The Moving picture world (January 1924-February 1924)

January 12, 1924 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 101 Pathe News to Picturize Peace Plan and Hold Vote on Its Advisability A MOVEMENT nation-wide in its scope has been launched by Pathe News, which, it is said, is destined to advance the prestige of the screen as a mirror of public opinion and to promote the influence of the individual exhibitor as a leader of thought and action in his community. By arrangements entered into between Edward W. Bok, donor of the $100,000 American Peace Award, and Emanuel Cohen, edtior of Pathe' News, the Pathe News will conduct a national referendum, designed to register the reaction of the millions of motion-picture theatre patrons throughout the nation toward the peace plan, adjudged winner of the Bok award. Acting with the approval of Mr. Bok and his committee, Pathe News will present a visualization of the peace plan on the screen and then conduct a ballot to ascertain public sentiment with regard to the prize-winning plan. The activities of Mr. Bok in organizing the American Peace Award Committee and donating $100,000 for the best plan submitted to insure World Peace, have been commanding international interest for the past several months and have been made the subject of extensive news and editorial comment in over 6,500 newspapers throughout the United States and Canada as well as in the leading dailies of Europe and the Orient. Consequently, it is said in the statement issued this week, Pathe News in conducting this national referendum in cooperation with the theatres of the country is, for the first time in the history of the industry, allying the screen and its theatres with a movement of world-wide import. The statement further emphasizes that the participation of the country's exhibitors in a movement whose influence transcends national barriers and reaches to every corner of the civilized globe, cannot but redound to the lasting benefit of the motion picture theatre in the way of increased prestige, both in its own community and beyond these boundaries. Following is a brief resume of the Bok Peace Award Movement : The purpose of the plan is best described by the New York Times in its issue of July 2: "One hundred thousand dollars awaits the American who can conceive the most practicable plan by which the United States may cooperate with other nations to achieve and preserve world peace." Under the arrangements adopted, the contestants submitted in essay form their ideas on the question of how best to preserve peace between nations. The author of that plan adjudged best by the Jury of Award is to be made the recipient of the $100,000 prize, which will be awarded in two parts. The first $50,000 will be paid upon the selection of the winner by the Jury of Award; the second $50,000 is to be paid when the practicability of the ideas is demonstrated. This latter condition will be fulfilled if the winning plan is substantially adopted by the United States, or if an adequate degree of popular support is registered in favor of the winning plan. Within the duration of the contest, which opened on July 2 and closed at midnight of November 15, 22,000 plans were submitted for the consideration and judgment of the Jury of Award. The name of the winner will be published in the press all over the world on the morning of Monday, January 7. Simultaneously with the announcement of the winning plan, Pathe News will launch its nation-wide referendum. The plan of action is briefly described as follows: Beginning January 7, Pathe News will carry a concise, graphic visualization of the prize-winning peace plan. Small, simply designed ballots, requesting the patron to record his or her opinion for or against the peace plan as visualized, will be handed to the patrons on their entry into the theatre. On each ballot will appear, a small box, marked "Yes," and another, marked "No." The patron by simply marking an "X" within the enclosure can conveniently record his sentiment regarding the prize-winning plan. These ballots have been printed in huge quantities by Pathe News and have been shipped to Pathe's thirty-five branch offices for immediate distribution to the theatres. After being collected from the patrons, the ballots will be returned to the Pathe exchanges and immediately shipped to the headquarters of the American Peace Award Committee in New York for tabulation. In this way it is planned to ascertain definitely through the cooperation of the thousands of motion picture theatres throughout the country the actual response of millions of America's citizens to the prize-winning proposal for the achievement and maintenance of peace between nations. That the movement is one sponsored by individuals prominent in the affairs of the world and the nation, and, therefore, a movement that will lend increased dignity and prestige to the screen's cooperation, is evident from a perusal of the committees allied with the Bok Peace Award. The Policy Committee consists of the following members : John W. Davis, former Ambassador to Great Britain and liow president of the American Bar Association ; Learned Hand, judge of the United States Court for the Southern District of New York ; William H. Johnston, president of the International Association of Machinists and executive officer of the Conference for Progressive Political Action ; Esther Everett Lape, member in charge, and writer ; Nathan L. Miller, former governor of New York State; Mrs. Gifford Pinchot, active in political and social welfare movements ; Mrs. Ogden Reid, vice-president of the New York Tribune, Inc.; Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, vice-chairman of the New York League of Women Voters ; Henry L. Stimson, former Secretary of War; Melville E. Stone, counsellor of the Associated Press; Mrs. Frank A. Vanderlip, regional director of the New York League of Women Voters; and Cornelius N. Bliss, Jr., treasurer. The Jury of Awards comprises the following members : General James Guthrie Harboard, president of the Radio Corporation of America; Colonel Edward M. House, personal representative of ex-President Wilson in 1914-15-16; Ellen Fitz Pendleton, president Wellesley College ; Roscoe Pound, dean of the Harvard Law School; Elihu Root (chairman of the Jury of Award), Secretary of War in President McKinley's Cabinet, Commissioner Plenipotentiary for the United States in the Limitation of Armament Conference at Washington; William Allen White, editor and novelist; and Brand Whitlock, former Ambassador to Belgium. Scene* from "The Hoosier Schoolmaster," a Whitman Bennett Production for Distribution by the W. W. Hodkinson Corporation. Henry Hull and Jane Thomas are Featured