HEARS

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plenty of rumors but not many of the stories have facts enough to print as news. You've got to have names and dates-and people to back them up. But most deviants would rather be blackmailed, beaten and murdered than allow publicity on their deviation to be bruited about. It's understandable-up to a point. It is true that our meals are as square as our reputations are "normal". It is also true that we, in keeping terrified silence, protect those who do us the worst wrong. As a result, the powers-thatbe are getting by with murder.

For instance, when a ONE business representative suggested to a Los Angeles bookstand proprietor that he handle the magazine, the man squinted at the contents and asked, "Has this been cleared by the vice squad? They got to okay everything on Main Street." Whether this statement is fact or not, it make a novel excuse for not handling ONE in a rough neighborhood. Several other stands in nicer neighborhoods apparently need no police censorship; they gladly sell ONE by the hundreds and beg for more. This Main Street stand has a full stock of the normally lewd, normally lascivious and normally sadistic publications including The Keyhole, perhaps

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one of the most vicious weeklies in the language. Does the vice squad clear this dandy, too?

It is going the rounds in Los Angeles that the vice squad is now asking, as part of the grilling given prisoners, whether the accused is a member of the Mattachine Society. The intention is obviously an attempt to prove that the Society and the magazine (which they assume are run by the same people) incite to illegal acts. The reasoning isn't too clear however. Membership in the Society doesn't make a criminal though a criminal MAY be a member. To connect the crime with membership is not unlike asking all speeders if they're Baptists. Certainly, there are Baptists who speed but to interpret this as an indication that this sect encourages reckless driving is sheer nonsense.

It is a matter of curiosity, too, how many answered affirmatively and how many were aware enough of their rights not to answer any questions at all. It is not required, you know. Attorneys say that more cases are lost between the time of arrest and the first interview with counsel than in any other phase. Without being impudent or antagonistic, the practical person will say, "May I answer

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