Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/251

Rh Let me give you a conple of Ulustratious. A man, one of our pub- dishers, put ont acomic last week. When I heard about itI have been unmobilized for a couple of monthsI found out about it and I in- sisted he kill it unmediately. T lave had people look through the editorial content and ean’t find anything too wrenug with it, but the title itself.

Mr. . What is the name of it?

Mr. Davis. Tomb Horrer. We killed it. I told the fellow not to print another one yesterday, when I heard about it.

Mr. . How much ability have you to go through 70 magazines a month?

Mr, Davis. It is not 70 a month. It is 70 titles. They can be bi- monthly, There will probably be a billing of 20 or 30a month, Some quarterly, some annuals, some few monthlies.

Mr. . How can you tell whether Haunted Thrills for May or June contains something that may or may not be harmful to children?

Mr. Davis. Teannot. Jean only go on my experience in the business.

Now, as to what is harmful, some people have different definitions. I think T knew as mueh about children as any man that has been in this courtvoom yet, or this hearing yet, because I handled 86,000 for a good many years,

Senator Henntnes. Where was that?

Mr. Davis. I had the Liberty boys’ organization, the Macfadden Publications, which grew from nothing to 86,000 boys. We had little or no trouble,

Senator Hennines. What sort of groups were they?

Mr. Davis. They were boy salesinen delivering Liberty to the homes of all the people, like the Saturday Evening Post magazine.

We had a welfare organization. We had to closely supervise these boys, to see that they were home nights and everything else.

J tell you one of our biggest special prizes in those days, strange as it mily seem, wasajackknife. Inthe course of T years, we spent a million dollars on jackknives.

Mr. . You think that none of the material in all your crime

Mr. Davis. No, sir; I wouldn’t say that. I said that sometimes they will kiek their traces. I will admit very honestly T have no chance to gothrough allofthem, Beheve me, Iam just as ansious as anyone about this situation. If there are comics or any of them that have any bearing on the youngsters of this Nation, Mr. Campbell, the owner of my company, or myself, want no part in it, regardless of the money involved. This is not a fast dollar for us.

Mr. . Actually nobody in your organization takes any re- sponsilnlity for the content of what is distributed?

Mr. Davis. I would say this, sir, that when we feelnow, I think if we are guilty of anything, we ave guilty of the fact that we have not scrutinized them carefully enough, if you do find something wreng with ours, and that depends again on what you consider bat taste.

Senator Hennines. You are speaking, sir, of just the comies which you distribute?

Mr. Davis. Yes.

Senator Hexnrxes. You are not talking about some of the other magazines, the Gala, Scope, Suppressed?