Motion Picture News (Jul-Oct 1914)

THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS 43 The Motion Picture News MOVING PICTURE NEWS EXHIBITOES' TIMEa Published Every Week by EXHIBITORS' TIMES, Inc. 220 West 42n(i Street, New York City Telephone Bryant 7650 Chicago Office 604 Schiller Building WM. A. JOHNSTON President HENRY F. SEWALL Vice-President E. KENDALL GILLETT Secretary H. ASHTON WYCKOFF Treasurer WENT WORTH TUCKER Assistant Treasurer WM. A. JOHNSTON Editor LESLEY MASON Managing Editor WILLIAM RESSMAN ANDREWS News Editor E. M. VANDIVERT Advertising Manager E. J. HUDSON Circulation Manager H. ASHTON WYCKOFF Business Manager C. J. VERHALEN Chicago Manager This publication is owned and published by Exhibitors' Times, incorporated under the laws of the State of New York. The offices and principal place of business are at 220 West 42nd Street, New York City. The address of the officers is the office of the publication. Entered as Second-Class matter at the New York Post-Office. Subscription $2,00 per year, postpaid in the United States, Mexico, Hawaii, Forto Rico and the Philippine Islands. Canada $3.00, Foreign $4.00 per year. ADVERTISING RATES on application. Copy for next issue must reach us by Wednesday 11 a. m. For Releases see Pages 78, 80. 82, 84 For Buyers Guide see Page 73 Cuts and copy are received subject to the ap -^^^g^Sjg^ proval of the publishers and advertisements are <^^^^g^^> at inserted absolutely without condition expressed ^^^'E^^sS--^ or implied as to what appears in the text portion of the paper. Vol. X September 12, 1914 No. 10 A Timely Check THE exhibitors of San Francisco are to be congratulated upon living within the jurisdiction of a court that does not hesitate to check the censorial power of the police, when it becomes apparent that that power is overstepping its legitimate limits. Decisions within the last few years from courts of every degree have made plain the judicial tendency to give the police power its own way over everything and everyone. Judges have uniformly declined to say in any case, "here the power of the police must stop." ^ ^ ^ nPHE merits of the Stilwell injunction case in San -*■ Francisco are not sufficiently well known to be discussed at this time. But it may be taken for granted that the court which awarded Mr. Stilweil a permanent injunction against Chief of Police White was fully satisfied that the exhibitor's complaint was just and should be upheld. Had Mr. Stilwell found that war films bred riotous or lawless actions among his patrons, no police order forbidding their exhibition would have been needed. He would have acted himself. But so long as these performances were conducted zuith perfect order, the police had no valid excuse for interfering. ^ ^ I T would be well if the municipal authorities of every city in the United States would take to heart the lesson of this incident, and realize that self-interest will compel the exhibitor to follow their wishes, zvithout any mandate from them, not only in this, but in practically every case where censorship is alleged to be necessary. Foolishness and Wisdom npHERE is a regrettable "I-shouldworry" attitude in some quarters of the trade over the film chemical situation at the present time. The form it takes may be summed up in these words : "What's the use of losing sleep over this matter? The war won't last more than a month or six weeks longer. We've got a supply that will take us through the next three months (or six months, as the case may be). "Why start manufacturing these chemicals in America, when the Germans will be upon us, competitively speaking, just as we're ready to market the stufif, and take the market away from us, as they have done in the past?" * * npHIS is important, IF TRUE. But there is nothing in the nature or the progress of the European war to indicate that it will be of brief duration. Every dispatch that comes from the Old World goes to prove the assumption that the nations of Europe are locked in what will be a long drawn out, stubbornly contested conflict, that the present war is, to use a sporting metaphor, "the hrst ronnd of a fight to a finish." * * TX other words, every phase of the situation invites the x^merican manufacturer to go in and possess himself of the market that has been deserted by the warring nations. And the situation is not only inviting; it is compelling. :i: * * A S a matter of self-preservation, the American manufacturer must soon begin to make for himself those necessaries of his business which he can no longer rely upon Germany to make for him. It is practically a certainty that, even were the war to end by the first of the year, as no one anticipates it will, the German factories would be in no condition to resume at once their operations, and supply the American demand as before the war. * * * TF the American market finds itself "caught short" at a critical moment, with the supply on hand exhausted, the war in full blast and no relief in sight, those who depend on the American market will have only themselves — and the zviseacre, cocksure, "Ishould-zvorry" manufacturer — to blame. The situation will be inexcusable, but it will then be irremediable. ^ ^. TNSTEAD of playing the part of the foolish virgins in the parable, it behooves the American manufacturer to bestir himself and impersonate the wise.