My guess is that you will not get any eminent, sound, responsible psychiatrist who will make a definitive stutement ou that subject.
Mr. Beaser. I was testing the exhibits against the code itself.
Senator Kefauver. Mr. Chairman, if lL may make a suggestion, this reads to me like a very excellent code that has been given a great deal of thought. If the publishers wonld follow this code, I do not think we would have this problem that we are talking about today. I know the code has been made a part of the record, but I would think, so that we would know what we are talking about, the paragraph having to do with that they recommend be published and what should not be published, onght to be read.
The Chairman. I shall be very glad to have the counsel read that portion of the code.
I, too, want to join in commencing the association for that code. It is a good code and would do the trick if it were observed.
Senator Kefauver. Counsel might read the whole thing. It is very short.
The Chairman. Counsel, will you read the code?
Mr. Beaser. This is something entitled "The Comics Code."
(Mr. Beaser read "The Comics Code" which appears as "Exhibit No. 9" on p. 70.)
The Chairman. You may proceed.
Mr. Beaser. I have one more question. You have had some years of experience in representing comic-book publishers. In the sale and distribution of comic books, are the dealers at the local level required by either the wholesaler, the distributor, or the publisher in any way to earry crime and horror comic books?
Mr. Schultz. I would say the best answer I could give starts with the basts that all magazines, comi¢e books, and all publications of every kind and variety are sold on a fully returnable basis. So you start with the concept that a dealer who feels the urge not to sell
Mr. Beaser. A dealer is the man on the street corner?
Mr. Schultz. A retailer. If the retailer desires to avoid selling any magazines, either which for political or social or religious or moral reasons offends his sensibilities. all he has to do is put them under the counter and retirn them for full credit.
T would not say there are instances where a roadman representing the wholesaler er the distributor in New York, in an effert to perform lus function, may not urge a dealer to display a comic horror book he might not want to, but there is no compulsion legally in any of the arrangements that Lam aware of in the pnblishing industry,
Mr. Beaser. Have you heard of compulsion in the form of either a publisher, wholesaler, or distributer saying to dealers that unless they carry crime and horror comics that they will not be given other, say, more salable magazines?
Mr. Schultz. I have not heard that, but I can imagine its happening for a different reason. Itis very much, Mr. Beaser, like the automo- bile business where they have an agency and they would not like the agent to prefer to sell only the convertibles, They want him to havea full line.
If a fat distributor, like the American News Co., that distributes 100 magazines, they prefer a wholesaler to carry their full franchise, all of their publications.
