"U.S.A.", is at the present writing, still under suit, in a New York Federal Court, for damages worth millions of dollars. It is, nevertheless, still on sale in many states. Its authors, Lait and Mortimer, incidentally, called Boston "...the place where publishers pay to have books banned, but little else ever happens."

Active Organizations

For every case that causes local or state attention, countless instances of "warnings" and "polite recommendations" go unnoticed. Under the law, the Attorney General and his District Attorneys are the only men granted the power to initiate action against an obscene publication. But police chiefs, Parent-Teachers Associations, and countless well meaning civic and religious groups combine, in the name of their children, to see to it that obscene literature is taken out of sight.

Perhaps the most active authorized group in the Commonwealth is the Massachusetts Advisory Committee on Juvenile Reading. Set up in 1949 by Attorney General Francis E. Kelly, the Committee serves as a screening group. It is composed of 29 men and women representing groups like the Massachusetts PTA, the League of Catholic Women, the Jewish Community Council, the Knights of Columbus, the Holy Name Society, the American Legion, the Amvets, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and several other civic, religious, and educational groups.

In a statement of intent, the group has said it is "...organized for the sole purpose of assisting parents, teachers, and librarians in the better selection of reading for juveniles..." It claims it will "...confines its attention solely to matter made available for juvenile reading," and it does.

At monthly meetings, the Committee tries to determine what books are "prejudicial to the morals" of juveniles. The 29 members do not read every publication that is shipped into the Commonwealth; they receive complaints from individuals of local groups about certain books.

The groups most often registering complaints are the PTA, the Knights of Columbus, the American Legion, and, in fact, most of those organizations represented on the Committee's board.

If the report is unfavorable, the Committee notifies the Attorney General, who sends a form letter to book sellers, advising them that the book is "unsuitable for persons under 18."

One member of the Committee said in matters of "cooperation" of this sort, where only a warning letter is sent out, the group "..relies mostly on public spirited citizens and police chiefs..."

In the less than three years of its existence, the Committee has advised that over 250 pocket books, comic books, and lurid magazines be withdrawn from the shelves, or at least withheld from persons under 18 years of ago. At first, members concentrated chiefly on pocket editions--the 25 cent variety. Lately, however, it has moved into the sphere of the comic books and has banned such magazines as "Wink" and "Whisper."

The Committee is "trying to work quietly." Members feel too much publicity will nullify its work. And "....it's done a lot of work," said a member of the Committee, "for which its gotten little credit."

"Education"

Committee members also feel that they have "educated" distributors to the point at which many refuse to display such publications without ever needing the friendly stimulus of a letter from the Attorney general.

Such reprint titles as James T. Farrel's "A World I Never Made" and Mickey Spillane's "I, the Jury" disappeared from drug-stores and book counters in the Harvard Square area, after the Advisory Committee recommendations.

Somewhat typical of other civic and religious groups who are seriously concerned with the problem of "dirty books" is the Holy Name Society of the Boston Archdiocese. A Catholic men's organization, the Society for the past few years has been conducting a quiet, but highly effective war on comics, magazines, and cheap books that it finds objectionable.