Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1922)

the field of visual instruction be given recognition proportionate to their worth. WE FIND OURSELVES IN AN unsatisfactory position as regards the the film-reviewing service we had tentatively offered to Moving Picture Age subscribers. The first response to our offer was not extensive enough to warrant immediate action, and we allowed another thirty days within which subscribers might register their approval or disapproval of the project. The response to the second editorial was such that we knew that this film-reviewing assistance was desired. And then, just when arrangements were being made, the affiliation of the magazines was proposed and action was necessarily suspended. We have discussed the matter with Mr. Greene, and have made clear to him that there is a clearly defined need for such a service. We can safely say that Mr. Greene is anxious to conduct The Educational Screen along lines that seem most helpful to the cause of visual instruction, and that he recognizes the value of such a service as we had contemplated. However, he will undoubtedly appreciate the urge for early action more clearly if he receives numerous postcards or letters inquiring about progress on this plan. Address Mr. Nelson L. Greene. 5200 Harper Avenue, Chicago. IN A RECENT ISSUE OF THE Saturday Evening Post is an article entitled "Taking Orgy Out of Organization," by James H. Collins. The entire discussion is an illuminating and sound commentary upon one phase of modern business ; but what interests us particularly is the following paragraph : "Hit the time-marking, dues-collecting, me-too association that invades the field covered by other associations or serves no useful purpose at all," said more than one organization man when told that this article was to be written. "There are too many organizations of the wrong kind. But don't forget that good organizations are more necessary than ever." What thought does that bring to mind, you gentlemen who are interested in organization as applied to the cause of visual instruction? To those who are not new to the field will come a vision of two so-called national organizations for the promulgation of the interests of visual instruction : The National Academy of Visual Instruction and the Visual Instruction Association of America. Are these organizations supplements or duplicates? These two groups have been analyzed before in these columns, for the benefit of persons who could not see the object of belonging to both groups and yet wished to select the more promising one. Therefore conclusions rather than evidence are cited here — although the corroborative facts are available to any who wish them. The National Academy of Visual Instruction is the only organization of visual instruction that is actually functioning on a national basis. In this group are represented institutions from California to Massachusetts, from Michigan to Texas. The Academy was organized as a distinctly national, "non-local" project, and the charter members will be found to be from a number of different states ; and this national status is further indicated by the locations of annual sessions, including that of 1923 — Wisconsin, Iowa, Kentucky, and Ohio. The Visual Instruction Association of America, on the other hand, is literally the offspring of the Visual Instruction Association of New York City, a local group of visual-instruction advocates. Its president, E. L. Crandall, is in charge of visual-instruction work in the New York City public schools, and is also president of the Visual Instruction Association of New York City ; the institution seems pretty thoroughly chained to the metropolis at this writing. Feeling among experienced visual educators who have no bias in the matter is that the Visual Instruction Association of America is a fifth wheel. At the time of its formation, at Chicago during the meeting of the N. E. A. Department of Superintendence, Dudley Grant Hays and the writer protested the step on the grounds of duplicated effort. The answer given was that the new group would specialize in work that the Academy had neglected — visual instruction in the elementary branches of education. Ostensibly this answer was sufficient, for the Academy could have done more with public-school work than it had up until that time. As a matter of fact this reason was not enough to justify a new organization. Another argument presented was that the commercial interests had no representation in the Academy, and would be given a better opportunity in the new group. The upshot is that the Visual Instruction Association of America is composed of both educators and commercial men, on a basis of equal membership privileges for all. Obviously such an off-balance grouping will never be accorded recognition or authenticity in educational circles. The National Academy of Visual Instruction has a definite obligation implied in the formation of the other organization. As for its public-school activities, this deficiency has been remedied to a degree. But primarily it must take steps to function with more consideration of the commercial man who pays dues into its treasury — or else cease soliciting the commercial man's membership. By no means do we advocate that he be granted full privileges ; such a step would automatically nullify the organization's independence and authority. But there is a happy medium to be achieved if the constructive element in the Academy will set about it, such as the development of a limited membership for the commercial man, by which he may take some part in discussions of the field of visual instruction. Opposition to such a suggestion may be expected, for in every organization is found the type of man with a distorted perspective as regards commercial interests ; but the element that is thinking in more enlightened terms will have slight difficulty in lifting this dead weight from the tracks. The commercial man will be justified in determining the actual worth of the Academy by the criterion of whether or not it gives his membership status serious consideration at the Cleveland session. The Visual Instruction Association of America has an equally definite obligation to the field of visual instruction ; if its officers will not take steps to carry out this obligation, its members should. We are acquainted with Dr. Crandall personally, and we know him as a man of ability and experience. Any able 5 executive has ambition, and of course Dr. Crandall aspires to see this new-born child of the New York family hold a similar position nationally. Undoubtedly his aspirations have led him to put temporary satisfaction before permanent good ; and certainly he has not realized that the institution is so constructed that it can never hope to attain even the modest ranking that the Academy enjoys today, even if efforts to increase the membership were unusually fruitful. Dr. Crandall would prove himself far more of a real executive if he should approach the officials of the Academy with views toward a merger of forces. But if Dr. Crandall himself is obdurate in his unsound plan, the personnel of his group have power to effect this affiliation through more dramatic channels. OUR ATTENTION HAS BEEN called to a grossly erroneous situation existing in the field of visual instruction. A welfare worker, corresponding with a commercial distributor of non-theatrical films in one state, was informed by him that he distributed for that state the films of the state university of a neighboring state. In other words, this state university is now trying to serve the non-theatrical film needs of another state. There are several angles from which to view this situation. One is that the people whose taxes support that state university have excellent reason to inquire who extended its working territory to include municipalities beyond the state's borders. Another relevant question concerns whether the communities of that state are so completely and satisfactorily served by the department of visual instruction that this department can find nothing to do; if so, one recognizes an ideal occasion for the lopping off of a few unnecessary offices in the cause of economy. Perhaps the most important question is : Shall any state university constitute its department of visual instruction as virtually a commercial film exchange? The commercial exchange usually serves a number of states, and distributes films at a profit ; and the department in question qualifies, according to our informatton, in both respects. And another interesting sidelight upon this particular institution is that during the past year more than one commercial distributor has complained of the methods employed by representatives of this institution in securing films for their library. The charge is that the representative purchases prints from the commercial man at rock-bottom price by stating that they are to be used by the schools, and then, when the purchase has been made, rents the films at a profit ; which means that the dealer sold the prints at much less than a fair profit, just to provide a profitable asset for the state-endowed educational institution. Sometimes desire for greater recognition impels a man to overstep himself; sometimes an ambition to make his department show ;i profit is the urge. An institution that permits its representatives to give it a bad name because of such tactics is being unpardonably careless with its greatest asset — reputation. Enough protest has already been registered on the dubious tactics of this particular department of visual instruction to indicate that an inventory and adjustment of its operating principles might be beneficial to all concerned.