difficult job done and that is, where ave the limits of the legitimate matter, Mr. District Atiarney, this is your FBI, Gang Buster shows, and this.
Now, T hope you won't send me home with the task of submitting definite criteria. Still, I would again emphasize, sir, not defensively, but feeling perfectly relaxed, that we have done a vent deal in this field, that that was one of the very approaches which we started out with in onr first study, to skip criteria because you could not say erime comies are bad. but we tried to set up what kind of crime eonuies ave bad, what kind of fantastic adventures are bad, what kind of war stories are bad,
So we tried to set up these criteria, but believe me, sir, that is a pretty hard task,
T have, at times, after a particularly hard week, listened Friday nights to some of these FBT and mystery stories which seem to gather at that particular evening, and T have had my doubts at times.
Some of it seemed ta be very good, and others a litle bit more questionable.
But certainly a clear line cannot be drawn, But { would say that I fully agree with you that our viewpoint is that there is a new medium abont, not just radio, net just TY, but comics.
Children today read comics, rend them in tremendous numbers, mil- lions of them who never get in trouble.
We also have in this very sume medium some exceedingly poor, distasteful and T say, dangerous stuff. When T say dangerous, I merely rephrase what T have said before. £ will come out quite blunthy here that you may say we hedged on one thing. If vou feel that we should have recommended censorship, police censarship of these. indeed we did not do so purposely becanse we do not think this is a good American method in the first place, and we feel in the second place, with that kind of publisher censorship will never work because the fly-by-night man eseapes censorship and the good publisher is hit by it.
But we have felt that community action should be forthcoming, eivie xclion, action through the trade associations, and so on,
We still feel so today. We still hope that out of this committee's. work some new avenues of approach will come which will put a definite stop to the publication and availability of these comics.
will say further that that will be a distinct contribution, not just in general to children's welfare, but T would say more specifically that this would be a contribution to the broad approach to delinquency prevention.
That, I am certainly ready to say.
The Chairman. Mr. Dybwad, the Chair wishes to thank you. You will produce for the record, will you not, the list of your board of directors, the list of your membership, and the list of your contributors.
Mr. Dybwad. That I certainly will.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
The next witness?
Mr. Beaser. Mr. William Friedman.
The Chairman. To you solemnly swear that the testimony you will give before this subcommittee of (he Committee on the Judiciary
