Visual Education (Jan-Nov 1920)

Miscellaneous Notes 41 The president of the company, John H. Patterson, felt that there were many wastes in the factory which could he corrected through effective suggestions to the employees. It was also the case that sales were running far ahead of the output. Mr. Patterson decided that visualization of the situation through moving pictures was the most promising method of remedying the condition and consequently employed a scenario expert who had experience in handling men. That man spent a number of weeks in studying the situation and getting in close touch with the workers. At the end of that time, he prepared his scenario and made his pictures with the aid of the most efficient cameramen. When the results of his labor were thrown before the employes on the screen of the factory auditorium, the workers were made to realize as never before the numerous small ways in which they wasted the company's time and materials and their own energy. Lack of conscientious regard of closing hours; failure to concentrate on the work in hand; surreptitious reading of papers; gossip; powdering of shiny noses; absence of responsibility in preserving small tools used in various processes; carelessness; lack of system; and many other thefts of time were presented in such an interesting and forcible manner that they were made impressive and unforgettable. A diagram showing statistically the proportion of income lost through wasted time was an argument that convinced. Since it was results that were sought and not mere amusement, it is interesting to know that this method of "painless education" has paid. It has been observed by the management that many of the practices set forth in the pictures have been to a great extent discontinued. Moreover there has been a continual rise in the output per man during tho last few weeks. This is but one of many experiments that have been and are being made in the industrial world which constitute a growing mass of most impressive evidence on the educative value of motion pictures. THE May number of Current Opinion publishes an interesting little article on "Movies in the Time of William Shakespeare," in which it is stated that the puppet show and shadow-play, together with exhibitions of mechanical moving pictures and organs, with dancing figures of Elizabethan times formed the embryo from which has developed our modern moving pictures. Numerous records extant prove that this form of entertainment was indeed popular. On July 14, 1572, for instance, the Lord Mayor of London was asked "to permitte libertie to certein Italiann plaiers to make shewe of an instrument of strange motions." On September 25, 1632, certain players in Coventry were licensed "to set forth and shew an Italiann motion with divers and sundry storyes in it." In the light of these facts, it is believed that many metaphorical allusions to motions, shadows, and shadow plays found in Elizabethan and later literature will perhaps prove less cryptic to commentators. • * * A SECOND article in the May Current Opinion gives a detailed account of the plans that are being made to celebrate the three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in America. England is planning for this occasion "Tercentenary meetings in many of its churches; Holland is to commemorate the event in late August with a celebration In which many prominent officials will take part; in America, hundreds of thousands of dollars are being appropriated from national and state treasuries to be used for this purpose. A huge statue of Massasoit, the Indian friend of the Pilgrims, is proposed to overlook Plymouth harbor; the removal of Plymouth Rock, which was raised above the tide in 1741, to its original place is also being discussed. The article contains further a discussion of the social and historic significance of the landing of the Pilgrims. The result of the international observance of this great event will be, according to the view of Lord Weardale, Chairman of the Executive of the Anglo-American Society, the binding more closely together