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devoted love, but rather as the temporary gratification of desire? Does not cruising pretty accurately describe what most homophiles do or would do if they dared or had the opportunity? I'm afraid so. I'm afraid most of us have scarely any inkling of need for any love that is not simply sexual relations. Of course there are those who argue that man is basically promiscuous, in other words, that love in the sense of selfless outpouring is unnatural and undesirable. They would say that any arrangement by which a man is bound to one other person, or small group of persons (family) is unnatural to homo sapiens and is attainable only at the expense in the long run of psychic and physical disturbances of a deadly nature. Are they right? Perhaps, in part. And yet I can't help thinking that the ideal of love, in the sense of charity, must be the main ingredient of any ideal society. It's hard to see how you can get along without it, even though it's just as hard to believe that it can become the motivating factor in the average man's life. Looking at the problem 'from the individual's viewpoint, there is not much use in blaming the homosexual for his practices and the nebulous and varying beliefs on which they are founded. He simply often has had no training, no guidance of any sort, other than the highly dubious notions he meets in the press or over radio and TV. The chances are that he is mostly motivated by muddled and sentimental religious feelings, half-baked notions about the sacredness of romantic love, an almost hypnotic attraction to youthful male beauty, and an irresistible drive to satisfy his desire. Basically there's nothing wrong with these motivating forces, provided they are properly understood and freed of vulgar misconceptions, and provided the individual has been trained to understand and practice self-discipline. But this is a tall order, very tall, for your average cruiser! In his present state it's not surprising that he shrugs off ideals of any sort and just lives for the senses. Indeed, he has plenty of encouragement in this from what he sees of average heterosexual behavior. It's interesting that you can usually see these two viewpointsidealism and paganism-illustrated in any issue of ONE or the Mattachine REVIEW. Thus, in current number of the latter you have a picture cover and inside note of a painting of a young man wearing a codpiece designed to simulate a perpetual erection. And you also have an article entitled "...I am a homosexual"—a letter full of idealistic hopes and aspirations. Where does this leave us? Darned if I know! Maybe you do.

MATTACHINE LETTER RATES BLAST FROM COLUMNIST

Lee Mortimer, New York Mirror columnist, blasted Mattachine Society in his column of August 15 with the paragraph below. Many American readers remember the "confidential" of books he co-authored with the late Jack Lait 32 mattachine REVIEW

(New York, Chicago, Washington, U.S.A. Confidential, etc.) for consistent derisive and prejudiced references to the homo haunts, limp wrist joints and pansy gardens they described in many cities. Unfortunately many readers were disappointed because the information wasn't confidential at all, and in so many cases grossly inaccurate and out of date.

However Mortimer is still serving up a daily diet for sensation-hungry appetites. In spite of some inaccuracies (Mattachine national headquarters is located in San Francisco) knowing readers recognize that a knock can be a boost when it comes from someone whose imaginings can be as wild as this columnist's and still get into print:

DEPT. OF STIFLED YAWNS: There's an international group known as the Mattachine Society, Inc. with headquarters at 1133 Broadway, which acts as a sort of defense agency for homosexuals. It talks loudly and stridently about their "civil rights" and lobbies to secure legislation making such disgusting practices legal. That has been done in many continental countries. The campaign is well on the way to reaching its objective in England, a country in which homosexualism has always had a head start...In a letter signed "Albert J. de Dion, chairman" the statement is made that the society was in back of my "campaign" to rid the town of hoodlums who preyed on these "unfortunates," but now it seems to be having second thoughts. "Fighting to keep criminal elements from our city is very commendable and deserves our support. But to attack a defenseless minority such as homosexuals is not in the best of American traditions." I now ask whether it is in the best of American traditions to encourage the degenerates who roam our streets at night. I say these so-called "unfortunates" are no defenseless minority but a huge, well-organized, wealthy, defiant, politically powerful, intelligent community, spreading across national borders, with loy alty to no country, no law or no code, except their fellow deviates.

Homophilic BIBLIOGRAPHY

(Continued)

*Weirauch, Anna Elisabeth. THE SCORPION. (n; IV). New York: Greenberg, 1932., Reprint: Avon AT58.

*Weirauch, Anna Elisabeth. THE OUTCAST. (n; IV). New York: Greenberg, 1938.

Welch, Denton. THE BARN. (ss in "Brave and Cruel"; I). London: Hamish Hamilton, 1948.

Welch, Denton. A FRAGMENT OF A LIFE STORY: A PARTY: A PICTURE IN THE SNOW: A NOVEL FRAGMENT. (ss in "A Last Sheaf"; all I). London: John Lehmann, 1951. .

Welch, Denton. IN YOUTH IS PLEASURE. (n; I). New York: Fischer, 1946. Welch, Denton. THE JOURNALS OF. (ed. by Jocelyn Brooke). (nf). London: Hamish Hamilton, 1952.