Woman of Valor (83 page)

10.
Anne Kennedy, report on “Federal Work,” n.d. (1926), and Anne Kennedy to the Board of Directors and National Council of the ABCL, “Facts You Should Know,” Jan. 19, 1926, both in MS-LC. The quotations are from Anne Kennedy, “Short Synopsis of Interviews with Senators,” a sixty-page document. She quoted Vaile and George W. Norris, among many others, see esp. pp. 1 and 4.

11.
On the 1924 campaign, see Oswald G. Villard to M.S., Sept. 3, 1924, MS-LC and “Summary of Events for 1924,” PPFA-SS. The 1926 events are in Anne Kennedy, “Report of an Interview with Father Ward of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, Washington D.C., Also Father Ryan of the Publicity Department,” n.d. (1926); Mrs. Anne Kennedy, “Report of an Interview with Mr. P. J. Ward of the NCWC, Washington, D.C.,” Mar. 2, 1926, copies in MS-SS and MS-LC; Patrick J. Ward to Clarence C. Little, president of the University of Michigan, Mar. 18, 1926; Rev. John J. Burke, general secretary of the NCWC, to M.S., Apr. 21, 1926; M.S. to John J. Burke, May 13, 1926, and June 24; Burke to M.S., June 12 and July 28; Patrick J. Ward to the editor,
The New Republic
, Oct. 29, 1928, all in MS-LC. From 1928, see Floyd S. Dell, “The Anti-Birth Control Neurosis,”
Birth Control Review
12:9 (Sept. 1928), pp. 252-54, and “Mrs. Sanger Calls Catholics Bigots…Attacks Smith Candidacy,”
The New York Times
, Apr. 25, 1928, 14:2-3; and on the Hoover vote, M.S. to Juliet Rublee, n.d. (Nov. 1928), MS-DC. Finally, on New York lobbying efforts: “Legislators Wake to a Vital Problem,”
BCR
9:5 (May 1925), pp. 143-55. A copy of Assembly Bill 684, dated Feb. 1, 1927, is in MS-LC. A summary of the progress made on a subsequent bill introduced in 1929 is in “Doctors and Birth Control,” American Birth Control League, Report of the executive secretary for 1929, PPFA-SS.

12.
Grant Sanger, Schlesinger Library interview, p. 54; interview with the author, Dec. 18, 1987. Olive Byrne Richard, Jacqueline Van Voris interview, Smith College, p. 17. Margaret Sanger Marston, Jacqueline Van Voris interview, Smith College, p. 44.

13.
Sanger Journal, Mar. 7, 1925, Jan. 11, 1926, MS-SS. M.S. to “Juliet Dearest,” n.d. (possibly as early as 1921) and M.S. to J.R., “Aug. 20,” n.d. (sometime in the 1920s) on Mount Royal Hotel letterhead, MS-DC. The quote is from J.R. to M.S., Sept. 11, 1925, MS-SS, also see letters dated Sept. 11, Oct. 7, and Oct. 12, 1925.

14.
Margaret Sanger, ed.
The Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference
, 4 vols. (New York, 1925-26), copy in MS-SS. The conference was held at the McAlpin Hotel, March 25-31, 1925. Also see, news releases and other materials from the event in ABCL-Houghton.
The New York Times
coverage began with “Birth Control Conference; Noted Advocates from Abroad to Attend Sessions Opening Tomorrow,” Mar. 25, 1925, 12:2, and continued for a week. See
NYT
, Mar. 27, 1925, 8:1-2; Mar. 28, 9:1; Mar. 29, Sec. 1, 9:1, Mar. 30, 10:3; Mar. 31, 7:1; Apr. 1, 15:1; Apr. 2, 17:2. Also, “Neo-Malthusians,”
The Nation
120:15 (Apr. 15, 1925), p. 401; John Langdon-Davies, “Race-Suicide No Murder,”
The New Republic
42: 541 (Apr. 15, 1925), pp. 209-11. On the participation of Rosika Schwimmer, see R.S. to M.S., Mar. 17 and Dec. 4, 1924, Jan. 30, 1925, and M.S. to R.S., Mar. 26 and Dec. 9, 1924, Jan. 17 and Apr. 6, 1925, all in the Schwimmer-Lloyd (Lola Maverick Lloyd) Collection, New York Public Library.

15.
“Margaret Sanger Begins to Study Birth Control; Leaving League She Created ‘to Catch Up With Subject,' ”
New York World
, June 6, 1926, clipping in MS-LC.
Autobiography
, p. 393, and David Kennedy,
Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger
, (New Haven: 1970), p. 103.

16.
Sanger's positive assessment of Anne Kennedy and the league's progress is in Journal, “Notes during the Geneva Conference, 1928,” MS-SS. The events surrounding the Kennedy firing are chronicled in the following correspondence: Eleanor Jones to M.S., “Friday, July 8,” n.d. (1927); M.S. to E. J., Dec. 20, 1927; M.S. to A.K., Dec. 22, 1927, and A.K. to M.S., Jan. 10, 1928, and “Geneva, Sat. the 5th,” (n.d.) (1927 or 1928); P. B. Huse to M.S., Nov. 3, 1927; Annie G. Porritt to M.S., Dec. 29, 1927; Frances Ackerman, Nov. 3-13, 1927, and Dec. 3, 1927; and Charlotte Delafield to M.S., Nov. 29, 1927, all in MS-LC. On Lifschiz, see Anna Lifschiz to Margaret Sanger, Aug. 15, 1930, MS-SS. Without apparent rancor, Lifschiz went to the western office of Holland-Rantos, manufacturer of diaphragms, in Los Angeles, saying to M.S., “There are no words to express how I cherish my contact with you.”

17.
M.S. to Juliet Rublee, May 17, 1928, MS-DC. M.S. to “The Board of Directors,” the American Birth Control League, Inc. June 8, 1928, MS-SS. Charlotte Delafield to M.S., Apr. 16, 1928, indicates her refusal to serve as a replacement President.

18.
“Minutes of Special Meeting, Sept. 20, 1928,” MS-LC, discuss the dispute over the autonomy of the clinic. MS. to Juliet Rublee, Sept. 14 and Sept. 23, 1928, and “Juliet dear” on 39 Fifth Ave. letterhead (n.d.), reveal her view of the dispute as it was developing, all in MS-DC. M.S. to “the Secretary of the A.B.C.L., Inc. January 31, 1929,” communicates her formal resignation as editor and director, and M.S. to Mrs. F. Robertson Jones, Feb. 11, 1929, and Eleanor Dwight Jones to J.N.H.S., testily explain the differences between the two women, all in the ABCL papers, MS-SS. The direct quotes are respectively from M.S. to H.de S., Feb. 19, 1929, MS-LC; and from a story in the
Brooklyn Eagle
, Dec. 28, 1930, clipping in MS-LC. Also see, “Mrs. Sanger Quits Birth Control Post,”
The New York Times
, Sept. 12, 1928, 11:1-3 and “Mrs. F. Robertson Jones Becomes Head of Birth Control League,”
NYT
, Sept. 13, 29:8. Kennedy,
Birth Control
, pp. 103-104, attributes the break to Sanger's emotionalism and her “autocratic and often chaotic leadership,” without giving her any benefit of doubt and without fully examining the particulars of the controversy that led up to it.

19.
M.S. to Dr. Alice Boughton, executive director, ABCL, in 1932 ABCL correspondence, MS-LC. Also M.S. to Annie G. Porritt, secretary of the ABCL board, Jan. 20, 1930, MS-LC.

20.
M.S. to Juliet Rublee in Mexico, “Willowlake, Friday 26, Darling Juliet,” n.d. (1929) MS-DC, and H.E. to M.S., Nov. 3, 1930, MS-LC. For the article, see Margaret Sanger, “The Birth Control Raid,”
The New Republic
(May 1, 1929), pp. 305-306, clipping in MS-LC.

21.
The first quotes are from Eleanor Dwight Jones, “Birth Control: First Aid in Social Work,” speech reprinted in
Birth Control Review
13:8 (Aug. 1929), p. 218. The next two are from Eleanor Dwight (Mrs. F. Robertson) Jones to Lawrence B. Dunham, Nov. 3, 1930, Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers, Rockefeller Archive, Record Group 2, Pocantico Hills, New York, hereinafter Rocky, followed by the appropriate record group number. My thanks to Joan Dunlop for helping to facilitate my use of the Rockefeller archives by putting me in touch with Peter Johnson, the Rockefeller family archivist whose preliminary search helped me locate these papers, which, to my knowledge, have not been previously examined. For the Bureau of Social Hygiene Response, see memorandum: “To Mr. Dunham from Dr. Sellin,” Nov. 17, 1930; and Lawrence Dunham to Thomas M. Debevoise, Mar. 5, 1931, and R. (Ruth) Topping to Mr. Dunham, “ABCL-Comments on Report of Activities for 1931,” Jan. 5, 1932, and RT (Ruth Topping), “File Memorandum re: ABCL,” Dec. 2, 1932, in which she quotes Robert Dickinson, M.D., calling Jones a “martinet,” all in Rocky-RG2. When the Bureau of Social Hygiene closed down, Topping ironically took a job with the league, but by that time, it was supporting Sanger.

12: HAPPINESS IN MARRIAGE

1.
The biographical information on Slee is from a Planned Parenthood Federation of America press release issued at his death on June 22, 1943, copy in MS-SS; and from his obituary in the
New York Herald Tribune
, June 23, 1943, a clipping of which is in the Abraham Stone papers, Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University, hereinafter AS-Countway. There is no indication that Slee's first wife was related to the Roosevelt presidents. Also see a deposition for a suit against 3-in-One-Oil in MS-LC. The dollar figure on the 3-in-One sale is from Juliet Rublee to MS., Sept. 28, 1929, MS-SS. Olive Byrne Richard, in her interview with the author, also recalled this figure, and told the story of Margaret having said she nearly fainted.

2.
The Sanger divorce decree, dated Oct. 4, 1921, Barnstable, Mass., is in MS-SS. Also see Herman Harding, counselor and attorney-at-law, to M.S., Apr. 16, 1920. Carl Degler,
At Odds: Women and the Family in America From the Revolution to the Present
(New York: 1980), p.169, says that desertion and failure of support were typical grounds for divorce. On time spent with Hersey and Sanger, see Sanger Journal entries for Oct. 1920, MS-SS, and also William Sanger to M.S., Jan. 5, 1922, MS-SS, where he tells her that he is “thrilled” by a recent letter that must have expressed some sense of sustained affection or caring for him, because he said that it had lifted “the pall over my being--your indifference.” Also see M.S. to H.de S., Nov. 15, 1921, “Aug. 6, Sunday am,” n.d. (1921) and “Hotel Russell,” n.d. (1921), all in MS-LC.

3.
On Slee's influence see M.S. to Lawrence Lader, Mar. 29, 1954, MS-SS. M.S. to Juliet Rublee, on “One Hundred-Four Fifth Avenue, New York” letterhead, with “Juliet dearest” as a salutation, n.d. (1923 or '24), tells of bringing a man on staff. The final recollection is from Elizabeth Grew Bacon, “M.S. A Memory Picture,” in “Our M.S.,” MS-SS.

4.
My impressions of the Sanger-Slee marriage are drawn from their extensive correspondence, which she saved and left to Smith College, to be opened to researchers ten years after her death. Specific letters are cited throughout the text that follows. Also see M.S. to Lawrence Lader, Mar. 29, 1954, MS-SS; Dorothy Brush, “I Just Love Margaret,” in “Our M.S,” MS-SS. A Japan Journal is also in MS-SS. See especially entries for Mar. 9, 10, 13, 16, 18, 19, 21, 29; Apr. 4, 11, 21-22, May 31, June 10, and June 30, 1922. Additional information on the trip is from the Sanger FBI file. See “Weekly Intelligence Report, Seattle, Washington District, Feb. 20, 1922”; Report on “Japanese Situation--San Francisco District” to Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, Feb. 18, 1922; and General Intelligence Division, Special Reports of Radical Activities, periods ending Feb. 25, Aug. 19, and Oct. 14, 1922. Sanger's affidavit allowing her entry into Japan, along with a letter from Baroness Ishimoto to Anne Kennedy, Mar. 9, 1922, and other correspondence is in MS-LC. Letters quoted are M.S. to Juliet Rublee, “The Grand Hotel, Yokohama,” n.d. (1922), and Apr. 16, 1922, from “Grand Hotel de Pekin.” Finally, see
Autobiography
, pp. 315-55, which never even mentions Slee's presence on the round-the-world trip.

5.
Report of the Fifth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference
, Kingsway Hall, London, July 11-14, 1922 (London: 1922), copy in MS-SS. See especially, Sanger's introductory address to the session, “Individual and Family Aspects of Birth Control,” pp. 24-31, and Annie G. Porritt, managing editor of the
Birth Control Review
, “Publicity in the Birth Control Movement,” pp. 302-306. American press coverage of the trip included the following: “Birth Control in Japan,”
The New York Times
, June 5, 1921, Sec. 6, 10:1-3, announcing her intention to go; “Mrs. Sanger Shocks Her; Chinese Girl Interpreter Breaks Off Birth Control Lecture,”
NYT
, June 22, 1922, 3:2; and “Mrs. Sanger Tells of Trip; Says Japanese and Chinese Hailed Birth Control,”
NYT
, Oct. 11, 1922, 19:4. Also see coverage of the conference in
BCR
6:9 (Sept. 1922), especially, “British and American Birth Control Movements,” p. 172, and “Margaret Sanger's Impressions,” pp. 175-76; and 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. 138. Margaret Sanger,
The New Motherhood
with introductions by Harold Cox and Havelock Ellis, came out in London in 1922.

6.
The divorce decree and marriage certificate are in MS-SS, as is a copy of William Sanger's certificate of marriage to Vedya Merz on July 6, 1924. The seer's pronouncements, under “Margaret Higgins, 2-4-8, 1-5-7,” are in MSSS. Clippings on the announcement of the marriage in Feb. 1924 are in MS-LC scrapbooks. See for example “Mrs. Sanger Reported Wed,”
The New York Times
, Feb 18, 1924, 4:4; “Meet the Wife,” and “Millionaire Won Mrs. Sanger with Hunt over Globe,”
New York Daily News
, Feb. 18, 1924. Also see Harold Hersey to M.S., “July 19th” n.d. (1921 or 22), MS-SS. H.E. to M.S., Jan. 15, 1922, MS-LC. William Sanger learned of the marriage from Michael Higgins in 1923 and was exceedingly distressed by the news. See William Sanger to M.S., Feb. 27, 1923, MS-SS.

7.
M.S. to H.de S., July 17, 1924, MS-LC. Also see
Autobiography
, pp. 356-57. The marriage “contract” is alleged in Lawrence Lader,
The Margaret Sanger Story
, (New York: 1955).

8.
Richard quote from her interview with the author, Mar. 1985. Sanger quotes in M.S. to Juliet Rublee, n.d. (1924), on “Canadian Pacific Hotels” letterhead, M.S. to J.R., Aug. 6, 1925, and M.S. to J.R., n.d. (sometime in the 1920s), all in MS-DC. The Sanger-Slee correspondence is in MS-SS. See, for example, J.N.H.S. to M.S., telegram, Apr. 5, 1923; May 20, 1923; Oct. 7, 1923; Oct. 30, 1923; Nov. 12, 1923; Oct. 9, 1924; Apr. 1, 1927; and for the material in quotation, Apr. 23, 1925, from The Homestead, Hot Springs, Ga. The
Family Limitation
controversy is chronicled in Charles V. Drysdale to M.S., Feb. 25, 1923, MS-SS, and
Birth Control Review
7:4, (Apr. 1923), pp. 84-85. It became another opportunity for competition between Sanger and Marie Stopes, who resented the fuss made over it and claimed that the obscenity ruling posed no larger threat to the legality of birth control in England.