1
10
4
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm Edition, Smith College Collections
Description
An account of the resource
Letters, writings, diaries, photographs and other papers written by, sent to, or collected by Margaret Sanger
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Microfilmed and published by University Publications of America, a subsidiary of Proquest.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Organization
Bank of England
Person
Wells, H. G.
Ross, Edward Alsworth
Norman, Montagu Collet
Hugo, Victor
Meyers, William Starr
Place
Canada
United States
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<div>
<p>[Notes for Population Control Speech]<br /><br />We are all in the throes of troubled times. Few of us can gauge its depths or realize its significance.</p>
<p>Recently the Pres of the Bank of England after a visit to Canada & US. is reported to have said, that no man or group of men are born who care to solve our problems or lead us out of our Social & Economic chaos. This brought to my mind one of the early prophecies of that brilliant & far sighted man H G. Wells who said "There are two natural forces at work which may make or destroy civilizations. The first is the rapid growth of <span class="addition">mans</span> fertility--the second the slow growth of the mass mind." One couple may produce within a lifetime over 100 beings. The mind is of slow growth & development & can not cope with conditions & problems arising out of population pressure. Much of the chaos today stems back to the prolific breeding of our forbears. We have continued to multiply our numbers while we have lent every effort to install machines to take mans place to do his work & throw him on the scrap heap of the jobless. Coal mines, glass works, silk & woolen mills all are products of an age where man's labor is no longer necessary for social purposes. Demand for mans labor has decreased.</p>
<p>Machinery has taken his place. Human reproduction has increased from these same groups, the unskilled, the illiterate.</p>
<p>1 man loads 10 tons coal a day in old days or 300 tons a month.</p>
<p>Now--4 men load 300 tons in 8 hours.</p>
<p>Victor Hugo. "no force in the world so great as that of an idea whose hour has struck" no subject has so large a practical significance which at the same time cuts so deeply into the foundation of social evolution as bc.</p>
<p>Two <span class="addition">fundamental</span> Problems confront Civilization</p>
<p>Pressure of population upon means of existence, job markets, machines. Reconciling humanitarian efforts with race improvement.</p>
<p>Billions are being spent in charities the effect of which is to increase the dysgenic types, the derelicts, the morons & to tax the normal & intellegent for their maintenance.</p>
<p>E A Ross claims that over 200,000,000 new human beings came into being last year 50,000 a day.</p>
<p>Wm Starr Meyers claims that only 15% of our ppulation can be said to be intellectual of the remaining 85% he says that 45% is subnormal 15% feebleminded & 25% mediocre.</p>
<p>History tells us that our civilization is tending to kill off the very types that have</p>
<p>Bc is the keynote of a new social & moral awakening. It is not only a health & economic expedient its a great social principle interlocked with the spiritual advance of woman & the <span class="addition">moral</span> progress of the race.</p>
<p>Bc is the conscious control of the birth rate by means that Prevent the corruption of life-- Prevent not destroy not interfere. No more an interference with life than living in celibacy, continence or remaining single or unmarried.</p>
<p>Control not limit--furnace, motor car traffic, conduct, temper, life & behavior. Conscious--not <span class="addition">an</span> accident & reckless abandon to the moment with regrets tears & broken lives in its trail. Conceived in love choice not chance born conscious desire deliberate intentional given the heritage of sound body & mind</p>
<p>3 Considerations</p>
<p>Mothers health, fathers earning power, standard of living you wish to maintain.</p>
<p>Population control</p>
<ul>
<li>Increase death rate</li>
<li>Decrease birth rate</li>
</ul>
</div>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Hugo, Victor
Wells, H.G.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Margaret Sanger
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1933-03
Description
An account of the resource
<p>No final version found.</p>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
msp#236480
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<span class="mf">Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm Edition: Sophia Smith Collection </span> S71:437
Subject
The topic of the resource
birth control--definitions of
mentally diseased or disabled--as social burdens
population growth--impact of
population size--and birth rate
population size--regulation of
family size--and poverty
fertility rates
Title
A name given to the resource
Notes for Population Control Speech
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Autograph speech
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm Edition, Smith College Collections
Description
An account of the resource
Letters, writings, diaries, photographs and other papers written by, sent to, or collected by Margaret Sanger
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Microfilmed and published by University Publications of America, a subsidiary of Proquest.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Organization
Bank of England
Person
Ross, Edward Alsworth
Hugo, Victor
Meyers, William Starr
Wells, H. G.
Norman, Montagu Collet
Place
Canada
United States
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<div>
<p style="text-align: left;"> [Notes for Speech on Population Control]<br /><br />We are all in the throes of troubled times. Few of us can gauge its depths or realize its significance.</p>
<p>Recently the Pres of the Bank of England after a visit to Canada & US. is reported to have said, that no man or group of men are born who care to solve our problems or lead us out of our Social & Economic chaos. This brought to my mind one of the early prophecies of that brilliant & far sighted man H G. Wells who said "There are two natural forces at work which may make or destroy civilizations. The first is the rapid growth of <span class="addition">mans</span> fertility--the second the slow growth of the mass mind." One couple may produce within a lifetime over 100 beings. The mind is of slow growth & development & can not cope with conditions & problems arising out of population pressure. Much of the chaos today stems back to the prolific breeding of our forbears. We have continued to multiply our numbers while we have lent every effort to install machines to take mans place to do his work & throw him on the scrap heap of the jobless. Coal mines, glass works, silk & woolen mills all are products of an age where man's labor is no longer necessary for social purposes. Demand for mans labor has decreased.</p>
<p>Machinery has taken his place. Human reproduction has increased from these same groups, the unskilled, the illiterate.</p>
<p>1 man loads 10 tons coal a day in old days or 300 tons a month.</p>
<p>Now--4 men load 300 tons in 8 hours.</p>
<p>Victor Hugo. "no force in the world so great as that of an idea whose hour has struck" no subject has so large a practical significance which at the same time cuts so deeply into the foundation of social evolution as bc.</p>
<p>Two <span class="addition">fundamental</span> Problems confront Civilization</p>
<p>Pressure of population upon means of existence, job markets, machines. Reconciling humanitarian efforts with race improvement.</p>
<p>Billions are being spent in charities the effect of which is to increase the dysgenic types, the derelicts, the morons & to tax the normal & intellegent for their maintenance.</p>
<p>E A Ross claims that over 200,000,000 new human beings came into being last year 50,000 a day.</p>
<p>Wm Starr Meyers claims that only 15% of our ppulation can be said to be intellectual of the remaining 85% he says that 45% is subnormal 15% feebleminded & 25% mediocre.</p>
<p>History tells us that our civilization is tending to kill off the very types that have</p>
<p>Bc is the keynote of a new social & moral awakening. It is not only a health & economic expedient its a great social principle interlocked with the spiritual advance of woman & the <span class="addition">moral</span> progress of the race.</p>
<p>Bc is the conscious control of the birth rate by means that Prevent the corruption of life-- Prevent not destroy not interfere. No more an interference with life than living in celibacy, continence or remaining single or unmarried.</p>
<p>Control not limit--furnace, motor car traffic, conduct, temper, life & behavior. Conscious--not <span class="addition">an</span> accident & reckless abandon to the moment with regrets tears & broken lives in its trail. Conceived in love choice not chance born conscious desire deliberate intentional given the heritage of sound body & mind</p>
<p>3 Considerations</p>
<p>Mothers health, fathers earning power, standard of living you wish to maintain.</p>
<p>Population control</p>
<ul>
<li>Increase death rate</li>
<li>Decrease birth rate</li>
</ul>
</div>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Hugo, Victor
Wells, H.G.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Margaret Sanger
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1933-03-00
Description
An account of the resource
<p>No final version found.</p>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
msp#236480
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<span class="mf">Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm Edition: Sophia Smith Collection, </span> S71:437
Subject
The topic of the resource
birth control--definitions of
mentally diseased or disabled--as social burdens
population growth--impact of
population size--and birth rate
population size--regulation of
family size--and poverty
fertility rates
Title
A name given to the resource
Notes for Population Control Speech
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Autograph speech
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Organization
English Society of Friends
Harvard University
Yale University
Person
Roosevelt, Theodore
Bertillon, Jacques
Phillips, John C.
Place
Russia
Paris, France
Germany
Verdun, France
United States
Europe
France
Rome, Italy
Marne, France
Publication
The Journal of Heredity
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<div>
<h4>"Birth Control: Margaret Sanger's Reply to Theodore Roosevelt</h4>
<p>The trouble with nearly all writers who oppose birth control is that they consider only proximate instead of ultimate effects. They want large numbers of
high quality citizens. Therefore, they contend, let the existing high quality citizens have more children. They assume that families now
living in comfortable circumstances will be able to maintain their standards, no matter how many additional children are born. In other words, they
expect quality to take care of itself.</p>
<p>We advocates of birth control know that one cannot make quality by insisting on quantity. One
cannot make <span class="italics">better</span> people simply by having <span class="italics">
more</span> people.</p>
<p>Mr. Roosevelt says that in order to make a man into a better citizen, we must first have the man.
The right environment in which to receive and develop the man is of great importance. Society, as at
present constituted, does not provide the means of rearing unrestricted hordes of human beings into
intelligent citizenship. Therefore, birth control has become necessary as a check upon the blind
working of ignorance and poverty.</p>
<p>When considering the problems of the class known as the "submerged tenth," even the most
conservative are willing to admit its need of birth control. But it is an error to suppose that the
proportion of families sunk in destitution constitutes only one-tenth of the population. Figures are
available to prove that it is closer to three-tenths, or well over one quarter. The census of 1910
shows that 10.7 per cent of married women in the United States went to work
outside their homes to help keep their families together. There, without looking farther, is a submerged tenth
among the women alone. There is little doubt that the proportion of wage-earning mothers has greatly increased since
1910, and it is equally beyond question that an enormous number of poverty-stricken women are prevented by their
excessive family burdens from seeking to earn money outside the home.</p>
<p>They who ban the open and legal dissemination of birth control practically say-- Let the slums
spawn if they must; the prime aim is to goad the upper classes into greater fertility. Both effects
are deplorable. There is no greater national waste than the spawning of the slums, with its
resultant high maternal and infant mortality rates, child labor and prostitution. As for increasing
the fertility of the upper classes, it is certain that the majority of such parents even now have as
many children as any rational eugenist could ask them to do were he in possession of all the facts
of each case--health, income, educational needs and provision for the future, etc. Admitting that
they give birth to fewer children, the fact is that they bring to maturity almost as many,
relatively, as the poor succeed in doing. The following figures prepared by the French authority,
Dr. J. Bertillon, demonstrate this point.</p>
<p>For the whole of France, 86.6 per cent of the children of rich parents reach
twenty years of age, and only 48.6 per cent of the children of poor parents. The figures for Paris
give a fertility rate of about 100 births per 1,000 poor mothers, and of about 50 per 1,000 rich mothers. Combining these with the former
figures, it appears that for each 1,000 rich mothers there would be 43.3 children surviving to twenty years annually,
and for each 1,000 poor mothers only 48.6 children. In France, as elsewhere, the poor mother is
handicapped in rearing her surviving offspring. This results in a percentage of unfitness, and the
contribution of the high birth-rate classes to the adult effective population is, consequently, no
higher proportionately than that of the low birth-rate classes.</p>
<p>The world over, the intelligent parents of three children or less have been, and are, the upholders of national standards.
This is particularly true of America.</p>
<p>By regarding the bringing of a child into the world as a great social responsibility, the modern
American woman shows a fine sense of morality. Since the State does not compel marriage, but leaves
it to individual choice, she does not see why motherhood, which is a much more serious problem,
should be enforced.</p>
<p>The American woman of today is physically and nervously unable to compete with her grandmother in
the matter of bearing unlimited offspring. In Colonial times, the environment was favorable and
women specialized on reproduction with eminent success. The prospective mothers of this generation
are compelled to divide their creative energies between child bearing and social and economic
complexities. It has been estimated that last year seven and a half million women were engaged in
industry in the United States, the majority of them in nerve-racking trades. Ten hours a day at a
sewing machine or a telephone switchboard are not conducive to either a physical or mental
receptiveness to maternity.</p>
<p>It is a very common fallacy that the decadence of Greece and Rome was due to the artificial
limitation of offspring. It is surprising to find a historian like Mr. Roosevelt repeating the
error. During the periods he refers to, birth control was, indeed, practised, and as a result some
of the greatest poets, thinkers and geniuses, generally, of that, or any other age, were developed.
Birth Control was one of the few serious moral forces at work tending to preserve the integrity of
the State. But, in Rome, at all events, it was not quite effective enough to combat the soft luxury
and vice which had come as an aftermath of an orgy of conquest. </p>
<p>The failing birth rate of college graduates, as demonstrated by the statistics gathered in
Harvard and Yale by
John C. Phillips, should not be considered alarming. The best thing that the modern
American college does for the young men or women is to make of them highly sensitized individuals, keenly aware of their
responsibility to society. They quickly perceive that they have other duties toward the State than
procreation of the kind blindly practised by the immigrant from Europe. They cannot
be deluded into thinking quantity superior to quality. But they can be trusted not to suffer
extinction. The operation of natural law will prevent the ratio of reproduction from remorselessly
falling to zero. In this, as in all other population phenomena, a new level of fertility is being
sought- that is all.</p>
<p>In many other isolated groups, the same process can be observed today. The editor of <span class="journal">The
Journal of Heredity</span> has found that out of 1,512 families of Methodist ministers in America,
the average number of children is now only 3.12. The birth rate in the English Society of
Friends has fallen from 20 per 1,000 in 1876 to less than 8 per 1,000 in 1915. Or, to take an
illustration from an entire racial group, statistics show that the size of Jewish families in Europe
has been rapidly decreasing since 1876. They contain now only two to four children, with a growing
tendency to restrict the number to two, whilst only twenty years ago they had four to six. </p>
<p>But it is well to emphasize that we advocates of birth control are not so much disturbed by the
stationary birth rate of the thinking classes, as by the reckless propagation of the ignorant. We
consider that the falling birth rate is a wold-wide movement of civilization.</p>
<p>Mr. Roosevelt quotes approvingly the statement of a French newspaper that the present war was
really due to the increasing birth rate of Germany and the falling birth rate of
France. Had Germany to face 60,000,000 Frenchmen, instead of 39,000,000, this authority holds, the
war would not have taken place. In my opinion, two over-populated nations would have fought even
more readily and long before. The war was due to the over-populated nations would have fought even
more readily and long before. The war was due to the over-population of Germany and
Russia, not to France's stationary population. But once put to the ordeal, the French
soldiers, sturdy and highly individualistic because they came from small families, proved at the Battle of the
Marne and Verdun the efficacy of birth control,
by defeating an enemy mechanically much more formidable than themselves.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the same Germany who had failed against France easily routed the hordes of
Russian soldiers, who owed their numbers to an unlimited system of reckless propagation. Germany's
birth rate is falling. In 1860 it was 37.9 per thousand inhabitants and in 1912 only 29.1. It is
common knowledge that the economists of Europe do not hope for universal peace until the birth rate
of Russia also begins to decline.</p>
<p>The intelligent class, with its acceptance of birth control, holds the same position in American
society that France does among the nations of the world.</p>
<p>It is an error to suppose that woman avoids motherhood because she is afraid to die. Rather does
she fear to live. She fears a life of poverty and drudgery, weighed down by the horror of unwanted
pregnancy and tortured by the inability to rear decently the children she has already brought into
the world.</p>
<p class="byline">Respectfully Yours,
Margaret H. Sanger</p>
</div>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Margaret Sanger
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1917-12-00
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
msp#304516
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<span class="journal"><span class="italics">The Metropolitan Magazine</span></span>, Dec. 1917, pp. 66-67.
Subject
The topic of the resource
birth control--opposition to
eugenics--and birth control
eugenics--negative
eugenics--positive
family size--and poverty
family size--class-based
family size” level2=intelligence
fertility rates
France--birth rate in
Germany--birth rate in
population size--and war
Roosevelt, Theodore
United States--birth rate in
women and girls--working class
World War I--causes
Title
A name given to the resource
"Birth Control: Margaret Sanger's Reply to Theodore Roosevelt"
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Published article
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Law
Sheppard-Towner Act
Organization
Maternity Center Association New York
United State Congress
United States Children's Bureau
Person
Wells, Marjorie
von Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm
Higgins, Michael Hennessey
Higgins, Anna Purcell
Newton, Walter Hughes
Swift, Jonathan
Voltaire
Lathrop, Julia
Shaw, George Bernard
Corbin, Hazel
Pangloss, Dr. (fictional)
Hoover, Herbert
Place
United States
Publication
The Survey
Motherhood in Bondage
Candide
The Woman's Journal
North American Review
THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<div>
<h4>Women and Birth Control</h4>
<p class="byline">BY MARGARET SANGER</p>
<p>I was one of eleven children. My mother died
in her forties. My father enjoyed life
until his eighties. Seven of my brothers and sisters are still living. If I am not an
"old-fashioned" woman, at least I was an old-fashioned child. I have never thought it
necessary to call public attention to these circumstances of my life. Not that I ashamed
of them, but, on the other hand, neither am I brazenly proud of them. I do not believe
that these facts are sufficient as a foundation upon which to erect a code of moral for
all men and women of the future to follow. I do not say: "My mother gave birth to eleven
living children, seven of whom are still alive and more or less healthy. Ergo, all women
should give birth to eleven or a dozen children." There are, it seems to me, a few other
things to consider.</p>
<p>I have been impelled to cast aside my habitual reticence because I have just finished
reading a highly personal essay in the March number of <span class="journal">THE NORTH
AMERICAN REVIEW</span>, written by a lady known as Marjorie Wells. Mrs. Wells confesses herself the mother of ten children.
Her family stretches "<span class="WELMA">already as far as the eye can reach and with the
end not yet in sight.</span>" This biological fact seems to endow Mrs. Wells with the
glib authority to hand down decisions concerning complex problems which have puzzled
humanity since civilization first began. I rejoice with Marjorie Wells in the peace and
happiness she has found in her "monumental" family. But I confess that I am not
convinced that feminine wisdom increases in direct proportion with the number of one's
offspring.</p>
<p>Implicit in Marjorie Wells's confession I discover a certain condescension toward the
mothers of smaller families. She knows all there is to know about keeping the stork from
the door. She admits her vastly superior knowledge of practical biology. She has read my
book <span class="book">Motherhood in Bondage</span>, which is a compilation of case
records in marital misery, of protests from slave mothers against the blind inhumanity
of natural law. From the citadel of her self-satisfaction, Marjorie Wells asserts that
my theories have become badly scrambled with my emotions and that I attempt to be "<span class="WELMA">both scientific and sympathetic at the same time</span>"--as though that
were quite impossible! I have made, according to Mrs. Wells, "<span class="WELMA">the usual
mistake of women who attempt the guidance of public opinion, and try to transfer to
public responsibility what is essentially and inevitably a private and local
problem.</span>"</p>
<p>Intellectually speaking, she "high-hats" me. A mere woman who has borne only three
children instead of ten, who can therefore never hope to reach that peak of serene
Olympian indifference to the cries and moans of my less fortunate sisters which Marjorie
Wells has attained, I cannot hope to equal in dialectic skill a lady who has enjoyed the
educational advantage of ten pregnancies. I have not yet attained that point of
self-confidence which enables me to cast aside as irrelevant and unimportant the
conclusions of scientists who have devoted their lives to the study of genetics, nor can
I close my eyes to the statistics of Government workers who have made deep researches
into the conditions productive of the alarming maternity death rate in these
United States. Having been only one of eleven hungry little brothers
and sisters, I was not able to profit by the early educational advantages which Marjorie
Wells evidently enjoyed. Her philosophic poise enables her to look upon the birth of a
child as <span class="WELMA">"a purely private and local problem.</span>" I have always assumed,
and I do not believe that I am egregious in this assumption, that the birth of a child
is an event of the utmost importance not only to the family into which it is born, but
to the community, to the nation, to the whole future of the human race. I agree with
President Hoover. <span class="HOOHE">"The ideal to
which we should strive is that there shall be no child in America: That has not been
born under proper conditions; that does not live in hygienic surroundings; that ever
suffers from under-nourishment; that does not have prompt and efficient medical
attention and inspection; that does not receive primary instruction in the elements
of hygiene and good health; that has not the complete birthright of a sound mind and
a sound body; that has not the encouragement to express in fullest measure the
spirit within which is the final endowment of every human being."</span></p>
<p>I suppose those of us who subscribe to these ideas are in the eyes of Marjorie Wells
hopeless sentimentalists.</p>
<p>My opponent sharply crystallizes a definite point of view not only concerning the theory
and the practice of Birth Control, but toward all the social problems which confront us
today. Hers is the attitude of "splendid isolation," of enlightened self-interest, of
laissez-faire. She tells us in effect
that she is the mother of ten healthy children, that she and her husband enjoy from them
a daily dividend of satisfaction and delight, and that therefore she "<span class="WELMA">should worry</span>"
about the behavior and condition of the less fortunate. "Am I my
sister's keeper?" asks in effect Marjorie Wells.</p>
<p>It is late in the day to point out that all human experience teaches that an attitude of
"splendid isolation" can no longer be logically maintained by any individual in the face
of the problems which confront American civilization. If only from the motive of
self-protection the well-born and the well-bred can no longer shirk responsibility
concerning <span class="WELMA">"the behavior and the condition of the unfortunates.</span>"</p>
<p>Time after time, it has been demonstrated in all the countries of Western civilization,
that as we descend the social scale the birth-rate increases. Dependent, delinquent and
defective classes all tend to become more prolific than the average normal and
self-dependent stratum of society. With this high birth rate is correlated a high infant
mortality rate. This law is true in all countries. More children are born; more babies
die. So likewise, the maternal mortality rate jumps correspondingly. Out of the
surviving infants are recruited the morons, the feeble-minded, the dependents, who make
organized charities a necessity, and who later fill prisons, penitentiaries and State
homes. To compute the cost in dollars and cents of these industriously prolific classes
to society is beyond human power. Every one of us pays for their support and
maintenance. Funds which legitimately should go to pure scientific research, to aid the
fine fruition of American civilization, are thus diverted to the support of those
who--in all charity and compassion--should never have been born at all.</p>
<p>We cannot ignore, as Marjorie Wells confesses she does, "<span class="WELMA">such charming
contingencies as inherited lunacy, disease and abject poverty.</span>" They press in
upon us on all sides. These things, she says, do not belong in her personal problem. I
beg to remind her that they do. For, despite her valiant efforts to bring up her own
brood, Mrs. Wells will, in time, find out, if she has not already found out, that the
children of the defective and the diseased will crowd into the schoolroom with her own
children, and that standards of intelligence must perforce be lowered to meet their
limited capacities. The community in which she lives will call upon her to aid the
alleviation of the poverty and distress of the all too prolific. Her property and income
will be taxed to maintain State institutions for the support of the dependent and the
delinquent. She will resent bitterly this enforced expenditure of funds that should go
for the higher education and the cultural development of her talented children. That is,
if her resources are as limited as she admits them to be. And finally she will discover
that her own good luck in life is not the general rule, but a fortunate exception, upon
which it would be the utmost folly to attempt to generalize concerning this exceedingly
human race.</p>
<p>"But", she may now retort, "you are speaking dogmatically, making a special plea for
public approval of the dissemination of Birth Control." Marjorie Wells is convinced that
the cases recorded in my book <span class="book">Motherhood in Bondage</span> are
abnormalities and horrors, gathered together merely to foist the practice of
contraception upon unwilling parents.</p>
<p>Let us turn, then, to less prejudiced and partisan sources. Let us consider the findings
of impartial investigators who have no interest in what our critics call propaganda. Let
us find out, if we can, the truth concerning the conditions under which children are
brought into our American world. For this evidence we need not go far afield. In a
recent report published in <span class="journal">The Survey</span>, Hazel Corbin,
R.N., general director of the Maternity Center Association New York, states that year
after year, more than twenty thousand women die from causes due to childbirth--one
mother for every one hundred and fifty babies born! The Newton
bill had as its aim Government responsibility for the health of American citizens including the special needs of the
mothers of the country. This bill died when the last Congress expired.
The Sheppard-Towner Act expires June 30, 1929; and unless Congress provides a further Federal subsidy,
the Government aid for mothers and children which its funds have furthered during the last six years will be
brought to a close.</p>
<p>When correlated with the refusal of State legislatures to consider bills which would make
Birth Control education permissive, these facts assume new significance. Our Government
pronounces itself unwilling to assume responsibility in alleviating the hazardous trade
of maternity. At the same time the State and Federal authorities refuse to countenance
legislation which would allow American mothers to help themselves--which would permit
them to choose the time and the conditions best suited for the fulfillment of the
maternal function.</p>
<p>"<span class="CORHA">The birth of a baby is such a common, every-day occurrence,</span>" writes
Hazel Corbin, "<span class="CORHA">that people do not realize that during pregnancy the
margin between health and disease becomes dangerously narrow, and only by skilled
medical supervision can the maintenance of health be assured. Every mother in the
country needs skilled medical supervision, nursing care and instruction during
pregnancy, at delivery, and for the six weeks that follow. Many families do not know
of this need. Not all families can provide this care. It is not available at any
price in many parts of this rich country. There are no doctors, nurses and midwives
properly trained to give adequate care to all mothers.</span>"</p>
<p>Yet two million women in America are compelled, by law, to descend annually into the
valley of the shadow of death, to bear two million children in a country that has
enacted drastic immigration restriction laws to prevent over-population. No: we are not
under-populated--there is no need for a "full speed ahead" policy of procreation. Since
the revelations of <span class="book">Motherhood in Bondage</span> are condemned as
exceptional, let us listen further to the testimony of Hazel Corbin: "<span class="CORHA">There are,
caring for our mothers, midwives so ignorant and superstitious as to
suppose hemorrhage can be controlled by placing an axe upside down under the
patient's bed. Of about fifty thousand practicing midwives only a small portion are
well-trained and the majority are untrained--yet in most instances they are licensed
or registered by their States.</span>"</p>
<p>Let us turn to the testimony of Julia Lathrop,
ex-chief of the Children's Bureau,
under whose supervision Government agents made extensive investigations surrounding
infant mortality in eight typical cities of our country. Infant mortality rates concern
all children who die during the first five years of life. On the whole, according to
Miss Lathrop in <span class="journal">The Woman's Journal</span>, the evidence is
overwhelming that poverty, ignorance, or both, lack of medical and nursing care,
unwholesome living conditions, overworked mothers, remoteness from doctors and nurses in
rural areas, and other types of inability to give babies needed care are in marked
degree coincident with high infant morality rates. A vast number of babies and of
mothers die needlessly every year in this country. This fact is well-known to
statisticians, doctors and to some social workers, but details as to social and economic
conditions under which the parents live are seldom disclosed or frankly discussed.</p>
<p>Today the situation remains fundamentally unnoticed. Women clamor for deliverance from
compulsory motherhood. Yet dull-witted legislators, both State and Federal, refuse to
sanction the dissemination of harmless contraceptives to those unable or unwilling, due
to the conditions discovered by Government agents, to undergo a pregnancy that may be
fatal to mother or child. Yet measures aiming to improve by Governmental agencies
dysgenic conditions surrounding maternity and infancy are condemned and defeated as
"paternalistic." The situation calls for a Shaw or a Swift.</p>
<p>Perhaps this dilemma has been created not so much by the laws and the legislators
themselves as by the smug and bland indifference of women themselves--of those
fortunate, well-bred, well-educated women who refuse to concern themselves with the
sordid tragedies of those they consider their social inferiors.</p>
<p>Whether Birth Control is right or wrong, moral or immoral, a need or a nuisance, one
thing is certain. Mothers of ten or of one can no longer, by the mere exercise of a
function common to all living creatures consider themselves exempt from social
responsibility. As Miss Lathrop has expressed it: "<span class="LATJU">One thing is in my
opinion certain--only mothers can save this cooperative work for maternity and
infancy. If prosperous, intelligent mothers do not urge the protection of the lives
of all mothers and babies, why should we expect Congress to come unasked to their
aid?</span>"</p>
<p>Though Julia Lathrop is here making a plea only for Government protection of maternity
and infancy, the same truth is applicable to the doctrine of Birth Control. The most
stubborn opposition to Birth Control has come, not from the moralists nor the
theologians, the most distinguished of whom recognize its legitimate necessity, but from
those women who, like Marjorie Wells, "<span class="WELMA">know as much about keeping the
stork from the door as my most friendly and unfriendly critics,</span>" yet
nevertheless assume that such knowledge, simple, harmless and hygienic as it is, must be
kept for the privileged few and from the very women most in need of it. Such an attitude
seems to grow out of a frantic feminine desire to retain a certain superiority, social
or otherwise, over one's less fortunate neighbors.</p>
<p>Even for that very limited and very special type of woman who is gifted by nature and
natural inclination--and also by wealth--to undertake a specialized career in maternity
and to become the mother of ten or a dozen children, there is need for the practice of
Birth Control. For if she be intelligent and farseeing, such a woman will recognize the
necessity of "spacing" her children, of recuperating her full physical strength and
psychic well-being after the birth of one child before undertaking the conception of
another. Mothers of large families have written me expressing their gratitude for the
benefits of Birth Control. It has enabled them to give each of their children a good
start in life. It has prevented crowding, and has moreover permitted them to enjoy
marital communion which would otherwise have been impossible. But let us recognize
today--with the ever-increasing cost of living, and the high cost of childbirth--that
the large family must more and more be considered the privilege of the moneyed class. A
large family, if the income is small, is a crime against the children born into it. I
was one of eleven, and I believe that I am slightly more entitled to speak on this
subject than Marjorie Wells, who is, after all, only the mother of ten! I may be
prejudiced, but I feel that the testimony of a child born into a large family is of more
interest and importance than that of the mere progenitor of a large family. It all
depends on the point of view!</p>
<p>American civilization has long passed the pioneer stage of its development. We no longer
have a vast continent to populate. We no longer need mere numbers. But we are only
beginning to realize that there are other values in life than those of mere quantity. We
have not yet outgrown the adolescent habit of worshiping the biggest this, the largest
that, the most of the other thing. So I think, no one need take any excessive pride in
the production of a large family, even though the rotogravure sections of our Sunday
newspapers will undoubtedly, for the delight and amusement of their millions of readers,
continue to publish photographs of large families which imitate visually a long flight
of steps.</p>
<p>The attitude of those who have been rewarded by life, and cannot see the punishment
inflicted upon others reminds me always of Dr.
Pangloss in Voltaire's <span class="book">Candide</span>.
"<span class="VOL">It has been proved,</span>" said Dr. Pangloss, "<span class="VOL">that things
cannot be otherwise than they are; for, everything being made for a certain end, the
end for which everything is made is necessarily the best end.</span>" And though the
world went to wreck and ruin about him, he still maintained that "<span class="VOL">it does
not become me to retract my words.</span>
Leibnitz cannot possibly be
wrong--the pre-established harmony is the finest thing in the world. All events are
inextricably linked together in this best of all possible worlds."</p>
<p>Rather, I think, in this matter of mothers and children--whether we be the mother of ten,
or the sister of ten--we must heed the counsel of Candide himself and cultivate our garden.</p>
</div>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Wells, Marjorie
French
Sanger, Margaret
Voltaire
Lathrop, Julia
Corbin, Hazel
North American Review, editor
Hoover, Herbert
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Margaret Sanger
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1929-05-00
Description
An account of the resource
<p>The article was introduced by a short note indicating that it was in response to an
article by Marjorie Wells, published in the March issue of the
<span class="journal"><span class="italics">North American Review</span></span>. For draft version, see "One of Eleven,"
<span class="mf">Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm, Library of Congress,</span> see LCM 130:419.</p>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
msp#231905
Language
A language of the resource
FRE
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<span class="journal"><span class="italics">North American Review</span></span>, May 1929, 529-534
<span class="mf">Margaret Sanger Microfilm Edition: Smith College Collection</span> S71:159
Subject
The topic of the resource
birth control--health benefits and risks
birth control--medically controlled
birth control--opposition to
birth control laws and legislation--Federal
birth control laws and legislation--state
birth rate--differential
child spacing
family size--and poverty
fertility rates
mortality rates--infant
mortality rates--maternal
overpopulation
Sanger, Margaret--biographical details
Sanger, Margaret--family of
United States--birth control and
Title
A name given to the resource
Women and Birth Control
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Published article