include freedom from intrusive obscenity, freedom from
blatant interference with their direction and control of the
education and training of their children and their rights as
citizens to be protected from the serious social harm done to
the community by obscene publications.

In essence, this pornographic pollution is a local problem of national magnitude. Parents are not only the guardians of their homes but they form the core of enlightened action in the community and of good legislation at the State and Federal level.

Parents must also, the subcommittee believes, recognize and respond to the need for providing teenagers with good literature, ideas, and values which will channel and answer their curiosity. A resolution of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, has well stated this purpose. It reads:

Whereas the General Federation of Women's Clubs is deeply interested in the welfare of youth, in causes of behavior problems, in the early detection of trends toward delinquency, in the prevention of actual delinquency, in addition to provision of facilities for treatment and detention of delinquents, and believes that added emphasis should be placed upon prevention: Therefore be it

Resolved, That the General Federation of Women's Clubs advocates a positive approach to the problems of youth through the establishment of local communitywide committees devoted to the creation of conditions in the home, the school, the church, and the community which are conducive to the development of sound, wholesome youth and urges member clubs to assume the initiative in the creation of such committees where none exist and to offer enthusiastic cooperation to such committees in communities where they have been established.

The

Federal legislation will not substitute for parental guidance or absolve parents from their obligation to know their children, to understand their thinking, and to guide them by appealing to their interests as forcefully and attractively as the "dirt peddlers." American home is the target of the pornographic attack. The American home must also be the center of the counterattack against pornography.

APPENDIX

STATEMENT BY HON. KATHRYN E. GRANAHAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON POSTAL OPERATIONS OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON POST OFFICE AND CIVIL SERVICE, AT HEARING ON OBSCENE LITERATURE, MAY 18, 1959

This is a continuation of the hearing begun on April 23, 1959. At that time the Honorable Arthur E. Summerfield, Postmaster General of the United States, testified regarding the very serious matter of the use of the U.S. mails in the wholesale promotion and conduct of mailorder business in obscene and pornographic materials. It is estimated that $500 million is realized annually in mail-order pornography and obscenity.

As I pointed out at our initial hearing, a primary concern of our subcommittee is the use of the mails to send obscene materials to people who strongly object to receiving such material. We must fight back when our families are forced to be a captive audience subjected to bombardment by material to which they plainly object.

One of the most serious problems facing America today is that of juvenile delinquency. The record is full of evidence that in crimes of violence and sex offenses among youth, a major factor is the sensationalizing of sin. Recently, J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said:

"At the approach of the warm months and the beginning of the seasonal rise in sex crimes, there is a special need to focus public attention on a despicable business-the sale and distribution of obscene material. The serious danger of this 'big business' criminal enterprise lies in its degrading influence on youth and American communities."

High in the ranks of contributors to juvenile delinquency are the vicious and unscrupulous producers, printers, and peddlers of smut. They are as responsible as the sex fiends they incite by their wares. Time after time arresting officers have reported finding obscene pictures hidden on their person or under their mattresses. After one particularly brutal rape-murder a killer told police, "It was the magazines *** the ones with pictures of unclothed women when I read them I couldn't control myself."

In another case a 14-year-old boy was the victim of the sensationalizing and exploitation of immorality. He was apprehended by police after a woman reported that someone was walking on the roof of her house. The youth openly admitted his intentions-to chloroform and assault the first unprotected woman he found. This boy came from a fine family and had a good record. But hidden under the mattress of his bed was a bundle of obscene pictures. Unnaturally stimulated by them, he had formulated his vicious plan and almost succeeded in carrying it to completion.

I am sure you will agree that the peddling of smut to children is a heinous crime that must be stopped. This is a problem that calls for positive action now. This hearing should serve to point up the seriousness of the problem and the need for decent citizens everywhere to unite in a crusade against the dealers of smut and filth whose activities weaken the moral life of this Nation.

We welcome the efforts of both local and national organizations who are willing to put their shoulder to the wheel in this crusade to eradicate these vultures who are out to make money without regard to the impact their actions have on the next generation. We are going to insist that every Federal official who has a responsibility in this area maintain an intense and unrelenting effort to stop this monstrous assault on the Nation's children, in every way possible.

Under legislation passed by the 85th Congress, an offender using the mails for the distribution of obscene material may be prosecuted not only at the point of deposit of such material, but also at the point where the objectionable material is delivered. It is encouraging to note that in the first case following this legislation the offenders, a man and his wife, each received a 10-year prison sentence and a fine. Similar cases are now pending.

Our concern over the availability of obscene material to our youth stems from the fact that it tends to destroy the moral fiber of our youngsters through the establishment of false moral standards. Many communities and parents are seemingly unaware of the size and seriousness of this problem. Certainly, steps to safeguard the character and morals of our children and youth is of equal importance to the steps we take regarding their physical and mental health. For success, there must be coordinated and simultaneous action on the part of Federal, State, and local governments and the citizens of each community.

I am convinced we need to have a nationwide citizens' crusade to press forward with renewed vigor to once and for all smash the dealers of smut and filth and I urge that parents and decent-minded citizens everywhere organize that they may effectively fight these merchants of filth and safeguard our youth from such material.

Those who corrupt young people were condemned by Our Lord when He said: "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he be cast into the sea, than he should offend one of these little ones."

It is not enough that those who corrupt young people be punished. There is a challenge to develop and carry out a program which will raise the level of literature to be put in the hands of our youth. We hope, as a subcommittee, to produce a report which will suggest actions that can be taken by individuals and organizations. We are looking to the witnesses today to outline steps which they have taken or recommend which will have good prospect of success in this regard. We must draw public attention to the menace of this serious problem and provide a suggested program to mobilize community support for the protection of our children against the ravages of this contaminating evil which threatens their moral well-being.

THE CHURCH LOOKS AT IMMORALITY IN PRINT AND ON SCREEN 1

FOREWORD

Awareness of problem. Decent-minded Americans are growing increasingly incensed over the flood of sex-centered or violence-saturated products appearing on the magazine racks, bookshelves, and motion picture screens. They see these materials as attacks on moral, spiritual, and religious values and as a threat to community health and well-being.

Church people especially are disturbed over the prevalence and ready availability of products dealing in themes of illicit sex, crime, and brutality. They see fundamental values of respect for God, for human life, for marriage and family, for property, and for good name and reputation degraded and besmirched by these materials. Church people become ready recruits to campaigns to clean up the newsstands or censor the movies.

Guide to action.-Effective action, however, needs a firm foundation of facts and understanding. This statement has been prepared toward that end. It offers observations on the problems of pornographic and violence-dominated themes in print and on the screen. It outlines courses of corrective action. It is intended to stimulate thinking, provoke discussion, and promote informed action among members of the American Lutheran Church.

Sweeping condemnation of all magazines, books, and motion pictures is alike inaccurate, unfair, and unjust. Much good material is intermingled among the bad. Nor do the covers or the descriptive advertising offer a valid basis for judging the content. These reflect instead an estimate of what will sell the product. Even widely circulated and generally accepted magazines on occasion descend to levels which many readers regard as pornographic, brutal, or of too earthy realism. There is danger in oversimplifying both the problem and methods of dealing with it.

A. THE INTENSITY OF THE PROBLEM

The bait used.-Sex, crime, and violence sell books, magazines, and motion pictures. Even though it is in a warped, distorted, perverted form, sex is a bait used to lure willing customers into buying books, magazines, and theater admissions. Themes of brutality, crime, violence, and cruelty entice eager prospects to purchase the sensationstimulating product.

False views abound.-The attitudes toward life, its pleasures and satisfactions, and the standards of conduct espoused in materials of this type reflect a moral depravity. Such themes repeatedly restated must inevitably affect the attitudes of readers and viewers. In time they may indeed become the justification for depraved actions. Among others, one may observe the following thoughts recurring with considerable frequency.

(a) Leisure-time, nightclubs, luxurious or exotic apartments, automobiles, alcoholic beverages, and illicit sex relations are closely interassociated.

A statement approved May 7-9, 1959, by the Board for Christian Social Action, American Lutheran Church, as a means for stimulating thinking, promoting discussion, and guiding action among members of the American Lutheran Church. It is intended especially for use by pastors, church councilmen, women's societies, youth groups, and men's organizations within our congregations.

(b) A flippant, lewd, low tone toward marital fidelity, glorifying infidelity, makes light of marriage vows and monogamy. Sexual immorality is "smart," not sinful.

(c) Sex is for personal enjoyment, a biological necessity like eating and drinking, a woman is a means for gaining sexual satisfaction, one man among an eager group of young women lives in a kind of earthly paradise, and love is a passion which cannot be restrained, only surrendered to. Homosexuality is enticingly presented.

(d) The keynote of life for "high class" people is a sophisticated round of revelries, the members emancipated from indefensible, outworn, traditional restraints.

(e) Basic moral principles of honesty, integrity, forthrightness, purity, respect for authority, and regard for person, life, property, and good name, are ridiculed as antiquated relics of a simpler era.

(f) Male and female sexual characteristics are exaggerated or exploited in photographs and sketches toward the end of stimulating lust. The body, not human personality, is made dominant, even idolized.

(g) An antireligious note frequently recurs, including sacrilegious use of Biblical words and phrases.

(h) Smutty wit, indecent wisecracks, ribald jokes, and suggestive humor, in word and cartoon, are standard features.

(i) Vice, liquor, narcotics, and crime are associated, forces of law and authority are ridiculed, smartness in evading the law and the consequences of illicit behavior is applauded, and life and property are as nothing if they stand in the way of one's own goals.

() After a lurid life, described in revealing detail, the central character turns at the very end to morally sanctioned patterns of life, the impression being left that a turn to morality condones previous immorality.

Weaknesses revealed.-That such themes are so widely devoured is a commentary less perhaps on the avarice of publishers and distributors than on the moral mediocrity, the mental slothfulness, the sexual illiteracy, and the emotional immaturity of millions of American people. The situation reflects the level of their reading and looking tastes, and the scant or wrong impact of religious teachings upon personal conduct. It is no surprise that profit-minded interests willingly supply the demand for products satisfying such warped and twisted outlooks.

Dangers to youth.-The problem is made the more acute by the ready availability of magazine-rack and pocket book materials for inexpensive sums-usually 25 to 50 cents. Easily accessible to youth, inviting their patronage in drug or grocery store, station or hotel, or in other places youth normally frequent, these materials brazenly tempt the normal curiosity and drives of youth.

An additional problem is the invasion of private homes with pornographic materials addressed directly to children. Mailing lists of names of children are compiled and sold to further the spread of pornography. Hints of "forbidden fruits" revealingly pictured or described in words often enticed not only youth but also adults into ordering the materials or arranging for "private showings."