Woman of Valor (82 page)

19.
On the continuing popularity of eugenics, see Daniel J. Kevles,
In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity
(New York: 1985), and John Higham,
Strangers in the Land, Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925
(New York: 1974), p. 149. In the years immediately before World War I, popular magazines carried more articles on eugenics than on the major progressive issues of slum and tenement reform; Higham,
idem
, pp. 264-65, on the “tribal twenties”; and Donald K. Pickens,
Eugenics and the
Progressives
(Nashville, Tenn.: 1968), pp. 89-93, 131-37. Carl N. Degler,
In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinisim in American Social Thought
(New York: 1991), underscores the point that many eugenicists objected when their principles about individual inheritance were applied collectively, with race as a basis. The phrase, “to create a race of thoroughbreds,” appears on the pamphlet advertising the First American Birth Control Conference, MS-SS. For its derivation, see Dr. Edward J. Kempf, “Rearing Human Thoroughbreds,”
Literary Digest
69:24 (May 14, 1921), and also, Charles Valenza, “Was Margaret Sanger a Racist?”
Family Planning Perspectives
17:1 (Jan.-Feb. 1985), p. 44-46. The Italian reference is from M.S., “The Incident at Williamstown,”
Birth Control Review
9:9 (Sept. 1925), pp. 246-47.

20.
Kevles,
Name of Eugenics
. For Davenport's opposition and the Popenoe quotation, see Pickens,
Eugenics and the Progressives
, p. 91. For a description of Sanger's “compassion for the poor,” see Caroline Hadley Robinson,
Seventy Birth Control Clinics: A Survey and Analysis Including the General Effects of Control on Size and Quality of Population
(Philadelphia: 1930), p. 39. The E. E. Ross quote is from Juliet Rublee to M.S., Aug. 1, 1928, MS-SS. The rejected proposal to invite eugenicists to contribute to the
Birth Control Review
is in “A Question of Policy,”
Birth Control Review
12:6 (June 1928), p. 188, and editorial,
BCR
12:12, (Dec. 1928), p. 306.

21.
Birth Control Review
6:18 (Aug. 1922), p. 161, mentions articles in
The Nation
and other newspapers and periodicals that ignored Sanger. By contrast see Heywood Broun, “It Seems to Me,” clipping from
The World
, Feb. 1922, in MS-LC, and Ruth Hale, “The Child Who Was Mother to a Woman,”
The New Yorker
1:8 (Apr. 11, 1925), pp. 11-12. Some years later the Brouns divorced, and Heywood converted to Catholicism, much to Margaret's shock and disbelief.

22.
See yearbooks (especially for 1925) and the brochures for Sanger's “First American Lecture Tour” in 1923-24 and for James B. Pond, “Margaret Sanger: The International Champion of Birth Control,” in MS-LC and MS-SS. Also, see Morehouse, “The Speaking of Margaret Sanger in the Birth Control Movement from 1916 to 1937,” doctoral dissertation, Purdue University, 1968, pp. 13244. The Yale reference is from “Mrs. Sanger Talks at Yale,”
The New York Times
, Dec. 5, 1924, 21:7, and Olive Byrne Richard told the story about Tufts in her interview with the author. Examples from specific speeches are taken in order from “Address of Margaret Sanger, President, American Birth Control League, Inc.,” Parson's Theatre, Hartford, Conn., Sunday afternoon, Feb. 11, 1923, MS-SS; “The Chicago Birth Control Conference,”
Birth Control Review
7:12 (Dec. 1923), pp. 316-17; “This Business of Bearing Babies,” n.d. (1920s), MS-SS. Also see, “Speech at the Auditorium Theatre, Oakland, California,” Dec. 19, 1928, MS-LC. A Sanger diary entry for Dec. 19, 1928, describes the Oakland audience as large (over 1,000) and friendly, but not excited. On her speaking style and use of notes, see M.S. to Juliet Rublee, Jan. 7, 1929, MS-SS.

23.
For a complete record of the confrontations with Catholics between 1922 and 1925, see Vreeland, “Process of Reform,” pp. 139-40, 285-87. Examples of police surveillance are in
The New York Times
, Oct. 21, 1922, 36:3, and Dec. 7, 1924, 21:7. The synagogue controversy is in
NYT
, Apr. 22, 1923, 5:7 and April 23, 1923, 15:2. The Ford Hall remarks, dated April 16, 1929, are in MS-SS. On the newsreel controversies, see “Editorial Paragraphs,”
The Nation
128 (May 1929), pp. 574-75; Woman's Club of Upper Montclair, N. J., to M.S., Mar. 14, 1929; and M.S. to Mrs. A. J. Lins, Mar. 20. 1929, MS-LC. The final quote is from Lewis Gannett to M.S., May 20, 1929, MS-LC.

24.
Olive Byrne Richards interview with the author, Mar. 1985. M.S. to Havelock Ellis, Mar. 23, 1930, Apr. 3, 1930, MS-SS. Random notations on her lecture fees, and her need to speak in order to earn money, are in correspondence with her agent James Pond in MS-LC; the $500 fee for an appearance in Washington, D.C., on May 12, 1931, is mentioned in Pond to M.S., Apr. 22, 1931, MS-LC. Wells's fees are in David Smith,
H. G. Wells, Desperately Mortal, A Biography
(New Haven: 1986), p. 336. On the cough drops, see M.S. to Samuel Seabury, Mar. 31, 1933, MS-LC.

25.
The first quotation is from “Reminiscences of Elizabeth Grew Bacon,” in “Our M.S.,” 1958, MS-SS; the second, from M.S. to H.E., Mar. 23, 1930, MS-SS. On hero worship of Sanger, see Vreeland, “Process of Reform,” p. 147. The Sanger horoscope and psychic reading for 1922 is titled “Margaret Higgins 2-4-8, 1-5-7,” signed by Elizabeth Aldrich, MS-SS.

11: ORGANIZING FOR BIRTH CONTROL

1.
The incorporation controversy is in “Birth Control Wins Charter Fight,”
The New York Times
, Apr. 14, 1922, 36:2, and Apr. 23, 1922, Pt.1, 2:3. On Anne Kennedy, see M.S. to Juliet Rublee, “Juliet darling, Your special letter with enclosure came yesterday…,” n.d. (1924) MS-DC, and
Autobiography
, p. 261. On the organization of the ABCL, see “Report of the American Birth Control League Activities,” 1922, and “Minutes of the American Birth Control League for 1922,” in PPFA-SS. The goals were announced in an editorial in the
Birth Control Review
5:11 (Nov. 1921), pp. 4-5. Also see Francis McLennon Vreeland, “The Process of Reform with Especial Reference to Reform Groups in the Field of Population,” doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, 1929, p. 135. The league actually claimed distribution of 600,000 pamphlets in 1923, but I use Vreeland's estimate, pp. 146, 240, and he maintains that these early figures may have been inflated, accounting for some falloff when he himself kept more accurate records while working in the ABCL offices in 1926-27, as part of the research for his study. On the Motherhood Department, see Bertha Potter Smith's report for Jan. 12, 1926, PPFA-SS, and Helena Huntington Smith, “Profiles, They Were Eleven,”
The New Yorker
, 1930, clipping in MS-SS.

2.
For published examples of the early correspondence, see “The Doctor Only Laughed,”
Birth Control Review
7:6 (June 1923); “Prevention or Abortion--Which?” BCR 7:7 (July 1923); “Is Continence the Solution?”
BCR
7:9 (Sept. 1923). The quotes are from Bobby Walls to M.S., Mar. 2, 1924, a twenty-four-page handwritten letter; M.S. to Bobby Walls, Mar. 7, 1924; and Mrs. M. M. Gardner to M.S., June 21, 1935, all in MS-LC. As we shall see, Margaret collected and published less controversial letters in
Motherhood in Bondage
(New York: 1928).

3.
This statistical profile of the membership is taken from Vreeland, “Process of Reform,” pp. 153, 164-67, 171, 192, 208, 210-11, of contributors, p. 252, of the budget, p. 327, and of the National Council, pp. 428-29. On
Birth Control Review
distribution, also see M.S. to Francis Fitzgerald, Aug. 11, 1924, MS-LC. (Fitzgerald was the librarian at Creighton University, a Jesuit school, and although a free subscription had been donated to the library by an alumnus, he refused to accept it.) ABCL memos dated Jan. 13, 1927, and Jan. 20, 1932, in PPFA-SS discuss a reduction of affiliate contributions from 25 percent to 10 percent of annual membership receipts.

4.
M.S., form letter, July 15, 1923, asking support for the Chicago conference. Also see, Clara L. Rowe (the conference organizer) to Prof. Michael Frederick Guyer, July 6, 1923, both in the American Birth Control League Papers, 1923-28, Houghton Library, Harvard University, hereinafter, ABCL-Houghton. On the high incidence of abortion among Jewish immigrant women in Chicago, see Harry L. Lurie, “The Sex Hygiene of Family Life,”
Jewish Social Service Quarterly
(Dec. 1926), cited in Caroline Hadley Robinson,
Seventy Birth Control Clinics: A Survey and Analysis Including the General Effects of Control on Size and Quality of Population
(Philadelphia: 1930), p. 66. Also see Bernice Guthmann,
The Planned Parenthood Movement in Illinois, 1923-1965
, a 1965 pamphlet published by the PPFA, Chicago Area, pp. 3-6; Rachelle Yarros, M.D., “Illinois Looks Ahead,”
Birth Control Review
2:4 (Jan. 1935), p. 2; and Vreeland, “Process of Reform,” p. 367. On Yarros, see Christopher Lasch, “Rachelle Slobodinsky Yarros,” in
Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary
(Cambridge, Mass.: 1971), edited by Edward and Janet James, pp. 693-94.

5.
On the organization of the L.A. clinic, see Vreeland, “Process of Reform,” pp. 365-68, and on the endowment of $180,000, see Robinson,
Seventy Clinics
, p. 33. Patient data is in Robinson and in
The Los Angeles Mothers' Clinic Association Annual Report
, 1930, copy in MS-LC. On San Francisco, see
Alameda County Birth Control League and Mothers' Health Clinic
, 1929 pamphlet in MS-SS; and Planned Parenthood League of Alameda County and Planned Parenthood Association of San Francisco,
Joint Annual Report, 1969
, pp. 5-7, a pamphlet also collected by the author.

6.
On Detroit, see Eloise K. Sulzberger, “Instant Birth Control,” and Betsy Graves Reyneau, “Nobody Came,” in “Our M.S.,” Sanger Seventy-Fifth Birthday Reminiscences, pp. 264-67 and 230-32, MS-SS; Anne Kennedy to Mrs. Willard Pope, Jan. 5, 1944, MS-SS; and “Birth Control League of Michigan,”
Birth Control Review
16:1 (Jan. 1932), p. 23. On Cleveland, see Vreeland, “Process of Reform,” pp. 401-409;
The Maternal Health Association of Cleveland
, 1937 pamphlet summarizing the history of their clinic program in MS-SS; Dorothy Brush, “Impressions of Margaret Sanger,” in “Our M.S.,” MS-SS; and finally, Nancy Peacock, “Everything You Wanted to Know About Noblesse Oblige But Were Afraid to Ask,”
Cleveland
(May 1988). My thanks to my mother, Celia Chesler of Cleveland, for this last citation.

7.
On Baltimore, see “The Baltimore Birth Control Clinic,”
Birth Control Review
13:5 (May 1929), p. 137, and Bessie L. Moses, M.D.,
Contraception as a Therapeutic Measure
(Baltimore: 1936), esp. introduction and pp. 3-7, 14, summary. Moses' primary purpose was to test and compare the efficacy of the diaphragm against Sanger's New York statistics, which are discussed in Chapter 13. On Cooper, see M.S. to J. Noah. H. Slee, Feb. 22, 1925, with a handwritten notation by Sanger's secretary, Florence Rose, that Cooper spoke to 248 groups in practically every state, and M.S. to James Cooper, Feb. 5, 1925, both in MS-LC. Schedules and reports for Cooper's tours are in ABCL-Houghton, along with some early correspondence, including J.C. to M.S., Sept. 14, 1923, and J.C. to Clara L. Rowe, July 19, 1923. Miscellaneous reports from Cooper in the field including “Report on St. Louis, Mo. October, 15, 16, 17, 1925”; and “Report on North Jersey Medical Society (colored), Tioga County Medical Meeting and Indianapolis, Indiana,” October 1925, are in MS-LC. Monthly reports from 1926-28 are in James Cooper, M.D., “Clinical Report File,” uncataloged papers, Margaret Sanger Center, N.Y.C.; and a summary of 1928 activities is in MS-LC. Also see James F. Cooper, M.D.,
Motherhood and Birth Control
, and
Some Reasons for the Popularity of the Birth Control Movement
, pamphlets in BA-SS. Biographical material in S. Adolphus Knopf, M.D., “In Memoriam: James F. Cooper,” reprint from
The Medical Journal and Record
, May 20, 1931, in MS-SS and clipping from a
New York Herald Tribune
obituary, Mar. 28, 1931, in MS-LC. On New Jersey, see “Report of ABCL Executive Secretary Penelope B. Huse,” Mar. 8, 1927; and Henriette Hart, “Report of the New Jersey Field Work,” Apr. 12-May 8, 1927, both in PPFA-SS. Also see “News Notes,”
BCR
12:1 (Jan. 1928), p. 25. Aggregate data for 1930 is in Robinson,
Seventy Clinics
, passim. Robinson's outlook about the future of the clinic movement was optimistic, and her statistics were inflated by the inclusion of case data from facilities in Europe, as well as the United States. When one actually looks beyond the Sanger clinic in New York, however, her conclusion seems unfounded. For more on the Sanger clinic, see Chaps. 13 and 14.

8.
On Massachusetts, see Lucile Lord-Heinstein, M.D., “An Account of the Salem Raid and Trial,” July 28, 1937, PPLM-MS; “Massachusetts Clinic Case,” an account of the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling of May 26, 1938, n.d. (1938), MS-SS; and Ruth Smith, ed.,
PPLM Reports
24 (Spring 1974), copy in PPLM-SS. My thanks to David Garrow for summarizing the situation in Connecticut.

9.
On the Albany lobbying effort, see “Despotic Government at Albany,”
Birth Control Review
7:2 (Feb. 23, 1923), p. 47; “To All Our Friends,”
BCR
7:3 (Mar. 23, 1923) p. 71; “Intelligence Tests for Legislators,” and “The Hearing at Albany,”
BCR
7:5 (May 1925) pp. 107-108 and 111-12. Also see “Albany Mayor Fails to Halt Birth Control Meeting,”
The New York Times
, Feb. 21, 1923, and assorted clippings from local Albany papers in MS-LC. The denouement of Dennett's efforts is chronicled in the Stopes correspondence, MS-BM. The Sanger quotations are in M.S. to J.N.H.S., Mar. 2, 1927, MS-SS, and M.S. to J.R., n.d. (from Geneva), MS-DC. Also see U.S. Congress. Joint Subcommittees of the Committees on the Judiciary.
Joint Hearings on the Cummins-Vaile Bill
. 68th Cong., 1st sess., Apr. 8 and May 9, 1924.