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Moving Picluresasan Educational Force
By John 5. Greg
SINCE the advent of the moving picture business there have been many to praise it and many to decry it. The latter have usually been actuated by real or imaginary zeal in the cause of morality, spurred on by a temporary and regrettable decadence of standards in the ethics of the pictures shown.
These good people should remember that the self-same objection applies with still greater force to the theatrical stage, which, we are taught to believe, is intended to uplift humanity and ennoble audiences. A large number of the get-rich-quick managers, and some playwrights with similar ideas and motives, have catered to a perhaps too willing public and produced shows that are the reverse of moral in their tendencies.
The moralists differentiate by saying that the drama is meant for the adult and the picture show for the young; that the adult can see and hear immoral plays without any detriment to his own morals, whereas the child is naturally and necessarily influenced by what he sees and hears ; therefore, any picture show which is not absolutely clean and pure in its subject and in its handling, ought to be barred from public exhibition.
The moralists are right in this point, and the laws should be made as drastic as in the case of the regular drama. There are plenty of incidents in the everyday life of the average human upon which to base a good, sound play, without stooping to the gutter for ideas and plots. But the purpose of this article is to discuss the moving picture and not the drama, hence it will be confined to the subject
of moving pictures as an educational force.
Regular patrons of moving picture shows have doubtless been impressed by the fact that, outside of the serious and comic plays portrayed, there have been shown many subjects of the so-called "drier" sort; not amusing, not pathetic, not inculcating any particular moral lesson or the reverse, but absolutely and thoroly educational in their plan and scope.
The many "travelogues" or pictures in foreign lands, with their vivid showing of the manners, customs, habits and garb of different nationalities, their reproduction of actual scenery, modes of travel, and treatment of tourists, are of great educational value to the young, and to the untraveled adult. An audience watching one of these travel films goes away with new and accurate ideas of the places and peoples represented, and with a much more comprehensive grasp of the geographical and political status of the countries depicted.
But the best and most popular form of instruction rendered by picture shows, is the illustrated description of certain industries and trades, from A to Z. The graphic working out in detail of all the great industries, by means of moving pictures, will supersede all technical schools and abridge all known methods of teaching. Volumes of text, and weeks of time spent in study, can never convey the vivid, actual, practical knowledge afforded by these films. Ten minutes spent in watching an industrial film on the screen will give, even to the unintelligent pupil, a better, clearer, and more accurate idea of the actual workings of
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