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)

154 MOTION PICTUEE COMMISSION. ship; that the manufacturers did give to them the absolute power to censor, and that if they said a film was not to appear that it would not appear. Now, here we have knowledge that the National Board of Censorship refused to license the Inside of the White-Slave Traffic, and yet we know it was shown in public, and it was only because the public authorities were aroused and that the district attorney's office was so efficient that the picture was thrown out of circulation. Mr. Thacher. Was that film owned by the three companies said to have such a large control over the business, or was it owned by the 3 or 4 per cent of the manufacturers who do not come under the National Board of Censorship? Dr. Chase. Well, I do not know; my opponent can tell you whether it was put out by any of those companies. It seems to me that the film entitled " Traffic in Souls " was put out by the Universal company. Mr. ScHECHTER. The White-Slave Traffic was not produced by any of the three groups that have been referred to, but the Traffic in Souls was put out by the company I represent—the Universal Manufac- turing Co. The Traffic in Souls w^as approved and the Wliite-Slave Traffic was not approved by the National Board of Censorship. Mr. Powers. What advantage, for the suppression of crime and all that, would this national commission possess over and above the National Board of Censorship as now existing? Dr. Chase. Dr. Howe used a metaphor and figure which I might use in illustrating this point. He said suppose there are 20 barbers in a town, 19 of them wanting to close on Sunday, but one wanting to keep open. If there is no law, the one barber insists on keeping open, and the other 19 are obliged to do as he wants. The one man forces the 19 to do as he wants to do. Here we have 96 per cent of the motion-picture manufacturers, according to their statement, abiding by censorship, but 4 per cent of them do not. This bill would compel that 4 per cent to live up to the standard which the other 9C claim they are now living up to. It would force them all to live up to the moral laws of the whole people. Now, according to their own statement 4 per cent can defy the National Board of Cen- sorship, and the result of it is that thev degrade the whole business. The two films, " The Inside of the White Slave Traffic " and " Traffic in Souls," in my opinion, have injured the whole motion-picture business and the receipts of the motion-picture business all over this coimtry. If the Federal commission had been in existence these evil films Avould not have appeared, or would have been so modified as to have produced a good rather than an evil influence. Mr. Powers. But as to the 90 per cent, what would be the differ- ence? Dr. Chase. The fact that the 4 per cent give worse pictures than the 96 per cent acts as an influence to prevent the 96 per cent from living up to as high a standard as they Avould if those 4 per cent were forced to obey a common standard. Supi:)ose the 4 per cent put on a film and defy the National Board of Censorship and such a film goes into circulation; in such a case the rest of the motion-picture trade feel that they have got to cater to that same trade because they do not Avanl it taken away by their competitors. So they lower their moral standard and issue more sensational films than they really desire. Now, one of the great benefits of this bill will be that it will instantly raise the standard of all motion pictures all over this