Moving Pictures

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 24, 1916

Much has been written during the last few years regarding the evils of moving picture shows. The danger to the morals of the young in attending these shows has not been overestimated. Mrs. Emma Gary Wallace, a woman of wide experience in dealing with problems of this character, speaks of the influence of these shows, in the Continent of Jan. 27, 1916:—

“Our temperance teaching receives a serious setback and our most earnest lessons are discredited when our young people see film favorites freely partake of wine, champagne, and other spirituous liquors upon all sorts of occasions.

“Our girls are shocked at first to see beautifully gowned women in luxurious apartments, smoking cigarettes. After a while they grow accustomed to the sight. One girl of quiet, industrious family, in her late teens, expressed the opinion recently that these practices are thought nothing of in the best society, as it was only old-fashioned, strait-laced, narrow-minded individuals who have never seen life who object to this sort of thing. Again, a carefully brought-up young man was heard to argue laughingly that there were plenty of people everywhere who took strong drink when it pleased them, and were not hurt by it either. He spoke of his own lack of sophistication, and the shock he had felt when he first saw this sort of thing presented. Many such presentations had calloused these finer sensibilities.”