known to require description-the close, fetid air, which is never purified and seldom freshened, and the narrow, dark room, which the light of day, with its germ-killing properties, never penetrates, are the rule rather than the exception. The sounds of coughing are frequently heard. Into this germ-laden, disease-breeding place comes the youth of the nation-that youth which should be, in its formative adolescence, building strong bodies and storing energy for the future. But that is not all. Pitiable as it is to see these children of ten, twelve, fifteen, seventeen and eighteen spending their golden hours in such unhealthful surroundings, does it not seem almost criminal to bring babies of one, two and three years into such places as a movie theatre? But who has not seen that done?

The most important physical effect of the movies is in regard to the impairment of vision which slowly, but inevitably results. Even in the comparatively short time that the movies have been in existence, there has been a noticeable decrease in optical efficiency. There are more people wearing glasses than there were ten years ago, and the wearing of glasses by very young children is no longer an unusual thing as it once was. I have heard a number of physicians speak of the great danger that is being done to the eyesight of children of this generation solely because of movies. The strain on the eyes when watching a movie is comparable to the effect of looking out of the window of a moving train at the rapidly changing landscape. Everyone knows how very tired the eyes become after a few hours of such a procedure. They become just as tired when watching a movie, but one's absorption in the picture prevents one from noticing the strain on the eyes. This is in striking contrast to the calmness and smoothness of action in a play on the legitimate stage. The rapid, and rather jerky mechanical movement of the pictures on the screen produces a nerve strain that is seldom realized. The whole manner of production and operation of a moving picture is purely

mechanical, and is entirely in keeping with the present jazz-fed, mechanistic age. The American people have always been known for a lack of poise; now they are becoming nervous, high-strung and easily irritated. The movies are in a greater or lesser degree responsible for this condition, which will continue to grow and will become a marked American characteristic. And it is the children whose formative years are spent in movie theatres rather than in wholesome outdoor amusements who will in after years "pay the price."

Had the movies no intellectual or moral aftermath, the physical dangers would surely be enough to proscribe them. But unfortunately that is not all. It is commonly conceded that the movies have arrived only at that stage of cultural advancement that the legitimate stage had attained thirtyfive or forty years ago. In other words, they are "way behind the times" as far as literary or theatrical development is concerned. People will praise in a movie the same thing that they would decry and scoff at on the stage. We have, by a slow growth, attained to a certain level of excellence in play production, and the playwright who does not come up to these standards is not tolerated. Of course playwriting and play production have attained these standards only through a growth of centuries, from the earliest miracle plays, pageants and masques, through the periods of the sentimental drama, the slap-stick comedy, the melodrama, the burlesque, and the more recent problem play until we come to the praiseworthy modernity of the best modern drama. The movie is now where the theatre was in the 1890's, still reveling in spectacular and melodramatic situations. There is, however, a hope for improvement in this direction, an improvement which can even now be noticed.

The important intellectual effect of the movie, however, is not in the "old-fashionedness" of its plots, but in the utter passivity of the spectator. I know of no other form of entertainment in which one puts forth so little mental effort. Everything is explained

and diagramed. The mind is merely a sponge, and only needs to absorb. No processes of assimilation, selection, and deduction are necessary. Perception is the only mental effort involved, and perception alone never makes for mental growth. Even in the so-called educational and news reels, a mass of unrelated and non-coördinated and usually uninteresting facts are flashed before the spectator-facts which the mind does not retain, and which would be of little value if they were retained. Anyone can easily recall a typical news reel-first there is the flood somewhere in Ohio, or possibly Mississippi; then the funeral of some New York city official; next a few glimpses of the latest football or polo or baseball game; then a close-up of Elsie Janis or Mary Garden or possibly Jack Dempsey, as he or she is leaving for, or returning from, Europe; and lastly and inevitably, an airplane view of the Thames, or the White Mountains or Coney Island, or anything else that lends itself to the exigencies of the camera. Is there anything of real educational value in any of these, or anything that the mind retains beyond the moment?

What now, is the moral effect of the movies upon growing, and even mature minds? That is more difficult to determine with exactness. We cannot prove, we can only judge by evidence and inference. We do know definitely that the movie contains the most sexually suggestive elements. It shows lawlessness and crime in all their horror and brutality. It pictures drunkenness in its most licentious aspects. Home and family relations are made subjects of jest and ridicule. The portraying of the sinister aspects of crime, drunkenness, and the rest, does not act as an object lesson to the adolescent. Quite the reverse. movie serves to glorify indecency and immorality solely by its graphic presentation! Small hope of any object lesson there!

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We know absolutely that crime, particularly that committed by youthful offenders, has increased tremendously within the last twenty years. The blame for this cannot be attributed wholly to the movies. There

have been other contributing factors. But no other single element has continually, consciously, and consistently presented to the youth of the nation, pictures of licentiousness and crime every night of the week.

It seems almost mid-Victorian in this broad-minded (?) age to speak disparagingly of the private life of actors and actresses. "Don't be old-fashioned," someone will say. Or, "Other people are just as bad. It's only that everyone knows about the people in the movies." And that is exactly the point. Everyone does know about the actors in the movies-it is quite the thing to be "up" on all the doings of the idols of the moment. Their pictures, their divorces, their scandals are featured in every newspaper. Their biographies appear in the most reputable of magazines. They furnish the models for dance steps, for styles of hairdressing, for clothes, for sports, for love-making, and for heart-breaking. They are, in short, the models, par excellence, for everything that is desirable in the youthful "sheik" or "flapper." To have the melting brown eyes of a Valentino, or the bewitching charm of a Colleen Moore, is to have attained the pinnacle of youthful ambition. One could ask no more.

Perhaps you think I have exaggerated, have overdrawn the picture. Maybe the movies are "not as bad as they're pictured." Surely there are some good pictures, which are uplifting rather than degrading. All right, let us, for a moment, take a city newspaper for any day of the week, and turn to the descriptions and advertisements of the movies. Here is what we find in to-day's issue of a great newspaper (omitting the names of the theatres). I. Exclusive Chicago Chicago Beach's "Winds of Chance." Emotions seething in Gold Mad Klondike; life with the lid torn off. Frank Lloyd, creator of the "Sea Hawk," has put the same flame of adventure and romance into "Winds of Chance." You'll love his countess, a girl of ice and fire, snow and gold.

showing-Rex

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