Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS 21 MOTION PICTURES TO EDUCATE THE FARMER United States Government Will Become a Manufacturer, Distributor and Exhibitor of Films THROUGH the Department of Agriculture, through its bureau of rural organization service, the United States Government has established a school of motion pictures illustrating agricultural methods and become at once a manufacturer, distributor and exhibitor of films. This is what the Rural Organization Service majr be termed, which was recently inaugurated with Dr. T. N. Carver as director. It is known that the government has made use of animated views at conventions and expositions, but these have only been intermittent as circumstances demanded. It is also known that the Bureau of Animal Industry and Office of Public Roads have circulated films among the farmers as a means of instruction and suggestion, but not until now has a channel for a continuous output of the motion pictures of the department been possible. The use of the camera exhibition is but a part of the broad work planned by the Rural Organization Service, but there is little doubt that this will do much to attract the farmers to the more serious sides of agriculture. One of the features of the Rural Organization Service is to teach the farmers by motion pictures the various lessons of the farm, the stock yards, the dairy, the forest and the many other fields in which their interests lie. Clyde L. Davis and Roger E. Treat have been appointed special agents to make the initial circulation of the films in the rural districts. It is their intention to visit the highways and byways, to show neglected farmers and those on neglected farms how to improve themselves, their lands and their crops. This is the most up-to-Jate, practical and thoroughly popular course in agriculture that the department has yet attempted. THE launching of the Rural Organization Service has caused an additional incentive in each bureau and division to put its best work in animated form, wherever it is found possible. The various bureau chiefs have promised co-operation and their photographic laboratories will in future bend their efforts towards ribbon negatives for themselves and this service. This movement has come as a most excellent means of testing the efficiency of the motion picture as an educator. The South is the first field in which operations have been opened with the most sanguine success as an outlook. Probably nothing has ever made the laggard, the ignorant, and the proud man of wealth stop to think, as has the motion picture. It may be called the spirit of the age, which has been caught up in all fields of human endeavor. It is the common meeting ground for all classes and needs no particular language for its interpretation. It is a significant fact that the spectator takes away from a motion picture show many suggestions and often makes practical use of them without realizing that this was the primary intent of the film. In the past the field experts of the government have had discouraging experiences in making their points periments to the agricultural public. At the present time the Bureau of Animal Industry has perhaps the largest collection of films and through the co-operation of Chief Melvin and his photographer, Joseph Abel, the field experts of the Rural Service were able to begin their tour without delay. Among the subjects that are now being shown by the field experts is "The Texas Tick," with a detailed study of the tick itself and a series of experiments for the eradication of the pest as well as a graphic exhibition of the methods for its prevention. This will be most beneficial to the South, as the methods used and suggested ROAD BUILDING AS SHOWN BY OFFICE OF PUBLIC ROADS clear by mere words or by the stereoptican. This inherent defect will be overcome by the animated views. Besides, the farmers will have the opportunity of seeing a truth or a principle logically worked out from start to finish without having to undergo the trouble and expense of the experiment themselves. The "show me" element forms a large part of the make-up of the tiller of the soil. Consequently, there is every reason why the government should employ the most up-to-theminute manner of presenting its ex have been proved a success by the Bureau of Animal Industry, which has succeeded in making some badly infested districts tick-free. ANOTHER interesting film is the "Cattle Industry of the South," which includes views of existing conditions, accentuating improvements in some instances and commending the excellent care of the cattle in others. Aside From this being an instructive story, it is also pretty and entertaining, as many of the settings are in the picturesque and naturally charm