MORALS OF YOUTH.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1916, Page 6

MORALS OF YOUTH.

AND THE MOVIES. AN INTERVIEW WITH THOMAP 11. INCE. That the motion picture producer of to-day i< doing his utmost to safe-guard the morals of American youth—in his productivity—is tlie opinion voiced by Thomas H. Ince, one of the big worldfamous triumvirate now making photodramatic s])ectac!es ' for tin- Triangle. Never in the hint: and eventful history of the industry, according to the noted director-general, have such pain.-, been taken to build picture plays that will eievate instead of degrade the moral standard of hoys and girls as those which are evident in present-day manufacture For some time past a certain class oi agitators has been striving desperately, Mr. Ince declares. 1o check the tremendous strides with which the motion picture art is advancing, by addressing scathing speeches- against its moivi tone. And it was in refutation of the insinuations uttered by these howling fanatics that the great producer, in a recent interview, flung a denial in defence of the profession lie so illu.-triously represents. ''l am prone to admit," says Mr. Ince, •'that the time was when all too many of the American lilm manufacturing concerns were lotallv lacking in their sense of moral diity to the public. The fault lay in the fact that sensationalism was their una I -sensationalism that created a market fur their pietures-ior the public then was not fully educated to the fact that the good lilm drama can be made a medium of enlightenment on subjects that are vital to the interests of the human race. "As time progressed, however, and heads of families joined their sons and daughters in frequenting picture play houses, a new era was ushered in for the production of photodramas. The demand changed from one for salacious stories without a moral to one for clean dramas with a heart interest or the powerful solution of a problem. Then it was that the producer awakened to the realisation that if his industry expected to survive he must needs climiintc the lewd and obscene from his films. % the eventual elimination of lewdness and obscenity the motion picture production look a" seven-league step toward the miner,al popularity it now enjoys."