TESTIMONY OF CHARLES APPEL, PROPRIETOR OF ANGUS DRUG STORE,

ST. PAUL, MINN.

            The CHAIRMAN. Will you state your full name, address, and association for the record, please?

            Mr. APPEL. My name is Charles Appel, 240 East Butler, St. Paul,

            The CHAIRMAN. The subcommittee wants to thank you for coming all the way here this morning to testify and give us the benefit of your experience.

            Mr. APPEL. I am a pharmacist, and I own the Angus Drug Store, 380 Selby Street, St. Paul.

            Mr. BEASER. How long have you been a pharmacist?

            Mr. APPEL. Since 1929.

            Mr. BEASER. Do you carry any magazines at your pharmacy?

            Mr. APPEL. Yes; we do.

            Mr. BEASER. Do you carry the crime and horror type comic books?

            Mr. APPEL. No; we do not.

            Mr. BEASER. Did you at any time?

            Mr. APPEL. We received them, but returned them at all times.

            Mr. BEASER. What happened when you returned them?

            Mr. APPEL. We were given credit for them.

            Mr. BEASER. Was there any retribution?

            Mr. APPEL. Not until the 17th of March.

            Mr. BEASER. This year, you mean?

            Mr. APPEL. Yes.

            Mr. BEASER. What happened the 17th of March, this year?

            Mr. APPEL. I received a bundle of magazines and one of the titles was missing. The TV Guide for our community was missing.

            Mr. BEASER. You did not get any TV Guides at all?

            Mr. APPEL. That is right.

            Mr. BEASER. What happened?

            Mr. APPEL. When the route checker came in I asked him what was the idea. I checked across the street and they had received theirs. He called the office and they said I was not to receive them because I had not paid my bill.

            Mr. BEASER. Had you paid your bill?

            Mr. APPEL. My bill was current; it was $200.

            Mr. BEASER. What happened then, sir.

            Mr. APPEL. So I explained to them I was running my business and if they wanted to run a business, buy a drugstore of their own; otherwise I wanted the magazines the way I ordered them, not the way they felt to send them.

            Mr. BEASER. Did you get them?

            Mr. APPEL. No, I did not. I had them pick up the balance of their distribution and paid them their bill.

            Mr. BEASER. What happened subsequent to that?

            Mr. APPEL. Subsequent to that the city council took it up, the State took it up, and passed a resolution against the literature.

            Now, what they have done is that they have continuously snowed us under with books we do not order. I have invoices here for a number of months, and the percentages of the magazines that we can sell that they send us is so small compared to what we have to count, check, handle, it is not worth while handling.

            Mr. BEASER. Do they charge you anything for the handling, or do you get full credit?

            Mr. APPEL. They have a weekly service charge for counting magazines on your rack and deciding how many of each you shall get.

            Mr. BEASER. Who does that, the route man?

            Mr. APPEL. The route man.

            Mr. BEASER. He comes in and counts how many magazines you have?

            Mr. APPEL. Of certain numbers. He takes spot numbers, how many we have, and we give him the figures of how many we have sold.

            Mr. BEASER. Is that service charge based on the number of magazines you carry?

            Mr. APPEL. No, I believe each dealer pays the same amount, 50 cents a week.

            Mr. BEASER. So at the present moment you are no longer carrying crime and horror comics?

            Mr. APPEL. That is right.

            Mr. BEASER. You also are not carrying the TV Guide?

            Mr. APPEL. Nor Reader's Digest or Saturday Evening Post, or other leading publications which we want.

            Mr. BEASER. Because you could not get one without the other; is that it?

            Mr. APPEL. That is right.

            Mr. BEASER. That was a local wholesaler?

            Mr. APPEL. We call them distributor.

            Mr. BEASER. In Minneapolis?

            Mr. APPEL. In St. Paul.

            Mr. BEASER. Now, as a result of this the city council passed what kind of resolution?

            Mr. APPEL. Banning sale of obscene and indecent literature. The State passed a resolution.

            Mr. BEASER. That is the State Association of Pharmacists?

            Mr. APPEL. Yes.

            The CHAIRMAN. May the Chair interrupt counsel to announce the arrival of the Honorable E. D. Fulton, member of the House of Commons of our great neighbor to the north, the Dominion of Canada.

            Mr. Fulton, we welcome you here, and in due time we will have your story before the subcommittee. It is a great privilege to have you here.

            Mr. FULTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I am very glad to be here.

            The CHAIRMAN. All right, Counsel, you may proceed.

            Mr. BEASER. That is one method of proof, I gather, that tie-in sales with crime and horror comics do exist?

            Mr. APPEL. Tie-in sales with what they want to send you is definitely proved, I believe.

            Mr. BEASER. Have you any suggestions as to how those tie-in sales can be avoided?

            Mr. APPEL. I have made an agreement with the other company who brought in a list. They allowed me to pick up what I would accept. They will send me according to their record as many as I need to cover my sales.

            Mr. BEASER. How do you do that? Do you do that once a month or once a week?

            Mr. APPEL. This is after a number of years of wrangling; I told them either to do that or I would have to throw out the magazines. So the American News came in with a list of approximately 80 magazines. I accepted all but 17.

            The CHAIRMAN. You say the American News?

            Mr. APPEL. The American News. The Minnesota News is the local branch.

            Mr. BEASER. The other company was what?

            Mr. APPEL. The other company never came around. They would not listen to me on that basis. That was the St. Paul News.

            Mr. BEASER. You are now ordering magazines, a number of magazines, solely on title rather than content? You know the magazines?

            Mr. APPEL. That is right.

            Mr. BEASER. I have no other questions.

            The CHAIRMAN. Senator Hennings?

            Senator HENNINGS. I have no questions, Mr. Chairman.

            The CHAIRMAN. I have no questions.

            I want to thank you for your presence here this morning.

            Mr. BEASER. Mr. Chairman, he has some documents which he wants to leave with us, the invoices. May we have those for the record?

            The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the documents will be made part of the record of the subcommittee.

            Mr. APPEL. I would like to explain them. I have statements here from the 24th of February to the 3d of March, including the 3d of March. I received about $l40 worth of magazines. Of that group, I had to return $80.87 worth showing that they just snow you under with amounts of magazines.

            The CHAIRMAN. Will you have any need for these?

            Mr. APPEL. No, I am through business with this fellow.

            The CHAIRMAN. They will be made a part of the subcommittee's file. Let that be exhibit No. 29.

            (The documents referred to were marked "Exhibit No. 29" and are on file with the subcommittee.)

            Mr. BEASER. Have you any other documents you wish to show the subcommittee?

            Mr. APPEL. Letters from well wishers and what not.

            The CHAIRMAN. Counsel call the next witness.

            Mr. BEASER. Mr. George B. Davis.

            The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Davis, you do not mind being sworn?

            Mr. DAVIS. No, sir.

            The CHAIRMAN. Do you solemnly swear that the evidence you are about to give to this subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

            Mr. DAVIS. I do, sir.

            The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Davis, will you give your full name and address?