Mr. Beaser. Then he is the one who does the enforcement of the code if anyone does it?
Mr. Froehlich. In the next to the final analysis.
Mr. Beaser. Or is it his assistant who does it?
Mr. Froehlich. That is a "toughy." Our buying is handled only by our editors. Many of the revisions of the editorials submitted to them are handled by the assistant editors.
Mr. Beaser. How many people have their own interpretation of this code in its application?
Mr. Froehlich. There may be a half dozen. So far as the comics are concerned, only a few. There is no problem on the conventional magazine.
Mr. Beaser. You distribute these by mail or by truck or how?
Mr. Froehlich. Our magazines go mail, freight and express. In the case of the comies about 35 pereent go by mail, the balance by freight, express, truck.
Mr. Beaser. Are all these entered as second-class mail?
Mr. Froehlich. Yes, sir. We don't publish a single magazine ex- cepting an occasional so-called one shot which would not qualify for second-class matling privileges and for which we don't apply for second-class entry.
Mr. Beaser. All those have been accepted for mailing and are mailable?
Mr. Froehlich. Yes. There is no reason why they shouldn't be. There are many magazines———
Mr. Beaser. We couldn't get them on one board.
Mr. Froehlich. I think T mentioned we have this magazine Auto Age and All the World's Cars, one shot, baseball, boxing, and so on.
Mr. Beaser. We have heard a few words about a possible practice called tie-in sales in the distribution of crime and horror comics. You are a publisher and a distributor?
Mr. Froehlich. Yes, sir.
Mr. Beaser. You deal then with the wholesaler who in turn deals with the dealer?
Mr. Froehlich. That is correct.
Mr. Beaser. Does your concern apply pressure upon the wholesaler to carry a complete line? Must he?
Mr. Froehlich. We wish he would. There are roughly 800-odd wholesalers in the United States. We operate our distributing com- pany tm the identical pattern that those other distributing companies follow, such as Curtis and Seience, McCall Co. I believe we have 14 roadmen who would normally be considered the equivalent of salesmen who contact the wholesalers in their territories. We have many so- ealled open spots, an open spot being a—l would like to change that— there are wholesalers who do not carry our entire line for various rea- sons, They may carry only 20 of the 35 comic title releases per month. They may claim that the pressure is too great or the retailers in their area cannot absorb them. But we wish the wholesalers would carry our entire line. Most wholesalers in the United States do carry it, There are many open spots, however.
The Chairman. You were going to tell the committee what an open spot is, what you call an open spot.
Mr. Froehlich. For example, we publish 35 comic titles on an average per month. There are wholesalers in the United States who will
