Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/284

272 My. Buacr, Isn’t it easier to have 16 national distributors police this sitnation than it is to ask 950 wholesalers or 100,000 retailers if we want to get down to the basic problem, the core of it, if we want. to reduce it to the least common denominator 2

Mr. . I am wondering if you would not think that the burden fell all up and down the line rather than just a particular set of individuals.

Mr. Buscx. As I state here, we can contribute to some degree in the scheme of things, hut the primary responsibility resis on the pub- lisher and the national distribntor.

3. There are already on our statule books, both Federal and StateNew Mexico stands alone in failing to have any punitive legislationwhich makes it a crime to publish, distribute, mail, or import obscene or objectionable material.

In conclusion it ust be admitted that governmental or legislative action, whether on the National, State, or local level, however stringent and severe, will not solve al} these problems, just as any self-policing or self-imposed code of ethics will not bring all members into line.

This utopia is not within practical reach. The isolated case of the “bad” book or the “horror comic strip? will be played up in the press and given wide scale publicity, by the pressure groups, and the attention of the public will necessarily be distracted from all the good and value the publishing industry, the distributors and the retailers offer the adult and the Juvenile by the informutive, educa- tional, recreational, and otherwise much worthwhile reading material it publishes and sells.

Unfortunate as is this fact, and it is a fact, the hope of the industry and af the public must be to cut. down measurably on the degree of the obseene and objectionable material which is finding its way into the hands of the public. Where the line imust be drawn is, of course, difficalt to say.

On this score reference is again had to the statement of Mr. Justice Douglas in the Esqnire case where he says:

Under our system of pevernment there is an ag¢comnmodation for the widest variety of tastes and ideas. What is saod literature, what has educational value, what is refined public informattan, what is good art, varies with individ- uals as if does from one generation to another, * * * The basie values implicit in the requirements of the fourth condition can be served only by uncensored distribution of literature. From the multitude af competing offerings the public will pick and choose. What seems to one to be trash may have for others fleeting or even enduring values.

The point is that governmental action of censorship must not be hehtly entertained,

On the other hand, it dees not follow that there is any roam in the industry for the obscene and objectionable book or periodical or comic strip which may be considered to prey upon the mind of the youth or the npressionable.

The publishers and the national distributors must constantly be on the alert and take organized. united and effective action on their own initiative to stop the flow of worthless and degrading material and not simply pay lip service to the problem, :

The education of all the members of the publishing industry and the nutienal distributors ts net an ensy job, fer there are Inindreds of them in the field and, obvionsly, the greed for profit from the