Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/282

270 Mr. . Or you can even refuse to accept all of X magazines?

Mr. Buacn. That is not necessarily a point here beeanse the dealer in opening his bundle has to place the copies on his stand. He would not. place them as a group as he gets them. He nist sort them out and more or less put them in various pockets. Soin taking his bundle apart Je must take this bundle apart and check the various items to see whether or not he is getting the right count and everything else.

Mr. . But when the bundle comes in to you it 1s identified in some way as to what the content is?

Mr. Buascn. Yes.

Mr. . So thai without opening up the bundle yon can fell what the title ts?

Mr. Brack, That is right. The ontstde label indicates what is tm the bun«lle.

Mr. . So if is not a question of bundling it up again: it is a auestion of shipping it back?

Mr. Buses, That is right.

It is dillienlt to estimate how effective this has been and io what pro- portions this practice has developed, but 1( 15 fair to say that the whole- saler has become of receut time inereasingly and vohintarily com- nutted to this practice.

10. It reasserts, however, the position, namely, that the rezponsi- bility for this objectionable material lies primarily with the publish- ers who produce it, They cannot escape fhe charge that they are unaware of what goes into the story, the comic strip, et cetera. They eve the very writers and producers who have the firsthand knowledge of the content, title, or the cover of the book. It 1s on their shoulders that this responsibility Hes and it is therefore at this core that the remedy shoul be.

Certainly, as contrasted with the wholesale distributors or the re- iailers, the publishers of the material and the 16 national distributors. are ina much better position te sert the objectionable from the com- mendable.

Therefore, it is on the publishers and the 16 national distributors that the onus should fall.

Reference is had to an editorial in the Toronto, Canada, Globe and Mail of March 38, 1954, commeuting upon the conviction of three pub- lishers and a wholeswe distributer for publishing and distributing eb- jectionable reading materi :

With all due respeet for the courts, we de uot believe Mr, Bryan’s [wholesale distributor] conviction was reasonable, What appeared in three crime story mingazines was not his responsibility. Ife could not be expeeted to have read all the stories and articles in every one of the numerous magazines he distributes, or if he had, to recognize thase which were legally offensive. That responsibdLity, in ovr view, rested squarely with the people who edited and published them the people who, quite properly, were heavily fined * * *. The full and final re- sponsibility for material appearing in newspapers, magazines, and books surely belongs with the peaple who edit ang publish them. They have time which the people who distribute them have not, knowledge which those people cannot he expected to have, legal advice which is not available to them.

11. This association is opposed to censorship or legistation whith perinits of censorship as the answer to the problem.

This is the most drastic of all remedies and should be resorfed to when all other cures have been given 4 trial and failed, for it is in this.