Motography (Jan-Mar 1916)

February 12, 1916. MOTOGRAPHY 357 common weal demands," what an irresistible force Amreica would be ! When the Chief Executive had finished amid applause, the toastmaster presented Mayor John Purroy Mitchel of New York, who then spoke: I am glad of the opportunity to congratulate this great industry and art and profession combined, upon the progress that the three together have made during recent years, and on the work that they are doing today and the part they play in the industrial and the social life, not only of this city but of the whole country. Yours is a new industry; that is proved by the very fact that this is the first dinner of your Board of Trade ; but already it has become one of the great of the country, in which a vast amount of capital is invested, and which serves the social and the educational purposes that your toastmaster has outlined. As he said, it is serving still another great purpose this year. On the screen it is bringing home to the people of this country the practical necessity for preparation for national defense. What will it avail us, what will it avail posterity, if we in the United States build up under these instructions, democracy to the highest conceivable point of efficient serviceability, if at the same time democracy should fail in the elemental and primal efficiency of self-preservation? That is the issue and that is the test, and the appeal is made by the leader of the American people, the President of the United States, to the citizenship of our nation, to the patriotism of our nation. It seems to me that we must say to one another that surely there was a time when that appeal could not have been made to the American people without an instant response. Are we to admit that patriotism is languishing in this nation ? Surely not! If there be any apathy upon this matter, it springs not of a lack of patriotism, but of a lack of appreciation and understanding of the facts. The President is now presenting those facts to the nation. Throughout the country there are ten thousand others who are trying to uphold his hands and to lend every aid to him and to the Government in bringing about an effective system of national defense. Surely, no more funda_mental appeal could be made to our people than that which he i's making in these days of the trial of the nation, and I think it is a privilege that New York citizens, ctiizens of this great commonwealth— I might almost call it — which perhaps, more than any other community in the United States, has a direct and immediate influence in the upbuilding of our national defenses, to have heard the President upon this great question tonight ; and it should be a stimulus to all of us to renewed efforts to uphold his hands and to aid him in securing from the Congress of our country that legislation which is necessary to the upbuilding of the defenses of the people of the United States. Remarks by Walter W. Irwin "You ladies and gentlemen of the motion picture industry know that we have been having a fight in Washington against legalized censorship," said the toastmaster. "I heard a good story the other day, a sidelight on a farcical value of so-called legal censorship. In one of the states a film of the life of George Washington was censored, and the battle of Bunker Hill was kept out, and this was the report: 'British and American soldiers both were shown to be using firearms in a careless and indiscriminate manner and with intent to kill,' and so they cut out poor old Bunker Hill. The chairman of our Executive Committee was one of the men who did some of the strenuous fighting in Washington, and he will talk to us for a very few minutes ; Mr. Walter W. Irwin." Mr. Irwin then spoke as follows : This meeting of the Motion Picture Board of Trad£ tonight celebrates the amalgamation and the co-operation of each branch of the industry, for progression, protection and promotion. Progression in the creation and maintenance of proper business ethics among ourselves ; progression in the establishment of economic standards in our business ; progression in the development of the merit and the uplifting qualities of our product, so that we may be able to fully comply with our responsibility to an exacting public. Protection against malice and jealousy; protection against intolerance born of ignorance, as demonstrated by legalized censorship. There is only one form of censorship to which we will submit, the censorship of public opinion, the only censorship consistent with American freedom, without a reversal of the United States Constitution; for we live under a government of laws and not of men. We welcome and honor the confidence of the thinking and discerning public; we want the confidence of the exhibitors, we must have their confidence in full measure, for unless we possess it, we will not be able to obtain their co-operation, and without their co-operation much of our most important effort will come to nought. We seek their membership, we welcome them; through their membership we will obtain their co-operation, not only for protection, but because they are the best people to furnish us with reliable information of the higher standards constantly demanded by an exacting public. This month in Washington, in opposing the un-American censorship bill, the large body of exhibitors present was of great assistance ; at least equal to that furnished by any other branch of the industry. We are proud of our industry, proud of its success, proud of its moral standards. We have experienced, and we will continue to experience, many trials and tribulations; but with each branch working in perfect harmony with others, our difficulties will be overcome and we will be able to rise higher in the estimation of our fellow men daily. Our responsibility we must now feel to be the heavier by reason of the recognition and consideration which have been shown to us tonight by the Chief Magistrate of this country. Collector Malone Is Heard The next speaker introduced by Mr. Blackton was his friend, Collector-of-the-Port Dudley Field Malone : This idea of having anything to do with the temporary care in a large city of the Chief Executive of the Nation is a hectic job. I have been on the firing line since ten minutes to six this morning, having reached home at 3 o'clock the same morning, and I feel all the vigor and enthusiasm which you hope I feel, and which may best speak an early conclusion. But I do want to say to you that I am very, very happy to have come here, and particularly happy just as an American citizen to pay my tribute of profound gratitude to a man who has proved in national opinion the practical national political and patriotic value of the moving pictures in the picture which is doing such tremendous work to arouse public opinion to national preparation and defense — your toastmaster and my friend, with his picture : Commodore Blackton and "The Battle Cry of Peace" ; because, ladies and gentlemen, it is no spirit of race prejudice, it is in no spirit pro anybody or pro anything European that the people of America are bespeaking the necessity of an adequate defense. We are preparing for a war against nobody, and we are preparing for a war of no particular duration and at no particular time, but we have decided as a common sense people that it were an act of supreme folly that America, dedicated in her benevolence to the service of mankind, shall not go out with the smile of justice on her face and with olive branches in her hand, while the nations of the earth, armed to the teeth, may in the future be covetous of our institutions and the integrity of the nation. "At the place of every speaker," remarked Toastmaster Blackton, "was a little typewritten card bearing these words, 'In your remarks, please omit reference to any motion picture company or to individuals connected with the industry.' " "Too late, now!" replied Collector Malone. Secretary Binder in Conclusion After the poet, Edwin Markham, had made a few remarks in happy vein, Executive Secretary J. W. Binder of the Motion Picture Board of Trade addressed the assembly : Newspaper editors tell you, when you bring in your copy, "Stand your story on its head. Cut off the heading and the second paragraph and print it in one short sentence and be done with it." I have a heartful of matter that I would like to talk to you about, about this great industry of ours, an industry which is so dear to me, its brilliant future, its brilliant past. I would like to stand here for an hour and tell you some stories I have heard of the people who made this industry, who were responsible for its beginning, of their tremendous struggles against tremendous odds ; how they triumphed over those odds and how they are today the honored heads of great institutions. Those stories must be told at the same time. And one of the things the Motion Picture Board of Trade is attempting to do today is to have that vast material — interesting human-interest material — gathered up in a book of about four or five hundred