Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1922)

8 MOVING PICTURE AGE March, 1922 meat grinder — in goes the film, turn the crank faithfully, and out comes your picture in best style. Minor details being duly attended to, you can't fail with screen results, they think. The youth who had been accepted for the job was a rightminded young chap. He had had his shock, and never blinked his big share in the first night's demoralization. But he liked the job and wanted to keep it ; moreover, he wanted to learn to do it well. He volunteered at once to stand half the expense of an operator from the city for the next several shows, believing that he could acquire from the expert the knowledge he must have before making another attempt on his own part. The offer was accepted, and the professional came out to Crescent with the next three films — absorbing all proceeds from those showings, but proving a worthwhile investment. All the minor defects were remedied, and the local young man acquired a degree of skill which was to increase through the succeeding months until he became a really expert operator. During the first nine months' showing, from January to October, the average profit per month was $29.60 — the house being open but once a week in the four summer months. From that time forward the association has realized from its venture an average profit of $45 per month, the pictures being shown twice a week all the year round, with an occasional three-times-weekly spurt. Within a year after the installation of film equipment not only had all the money been paid back to the building fund, with interest, but a new savings account was growing. When the total of the two funds had reached $1,000 — the association's credit being exceptionally good, and their title to their large and well-located building lot being gilt-edged — the valiant women took another plunge. They were crowded in the old house, which was also pretty badly in need of repairs by this time ; yet it would be money poorly invested to spend the necessary hundreds now on repairs. In short, they felt they could wait no longer for their long-dreamed-of new building — with an auditorium large enough not only for the most attractive pictures, but also for use as Crescent City's convention hall as well as theatre. Outside rental would assuredly help pay the interest on the necessary mortgage, they were convinced. Within another six months the new building was completed — and the V. I. A. $5,000 in debt, a formidable burden for a village club, but one which this association, having found itself, shouldered cheerfully. It might as well be said without further delay that a goodly slice has already been lopped from this indebtedness, and probably a third of the balance will be paid during the present year. The new building remains the pride of the association and the joy of the community. With the gallery, the auditorium will seat approximately 400 persons, but it has as yet rarely been crowded to capacity. In it are given occasional musical entertainments, lectures, and sometimes home-talent dramatics — a delight to the youngsters and a safe vent for their high spirits. Regularly twice a week the very best pictures obtainable at this out-of-the-way place are shown on the association's screen ; and the patronage has held up steadily. The exhibitions are given altogether in the early evening ■ — young and old alike being thus enabled to be at home by curfew hour, 9 o'clock. The reels are run but once, for the population of the town is too small to furnish a second paying house. The club in its choice of films has kept as strictly as possible to the high standards with which it started, never losing sight of educational and uplift aims. Within six months from the opening they had canceled the original arrangement with the theatre in an adjacent town, and formed connection with the best available film circuit. A still better connection is now being projected by them — but this is their secret. As to admission prices, these have been held steadily at the original rates — 15 cents for adults and 10 cents for children. Remember, the object has not been money-making, but community betterment. The same young man is still their operator, working at his trade in the day and for the club on picture nights, for a moderate remuneration. A music teacher, a young lady of fine attainments and taste, furnishes exceptionally good music at the exhibitions, being paid also a reasonable sum. The club members themselves, by rotating committees, assume general charge of the showings, sell and take up tickets, and perform such duties. An especially fine young business woman has long held the post of cashier, without remuneration. A boy is given an annual pass for keeping up the furnace during the brief Florida winters. Has the venture been worth while? Wholly so. And the social and educational results? Encouraging to the highest degree. The example of Crescent City's V. I. A. may well be followed by scores of other women's clubs in communities where the educational and recreational value of the motion picture has been overlooked. EDUCATION in MEXICO Frederick Starr Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago THE PROBLEM of educating her 6,000,000 Indians is one of the most serious that faces the Republic of Mexico. It will be many years before schools, in the common meaning of the word, can be of use ; at present they are out of question. The problem is illustrated by conditions in the state of Oaxaca. More than 90 per cent of its population is pure Indian. There are 15 tribes of these, each with its own language, its own characteristics, its own mode of life. In a few of these tribes some Spanish is known ; among most of them it is unknown or little used. There are towns where no one knows that language except the secretario, who is often a stranger from outside. The Human Material These people do not know how to read or write any language, whether Spanish or their own, and ability to read and write would be useless, as there is nothing to read and no necessity for writing. These Indians are suspicious of the outside world ; they know only their own town, their fields, their mountains. To these they are blindly attached and loyal. They know nothing of outside government, of their state, of the Republic of Mexico; they are ignorant of their plans, purposes, or policies. They have long paid their taxes (contribuciones) for the sake of being left alone in their mountains. They do not know why they pay these, nor for what they are used. The Indians are industrious, in a way, and each little town is a world by itself ; they work hard to maintain a bare existence and to meet their contribuciones. They are not lacking in intelligence and are, on the whole, well intentioned. Two Pressing Needs Two things the people need : To know how to get a better return for their labor — how to make their poor fields and their mountain resources maintain them in somewhat greater comfort ; and to learn that they are part of a larger organization than their village, to know what their contribuciones are for, to come to a realization of the existence of their state and their Republic, to become conscious of their rights and obligations as citizens of a nation — Mexico. The saddest failure of Porfirio Diaz' 30 years of power was that it left the Indian exactly where it found him — unconscious that he was a Mexican. How are these two needs to be met? To talk of schools is foolishness. There are not resources at hand to found them ; there are no persons capable to act as teachers ; there are no textbooks ; language diversity and local prejudices and peculiarities are an absolute bar to any plan of common schools. What is really needed is to supply the two demands above indicated. When the Indian of Mexico is gaining a decent living and is conscious that he is a citizen of no mean country, to which he owes loyal support and from which he demands just rights, he will see that other improvements follow. In the meantime, how is he to secure these two desiderata? There are no schools; there are no texts in the native tongues ; there can be no use of Spanish books ; there are no teachers who know two languages ; there are 15 native tongues and few Indians who know two of these. A Potential Source of Relief Recently I received a letter from a Mexican official, asking my advice and my judgment concerning a plan they have in contemplation. It involves the use of moving pictures, slides, and charts. These are to be sent into the remotest districts and are to be explained in the native languages, by native speakers. It is probable that one or two men might be found in each tribe, who could be instructed in the meaning of the visual material. Traveling from village to village, stopping a reasonable time in each, they could present the subjects — clearly, simply, through eye and ear. I believe that the material should be confined to the two topics indicated for the present. It should not be intended as entertainment or amusement. These people need neither. They need practical information for meeting life, inspiration, connection with others. Such a plan aS is proposed is practicable; it may prove of real value. If put into operation and wisely conducted, it would be one of the finest examples of visual instruction, one of the most worthy applications of visual aids.