Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

784 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XIX, No. 17. "Treat Pictures Just Like the Press!" "WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO?" PRODUCER ASKS By John R. Freuler President, Mutual Film Corporation A NUMBER of recent decisions from courts, a number of legislative enactments and several other important utterances indicating the trend and condition of public opinion and official attitudes convince me that we, the exponents of the motion picture as an industry and an institution have yet a large task before us. It is unfortunately true that the motion picture is still largely viewed as merely an amusement, a luxury — almost as a public vice in some quarters. We must insist continually and never cease reiterating that the motion picture is an instrument of public service as much available to the common good as the press, the pulpit and the lecture platform. Recognition Will Stop Persecution We must keep on insisting until the picture is completely recognized in every quarter. When the picture gets that recognition it will automatically free itself of many parasites of graft and persecution. It must be fully understood and admitted that anything which a newspaper or magazine may print we can present in pictures. It must be understood and admitted that the greatest public good demands that we be given the same consideration, privilege and license as the press. Indirectly a vast official recognition has been given the screen in the calling of three great stars to aid in the selling of the third Liberty loan. War Aid Wide and Varied Another important recognition is in the large service we are giving the government in screen publicity for food conservation, for the Red Cross, for the war loans, for the savings stamps and in kindred lines. We need some more recognition on the other side of the ledger where legislators gather to draft tax laws and restrictive legislation. We need similar recognition when censorship advocates come forth with their job-building propaganda. We need to be recognized not only when we can help, but when we should be helped. No one who has breadth of vision or will take the time to think will deny the tremendous influence of the motion picture in the improvement of social conditions. The screen has been an un What a pity this article, or the substance of it in condensed form, could not be flashed on every screen in the land daily! On second thought, however, what is to prevent it if the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry stepped in and made up such a reel? The thought is not such a dream as it sounds. Newspapers foil attacks on their methods and mold sentiment because they control what is put before the public in print. But the newspapers are not going to champion the motion picture industry until public opinion forces them to do so. And how can public opinion be crystallized? Through the one and only and vastly powerful means that the industry is ignoring — the screen iself. Why not? — (Editor.) \h= measured and infinite means of binding the American family more closely together. Admittedly the motion picture has been a very vital and positive factor in the gradual elimination of the saloon .not as an antagonist, but by presenting a constructive substitute in the social order of things. Public Owe* Much to Films The screen has taken the drama to the great multitude of people, who, before its coming, were unable to enjoy it or profit from it except in its worst form. The motion picture has not only taken to the smallest hamlet the pleasures and enlightenment of travel, but it has portrayed to those who live under varied conditions how other people live. It has socialized, educated, broadened as well as entertained. The motion picture industry is paying vast sums each week into the war chest, glad to do its share to win the war. The amusement park was exempted as the poor man's amusement. I am not able to understand quite, having been a patron at different times of various amusement parks, exactly how the amusement park can be classified as a poor man's amusement. It would take, at the least calculation, the average laborer's week's pay envelope to take the average laborer's family to an amusement park for an evening's entertainment. Motion pictures are available to him and his entire family every night in the week for less money than one evening's trip to the average amusement park. Perhaps the most signal recognition which has been bestowed on the motion picture came in the recent fuel conserva tion order. The fuel administration was quick to realize that with millions of workers idle on Mondays the motion picture theatre was essential. There is no doubt that the opening of picture theatres on heatless Mondays contributed in large measure to the public's good natured acceptance of the government decree. The people were kept entertained on their day of enforced idleness. It was an evidence of excellent judgment, a sign of keen understanding of the psychology of the masses, and an unconscious tribute to the motion picture. Governments have found pictures second only to the daily newspaper as a means of spreading propaganda. The screen drives home its story with greater force than the editorial. The picture is more easily comprehended and more quickly assimilated than the printed page. Value in Propaganda Everybody knows now the efforts made by the German empire to spread propaganda in America by means of the motion picture screen. The Germans realized the value of the motion picture in reaching the masses of the people long before the war began. Today the allied governments are using the screen in neutral countries to build good will toward the entente and one of the first efforts to combat the Bolsheviki surrender of Russia to the Hun was by the use of motion pictures. It was possible to tell the story of American democracy with greater force to the hordes of ignorant peasants than by any other possible means. The motion picture is truly an international language and certainly, once it is turned systematically in that direction, will be a tremendous medium of international understanding. I predict the moving picture will do great service in the ultimate consummation of a world brotherhood. Newspapers Never Harassed Senseless rules of censorship, endless restrictions, have been wound tightly around the motion picture, harassing its every development. Newspapers are permitted to publish in their news columns and as fiction stories which, were they screened, would be universally condemned by motion picture censors. No newspaper fears police suppression. The instances of governmental suppression of publications are so few that they are notable. Those which have been ef