Ceiling

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

of airplanes, the level of the atmosphere above which a given airplane or type of airplane cannot rise, owing to the combined effects of reduced lifting power in the air at such level and reduced engine power from diminished air supplies. CENSORSHIP OF MOTION PIC- TURES. In addition to local censorship powers exercised as a rule by mayors and local police authorities under right to revoke theater licenses, five States - Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Maryland, and New York-had State boards of censors at the beginning of 1922. The Ohio State Board, established in 1913, was abolished in 1921, but a new Division of Film Censorship with a chief censor and two assistants was created at the same time under the Department of Education. The New York Motion Picture Commission was established by law on May 14, 1921, and in that year also the Massachusetts legislature passed a censorship act, to go before the people in November, 1922. A censorship bill passed by the legislature of Nebraska in April, 1921, was vetoed by the governor; and in Florida a censorship measure was adopted directing the governor to appoint State representatives on the unofficial National Board of Censorship whose decisions were thenceforward to be recognized as of legal force in the State. The so-called National Board of Censorship (officially the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures) is a volunteer socialservice organization composed of over one hundred men and women representing many phases of social contact and activity. Its members review about 99 per cent of all the photoplays exhibited in the United States, films being voluntarily submitted by producers under an agreement to abide by decisions made. In addition to the State of Florida, above mentioned, a number of cities co-operate with the National Board, prohibiting all pictures which have not its approval. The powers of official boards of censors extend in general to the prohibition of all pictures of immoral tendency, but the possibility of a wide interpretation of such words as immoral, ind indecent, etc., has led in many cases to pictures being censored on account of social and polit ical teachings not in accordance with the views of the authorities. Censorship laws have attempted to enumerate prohibited subjects for the guidance of censors. The Ohio law states that all pictures to be shown must be of a moral, educational, or amusing and harmless character in the judgment and discretion of the board of censors. The Pennsylvania law (closely followed by the Kansas law) permits only films that are moral and proper; forbidding such as are sacrilegious, obscene, indecent, or immoral, or which tend to debase or corrupt morals. The New York law adds "inhuman" pictures to the list of prohibited subjects, together with such as incite to crime. The constitutionality of censorship boards for controlling motion pictures has been recognized by the courts, but a number of decisions made by such boards have been reversed on appeal to the courts as interferences with constitutional guarantees of the rights of persons to freedom of opinion. An important decision in relation to police censorship was rendered by the New York State Court of Appeals Feb. 20, 1922, denying the right of licensing authorities to prevent the production of disapproved plays by the revocation of theater licenses, thus making it necessary for such authorities to proceed against any alleged immoral play through the regular channels of criminal action. TION, a short-lived union of Central American republics (Guatemala, Honduras, and Salvador), established Oct. 10, 1921, and dissolved Jan. 29, 1922, following the overthrow of its supporters in Guatemala. CHARLES I., EX-EMPEROR. (See HUNGARY.) CHINA (1921). Divided into factions. Most of the provinces under military chiefs. Sun Yat-sen, president of Canton government, South China, refusing to acknowledge government at Peking. Peking cabinet overthrown (Dec. 18, 1921) by General Chang Tso-lin, super-Tuchun of North Manchuria, but new premier forced to take "leave of absence" through opposition of General Wu Pei-fu, strongest military leader in China. Threatened civil war. U. S. Government establishes embargo on arms and munitions to China (January, 1922). Washington conference results. (See WASHINGTON CONFER- ENCE.)