Show SMUT AND AND THE MAilS I U ui of the interstate te m mails ails for the harm harm- ful f now flow of guns and ammunition seems about to be stopped Congress has passed the corn com promise measure But the use ot of the mails maUs for the harmful traffic of another kind smut literature still needs more effective controls Chief Postal Inspector Harry B Montague says that his Is 1080 postal inspectors Who police pollee the malls mails have relaxed m In their efforts to re- re restrain re strain tile the senders of illicit materials Under Undera a hew law enacted last spring Individuals can demand demand that that pornography pornography peddlers remove their names from mailing lists The request Is turned over to the Justice Department which charges the mailer of the materials to desist Since April such requests to halt the mailing of erotically arousing or sexually materials have been received The Post Office Department is only foI- foI fol lowing low g the the guidelines set down by the Su- Su Su preme Court and Congress in its present hand ling lingg off of obscenity cases The Supreme Court has ruled recently that that obscenity is a crime Yh when n it involves young people under 17 but butIs butis Is not with consenting adults It ItOn On this basis it l las has as held held that prurient magazines cannot be sold to minors when state laws so prohibit and that movies can be closed to the young In communities with laws to this effect It had ruled in 1966 In the case of the mails maUs that consenting adults could mall and receive ob scene materials though If the motive were to pander for commercial gain the sender was punishable The issue then In obscenity rul rul- rulIngS lags IngS appears to be either the age of the reo re- recipient If he is under 17 or his consent If he heIs heis Is an adult not the degree of obscenity of the materials itself But what safeguards are there for pre venting the first mailing mailing mailing- whether to an adult or to a cl child Must a citizen have to In action to stop what should not have been allowed in the first place What right has any Interest to use the mails to make a profit from smut It If tile the now flow of guns and lie Illegal gal drugs can be kept from the T sails If literature that ad- ad advocates ad violence and encourages servicemen to turn against their country the August 1967 Crusader Newsletter case can be denied access to the mails maUs there seems little doubt that the traffic In smut could be halted too too-C S Monitor |