PROPOSED INVESTIGATION OF THE HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE U.S. Congress Senate. COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY. SIXTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION PURSUANT TO S. RES. 142 DIRECTING AN INVESTIGATION OF THE ALLEGED POLITICAL 400 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1922 SUBCOMMITTEE ON SENATE RESOLUTION 142. SAMUEL M. SHORTRIDGE, Chairman. GEORGE W. NORRIS. II HENRY F. ASHURST. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUG 21 1924 DOCUMENTS DIVISION M.E.A. 8/2 192-2 PROPOSED INVESTIGATION OF THE MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1922. UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, The subcommittee met pursuant to call at 2:30 o'clock p. m. in room 235, Senate office building, Senator Shortridge presiding. Present, Senators Shortridge (chairman) and Ashurst. The subcommittee had under consideration Senate Resolution 142, which is here printed in full as follows: [S. Res. 142, Sixty-seventh Congress, first session.] Whereas motion-picture interests, by their own announcement, "Have entered politics, to become a factor in the election of every candidate, from alderman to President, from assemblyman to United States Senator," the test for candidates being whether or not they pledge themselves to governmental action favoring this one business or their devotion to public interests; and Whereas the president of the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry, which claims to control 95 per centum of all the films of the country, having $250,000,000 invested, announced to the Chicago motion-picture industry (as printed in its report of September, 1920), that this industry proposed to use the wonderful power in its hands and go into politics; and Whereas the ninth annual convention of the Exhibitors' League of Pennsyl vania, South New Jersey, and Delaware, in August, 1920, voted to use its publicity power against all State legislators and congressional candidates who may refuse to pledge themselves to support legislation favorable to their business, and for the removal of boards of censors whose decisions had been too drastic; and Whereas at the Atlantic City convention of the Motion Picture Theotor Owners of America, July 7, 1921, it is reported that Marcus Loew and Auolph Zukor, two of the most influential men in the industry, pledged all the screens under their control henceforth to enter politics; and Whereas it is reported the motion-picture interests have already engaged a representative to direct a political campaign in New York before the primary and election next fall, to secure the repeal of the New York montion-picture law, by promising the use of publicity power of the screens of the State to elect all who agree to vote for its repeal and to defeat all candidates who refuse to promise so to do; and Whereas at a hearing before Governor Miller, of New York, April 26, 1921, the representatives of the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry, in an effort to prove that no State legislative action was necessary to clean up the pictures in that State, claimed that absolute and unlimited power over the whole business was in the bands of four or five men; and Whereas it is reported that Jacob W. Binder, who was in the employ of what is now called the National Board of Review, at a meeting of the National Exhibitor's League, said, July 15, 1915, in San Francisco: "It was through money provided by manufacturers that I, as a representative of the national board, was sent into thirteen States to combat bills for legalized censorship"; and Whereas the president of the National Association of Motion Picture Industry in a speech to a committee of the State Senate of New Jersey, March 21, 1921, is reported to have said: "You can't control this business, but I can; I am president of the producers' association and, with two or three other men, I control every foot of film shown in the United States; what we say goes"; and Whereas seven States, namely, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, and Florida, have enacted either censorship or regulatory 1 |