that the connnercial interest will control itself, and effectively suppress immorality in pictures, without any help from the Government. My reply to that is that the morality of the playgoing people is much lower than the morality of the whole community. The playgoing population become somewhat tired of the ordinary run of pictures and woidd like to see something with more sensa- tion. In (>rder to induce this playgoing jiopulation to i)atronize ])im at once, or in large mnnbers, (he uiiscru})ulous manufacturer or exhibitor is constantly under the tem])tation to furnish a picture beyond the border line of morality. When he does so, especially if he can fool some reputably good people into thinking the picture is educational or is aimed to destioy some great evil, he is rewarded