“I wouldn’t want my son to see this...”

(by the Fifth Estate Creep Scene Editor)

Creep scenes abound from the Detroit area to Florida as power-authority heads try to suppress the Fifth Estate.

In Royal Oak, the Gas Company, at 290 W. Ten Mile Road, a head shop run by Andy Gingold, has had its request for an operating permit denied by the Royal Oak city commission solely on the grounds that he is selling “lewd and lascivious literature,” i.e., our paper.

The creep leading the attack against Gingold is Commissioner Wallace (!) F. Gabler. At a city meeting that was considering the application he refused to take a copy of the Fifth Estate out of a manila envelope saying, “It’s so foul I can’t even hold it up for public display.” He particularly objected to an ad for the Plum Pit (“Tired of the Same Old Shit”), a headline of an Eldridge Cleaver article (“Piss in the Voting Booths”), and our regular feature, the Hippocrates medical advice column.

Gabler thinks the Fifth Estate should not be sold in Royal Oak. He believes the Courts would back up this stand. He said, can’t see that any state or Federal court would uphold the distribution of such lewd and lascivious merchandise.”

The Fifth Estate annually mails 20,000 copies through the U.S. Malt and sells an additional 260,000 copies through other outlets and has done so since November of 1965.

Gingold has found his business increased considerably because of the controversy. Due to the media coverage in both daily papers and the major TV stations people have been flocking to his door. “People have been coming in droves to buy the Fifth Estate, some even are buying two copies,” he told us.

Andy’s attorney believes there is no legal reason to refuse the store an operating license and he is ready to go to court if he is refused. The tactic of the Cornmission has been to repeatedly table his request.

At this writing Andy expects that the permit will be granted.

Not so fortunate is The Poster Palace at 13-1/2 Mile and Woodward in Royal Oak. The owner of that shop has been constantly harassed for selling the Fifth Estate. The chief of police of Royal Oak has personally come to the shop to request a copy of the paper.

The final blow came when the city inspectors came and told him he would have to take down all the posters on the walls because of an alleged fire hazard and to put in a new ceiling if he wanted to stay in business.

Unfortunately, the owner of the shop decided to discontinue carrying the paper to get the pigs off his back.

Also, high school students have been catching shit for selling the papers in their schools.

Super Fifth Estate salesman Dick Elbinger told us that confiscation of the paper from students al Clarenceville High in Livonia has become a major issue. The matter will be presented to the Livonia School Board after the Student Council voted to oppose it being taken from students.

Elbinger was taken to Clarenceville Principal Tony Marra, who lectured him for an hour on how obscene the paper is. The Board meeting will be held Dec. 12 where the members assembled will decide whether or not to honor the U.S. Constitution.

Things have gotten so bad that a school-power creep expelled a student in Lakeland, Florida for having a copy of the Fifth Estate in his possession.

We read the report an the Detroit News so there is no telling how accurate the report is, but they quote the assistant principal as saying, “As adults, we have to he able to protect our students. I wouldn’t want my son to see this.” What a schmuck.

The student, Mike Gessner, rapped a heavy thing on the book burners: “The principal is trying to do all he can to protect Americanism, but actually he is destroying all we have fought for,” he said.

There is only one way to fight back against these fascists get the Fifth Estates everywhere. They’re afraid and they should he—because we are the real businessmen of this country. We intend to do business, take care of business, and we mean business.

Can you dig it?