Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/250

238 Mr. . If you have a wholesaler, for example, who says te you: he does not want Strange, Yoo Doo, or your Danger, does he get as. many eopies of Hunting ‘and F Fishing?

Mr. Davis. Yes.

Mr. . Radio-Electronics?

Mr. Davis. Yes. We have no such powers in onr line, anyway. In other words, that power is not used in this business, I think that is a far cry from the truth, about foreing stuif. Beheve you me, some- times [ wish T could for ce a little.

I will give yor a little typical example. I just happened to see my friend Sam Black over there, who will probably testify here, and this goes into comics and Tithink 1 itisa very interesting story. We just took over a line of comics, the St. Johns’ line of comics, aud there were 40 titles inelnded in this group.

We didn’t notify the wholesalersthis was long in advance of our distribution, but Mr. Black found it out. He didn’t think St. Johns’ comics was such a good line. So he says, “Under no conditions send mesury of SC. Johus’ comics,

The thing that Mv. Black didn’t know was this, that out of the 40 comics that Mr. St. Johus had, we were only taking 18 which included nothing in the world but children’s stuff “and oot, clean stuff like Adventures of Mighty Mtonse and all that Loouey ‘Tooney stull, and Paul Terry's comic.

Mr. . Where was St. Johns’ distributing the others?

Mr. Davis. To the American News Co, [mean he was distributing allto them. We dic take the line, eliminated 26 titles from the market. and kept the good, clean comics that we could take.

Now, | only ciied that as an illustration 1o show the freedom of action in this business.

Mi. Blueck says, “Dou't send any,” so, naturally, I am not going to seid any, but w hen I have a chance to talk to him I will tell him the entire stor: ¥-

Mr. . Is there any breakage which innres to you by reason of the fact that you get 2 handling charge for any of the magazines?

Mr. Davis. No, sir; we get no banding charges, sir. We make a profit from our publishers on what is sold.

Mr. . That is all.

Mr. Davis. Thatis all.

Mr. . Now, what standards do you utilize in determining what materials you will distribute, if arry ¢

Mr. Davis. That is a very important question; a very nice one, a pointed question. There are publishers in this business that, like everybody else, kick their traces at times. I am not holding any brief for these fellows that ga overboard,

I think one thing wrong with most of these mectings is the fact that some of them don't seem to be quite honest with the answers. I think to acertain degree all of us at times may be guilty of overstepping our bounds.

Now, in my position at the Kable News Co., Iam solely responsible for what we distribute, Quite often I will take on a magazine that has. a good title, but Iam not too familiar with the editorial content. The publisher will tell me what the contents are, but when ii comes time for distribution, it is all printed and gone before IT get my advance: copy, and then it is too late for me to do anything about it.