FOUR
THE ALLIANCE HERALD, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1921.
r
The Nation's Business
(A Series of Articles by National Leaders Published Ex
clusively in This Territory in The Herald.)
No. I. "Who Is Your Hero?" by David Watk Griffith,
Motion Picture Producer.
hundred, America will awaken to an
appreciation of ail. When it does, 1
think the golden era of art will come
again for whatever interests us as a
eople, that we can do better than any
one else.
Perhaps motion pictures will do
fi picture makintr is oniv euuaied bv Hn. am. fnnu . r m
his pap of the cinema s future, the ; member" that our children today, ten,
' " v mv. puvuvp caiia wiv
WHO IS YOUR HERO?.
By DAVID WARK GRIFFITH
Editor' Note David Wark Griffith
stands to high above all other motion
; fiicture producers that he may be said
to be in a class by himself. His grasp
motion picture is-a part of every man's
life.
In Introducing motion picture as
America's fourth or fifth largest in
dustry, one might also identify them
as America's largest and most popu
lar target for criticism.
Where lives a person who hasn't
Mid: "The movies are awful"; or said
something to that effect?
That is as it should be. It proves
motion pictures are important and
progressing. You hear no such criti
cism from all sides for our American
music, painting, writing or stage. That
is because the public does not expect
any great improvement in these arts,
but does expect it in motion pictures.
A Kavpge and ruthless denunciation
of motion pictures by one of the most
prominent dramatic critics in this coun
try, first awakened me to the fact that
motion pictures were to become the
dominent educat;onal and entcrta'n
ment force in the world. I was too
busy at the time to give much thcu-rht
to the future. But I reali .od that this
. shrewd gentleman saw in them f-ome-t
thing more powerful than his he'oved
Flage or he could not have purred his
thoughts to such a high tide of fierce
protest
ing something unimportant or 'lying.
We do not spend much tim ecriticis
If the public ever slops complaining
about its motion pictures, we hail be
come alarmed.
Enter Prohibit ion.
Critisism has its fads and fancies
just as much as anything else. At
present it ia popular to criticise the
motion pictures harshly. In a way I
feel that prohibition has had r-'.me-thing
to do with this public instabil
ity regarding pictures. Fe-ple sub
stituted the motion picture shows for
the customary drinking diversion. Ai-d
quarrelled with the films because tnev
didn't get the same effect.
There need be nojilarm about mo
tion pictures as Ion" as the makers
ftrive to interpret life as naturally as
they can. Superficial critics shout with
eutraged devpair about something in a
motion picture not being- realistic.
Realism isn't the impoitant thing.
Naturalism is.
Courtroom scenes, I believe, are
criticised more generally than any
others in motion pictures. That is be
, ctue Mr. and Mrs. Audience went to
' court in a condition of high interest,
when either they or someone clo:;e to
them was involved in the action, and
whatever occurred affected them viv
idly. They remember how impressed
irey were with everything occurring.
'When they are not so impressed by a
courtroom scene in the picture, tney
Immediately think it is badly done. If
eny of the details are not exactly as
they remember, they th;nk that is the
reason. These few demand detailed
realism that would bo bor'ng beyond
tolerance to the rther millions.
The critics should pay more ntten
t'on to naturalism and less to realism.
They keep running r.fter rabbits in
stead of following the fox.
No Art Interest.
It will be several decades yet before
producers can make motion pictures
that dc rot aho clasf ify. as entertain
ment for every grade of intelligence.
America has no sincere or even con
scious interest in art. It is first and
almost completely interested in indus
try. One can prove it by a thousand
means.
For instance. Your hero is yourself.
Then the national hero becomes the
One who evoresses in the highest de
gree the achievement the people of the
nation would like to achieve individ
ually. Until recently we were all a fighting
people, and our heroes were filthier,
cut new we have no soldier for a na
tional hero, even though the greatest
f our wars has just ended.
I should say that the popular hero of 1
America today is Henry Ford.
When he makes some changes in his
plant and pays his debts, the public is
K interested . that the metropolitan
newspapers print three and four col
umns on their front pages about it,
fcnd continue to comment for days.-
Now we will make a comparison.
If a person were to show a motion
picture ten times better than any yet
made; and bo were to show this with
music better than any ever composed
in America; and if he were to give
away as a souvenir a volume of poetry
far better than any yet written in Am
erica; and he were to have painted on
each of thege volumes a miniature
better than anything yet by an Ameri
can artist do you suppose if this were
done, the newspapers of this country
would give it three columns on the
front page?
To Awaken America.'
Indeed not, and the editors would be
silly to give such space for if they did
the public would be largely bored. For
people dont care to be artists and
aren't particularly interested in what
(Artists achieve,
y But the hero has been changed from
seldier to the industrial leaden d
; tjUAir-'i fifty -year,-rfcf'
.twelve, fourteen years old, have had
more dramatic experience than all
their ancestors combined.
Take your own family. How many
plays each year did your father see,
and his father? Three or four, or less.
And as we go back, the less plays they
saw until in the time of the masques
only one in many years if ever.
So we have a peculiar condition in
our audiences a dramatically mature
uuilience of youths; and a dramatically
youthful audience of adults. With no
intent to strain for a paradoixcal quip,
it is a truth that the older a motion
picture audience is the younger it is; the greatest need today among work
Rev. I. J. Minort
Speaks to Railroad
Men Thursday Eve
The beauty and utility of gratitude
is recognized by people everywhere,
nnd if employers and employee showed
the grateful heart more the industrial
strife and ill-feeling that exist in our
land would not be. A grateful em
ployer will inspire his employee by
that hi appreciation to greater en
deavor; a grateful employee will re
generate a hard taskmaker into an
honest justice-loving employer.
The language of gratitude is under
stood wherever you go whether in the
heart of Africa or Nebraska, you can
understand gratitude. Gratitude felt
must be expressed in words and ac
tion. The grateful husband makes a
a good wife, the grateful wife makes a
good husband. If the spirit of grati
tude was entertained in the home more
between the heads of the family the
divorce courts would go out of busi
ness. Ihe gratitude we feel ia determined
by the value we place upon an object
or thing or person. He divided the
things we should be grateful for into
three classes according to the Biblical
division. The good things, the perfect
gifts, and the unspeakable gift.
The good gifts were. or are life,
health, home, friends and children. We
show our gratitude for these by the ef
fort we put forth to retain, improve,
and develop. He applied this principle
to all of these and then pictured the
peace and happiness that would pre
vail in the world if this were so.
The next class of gifts were the per
fect gifts. They are the church, Bible,
Holy Spirit and heaven. The above
principle was applied to all of these
and special emphasis was made that
and fifty pounds of groceries had been
donated to the pastor and family, ami
the two packages that pleased him
most of all were two boxes of shot gun
shells.
CARD OF THANKS
We wish to make this public ex
pression of our Appreciation and sin
eere thanks for the willing and faith
ful work of the Alliance Volunteer
Fire department, as well as others,
who so effeciently and effectively
fought the flames that would have de
stroyed our church building Thanks
giving evening.
. CHRISTIAN CHURCH BOARD.
KNOW YOUR TEXT
Snw rople call it near been
York Mail.
-New
"We will take as our text this
morning," announced the absent
minded clergyman, consulting his
memorandum, "the sixth and seventh
verses of the thirty-first chatHer of
Proverbs." Never suspecting that his !
-ivacious son and heir had found the
memorandum in his study on the pre
vious night and, knowing that his papa
had composed a sermon celebrating the
; increased severity of dry law enforce
ment, had diabolically changed the
.chapter and verse numerals to indi
cate a very different text, turned
the place and read aloud these words
so Solomon: "Give strone drink unto
ijhim that is ready to perish, and wine
unto tnose that he of heavy hearts.
Let him drink and forget his past pov
erty, and remember his misery no
more." San Francisco Argonaut.
We are ready to take all orders for
Madeira work, Filia and Oriental mats
nnd His, all iz nA -;.,..
duction for those leaving their orders
now. The Oriental Store, 115 Box
Butte ave. -
HOW COULD THEY ?
Policeman (to loiterer) "Corner
move on there. If everybody stood
still in one place, how could the others
get past?" Sydney Bulletin.
Once upon a time there was a p-ir-ageman
who fixed the thing that was
wromr without getting something else,
out of whack.
pnd again, the younger it is, the older
it is.
They Ask Censor.
The;je mature persons know nothing
of the history of the stage, its conven
tions, cu.-ttems, privileges, liberties or
experiences. They see nothing in mo
tion pictures that has been common to
the stage for a hundred years, yet, be
cause they are superlatively ignorant
of stage drama, they are horrified at
something that is absolutely common
place to the p'ay-goer.
With a confidence that only such
prospering ignorance can bring, these
Iersons are determined that the pub
lic shall not see these things which
they think shouldn't be reen. This is
the type that demands the censor.
So the censor now will have to play
with pictures for a few years until
they get tyrannical and are cast out,
or become merely clerical and unim
portant. Censorship is an ideal, and when you
try to localize an ideal in three persons
v no need their small salaries and nlav
u.gn.en was that they put a higher
vine on the church. The church was
today the greatest champion the work
ing man had. He pointed out that the
greatest propagandist for the improve
ment of the workinirman's lot was the
church. He closed then with pointing
the men to what Paul calls the Un
speakable Gifts, th? Lord Jesus Christ
and carpenter of Nazareth who har
always been the poor man, and the
workingman,"s cha.vipion and who:;e
ministers to'lay cannot be true to Hin.
without doing thei.' level best to stand
by the golden rule especially as it ap
plies to the great Industrial and com
mercial problems of our day.
At the close of the sermon the pas
tor spoke of several local needs, espe
cially the need of a workingman's hos
pital, this seemed to set well with the
audience as shown by the applause,
and several men expressed themselves
as favonne the project, and all by a
show of hand promised to take the
matter ud with their unions,
After this conference the audience
politic to get then., it isn't difficult goc;ai hour at which coffee and dough
to beheva that the ideal may get nuta were served bv the Baptist ladies,
jostled. The type of mind that de- Tnen the pastor was askc.l to lift the
marda censorship has advanced the cover from a table and he found to hir
argument that we censor meats and I evident surprise that about a hundred
mviiuui miuuhi tt-ii.-ur pictures, ami i
presume they would feel tjuite satisfied
to have the same person decide the ttttttt
uiiiess vi a pigs carcass onu a mm.
Nothing New
From the Oil
. Well at Rushville
The topic most generally discussed
in Chadron the past week has boon oil,
and the likelihood of its production
north of the city through the strike of
the Big Chief company near Pine
Ridge a week ago Sunday morning,
savs the Chadron Journal.
Many from hi?re have visited the
well and it owners who are mostly
Rushville citizens. It has been learn
ed that the greater part of land sup
posed to be oil bearing and lying in
the most favorable geological location
wett oi me wig cniei nounngs is
owned or leased by Chadron men.
A directors meeting at Rushville
this week, it is said, resulted in hardly
any proros as to re-opening the hole
in which the discovery was made. It
is taken for granted by about J)0 per
cent of the public in this northwest
country that the strike is bonafide.
The other 10 per cent do not doubt it,
but wish to be shown, as the well is
capped and cannot be visualized except
by the -hearsay of those present when
the oil we: found. I
Denver, Casper, Alliance, Omaha i
and Lincoln papers have mentioned the ;
discovery, in glowing terms, too glow-i
ing, for they speak of it as a 1,000- j
barrel gusher. The production of the '
well will not be known until the cement
cap is drilled again and the flow ,
measured. It is staked that this is but
the eastern edge of the Chadron field
and many unverified rumors are afloat
as to its immediate development.
Let's see;" the conference will le
over in a few weeks, and the senate
should ratify it bv li2?. Lincoln Stsr.
IMPERIAL
Saturday, Nov. 26
CHARLES RAY
IX
"SCRAP IRON"
MUTT and JEFF
KINO GRAMS
Adm. 9 and C6c and W, T. E
Sunday, Nov. 27
"FATAL HOUR"
VAUDEVILLE
Jas. McNally
Johnson & Burke
Morris & Block
Richards Trio
SHOUT SUBJECTS
A '2i HOUR SHOW
Adm 20 and 50c & W. T.
?tttttt"t;H
I!
j
The best thing that can be said about the manner in
which an undertaker conducts his business is that he has
won the public praise. Upon every funeral occasion we are
complimented about the satisfactory manner in which we
perform our duty. Our services are of a high character and
are properly priced.
Miller Mortuary
rintt: Dy, JlV
Nltht, 522 or 535
MORTICIANS
mWitt
TkirtStrMi
WATCH!
Aunty Glaus Is Coming
Breaking the Shackles
of Time '
CLOCKS are as much a matter of course as suspend
ers. But it took energy and initiative to get the
first clock on the kitchen shelf and start it going. The
Yankee pack peddler was sole distributor and trans
porter. His lean, lanky, loose-jointed legs set the limit
for most distribution problems in those days.
Modern transportation with progressive sales meth
odsand advertising have broken the shackles of
time. They make a quick' job of what used to take
years. Through advertising, many an article has been
introduced simultaneously in stores all over the country.
This newspaper does you a two-fold service. It not
only brings you news of the world, but also news of
what to bu$s where to buy and how to buy. ;
The advertisements are news columns of merchants
and manufacturers who have impoitant stories to tell
you.
Take advantage of them. Read the latest news of
good things to be had and where to get them.
MAKE SURE YOU GET ALL THE NEWS
uunLaininniuiiiitrmTTTtfrrrr
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