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376 ^> ^> -c> The Motion Picture Industry
so well as some means of preventing their inclusion when a picture was produced.
In 1926, Congressman Upshaw introduced a bill, which had been presented first in 1923, "to create a commission to be known as the Federal Motion Picture Commission" under the Department of the Interior, as a division of the Bureau of Education. The commission was to be composed of the Commissioner of Education, ex officio, and six commissioners. The commissioners were to be life appointees, dependent upon their good behavior. Salaries were to be $9,000 a year for the members and $10,000 for the chairman.
The Upshaw bill, among other things, provided definite standards governing the production of films. The standards were practically the same as those adopted by the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry in 1921. The bill provided also that all films entering interstate or foreign commerce should be licensed or given a permit by the commission. Provisions were made also for the inspection of scenarios, and for supervisors to assist the producers and directors in the process of production, especially in applying the standards of the act as interpreted by the commission. Licenses would be granted for all pictures approved by the commission. A licensing system was expected to effect prompt previewing of those films entering interstate or foreign commerce which were submitted to the commission voluntarily. The bill provided that permits could be granted without supervision of the film, upon the presentation of an affidavit made by the producer stating that he had conformed with the standards specified in the bill. A violation of the law would result in confiscation of the film.
Those in favor of the bill, headed by Canon William Sheafe Chase,15 general secretary of the Federal Motion
15 In a publication entitled "Is the Trend of Motion Pictures Upward?", Mr. Chase says in part, "The radio industry, which is much cleaner than the motion picture business, is supervised by a Federal Commission."