T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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and over two m illion dollars are col lected daily in box-office receipts. W hat do these th irte en million souls see on th e ‘silver sheet’ each day? If a statis tical record could be made of the n atu re of the pictures shown, it would un doubtedly reveal th e fact th a t the bulk of th e filmed stories are nothing more nor less th a n th e adventures of the Dia mond Dicks and Jesse Jameses of tw enty years ago, vitalized and visual ized ' for vastly larg er audiences than ever could have been reached by the paper-covered detective and W ild West stories of those days. “There isn’t a motion-picture house where a mother can safely tak e her children a t random , or even when a ' supposedly good children’s picture has been advertised, w ithou t risking the danger of having some impossible, foolish, h air-raising picture thrown in. “ How many times, mothers, have you found yourselves sitting in a motion- picture house, w ith your youngsters be side you, absolutely ashamed of being there— unable to give your child a sat isfactory explanation of w hat th e pic tu re was all about? You and Dad wouldn’t ta lk of these things in the presence of your children—would you? You w ant your children to grow up w ith wholesome concepts of life. You want them to have faith in simple, every-day values. You face th e problems of sex tremulously. You yearn to instill into your children a reverence for sacred relationships. As they grow older, you become ever m ore anxious to guard your boys and girls from th e pitfalls th a t surround adolescents. “ The evils are so app aren t to all th a t argum ent on the question seems almost unnecessary. W hat is th e solution?”
TOBACCO AND HEATHENISM W ill H. Brown
The greed and selfishness of soma American tobacco dealers is shown in th e ir a ttitu d e toward China, where mil lions have been facing starv ation and where th ere is always much suffering due to poverty. In addition to giving away vast quantities of cigarettes and actually paying boys to smoke th eir first cigarette, - they are adopting the story-telling method of advertising the weed. As newspapers in China are scarce and only a very small per cent- age of th e population can read or w rite, professional story-tellers, special ly train ed for tobacco service, go about th e cites and towns, and ta lk to groups of people wherever they may be found, weaving into th e stories alluring tales of cigarette smpking in particu iar, and cf tobacco in general. In th is way the tobacco men expect to accomplish their purpose, set fo rth in th e ir slogan: “A cigarette in th e mouth of every man, woman and ehild in China.” The so-called “heathen Chinese” have never been accused of anything more heathenish th an th is deliberate, carefully though t-ou t propaganda, sent fo rth by supposedly civilized white men who claim to be -citizens of Christian America. The people of America would rise up in p ro test loud and long should the Chinese send story-tellers to our Ameri can cities, or adopt any other plan, with th e one purpose in view of inducing ev ery citizen here, including our girls and boys, to become opium smokers. MODERN MOVIES An article in The Outlook has th e following* to say about th e modern movies : “ I t is said th a t over th irte en million people— men, women, and children— at tend the motion-picture houses daily,
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