tangents

news & views

by del mcintire

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"Big brother" policies of our Federal government were made more "brotherly" and less "big" in a small but significant way by U. S. Customs at the end of August when three books two of photographs and one of drawings were declared to be "Admissible importations" into this country. Previously, the shipments of books, destined for Dorian Book Service and Cosmo Book Sales, two unrelated booksellers in San Francisco appealing to homophile clientele, had been held to be obscene and therefore were impounded under provisions of Sec. 305 of the Tariff Act of 1931.

After several small shipments of the books Der Mann in Der Photographie III, and Der Mann in Der Zeichnung had been received by Dorian and duty paid on them, a larger shipment was intercepted at San Francisco early this spring. The volumes, one of photographs and one of male physique drawings (including a reproduction of Piscasso's

"The Student") were to be destroyed or sent back to the point of originthat is, Der Kreis, the Swiss organization which published them. ONE's own bookservice had successfully imported and sold large numbers of the Der Mann III book in 1958 and 1959 without comment from Customs but had voluntarily discontinued selling the volume.

Partners Don Lucas and Hal Call of Dorian Book Service determined that they would tolerate no interference from Customs concerning shipment of these books. A series of letters was initiated with Customs. Deputy Collector O'Reilly at San Francisco, when told that Dorian proposed court action to free the books, promised to seek a review of the ruling made by higher authority in the Dept. in Washington.

Nothing happened and on June 25th, the Federal Supreme Court, in the case of Manual Enterprises vs. J. Edward Day, Postmaster General (see tangents, Sept. '62 ONE),

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