Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1917 — THOSE FILTHY MOVIE SCENES [ARTICLE]

THOSE FILTHY MOVIE SCENES

Disgusting Details of the Underworld Should Be Prohibited. When we see some of these filthy, disgusting movie films that have been ‘‘Passed by the National Board of Censors” —and if you’ll notice it is apparently only these filthy pictures that need this endorsement flashed on the screen—we feel that another board ought to be appointed to pass on this board of censors. Many of these pictures would bring the blush of shame to a ‘‘procurer’’ or a woman of the streets and yet they are “passed” to be shown before the public, to innocent ch’ldren and young men and young women. We wish we had sufficient command of the English language to voice our opinion of the writers of such disgusting “plays,” the film makers who put them on, the “actors” and “actresses” who take part in them and the “board” that passes upon them as being fit to be shown before audiences of respectable people. They are not fit to be exhibited in the worst slums of our wickedest cities and are a stench in the nostrils of decent men and women. Respectable people everywhere ought to. voice their protest against these filthy pictures by getting up and leaving a theater whenever they are shown. Movie managers are not so much to blame as the film companies, for they do not usually know what they are until they get them and it is then too late to secure clean pictures in their stead. Such pictures cannot but be demoralizing and should not be permitted to be sent out from the film houses nor displayed on the screens of any movie theater in the land.