Woman of Valor (91 page)

11.
The Guy Burch quote is from G.I.B. to Dr. Arthur J. Barton, Chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention, Jan. 23, 1934, MS-SS. The ABCL quote is from Margaret Lee Woodbury, “A Plea for the Middle Class,”
Birth Control Review
1:9 (June 1934), p. 5.
The first idea for a proposed merger of the American Eugenics Society and the American Birth Control League is discussed in a memorandum dated Mar. 2, 1933, which cautions that the foundations of eugenic thinking are weak because the mechanisms involved in the transmission of heredity are insufficiently understood, PPFA-SS. On the ultimate capitulation of eugenicists to the birth control argument, see
Practical Eugenics: Aims and Methods of The American Eugenics Society
, a 1938 pamphlet, copy in PPFA-SS, esp. p. 12; and minutes of the Conference on Eugenics and Birth Control of the American Eugenics Society, Jan. 28, 1938, PPFA-SS. Also see Arthur Packard to files, “American Eugenics Society,” Feb. 3, 1938, in Rocky- RG 2. Several prominent eugenicists nonetheless continued to inveigh against birth control propaganda, saying that it did more harm than good. Henry Fairfield Osborn began to espouse what he called “birth selection” over indiscriminate control. See H. F. Osborn, “Birth Selection vs. Birth Control,”
Forum
, 88:2 (Aug. 1932), pp. 79-83, a report on his address to the Third International Congress of Eugenics in New York.
Gordon,
Woman's Body
, pp. 303-313, once again distorts Sanger's eugenicism at this juncture, as does a present-day reading of it from the point of view of the New Right: George Grant,
The Legacy of Planned Parenthood
(Brentwood, Tenn.: 1988), esp. pp. 87-101. My thanks to Molly Ivins for this reference.

12.
“Proceedings of the American Conference on Birth Control and National Recovery,” Jan 15-17, 1934, Washington, D.C. See especially, “Opening Remarks” by Prof. Henry Pratt Fairchild, p. 9; responses from Sanger and Rachelle Yarros, pp. 40-45; remarks by Rabbi Sidney Goldstein of New York, pp. 76-79; remarks by Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, M.D., p. 286; and closing speeches by Sanger, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Prof. William McDougall of Duke University, pp. 446-74. Also see press release, Dec. 31, 1933, and “Resolution to the President of the United States,” Jan. 17, 1934, in MS-SS; and “Summary of the American Conference on Birth Control and National Recovery,” MS-LC. The Bossard quote is from “The New Public Relief and Birth Control,”
Birth Control Review
1:8 (May 1934), p. 1, an excerpt of his conference speech. Roosevelt's responses are in M.S. to Marvin Mclntyre, Jan. 8, 1934; M.M. to M.S., Jan. 13, 1934, and Jan. 18, 1934; and M.S. to M.M. April 19, 1934, all in FDR papers. Press coverage included the following: “Will Link Recovery with Birth Control: 500 Leaders in Medicine, Education and Religion Will Confer at Capitol, Jan. 15-17,”
The New York Times
, Jan. 7, 1934, 21:4; “See Birth Control as Recovery Need,”
NYT
, Jan. 16, 1934, 6:6; “Ask Roosevelt Aid for Birth Control,”
NYT
, Jan. 18, 1934, 28:5; “Birth Control: Capital Has Bill to Repeal Comstock Law,”
News-Week
3:27, Jan. 1934, pp. 28-29. The final quote is from Ettie Rout to Hazel Moore, Jan. 27, 1934, MS-SS. Also see, Mary S. Lovell,
The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart
(New York: 1989).

13.
Gordon,
Woman's Body
, p. 315, acknowledges the validity of Sanger's disappointment with the New Deal, but claims without evidence that the overall impact of her lobbying effort was to aid the right-wing opposition to Roosevelt. On the other hand, Gordon admits that most birth controllers identified themselves as New Dealers, and that public opinion still largely identified Sanger as a rebellious figure, not as a conservative. Gordon simply does not account for the incongruity in her analysis.

14.
A summary of Coughlin's statements in Jan. 1934 is in MS-LC. Also see Mrs. Leo Schmitt to M.S., Mar. 25, 1934, MS-SS, which tells the sad story of not being able to feed her five starving children, debunks Coughlin's arguments and simply says: “Tell him for me, he is all wet!” By contrast, a single letter in opposition to Sanger survives in the Roosevelt Presidential papers, charging that “it is nearly only the ignorant & the colored women who does (sic) not follow this wicked advice.” See Lydia Paquette (of Alabama) to FDR, Sept. 13, 1936, FDR papers. M.S. to Westbrook Pegler of
World Telegram
, Feb. 14, 1940, congratulates him for claiming that the government and press had been treating Coughlin too gently for too long and for encouraging a full investigation of his relationship to a group believed to be a Nazi front organization in the United States, MS-LC. Also see, Brinkley,
Voices of Protest
, pp. 119-26.

15.
For the change of public posture, compare “Mrs. Sanger Assails Birth Control Ideas,”
The New York Times
, Feb. 7, 1933, 3:3, to Margaret Sanger, “Catholics and Birth Control,”
The New Republic
, 79:10 (June 13, 1934), p. 129. Also see Anne Wheaton to M.S., Apr. 17, 1932, MS-LC; M.S. to Mrs. Oakes Ames, Feb. 14, 1934; Leo J. Latz, M.D., to Mrs. Oakes Ames, Feb. 24, 1934; Karl A. Crowley, solicitor, U.S. Post Office Department, to Mrs. Blanche Ames, May 2, 1934; Frederick A. Ballard to Mrs. Oakes Ames, all in BA:SS. And finally, Morris Ernst to Florence Rose (secretary to Sanger), Oct. 3, 1935, which recounts his inquiries in late 1933 on this matter, MS-LC. The direct Sanger quotes are from
Excerpts From the Rhythm of Sterility and Fertility in Women
, pamphlet issued by the NCFLBC, n.d., MS-SS. On Roosevelt and Coughlin, see Brinkley,
Voices of Protest
, pp. 131-32. On Ryan's efforts to blunt Coughlin's influence see Francis Broderick,
Right Reverend
, pp. 213-214. Roosevelt received an honorary degree from Catholic University in 1933.

16.
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary.
Birth Control Hearings on H.R. 5978
. 73d Cong., 2d sess., 1934, pp.6-9, 230-39. Wm. F. Montavon to Hon. Hatton W. Sumners, chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, Jan. 23, 1934, and M.S. to Hatton Sumners, Mar. 6, 1934, MS-LC. M.S. to I. Van Meter of
Time
, Feb. 12, 1934, MS-LC. “The Federal Hearing,”
Birth Control Review
1:6 (Mar. 1934), p. 2. The final quote is from M.S. to Mrs. Oakes Ames, Feb. 6, 1934, BA-SS.

17.
U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary.
Birth Control Hearings on S.R. 1842
. 73d Cong., 2d sess., Mar., 1, 20, 27, 1934, especially pp. 149-75. Hazel Moore, Memorandum, “June 13 th--year of the Devil and Roman Catholic--1934,” copies in MS-SS and MS-LC. Also see John O'Donnell and Doris Fleeson, “T'was Legal, for 5 Minutes to Talk of Birth Control,”
The New York Daily News
, June 15, 1934, clipping in MS-LC.

18.
On the Nassau incident, see M.S. to J.N.H.S., Mar. 21, 1933, from aboard ship to Nassau, and “Saturday Evening 2/33,” from Nassau (actually Mar. 1933), both in MS-SS. Her recollection of the incident is from M.S. to Lawrence Lader, Mar. 29, 1954, MS-SS.

19.
Biographical information is from a clipping of the MacDonald obituary in the
Orange County Review
, Orange County, Florida, Feb. 23, 1961, (where he moved with his second wife), MS-SS. Also see notes on a conversation about MacDonald with John Muller of Bridgehampton, N.Y., May 10, 1963, MS-SS. Quotes from M.S. to A.M., Aug. 23 and Sept. 4, 1933, and from A.M. to M.S., Sept. 29, 1933, all in MS-SS. M.S. to A.M., Feb. 2, 1934, talks of deceiving Noah and guests about flowers that arrived at her house and Nov. 26, 1937, speaks of champagne; M.S. to J.N.H.S., May 24, 1934, mentions the private papers, also all in MS-SS.

20.
A.M. to M.S., Sept. 12, 1949, Aug. 19, 1951, MS-SS.

21.
See especially M.S. to J.N.H.S., Sept. 18, 1933, May 24, 1934, June 28, 1934, n.d. (Fall 1934, headed “R.F.D.Box 276”), May 6, 1935, “Christmas 1935” and Feb. 1, 1936, all in MS-SS, though there are many other communications in the Sanger-Slee file for these years, which also support the generalizations made here. M.S. to Havelock Ellis, Oct. 23, 1933, MS-SS, has the particulars on the house in Washington and M.S. to H.E., July 3, 1934, and Dec. 7, 1934, help establish the chronology for that year.

22.
The suffrage analogy is mentioned in Elizabeth M. Lappin to Arthur Packard, June 18, 1934, Rocky-RG2. On the endorsements, see “YWCA Endorses Birth Control Legislation,” in
Birth Control Review
1:9 (June 1934) and Dorothy Dunbar Bromley, “Clubwomen, Doctors Back Birth Control,” the
New York Mirror
, June 13, 1935, clipping in MS-SS. The educational reach of the clubwomen is evident in “Social, Economic and Health Aspects of Birth Control: An Outline Designed for Group Study,” a document prepared to guide women's club discussions of birth control and distributed nationally in 1937 and 1938. It included a prepared speech for use by program chairwomen, praising the birth control advocates, copy in MS-SS. Also see memo, “The National Committee on Federal and State Contraceptive Legislation,” Dec. 26, 1934, and Prentiss Willson, M.D. to Arthur W. Packard, Nov. 2, 1934, both in Rocky-RG2. The final quote is from Susan B. Francis, R.N., president of the American Nurses Association, conveyed in a memo from Florence Rose to M.S. “Re: National Convention of American Nurses Association, Los Angeles, June 21, 1936,” MS-SS.

23.
Copies of “Family Planning, A Radio Talk By Margaret Sanger,” Apr. 11, 1935, are in MS-LC and MS-SS. Correspondence includes the material quoted from Edna M. Graff to M.S., Apr. 11, 1935, MS-SS, and from James J. Mohen and Frank J. Seuferling, Astoria, N.Y., Apr. 15, 1935, MS-LC.

24.
H. G. Wells, “Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” in W. Warren Wager, ed.,
H.G. Wells: Journalism and Prophecy 1893-1946
(Boston: 1964), pp. 348-49; Juliet Rublee to M.S., May 30, 1936, MS-SS. M.S. to F.D.R, Mar. 1, 1935, FDR papers.

25.
Hazel Moore to Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Nov. 9, 1934; Hazel Moore to Malvina Schneider, secretary to Mrs. Roosevelt, Nov. 15, 1934; Ruby A. Black to Mrs. Roosevelt, Apr. 16, 1935, enclosing M.S. to Mrs. F.D.R., Apr. 9, 1935, all in the Eleanor Roosevelt papers, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y., hereinafter “ER papers.”

26.
Margaret's frustration is in M.S. to C. D. Brown, Jr., Aug. 5, 1935, MS-LC. The Puerto Rican situation is chronicled in the following: Henry Wallace to A.J.S. Weaver, July 14, 1934, FDR papers, Hyde Park, directly instructs that no references to contraception in Puerto Rico be made from official sources. The President wrote personally in response to a telegram about the Puerto Rican situation from Father John Burke of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, promising that Harry Hopkins would look into the matter: John J. Burke to FDR, April 1, 1935, and FDR to J.B., April 23, 1935, FDR papers, Hyde Park. Also see Phyllis Tilson Piotrow,
World Population Crisis: The United States Response
(New York: 1973), p. 31; and James Reed,
The Birth Control Movement and American Society: From Private Vice to Public Virture
(Princeton: 1984), pp. 259-60.

27.
Hazel Moore, Memorandum, “Interview with Harry Hopkins, June 6, 1934,” and “Survey of Policies of F.E.R.A. Administrators,” Feb. 25, 1935, both in MS-LC; “Relief and Babies,”
Time
, Apr. 8, 1935, clipping in MS-LC. Nadina Kavinoky, M.D., “List of Public Clinics in Los Angeles,” Sept. 1937, MS-LC. The quotation is from Lydia DeVilbiss, M.D. to M.S., Sept. 30, 1936. Also see DeVilbiss to M.S., Jan. 2, 1935, and DeVilbiss to Stella Hanau, Jan. 2, 1935, all in MS-SS. The Puerto Rico incident is recounted in an unpublished manuscript of Ernest Gruening, cited in Piotrow,
World Population Crisis
, p. 31. Also see James Reed,
The Birth Control Movement and American Society: From Private Vice to Public Virtue
(Princeton: 1984), pp. 259-66.

28.
NCFLBC, Annual Report, Nov. 1, 1934-Oct. 1, 1935, pp. 6-8, copy in Rocky-RG2; Hazel Moore, memo to M.S., Jan. 8, 1935, “Year of Our Lord and Miracles,” MS-LC; M.S. to Hazel Moore, Oct. 18, 1935, and H.M to M.S. “Spit 12-no year,” n.d. (1936), both in MS-LC. (There did not seem to be any hard feelings. Sanger offered Moore a field position in the South. At first she declined and went back to work for the Red Cross, but then shortly thereafter returned to birth control work.) Also see “Birth Control Bill Shelved in House: Mrs. Sanger Declares Fight Will Go On,”
The New York Times
, Feb. 6, 1935, 15:3-4) and “Undiscouraged,”
NYT
, Feb. 10, 1935, sec. 4, 2:5. U.S. Congress. House. Committee on the Post Office.
Offenses Against the Postal Services: Hearings on H.R. 154…H.R. 5370
, 74th Cong., 1st sess. Mar. 8, Apr. 4, Apr. 10, 1935. Sanger testimony is on pp. 45-49, 95-101. Finally see Edna R. McKinnon, “Outline of Campaign for Passage of a Birth Control Bill,” memorandum, Dec. 8, 1936, esp. p. 4, MS-LC. Morris Ernst objected to this Post Office bill, again thinking it more restrictive than existing conditions guaranteed by the courts. See Morris L. Ernst to Stella Hanau, Feb. 17, 1936, MS-LC. The two supporters who died were House Speaker Thomas Rainey and Percy L. Gassaway of Oklahoma, who had agreed to sponsor a new bill. See M.S. to Hazel Moore, Sept. 15, 1936, MS-LC, on Gassaway, a “cowboy” Congressman from Oklahoma, whose first wife had died in childbirth. Gassaway's second wife asked Sanger for information about the best “preventives” to give to her newly married daughter, and Sanger carefully responded by asking for the name of the daughter's physician, since she could only legally mail the appropriate medical texts to him. Press on the 21st anniversary dinner includes “Will Honor Mrs. Sanger,”
NYT
Feb. 10, 1935, sec. 2, 4:6; and “New Drive Mapped for Birth Control,”
NYT
Feb. 13, 1935, 8:4.