I do not agree with those who claim that crime among youth is so
largely due to what is shown in motion pictures. Of course, some of the
weak-minded and the vicious have doubtless been stimulated to crime by
something good or bad that they have seen in the movies. This may also
be said of what they have read in the Bible, the newspapers, magazines
and all kinds of literature, or through the misuse of automobiles,
dancing or music. =But we must always keep in mind that far more good
than evil has come out of all these things.=
=Good and evil is a matter of relativity. It is comparative. If
motion pictures are to reflect from nature the face of virtue, they
must also show the image of vice. To make virtue lovable and vice
despisable, we must know what they are. We all admit there are decent
and indecent, acceptable and unacceptable methods by which this ought
to be done. Yet, it must be done or there can be no lessons from
life; there can be no strengthening of character. By no system of
wet-nursism, can you solve the problem of crime by hiding bad things
or the truth about them, or by depriving children of the right, under
proper conditions, to see, to hear and to know what they are.=
They may be worse off if shielded from knowledge of evil or spared
any contact with it. They will be better and stronger if wisely
familiarized with evil in order to know how to avoid it--or, facing it,
to conquer it. “Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, that to be
hated needs but to be seen.” And I would rather take a chance for youth
through their seeing vice too often than in not seeing it enough if
they are to learn to hate it and so triumph over it.
We are losing sight in this country of some fundamental things about
the whole problem of good and evil. As a result, when some of our
reforms and crusades are won, we may be worse off than when we started.
If our remedies do not fail altogether, they produce worse evils. The
“kick” that some people get out of reforming often blinds them to the
facts about good and evil and how to overcome evil. A man on a jag is
always blind to the things about him.