Obscure BP quote from an auction site

[skeptic]

This is from an auction listing for an upcoming auction through Heritage Auction House.  I find the comments in the shared part of the letter from the auction site to be reflective of how often B.P. offered specific, well-reasoned comments on youth issues during his era.

 

 

 

Robert Baden-Powell Typed Letter Signed "Robert Baden-Powell". Two pages, 8" x 10" (sight), London; May 30, 1921. Printed on Boy Scouts Association letterhead and addressed to an unknown recipient, the letter graciously declines an invitation to write an article about films, but offers an opinion on the future of cinema. His letter reads in part:

"...the selection of the character of the films really rests neither with the proprietors, nor with the Public Censor, but with the public. If the public shows its preference for good dramas and interesting instructive pictures, instead of the silly films that are found to play in certain countries, the manufacturers will naturally be guided by its taste. When educationalists and other people complain of the nature of the films they should direct some of the blame on those who are responsible for the character training of the young people – and there you have a problem!...it is in order to do something in this direction that the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guide Movements have been started and are already making headway." The letter is framed with a portrait of Baden-Powell to the overall size of 37" x 21.5".