The campaign against indecent films continues with unabated vigor as the interfaith committee of the Legion of Decency prepares to meet this afternoon at the Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, 329 West Forty-second street.
Among those expected to attend the parley are Mgr. Michael J. Lavelle, Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York; Rev. Joseph A. McCaffrey, rector of the Holy Cross Church; Rev. Walter M. Howlett, Rev. Dr. Newell, Rabbi Sidney E. Goldstein and Rabbi William F. Rosenblum.
Members of the committee refused to comment yesterday on the purposes of today’s session, but promised revelations at the conclusion of the meeting.
Meanwhile it was announced from Washington that Catholics, Protestants and Jews will be called to a national movie conference at Chicago in September, under the auspices of the Motion Picture Research Council.
TEACHERS TO SELECT FILMS
Another development in the concerted three-faith war on obscenity in motion pictures is the announcement that a preview committee of the National Council of Teachers of English will begin the selection of films to be used for discussion in English classes.
Dr. Stella S. Winter, co-chairman of English at Theodore Roosevelt High School, heads the committee. Lesson plans and study guides for the program will be published by Teachers College, Columbia University. Max J. Herzberg, principal of Weequahic High School, Newark, N. J., is general editor of these publications.
That the present campaign does not aim at censorship of the movies is made plain in statements released through the National Conference of Jews and Christians by representative Protestant, Catholic and Jewish spokesmen.
UP TO PRODUCERS
Dr. Samuel H. Goldenson, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, declared: “The Central Conference of American Rabbis does not aim at censorship of the movies. If the movie producers realized more than they do that their audiences consist largely of the children and youth of the land they themselves would censor the movies.”
Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, general secretary of the Federal Council of Churches, said: “What is proposed is not a legal censorship but the voluntary action of churchmen in great numbers in withholding patronage from films which are injurious to social and moral welfare.”
Father Wilfrid Parsons, editor of America, the Catholic weekly, declared that “the purpose of this campaign is not to induce censorship from the outside. The campaign is putting the whole responsibility upon the producers themselves. We are not trying to clean up the movies ourselves, either through the State or through the Church. We are not using political methods. We are trying to make the producers themselves clean up the movies. This is the only way it can be done.”
JEWS AIDED COLLEGES
A number of colonial Jews were early benefactors of Yale and Brown universities.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
