Interview with the Arizona Republic

MARGARET SANGER, AWARD WINNER, HERE; PLANS BIRTH CONTROL CLINIC

Resting briefly after the most decisive battle in a career which has been unceasing war waged on a front which ranged from crowded tenement districts to U.S. senate committee rooms, Margaret Sanger, noted birth control crusader, is a visit in the Salt River valley.

With her husband, J. Noah N. Slee, retired president of the 3-in-1 Oil Company, who has been vacationing in the valley for some time, she is a guest at Hotel San Marcos in Chandler and will remain in Arizona for several weeks.

Shortly before leaving her Fishkill, N.Y. home for Arizona, she was honored at a dinner by the Town Hall Club of Manhattan, composed of social elite of the East, and was presented with the club's award of honor for the year's most conspicuous contribution to the enlargement and enrichment of life. The award was made January 15.

Court Rules Favorably

From prison to palace Mrs. Sanger since 1914 has carried her crusade to permit the dissemination of scientific information which would enable parents to limit their families to a number for which they can care properly. On December 7, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals removed the greatest obstacle in the way of success of the crusade when it ruled that physicians might send contraceptives by mail. This decision nullified a 63-year-old law which made sending such material by mail or common carrier a crime punishable by $5,000 fine and five years in prison. The court ruling also gives physicians the right to advise their patients when they deem it necessary for their general health and well-being.

A measure embodying much the same idea introduced into the last session of congress with the support of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the National Federation of Business and Professional Clubs, the Young Women's Christian Association and other large groups, died in the Senate Judiciary committee, of which Sen. Henry F. Ashurst of Arizona is chairman.

Crusader Still Active

Elated over the victory which the court ruling gave the cause to which she has devoted much of her life, Mrs. Sanger has no thought of ceasing her efforts. Rather, two weeks after the verdict she celebrated with a birth control conference in Manhattan, and during her stay here she plans the establishment of a birth control clinic in Phoenix. Such a clinic would be operated along the same lines as the one opened in Tucson last June.

Improvement of the race through the limitation of families to a number for which the parents can provide proper physical, mental and spiritual support and lessening of the tax burden through reducing the number of indigents to be provided for from public funds are two important results which Mrs. Sanger expects from wide-spread birth control. She believes it also will reduce that some authorities refer to as the abortion “racket.”

“Add to that--call it sentimentality if you will--the happiness of the man and woman who, loving each other enough to marry, find themselves bound to the wheel in order to provide even the bare necessities for an ever-increasing brood. The mother, her strength sapped by constant child-bearing and attempts to care for her children, and the father, tired and careworn with the economic battle, have no times for that real companionship which is a right of marriage."

Holds Happiness Important

“Human happiness IS important. It must be, else our forefathers who wrote the constitution would not have included ‘pursuit of happiness’ among the inalienable rights. Society at large is adversely affected by addition to it of children for whom there is no chance of proper development. Families so large that the parents cannot care for them become the burden of the taxpayer who must provide funds for their care. Crime, too, breeds in the crowded districts, and again the taxpayers and citizens at large are the losers.”

More than 320 clinics have been established in the United States through the efforts of the dynamic little crusader, and her work has not stopped on this side of the Atlantic. Last year she spread her gospel in India, Switzerland, Russia, Canada and England all know of Margaret Sanger.

Foreign nations--with the exception of Italy and Germany and other military nations “where men are only cannon fodder and women sources of war material"--are friendly toward the birth control movement, Mrs. Sanger said. In England clinics are established under the jurisdiction of the government and doctors must provide the information. Other nations have similar setups.

Compliments Phoenician

“One trouble in the United States has been,” Mrs. Sanger said, “"that physicians themselves do not all know proper contraceptive methods. Medical schools have not trained students in contraception. Even now only five schools so train their embryo physicians.”

Mrs. Sanger paid high tribute to Fritzi Struckmeyer as the first woman in any state legislature or in congress to "have the courage to introduce legislation which would remove obstacles to the movement which means so much to their own sex." Last week, Miss Struckmeyer, serving her first term as a member of the 13th legislature, introduced such a bill.

Asked concerning activity of women in office in support of the movement, Mrs. Sanger expressed disappointment, saying it has been phraseology only with little actual support. To woman’s newness in official positions she attributes this attitude, believing that in many instances they have not gained the poise necessary to publicly espouse a movement which might prove unpopular.

She does believe ardently that women's influence in legislative matters is making itself felt, to the benefit of the nation. Women on juries have been an active influence toward lceaning up the courts and influencing justice, she believes., expressing surprise at Arizona's continued attitude of banning women from jury service.

The fact that Arizona has the highest maternal and infant mortality rate of any state in the union except New Mexico she characterized as "ridiculous--and unnessary."

Gracious Personality

Looking back over Margaret Sanger's career and realizing that it has carried her into court many times, put her in prison and placed her before senate committees, it would be, for one who has not met her easy to imagine her the "Amazon type" woman. Nothing could be farther from a true description.

Gracious, vital, there is about her a sweetness which inspires belief in her sincerity when in answer to the question, “But how is it with you? Truly the fight is well on the way to being won--but at what a personal sacrifice to you! Has it been worth it, personally?”, she answered, “A hundred fold. I feel that instead of being given the award of honor I should have given it. There is a great sense of peace in fulfilling one’s destiny.”

The red of her hair has been subdued somewhat by a generous sprinkling of gray--for Margaret Higgins was born in 1883--but there is no lessening of the fire with which she champions her cause. Her sparkling wit and quick perception, a heritage from Irish-born parents, highlight a magnetic personality.

She is the mother of two sons, one of whom is a practicing physician and the other studying to become a doctor. Her only daughter she lost through death.