Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/187

Rh Children have to Hye in a world as it is. Fundamental changes cannot he ef- feetmuted tn a short space of time. Teo many special interests, prejudices, yvalnes are concerned. Nor can children be made geod by removing evil out of their experience. Character is not built that way. One does not correct the basie problems presented an energetic lad by taking movies and comics away from him. If he has need for such outlets he will get to therm and deprivation is no cure.

Mr. . Do you believe then that anything could be put mto a comie that would be detrimental to a child?

Mr. . Certainly not. As publishers, and T am speaking only of our own line, I de not feel that we would at any time conscious- ly pnt anything in any one of our magazines which might be detri- mental to the reader. Now we can't evaluate fntly obviously some- thing that a reader migh( say of our magazines, how he would react tothat. We don't know, but there is such a tremendous divergence of opinion among experts in the field L hardly think we are qualified to prejudge on that point. We would like to know.

Mr. . In your concern who does the examination for com- pliance with the code! Do you do it?

Mr. . It is done, I would say, before and after the maga- zine is produced. I believe I made the point thai our editor, assistant editors, and the artists with whom we work, as well as most of our writers, are familiar with the code, the fact that we have tried to ad- here very, very closely to it, and after the magazme is ultimately printed I see them. Others in our organization see them. And I cannot honestly say to you that we read every word in them. If is a physical impossibility with the volume that goes through, but we do watch them.

Mr. . Where is the responsibility, on the artist or editor?

Mr. . I hasten to add that occasionally a mistake may be made but onrs is a hurried business, a business of deadlines. There are dlivistous of responsibilities and such factors that make for errors, but basically we believe that 95 percent of our total comic production is acceptable by any standard. We publish wes(erns, teen-age, ro- mance, adventure, as well as comies, and occasionally comics in other fields.

I have a sud story to tell you about Bible comics, if I may tonch on that point. Weird comics are apparently wanted by the reading pub- lic. There isa demand for them. We did not create the demand. We still don't create the demand. We do not advertise or promote, but we do want our share of the market if there are no deleterious effects. Nothing would please us more than to produce the technically finest possible conic, wonderful arbwork, fine worthwhile editorial matter, elec. But I have news for you, nobody would buy such comics.

Mr. . Is the sole theory whether there is a demand?

Mr. . No, sir; but we are in the publishing business, and if there isa demand for a certain type of published material and there is no reason (o [eel on a conclusive basis that there ean he any harmful effects from the reading of any one of our publications, I hardly see why we should not fill the demand. I can hardly see it is any different from an automobile manufacturer stopping the manufacture of auto- mobiles just because people get killed 1n automobiles.

Mr. . They do put brakes on them.

Mr. . And so do we. We certainly do.