Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/86

74 I presume if the point was reached where a wholesaler, by refusing to accept publications, or returning them without sale, got to the roint where his franchise was ineffective and he was not doing a decent job for the individual distributor, he might remove the franchise and give it to somebody else.

Mr. . In other words, there is the possibility, then, that if a particular dealer in a drugstore does nol want to earry some of the crime and horror comics and keeps returning certain issues, thai he may be refused the sale of other magazines by the wholesaler?

Mr. . I can't conceive it happening at the level of the retailer. I think it would be very remote.

Mr. . It would be likely to happen then at the distributer-wholesaler level?

Mr. . It could happen at the distributor-wholesaler level, but I have never heard of its happening.

Mr. . Have you not heard that it ts so prevalent that it becomes necessary to pass statutes making tl illegal to do that very iling ?

Mr. . I know of the stalntes that are in existenee, Mr. Hannoch, 1 think they perhaps proceeded ona notion which is different from mine. That is, that there is some compulsion in the so-called tie-in sale.

My own experience in this industry representing publishers for a quarier of a century. would seem to indicate to the contrary.

Mr. . Do you think the statutes were passed in various States without any reason at all and not to cure an evil?

Mr. . I think that the statutes that were passed in Idaho there is oue in New York that bas just been passed, and there was a suggestion of one iu New Jersey—were passed as a result of a great deal of excitement and hysteria, in my judgment, about this whole problem of the impact of the mass media on juvenile delinquency.

I think they proceed from an erroncous assumption that the tie-in sale isa part of the legal mechanism of the distribution business when in fact it is net.

The. You do agree, Mr. Schultz, that if Lhey would abide by this code, if the publishers did abide by this code which was read into the record, the trouble would be solved ?

Mr. . I am sure 90 percent of the trouble would be removed.

The. At least the dangers would have been eliminated; would they not?

Mr. . Yes, except for the dangers that come from, if 1 may just expand ov that phase of itI would hate to feel T came down just. to tell this story of frustration of the association without at least being given the privilege of saying one word abaul my ewn views of the impact of these comics on this problem.

I have had the feeling from all T have seen and read, and I have had a great deal of contact wilh it, that there are people who. for motiva- tions of their own, some very sincere, some, I think, insincere, have made of this comic-book issue a national scandal.

I think it has been a disservice to the people. I think it has been a disservice to the whole problem that this committee is trying to grap- ple with, the problem of trying to find the basic impetus,

The causes of juvenile delinquency are broad, that to de the thing that has happened so many times, which is to point to the easiest,