EDITORIAL 
161 
The Remedy is Outdoor Interests. 
I have noted that within the past 
few weeks the daily of Stamford and 
the two weeklies of Greenwich, as well 
as local papers throughout the state 
and indeed occasionally a New York 
paper, have been protesting against the 
type of motion pictures offered for 
children’s daily fare. These publica- 
tions have lamented not only the bad 
quality of the pictures but the per- 
niciousness of packing children into 
crowded halls be the picture good or 
bad. 
Undoubtedly every one will agree 
that a large part of the stuff presented 
on the screen is not fit for children. 
That even the managers agree with this 
statement is evident because they 
sometimes advertise something espe- 
cially for the children, and on such 
occasions, let it be said to the credit of 
the theatres, the children do get some- 
thing really good and worth while. 
Several of the lamenting publications 
advocate that the children be outdoors 
engaged in play and other activities, 
that more attention be devoted to the 
playgrounds and to the systematic 
management and oversight of these 
playgrounds. Therein is the error. The 
very fact that children beg to go to the 
movies shows that they crave mental 
as well as physical interest, and it 
shows also that the mental interest is 
superior to the physical interest, mak- 
ing the motion picture house a greater 
attraction than the playground. 
We are too much accustomed to 
think of the child as a little animal, 
forgetting to a great extent that it is 
a little thinker and sharply observing 
seer. But the child will see, hear and 
think whether the adult wants it to or 
not. Right here is the danger for the 
child if it goes wrong and the benefit 
if it is guided aright. No one ever 
heard of a child lowering its moral 
tone by athletic and playground activi- 
ties. It is when children hear bad talk 
or see bad pictures or talk of bad 
things among themselves for lack of 
anything better to talk about that the 
deviltry comes in. 
AVhen every one admits that the 
realm of the child is in God’s great out 
of doors why are so comparatively few 
people ready to couple up that outdoor 
existence with mental activity, with 
seeing, thinking and talking? There 
are but few organizations that recog- 
nize this prominent fact and chief 
among these is The Agassiz Associa- 
tion, worldwide in its interests, with 
headquarters at ArcAdiA, Soun d 
Beach, Connecticut. Forty-six years 
ago Mr. Harlan H. Ballard of Lenox, 
Massachusetts, with a wisdom far be- 
yond that time or even the present 
time, saw that the child’s chief domin- 
ion is in seeing, hearing and thinking, 
and that therein is the greatest danger 
if the child goes wrong. It is for the 
purpose of guiding observations and 
thoughts into what John Greenleaf 
Whittier calls the real fairylands that 
The Agassiz Association was estab- 
lished, and its work has steadily though 
slowly grown all these years. 
Now the well meaning editors will 
not be able to reform the movies until 
the general consensus of adult opinion 
wants them reformed, and the movie 
managers will put on a picture really 
worth while for the child only as fre- 
quently as they think it will be a pay- 
ing proposition and no oftener. But 
you local educators and philanthropists 
agitating your brains what to do for the 
children, you are cordially invited to 
turn your attention directly to The 
Agassiz Association. It has solved the 
problem and is continuing to solve it, 
not with a great flourish of trumpets 
but in its own quiet methods of work, 
ignoring the references to it now and 
then as a petty hobby or a fanaticism. 
Some of you are, like the man in “Pil- 
grim’s Progress,” gathering with a 
muckrake a few straws |of reform and 
movie improvement) while an angel 
is holding over your heads and those of 
the young folks you wish to benefit a 
great golden crown of the radiating 
sunshine of outdoors. 
A comparatively few discerning, 
thinking and charitably disposed per- 
sons have caused ArcAdiA to grow 
from a simple little building in a back 
yard to the present equipment of some 
dozen buildings and several acres of 
ground. Yet, astonishing as it may 
seem, there are still well meaning work- 
ers in child welfare and adult welfare 
of all sorts and kinds except this most 
natural of all who look with quizzical 
expression as they visit our premises 
and inquire, “Why, what is all this 
for?” 
