Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1945)

IAYS LOOKS AT WORLD MAP kND CHARTS POLICIES ily Self -Discipline Will Keep Right to Freedom of Screen, He Warns TERRY RAMSAYE broad blueprint of aggressive design for motien picture of America in the world of >rrow and the complex days of the peace ing was laid before the industry by Will lays this week. he document is Mr. Hays' report on the to the board of the Motion Picture Pro:rs and Distributors of America, Inc., de•ed at the annual meeting held at the assoon's offices in West Forty-fourth street in | York. At that meeting Mr. Hays was ;cted president, for the twenty-fourth time, he report, written in the consciousness that :comes an utterance to the wide world, is instrument of diplomacy, with perhaps as h between the lines as" in them, ric Johnston gets mentioned and quoted, he industry's achievements and performance le war causes and philanthropies are given nng attention. The newsreels come in for se. jr. Hays sees the American industry : [fronted after the war with "greatly admced production costs, problems of poplation redistribution, "and capital investlents needed to carry out the rehabilitaon plans of the industry." ing ahead "difficulties which will have to ; faced in regaining a fair proportion of ar foreign markets in a war-devastated orld." are of "the ever present problem of selfiscipline which we may expect to be in•eased by the war's effects on moral andards. We shall need to maintain an tibroken front of self-regulation." fr. Hays speaks in an emphatic consciousi of the trade problems of the world: If there be obstacles to the foreign showof American films after the war they will )bstacles unwisely erected by governments, by peoples. Sood entertainment is universal tender. The world audience has long welcomed pictures. . . . Cartels, restrictions and freezing are not ely restraints upon the industry. They restraints which tend to frustrate the enainment needs of peoples everywhere. There is cultural reciprocity inherent in the nange of film entertainment, which must er be endangered by self-serving propnda." l Haysian answer to an unstated state of rnational rivalry now becoming manifest und the world, is conveyed in his observai: "American pictures obviously help inter-, t American civilization to the peoples of the 'Id. Similarly British pictures are reflections British culture." 'here is in the report a sequence which can interpreted as applying to political and buucratic pressures toward control and censor?, at home and abroad, when he says: An impressive development in our genera INDUSTRY'S PRESS IS PRAISED BY HAYS The war has highlighted the service performed for the industry by the motion picture business publications, Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, observed in his 23rd annual report released Tuesday. "The 12 papers and magazines comprising the Trade Press Division of the War Activities Committee, since May, 1942, have contributed 833 '/2 pages of advertising to the industry's war effort, which, measured in dollars, represent $272,934," Mr. Hays reported. "Even more important, however, is the fact that 13,554 columns of news and editorial comment were specifically directed toward war service projects of the industry. "No other industry is better served," Mr. Hays declared. "Our 12 trade publications, all national in scope — four of them dailies — provide our widespread industry personnel with better information, faster, than the trade mediums of any other comparable business enterprise. This was important and essential to the functioning of the motion picture industry in time of peace, and it has been essential in time of war. "For the historian who undertakes to review the contribution made by the American motion picture industry to the successful prosecution of this war, the volumes of the trade press will be an archive worthy of study." tion is the broader understanding of the first Article in the Bill of Rights. It is coming to be realized that freedom of films and radio, as well as free speech and a free press, is intended by the spirit of that law. This trend is confirmed by many signs. I mention the new Constitution of the State of Missouri in whose Bill of Rights there is the declaration that "no law shall be passed impairing the freedom of speech, no matter by what means communicated" ; and also the Senate Concurrent Resolution 53 (in the 2nd Session of the 78th Congress) which says: 'That the Congress of the United States expresses its belief in the worldwide right of interchange of news by news gathering and distributing agencies, whether individual or associate, by any means, without discrimination as to sources, distribution, rates, or charges ; and that this right should be protected by international compact.' "The words I have italicized signify the intention of legislatures to include screen and radio along with the press as fundamental mediums of expression and communication. That intention was recently explicitly declared in a historic statement which was made at the Chapultepec Conference held in Mexico City. The InterAmerican Conference recommends : '(1) That the American Republics recognize their essential obligation to guarantee to their people free and impartial access to sources of information. '(2) That having this guarantee in view they undertake upon the conclusion of the war the earliest possible abandonment of those measures of censorship and of control over the services of the press, motion pictures and radio which have been necessary in wartime to combat subversive political tactics and espionage activities of the Axis States.' "Our State Department," Mr. Hays observes, "has announced an enlightened policy that places our government firmly behind the principle of unhampered transit for all mediums of expression." Motion Picture Has Vital Role on World Stage One may be sure that Mr. Hays did not mean that enlightenment is to be taken as a new element of State Department policy, but it is equally clear that the motion picture, which tends to become the errant stepchild of the Department of Justice, is something else before all nations. Mr. Hays remarks, "Speaking before the 100th session of the United Nations Information Board in Washington on January 4, 1945, Mr. Elmer Davis said : 'The world's information agencies have progressed prodigiously since the last peace settlement a quarter of a century ago. . . . The motion picture, which was a quaint embryo at the last peace conference, has become one of the most powerful agencies of international knowledge and intelligence, free of any of the limitations of language and with all the appeal that comes from actually seeing events. 'It is of vital importance how the United Nations Information services are eventually organized. . . . There can be no place in them for any restricted or prohibited functions. The world of tomorrow must be a world of the freest flow of news and information among its different component nations.' "The motion picture industry ... is vitally interested in world-wide recognition of the right to freedom for all mediums of expression, because no one medium of communication can thrive apart from free expression in all." There is now almost upon the motion picture scene Mr. Eric Johnston, who among other titles, is president of the United States Chamber of Commerce — and of course as everyone knows and few venture to say, a possible candidate for the presidency of the United States. He has been often mentioned, and sometimes negotiated with, about a position in the industry's trade association. Mr. Johnston Has an Offer on Ice, With Answer to Come Let one say, finally, now, that Mr. Johnston is holding on ice an offer and proposal. If, when he feels free at such stage of the war as is indicated, to make a move, there will be an answer. The answer will have to be choice between the motion picture and running for president of the United States. It just happens there is in Mr. Hays report this passage : "In a recent address, Mr. Eric Johnston, President, U. S. Chamber of Commerce, (Continued on following page, column 3) TION PICTURE HERALD, MARCH 31, 1945 13