Notes for Population Control Speech

Date

1933-03

Source

Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm Edition: Sophia Smith Collection S71:437

Description

No final version found.

Contributor

Hugo, Victor
Wells, H.G.

Identifier

Text

[Notes for Population Control Speech]

We are all in the throes of troubled times. Few of us can gauge its depths or realize its significance.

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 mans 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.

Machinery has taken his place. Human reproduction has increased from these same groups, the unskilled, the illiterate.

1 man loads 10 tons coal a day in old days or 300 tons a month.

Now--4 men load 300 tons in 8 hours.

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.

Two fundamental Problems confront Civilization

Pressure of population upon means of existence, job markets, machines. Reconciling humanitarian efforts with race improvement.

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.

E A Ross claims that over 200,000,000 new human beings came into being last year 50,000 a day.

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.

History tells us that our civilization is tending to kill off the very types that have

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 moral progress of the race.

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.

Control not limit--furnace, motor car traffic, conduct, temper, life & behavior. Conscious--not an 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

3 Considerations

Mothers health, fathers earning power, standard of living you wish to maintain.

Population control

  • Increase death rate
  • Decrease birth rate

Organization