display at cinemas catering for the public in general—a factor which has been emphasised to us by a leading authority in the cinematograph industry.

The chairman of the London County Council, speaking in 1924 to the London Head Teachers' Association, quoted a prominent politician who, a generation ago, assured the country that the cost of public elementary education would never exceed a 3d. rate; and we must assume that expansion and development, involving increased charges, would follow upon any widespread application of cinematography as a teaching device in the schools. It would be almost beyond the power of any one local education authority—even one so large as London or the West Riding of Yorkshire to get together films in such quantities and varieties as has been done with other school material; on the other hand, the cinematograph industry cannot make and supply these films until they are definitely acquainted with the type of film which would be universally accepted as of real educational value for school use, and until they are assured of a market and a reasonable return for their enterprise and outlay.

The problem presents difficulties similar to those recently experienced in dealing with the supply, from British sources, of improved school pictures-marketing and production difficulties which are now being overcome by the co-operation of many local education authorities through the Association of Education Committees acting again in co-operation with commercial enterprise. The supply of teaching films is a greater problem than the introduction of cinematograph machines, its financial aspects more momentous; it is likely, therefore, that the answer to the question so often asked by the cinematograph industry: "Will you tell us what is an educational film?"-a question which the cinematograph industry, like the picture industry, is entitled to have answeredmust be given not by a confused accumulation of individual views, but by an organization speaking and acting on behalf of all education authorities in this country, and one appreciating the implication of its answer in relation to public finance.

Though its value as part of the teachers' equipment is, as we think, little, and its cost quite out of proportion to its utility, the cinematograph is, unquestionably, an educational force, and the educationist must harness and use it. But the problem is not wholly his. It must be solved very largely by the cinematograph

trade. The educationist must make it his business to see that the line of least resistance to the trade is in the direction of educational advancement.

Film producers, renters and cinema proprietors have one problem, a complex of many-to find a market. The market for the educational film has not yet been found, partly because the definition of an educational film has not been made; partly because the educational use of the film and the expenditure of State funds are difficult to separate; partly because Wardour Street is flooded with films of pseudo-educational character; partly because, unfortunately, there is a public demand for sensational films depicting some of the more undesirable phases of life.

The difficulty of defining an educational film springs from failure to appreciate the governing position which the Board of Education Code holds in the elementary schools. Films which would be educational within the application of the Code would have no market with the general public. As matters stand at the moment, the trade had better seek its market outside school hours with cultural films produced with a proper sense of responsibility.

*

A hopeful attempt has already been made by various individuals and more especially by a company, formed for the purpose, whose object is to run early evening displays, accompanied by lectures, of films of travel. These (apart from the work of the company) are spasmodic and unorganized. The effort made to organize and run regular displays has met with a considerable measure of success, judged from an educational standpoint, and has achieved a happy combination of pleasure and instruction-the former by appeal to the æsthetic sense, and the latter by well-arranged and well-planned pictures. The chief difficulty in the management of such an organization is to secure good films which have not " done the round of the halls." Films available for renting are displayed in private showrooms to the leading cinema theatre owners, and in about five weeks a good film will have been shown in most of the best cinemas of the country. At a reduced rent it then runs in about another five weeks through the secondary cinemas, and finally, at a still lower rent, it makes its appearance at the village halls. The better the film the

*Empire School Journeys, Limited.

quicker the circuit is made; but five weeks represents a reasonable average time for a good standard type of film to pass through the primary and secondary cinemas. It is obvious that the financial value of this process to the film owner is very considerable; and that such a film can only be obtained at great cost for special displays in the first instance to school children at a central hall. It is useless to attempt to attract the children to see a film which has already been round the halls. To the promoter of special educational shows this has proved a formidable obstacle, and it is doubtful whether the financial risk is worth taking, even in urban areas with a large school population.

On the other hand, the cinema proprietor, whilst he may be prepared to show to adults a good travel film in serial parts or as a whole, has rarely adopted such films for children's matinées. Sensational films fill the cinema to overflowing at less cost. Attention has recently been drawn to the nature of the programme at many children's matinées in metropolitan halls. Organizations of teachers-particularly of headmistresses-have amassed impressive evidence concerning children's displays and the conditions under which children see them. It reveals a disturbing state of affairs. Not only are the films sensational, but they display scenes of the worst passions, and are sometimes terrifying to children. Nothing but vicious reaction can be expected from them. In some displays the Board of Censor's certificate is not shown, and some of the films have not been submitted to the Board for approval. Such evidence, coming from responsible organizations familiar with the working of the child-mind, cannot lightly be disregarded. They emphatically allege that many films shown to children only are directly opposed to all that educationists are attempting to do for the rising generation. Such films attract large audiences of children and, by taking the line of least resistance, the cinema proprietor, the film producer, and the renter all obtain their aim-a market.

The cinematograph trade has allowed foreign films to pervert public taste, and the home industry, in default of guidance so often sought, has submitted our native taste to the erosion of alien influences. We do not believe that, harmful as many films are they will break education; we are confident that education will break them. There are already in America, appropriately enough, signs that this is happening. The National Congress of

Parents and Teachers has withdrawn from membership of the Philadelphia Committee on Public Relations, owing to the type of films which continue to be released for general circulation. In New York the heads of the cinematograph industry have pledged their efforts in the direction of purifying film plays, and 90 per cent. of the producers of films on the Pacific Coast have bound themselves to refrain from the production or distribution of pictures, by whomsoever produced, which, because of the unfit character of the title, the story, the exploitation, or the scenes shown on the film itself, do not establish and maintain high moral and artistic standards. It is important that in a matter vital to educational progress, the administrative machine should be brought to bear towards securing a sane and ordered development.

Education authorities have it in their power, without the expenditure of public funds, to use the force of their school organizations to provide a market for such British producers, renters, and cinema proprietors as may be willing to give to children displays designed to interest and amuse them as well as to reinforce the work done in the schools. When it is realised that, simply by allowing the school to organize parties of children willing to pay the cost of admission and transport (as much as Is. 6d. a head) to a centrally-situated hall, 50,000 children have been enabled in a few weeks to see a first-class travel film, approved and made known by the London education authority, it is clear that the movement has vast possibilities. In order that the children may travel to a central hall-some having a journey of an hour by bus-teachers must be present. Their leisure and their organizing skill have been given in an unsparing manner, but it is neither right nor just to expect from them an everincreasing load of extra-school work. If the movement could be extended to local cinemas, this additional call on the teacher's time could be eliminated. It seems quite certain that if the education authority will give approval to a film or programme of films and afford publicity in its schools, the cinematograph trade can count upon the market it seeks for better-class displays.

In London and other areas an administrative machine is already in being which could undertake the necessary work with very little additional strain-the consultative committees of teachers, which have been established under the regulations of the local authorities. The efforts of these committees might be

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further supplemented by Parent-Teacher Associations. interesting example of municipal enterprise comes from the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea, where efforts have been made by the Public Amenities Committee to provide one evening each week a display of films of educational as well as recreational value. Low prices (2d. each) have been fixed for admission, which may be booked in advance by parties of school children accompanied by adults. The films are selected after careful scrutiny by a committee of teachers. From the outset the movement achieved considerable success; but from the point at which the school organization was introduced and the support of the teachers in local schools assured, the success became overwhelming. Thousands of children and adults waited in queues outside the Town Hall and the present admirable booking arrangements for all seats came into being by sheer force of necessity. Despite the low price of admission, the movement has achieved financial as well as numerical success.

The twentieth century has witnessed two great inventions for mass education-cinematography and broadcasting. The former has been brutally exploited, only too often with a callous disregard of national considerations; the latter, under a wise and organized direction, has sought the best. Whether either of these inventions will in the end evolve effective new class-room methods is doubtful; but the future of both, as a means of culture and recreation, in the complex of modern education, seems assured. It should be, and no doubt is, a source of satisfaction to those associated with broadcasting that they have built up a fine, enjoyable workmanlike organization without "featuring" the meretricious or starring "the vulgar. Cannot part of the idealism of broadcasting be captured by cinematography? If not, then those who are interested in the welfare of children must definitely set themselves the task, individually and as organizations, of making the future exploiter of pernicious films realise, slowly but surely, that he is engaged in an unsocial and a precarious occupation-and place him, in short, "out-of-bounds." The task would not be beyond the resources of education, for it is unthinkable that a wise and progressive community will continue to spend large sums in making children better and, at the same time, allow selfish interests to profit by making them worse.

There is some danger that education committees may be

VOL. 242. NO. 493.

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