There will be, I fully realize, those who will jeer at the basic idea underlying the contention that I have made in this little book, ridicule me for believing that, although a man cannot raise himself by his boot-straps, mankind at large can elevate itself by means of the regenerated, ever-increasingly-potent movie. Nevertheless, as I have been describing in some detail the evolutionary steps that have raised the screen from a toy to a world power, have broadened its scope from a plaything to a sleepless influence affecting the destinies of men and nations, I have been constantly more convinced that the suggestion regarding a great world centre for the enlightenment of mankind through visual instruction, made in my first chapter, becomes every month more feasible, as it also, as the days pass and the world appears to go from bad to worse, grows more imperatively necessary. The screen is a mirror in which the race can see itself as it has been and as it is, and a tongue, comprehended of all men, that might, if it rises to its great mission, bring salvation to the world. “A lighthouse of the past, a university of universities, a fountain of all revealed knowledge, inculcated through a medium understood of all men, a Mecca for the pilgrims of progress from all comers of the earth,”—that is my dream, and, for having dreamed it, I know that I am a better man. By the same token, the human race would become a better race if it possessed the foresight and common-sense to make my dream come true! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ APPENDICES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ APPENDIX A STATISTICS SHOWING THE SCOPE OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY Motion picture theatres in the United 15,000 States Seating capacity (one show) 7,605,000 Average weekly attendance at picture 50,000,000 theatres Admissions paid annually $520,000,000 The average number of reels used for one 8 performance Average number of seats in picture 507 theatres Number of persons employed in picture 105,000 theatres Persons employed in picture production 50,000 Permanent employees in all branches of 300,000 picture industry Investment in motion picture industry $1,250,000,000 Approximate cost of pictures produced $200,000,000 annually Salaries and wages paid annually at $75,000,000 studios in production Cost of costumes, scenery, and other $50,000,000 materials and supplies used in production annually