They Tried to Warn Us (Lost Video From 1965)

Now you might ask yourself, why this sudden concern? Pornography and sex deviation have always been with mankind. This is true. But now consider another fact. Never in the history of the world have the merchants of obscenity, the teachers of unnatural sex acts, had available to them the modern facilities for disseminating this spill. High-speed presses, rapid transportation, mass distribution, all combined to put the vilest obscenity within reach of every man, woman, and child in the country. In the past few years, this obscenity traffic in salacious newsstand literature have become increasingly worse, not only in content, but in volume.

This traffic continues to increase and flourish for one reason. It is big business, profitable business, for the mercenary persons who produce it, and for it more than 800 distributors. The United States Supreme Court has described it as dirt for dirt’s sake. We describe it as dirt for money’s sake. Obscene literature is a two billion dollar a year business. That’s two billion dollars. Through this material, today’s youth can be stimulated to sexual activity for which he has no legitimate outlet. He is even enticed to the world of sadists, masochists, and other sex deviants.

The psychiatric terms for these unnatural sex acts are unknown to most decent adults in our country. But through this salacious material, these abnormalities are corrupting the minds and the hearts of our children, perversion for profit. Here is the most ambitious, the most insidious feature of these publications. They constantly portray abnormal sexual behavior as being normal. They glorify unnatural sex acts. They tell youngsters that it’s smart, it’s thrilling, it provides kicks to be a sadist, and every other kind of deviant. The Military Chaplain’s Association of United States, practically every major fraternal civic and religious organization, the juvenile court judges, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, innumerable psychiatrists, sociologists, and psychologists attribute the moral decay among our people in very large part to the obscene and pornographic literature so prevalent in our society.

This moral decay weakens our resistance to the onslaught of the Communist masters of deceit. A major factor that makes youngsters prime targets for this printed bill is the natural curiosity of youth about the mysterious force of sex. Yet, on virtually every newsstand, is a welter of misinformation which can wreck them for life. And it is important to realize that even if you knew that your own children would never, under any conditions, buy or read this material if you knew this, and you can’t know this, you must realize that they are constantly exposed to those who do read this material and who might be triggered into compulsive acts of sex violence.

As I said before, the most insidious feature of these publications is that they glorify crime and ridicule law and authority. Vice is presented as fun. This warped idea of fun has contributed to the fact that one out of every 20 children born in the United States last year was illegitimate. The rate of illegitimacy has been steadily climbing, and the care of these children costs taxpayers one billion dollars a year in government aid. This does not take into account the human misery or suffering that cannot be measured in dollars and cents.

What these publications promote as fun has helped to increase the spread of venereal disease in this country. Reported syphilis has increased more than 300% in the last five years. The increasing crime rate also parallels the increase in obscenity. A vicious crime of violence, murder, forcible rape, or assault to kill is being committed every three minutes. The total cost of crime in human waste, misery, tax, and material loss is beyond calculation. Sex mad magazines are helping to create criminals faster than we can build jails to house them. This two billion dollar a year racket is challenging every mother and father in this country, and everyone interested in the welfare of our children.

The question is this. Do you want your children stimulated and driven into an early unstable marriage before they have had a chance to achieve the economic, educational, and emotional stability necessary for family life? Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? Opponents to the control of obscene literature state that the circulation of this material is the price we pay for freedom in this country. But the United States Supreme Court does not agree. Smut peddlers do not have the right to contaminate our society.

This is a nation of laws, and you and I have a constitutional guarantee to police protection of our welfare. The law is our weapon. Here in a typical courtroom, a judge is instructing the jury in the case of a smut peddler. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Lakewood has a valid constitutional legal ordinance prohibiting the publication, sale, or distribution of obscene material. It is under this law that the defendant herein was arrested and prosecuted. The Supreme Court of the United States has clearly stated that obscenity is without constitutional protection. The Supreme Court has defined obscenity as material which deals with sex in a manner appealing to the proriant interest, that is, material having a tendency to excite lustful thoughts.

It might be well to point out that it is not necessary to prove that this material has led to an act of violence or sex crime, but merely that the material taken in itself is obscene. The test is whether to the average person applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to the proriant interest. If material meets this test, it is without the constitutional guarantees of freedom of press and speech. Now you, the jury, must apply the test of obscenity to the material distributed by this defendant.

You, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, are the sole triars of the facts in this case. The application of this legal test to the evidence is to be made by you and you alone. You, in effect, by your decency, determine the level of morality in this community. You, indeed, are the peers of the community. And so, my friends, the question is whether you consider publication, samples of which you have seen in this film, to be below your community standard. To find the answer, ask yourself these questions. Would you display this material on your living room table? Do you find such material in the living rooms of your friends and neighbors? Would you read stories from these publications to your family or friends? Would you undertake to sell this material from door to door? Of course you would not.

Your community standards are far above this depraved material. [tr:trw].