Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1918)

On Probation! A Lesson from the Shirtwaist Makers THE waist manufacturers have joined hands to eliminate extravagance. They will standardize their industrial conditions — now more or less chaotic — to meet the war situation and this Government's great economic part in it. They admit needless extravagance in operation — due to excessive competition — and the further fact that no effort has ever been made to standardize their output and operations. So they formed a League of their members. Then at the suggestion of the United States Chamber of Commerce this League has appointed a war sendee committee with full power to regulate production, eliminate needless overhead and establish standards. These objects, it is stated, will be attained. Evidently they considered their own commission to be more desirable than one appointed by the government. What will the film industry do? Will we sit by and wait for the government commission to come along? Will we admit that we cannot audit and adjust our own accounts; that we are powerless to stop the wide-open leaks of our own house with our own hands; that like a drunken spendthrift on the streets we must wait for an officer of the law to come along and gather us in? The government is out for regulation, gentlemen; and the government will continue to regulate, right and left, the individual, the corporation, the industry, in a steady, indiscriminate and relentless fashion. The government is facing a stern and undeniable demand— from the civilized world — for billions and billions of dollars. These billions must be and will be wrung from this country. But the country can only continue to give these billions by perfecting corresponding economies. The loose dollars have been taken. We must save to supply the new demands. The government knows this. * * * We are now facing the imposition of a tax so heavy that we assert it will ruin the industry. Why is Washington making the tax so heavy? We can give the answer in a nutshell. To quote the words of a United States Senator, " You must be rich because you spend so much." There's the mental attitude of every single member of congress. It still exists despite our pleas — and naturally. If any one of us saw a prosperous looking individual handing out greenbacks on Broadway we would at least classify him as a splendid subject for a Liberty Loan or Red Cross contribution. witiiiiimrnniinnmiminiiimiimimiiiniiiniiiM SO we face a remarkable paradox. The industry is not making money. It is not making money because it is excessively wasteful. Yet it is the more heavily taxed because of this wastefulness— because this almost public exhibition of extravagance gives the impression of easy and unlimited income. * # » So much for that. Here's the other side of the situation. The overproduction of film is: (1) Straining at credit facilities (and now the Liberty Loan demands that all credit facilities be strictly conserved ) . (2) Using unnecessarily raw film material now demanded by hospital, munition works and the most important of war essentials. (3) Running strictly contrariwise to that policy which would conserve the industry's resources and make prosperous each branch of the industry, namely, fewer pictures, better pictures, and longer runs. The wasteful distribution of film (through too many exchanges) is: (1) Using express service excessively. (2) Tying up acres of floor space and wasting this rental money. (3) Causing a leakage, in the opinion of distribution experts, of at least $25,000,000 a year. * # * SO we face these situations: A tax ruinous unless paid for out of economies which can be made; An industry which will not be declared essential until these economies are effected, and which will therefore be denied the priorities essential to operation; An 18 to 45 draft which will hit hard the essential workers in the industry unless the industry itself is declared essential. * * » What is to be done? Are we to sit on this shaky fence all winter; or will we see to it that we get a solid foundation under our feet? niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiuii,mtrmiimwi»