Visual Education (Jan-Nov 1920)

New Films foe Teaching Americanism 15 could marshal our public sentiment. The murder of Edith CavelL the Zirnmermann note, and the Belgian atrocities gave us points about which to center our emotions. The selective service act, which took boys from every home, and the ever present soldier and the passing flag continually kept us in a fever heat of patriotism. It is quite another matter now. Our new enemy gives us none of these opportunities. Lenine and Trotsky are striving to undermine our society, they are speaking frankly of a new internationalism, the downfall of every government, a war to the death between capital and labor, and a dictatorship of the proletariat. They are not fighting us with 42 centimeter guns. They are not bombing our cities. They are working quietly and faithfully upon the minds of men, gathering little groups together here and there, magnifying injustices, and speaking of our government as an agency which takes boys for its army and money for its coffers and gives nothing in return. To a man who does not clearly understand what our government is doing for us, who does not keenly appreciate the duties that he owes in return, who does not know that the power to correct injustices now lies in his hands, the doctrine of the Bolshevik propagandist is apt to sound good. He is apt to think that there is some sense in it. He is not likely to see the situation in the large. It will be difficult to suppress Bolshevism with policemen and with soldiers. It will be impossible to deport all its sympathizers. The enemy is unseen. We can not count on arousing the emotions of our people in support of the struggle. The only way to fight an idea is with another idea. America's only insurance is education. We can count on the safety of the coming generation if our school masters do their work. If the people of America can raise teachers' salaries and stand behind the schools in the way they should, we need not worry about our country twenty years from now. The problem that we are facing is to make very sure that our country does not go to pieces within the next ten years, and the solution lies in the universal and widespread education of the adult. There are many agencies at work upon this problem. The Y. M. C. A. is developing an ambitious and f arsighted program of work in health, citizenship, religion, and loyalty in all our large centers. The Inter-racial Council is working through the foreign language press. The United Americans are working in a variety of ways, most notably perhaps the poster advertising. The American Legion is standing firm. Many of the State Councils of Defense have been perpetuated. The Women's Clubs have been doing their part, publishing primers, holding classes, encouraging boards of education and activities of a similar sort. There is one avenue of approach, however, that has been relatively neglected — namely, the moving picture. It is true that a great many films hav« been produced that are called Americanization pictures. A complete list of them has recently been published by the National Board of Beview of Motion Pictures. Careful examination reveals nothing but stories of the life of Americans and little plays aiming at patriotic spirit, or else geographic scenes of our own land. It is possible that The Romance of Happy Valley or The Copperhead will yield beneficial results. It is not out of the realm of probability that In Glacier Parle or The Grand Canyon of the Colorado will make our people appreciate something