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"It is considered normal that teenagers get into bed
with each other."

"(A) widely used sex manual both boys and girls had
studied in school begins with a statement, 'This
book has a moral; namely, that it should be every
human being's right to satisfy his sexual needs,
regardless of age or sex..., he can choose any
way of expressing this need.'"

"So it isn't true that the porno business is dying...
Business has never been better. People who think it
is dying are misled because they see the amateurs
dropping out. There are between 200 and 300 firms
of various sizes making porno in Copenhagen alone."

As Marcellus said in Hamlet, "Something is rotten in the

State of Denmark".

One can consult all the experts he chooses, can write reports, make studies, etc., but the fact that obscenity corrupts lies within the common sense, the reason, and the logic of every man.

St. Paul, looking upon a society in his time such as ours is

becoming today wrote:

They had exchanged God's truth for lie, reverencing
and worshipping the creature in preference to the
Creator... and, in return, God abandoned them
to passions which brought dishonour to themselves.
Their women exchanged natural for unnatural inter-
course; and the men, on their side, giving up natural
intercourse with women, were burnt up with desire for
each other; men practicing vileness with their fellow-
men. Thus they have received a fitting retribution for
their false belief.

And as they scorned to keep God in view, so God has
abandoned them to a frame of mind worthy of all
scorn, that prompts them to disgraceful acts. They

are versed in every kind of injustice, knavery, impurity,

avarice, and ill-will; spiteful, murderous,
contentious, deceitful, depraved, backbiters,
slanderers, God's enemies; insolent, haughty,
vainglorious; inventive in wickedness, dis-

obedient to their parents; without prudence, without
honour, without love, without loyalty, without

pity.

If man is affected by his environment, by circumstances of his

life, by reading, by instruction, by anything, he is then certainly affected
by pornography. The mere nature of pornography makes it impossible
for pornography to effect good. Therefore, it must necessarily
effect evil. Sexual immorality, more than any other causitive factor,
historically speaking, is the root cause of the demise of all great nations
and all great peoples. (Ref. Toynbee: Moral decay from within destroyed
most of the world's great civilizations.)

Pertinent commentaries rebutting the Effects Panel Report

are attached hereto as Exhibits "E" and "F", i.e. "Pornography Report" by Dr. Natalie Shainess and the September 6, 1970, letter of Walter S. Nosal, Ed.D.

The Commission majority bases their recommended repeal of all federal and state laws that prohibit consensual distribution of sexual material to adults" on the statement that "extensive empirical investigation, both by the Commission and by others, provides no evidence that exposure to or use of explicit sexual materials play a significant role in the causation of social or individual harms such as crime, delinquency, sexual or nonsexual

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deviancy or severe emotional disturbances".

While it is a fact that a significant percentage of nationally recognized psychiatric authorities and many law enforcement officials at all levels of jurisdiction would disagree with that statement, the important point I want to make here is that the reasons for obscenity laws are not contained in the statement. Obscenity laws have existed historically in recognition of the need to protect the public morality.

I submit that never in the history of modern civilization have we seen more obvious evidence of a decline in public morality than we see today. Venereal disease is at epidemic proportions and literally out of control in many large urban centers--despite medicine. Illegitimacy statistics are skyrocketing --despite the pill and other contraceptive devices--and despite the relatively easy access to abortion. Both of these social statistics reflect a promiscuous attitude toward sex which is no doubt contributed to by many factors--but certainly one factor has to be the deluge of pornography which is screaming at young people from records, motion picture screens, newsstands, the United States mail and their peer groups.

To say that pornography has no effect is patently ridiculous.

I submit that if pornography does not affect a person--that person has a problem. Pornography is intended to arouse the sexual appetite--one of the most volatile appetites of human nature. Once that appetite is aroused, it will seek satisfaction--and the satisfaction sought--without proper moral

restraints--is often reflected in the social statistics discussed above.

Proponents of legalized pornography claim that pornography is

actually good because it protects society from the sex deviate who might other

wise commit anti-social conduct. He can now read dirty books and get his

kicks that way. They point to a 31 percent decrease in sex crimes in

Copenhagen to support this thesis.

The fact is that in a society such as modern Copenhagen where pre-marital sex and illegitimacy bear no social stigma; where hardcore pornography is sold at every corner kiosk and at the "porno" or "sex shops" that dot the city; where live sex shows are legally conducted and exploited in the daily newspapers; where prostitutes block the sidewalks and wave from apartment windows; in such a society I am amazed that any sex crimes are reported. Yet the Chief of Police of Copenhagen, Closter Christionsen, in an interview in January, 1970, with Ray Gauer, National Director of Citizens for Decent Literature, pointed out that violent sex crimes of forcible rape and assault had not decreased in that city since legalization of obscenity. The only reason for a 31 percent statistical decrease in sex crimes is the fact that what was previously considered a crime is either now ignored or legal.

Denmark is currently experiencing the worst epidemic of venereal

disease among young people of any nation in the world.

In addition to the social problems of venereal disease and illegitimacy,

it is also of the very nature of obscenity to degrade sex and distort the

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role that sex plays in a normal life. There is no way to measure the
terrible effects that pornography has had and is having on marital
infidelity that is reflected in divorce statistics, abortions, suicide,
and other social problems that further reflect the decline in public
morality.

The effects of obscenity on society can best be summed up
by repeating here a quotation written in 1705 by Alexander Pope:

Vice is a monster of so frightful mein,
As to be hated, only needed to be seen.
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

The majority report of the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and

Pornography would have America embrace the monster vice.

Positive Approaches

wrote:

Whittaker Chambers (Witness, Henry Regnery Company, Chicago)

It is idle to talk about preventing the wreck of Western
civilization. It is already a wreck from within. That is
why we can hope to do little more now than snatch a fin-
gernail of a saint from the rack or a handful of ashes
from the fagotts, and bury them secretly in a flowerpot
against the day, ages hence, when a few men begin again
to dare to believe that there was once something else,
that something else is thinkable, and need some evidence
of what it was, and the fortifying knowledge that there
were those who, at the great nightfall, took loving thought
to preserve the tokens of hope and truth.

Chambers was negative; and as he looked upon our society, it was, indeed,
difficult for him to be positive. As I look upon the Report of the Positive
Approaches Panel and find them concerned with sex education ("how to do
it"), I have difficulty breaking away from the pessimism of Chambers.