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Show Official Censorship Often Ridiculous Chicago Police Disapprove of V Scenario Writer Named Shakespeare. I Edit a Play Called "Romeo and Juliet" and Bar "Macbeth." The recent criticism of the manner in winch the censorship over motion pic- W Hire, is exercised in some States arid 3 cities, written by frank L. Dyer, president presi-dent of the General Film Company, has attracted widespread attention to the J subject in general and has evoked much f comment There can be no doubt but that this -question of censorship is one that all who sr? interested in the motion picture industry must j.reparc to face and that they mu-t take measures to see that it i- settled in a sane and reasonable manner man-ner and not in a way that will bring them continued annoyance, harass- 't mcnt and heav loss. j To begin with, should there be anv official censorship of motion pictures? rlas any State or city a constitutional right l" establish a ccnsorNhip, to dictate dic-tate to the motion picture theaters in advance ad-vance what films they should show and what tilms shall not be shown? WIIV DISCRIMINATE ? It is not claimed that State or city hasK a right to establish a censorship over the newspaper and to dictate what reading matter or pictures it shall print; nor is there claimed a right to censor in advance ad-vance the speaking drama Of course, if the newspaper publisher prints indecent matter or gives utterance utter-ance tej libel he can be punished by due process ol law; punishment can also be visited on the theatrical manager who offends the law. W'hv, it is asked, should the motion picture be placed in a different class and be denied the rights to which it is universally admitted the newspaper and the regular thiatcr are entitled? And if a special official censorship is to be created for its benefit, who is to do the censoring? The police ' Or indi-iduab. indi-iduab. or hoards appointed bv the politicians"' poli-ticians"' In cither case it requires no particularly vivid imagination to bring u(i Ni-'iis "f graft corruption and politi-i politi-i il favoritism ort the one hand, or whim-sical, whim-sical, unreasonable restrictions on the other, based on no known or conceivable standard. As an indication of the sort of intelligent ei norship that might be expected, we find the Chicago censors -uppressing the duel scene and the sui-i sui-i ide scene in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet" and barring out "'Macbeth" altogether alto-gether I TUT PRODL'CERS CAN BF. TRl STED . a matter of fact, the whole question ques-tion of censorship can be safely en-trustcd en-trustcd to the Him producers themselves and the laws that govern all public ex-hibitions ex-hibitions alike. At the present moment ''X per cent of all motion pictures exhibited ex-hibited throughout the country are vol-I vol-I tint aril, submitted by them to the very rtid scrutiny of the unofficial National B iard of Censors and receive their sanc-Lion sanc-Lion before they are exhibited There was a time in the early days of the motion picture theater in this coun-i coun-i when certain films presented could justly be criticized as offensive to our views as ,j what is fitting for exhibition I ' lore audiences made up in large part of boys and girls. Nearly all such films came here from Europe It was the exhibition ex-hibition of such films that caused the establishment of the ational Board of Censors. But it must be remembered that the existence of this board is due to the film pn ducer-" themselves and is to-day maintained by them The agency employed em-ployed in thi organization of the board was the People's Institute of N'cw York, of which John Collier is the directing force, The Institute has been caller! a 'laboratory of social experiment" and has tried always to mediate between what the people want and what high-broVl high-broVl social workers and statesmen believe be-lieve they should have. Collier got together a hundred men and women who agreed to scre as a board of censors. He divided them into separate committees, each pledged to pin- a certain day a week to the work Over them he set a general com-mitt com-mitt e picked for ability and variety of opinion This forms a court of appeals, to wincii either managers or members I the committees may carry up any de- cision with which they are dissatisfied. THE WORK OP THK NATIONAL BOARD The board began censoring the films of those independents who had volunteered. Within a month they had condemned almost al-most a whole consignment of senu-sala-cioim European films However, the legend le-gend "Approved by the National Board -( of Censorship" bean to appear in the picture houses, and it had an effect. The correspondents of the People's In--titute spread the news abroad m the interior cities. The public showed by its attendance that the approval of the censors had commercial value. In thiee months the Trust and the other independent inde-pendent group asked to come in By the end of 19f the censors were viewing all but 2 per cent of the films eventually exhibited in America The suppression of salaciousness - p brought up their first problem tfiigh by no means ih r hardest one. The tmT American be be manager or spectator, f has little taste for that sort of thin?.' j Our native hlnis were almost always Iq, 'ban; iln trouble earn.- from Europe. After a few consignments of this char- ' acter had gone back to Paris Turin and'- , Copenhagen, the European producer jRj studied American tastes, and censored ii i for himself So it would seem to an unbiased ob- ' server that there exists little reason or even excuse for the creation of police k or other official censors for the motion pictures to-dajj H |