Woman of Valor (93 page)

2.
Margaret's comments are penciled over the Rout letter (see note 1). Subsequent events are recounted through “Summary of Legal References” in Guy Irving Burch (then helping Sanger at the NCFLBC) to C. C. Little, Mar. 23, 1936, MS-SS; Marguerite Benson (executive director of the ABCL) to Burch, Mar. 28, 1936; Benson to Charles Scribner (another of Sanger's lawyers), Mar. 30, 1936; and Scribner to Adelaide Pearson (also of the NCFLBC), Apr. 17, 1936, all in MS-LC. The Moore incident is recounted in Hazel Moore to Mrs. L. E. Goodisson, Apr. 29, 1935, MS-LC.

3.
For a chronology of
U.S. v. One Package
, see M.S. to Dr. Sakao Koyama, Osaka, Japan, June 27, 1932, and Mar. 14, 1933, in the Japan file, MS-LC; M.S. to Morris Ernst, Mar. 30, 1932, in which, recognizing the potential historic nature of the case, she protests that her own name cannot go on it, says that the clinic doctors get in trouble with the medical establishment for involving themselves in “propaganda,” but then concedes the necessity of using a licensed physician; Florence Rose to Morris Ernst, Feb. 8, 1933, and Ernst to Rose, Feb. 10, 1933; Alexander Lindley of Ernst's firm to Rose, Oct. 3, 1935; Ernst to Dr. Robert L. Dickinson, Nov. 2, 1935, all in Ernst file, MS-LC. The material in quotation is from the decision rendered by Augustus Hand (U.S. v. One Package, 86 F. 2d 737 [1936]), pp. 5-6, copy found in Margaret Sanger Center of New York papers, now in MS-SS. Marquis James, “Morris L. Ernst,”
Scribner's Magazine
104:1 (July 1938), provides a charming profile, copy in MS-LC. Also see James Reed,
The Birth Control Movement and American Society: From Private Vice to Public Virture
, (Princeton: 1984), p. 121, and C. Thomas Dienes,
Law, Politics and Birth Control
(Urbana, Ill.: 1972), pp. 10815.
Once again, this narrative departs significantly from
Birth Control
, Kennedy's biography of Sanger. Nowhere is Kennedy's bias against Sanger more evident than in his recounting of
U.S. v. One Package
, where he neglects even to mention her role in the litigation, positions her instead as resistant to all judicial initiatives, and even goes so far as to suggest that the case was carried to appeal because William J. McWilliams, counsel to the ABCL, brought the two birth control factions together by convincing them both “that judicial interpretation was a more profitable avenue of reform than legislative amendment.” See, Kennedy,
idem
, pp. 240-43. Morris Ernst, in fact, consistently encouraged Sanger in her legislative work, though he always cautioned her to emphasize the import of recent court rulings in her lobbying. Nor did either of them need to be told to carry the Moscowitz decision through an appeal. They never considered not doing so. See Florence Rose, “Report of Interview with Morris Ernst,” May 18, 1936, and Arthur Packard, “Birth Control Legislation and Agency Programs, Conversation with Morris Ernst,” Jan. 23, 1936, Rocky-RG2. Kennedy's subsequent assertion,
idem
, p. 257, that the squabbles among the women of the movement were only resolved as a result of the intervention of male lawyers with “cooler heads” is untrue and offensive. Regrettably, he always seems to hold Sanger to a different standard of comportment than he does doctors, priests, lawyers, or anyone else with whom she had differences.
U.S. v. One Package
was Harriet Pilpel's first major birth control assignment, and the occasion on which she met Sanger, who sent her flowers in thanks. See Florence Rose to H.P., Sept. 19, 1936, and H.P. to M.S., Dec. 7, 1936, MS-LC.

4.
M.S., form letter to supporters, Dec. 14, 1936, MS-LC;
Life
Jan. 11, 1937, clipping in MS-SS. Actually, the
Life
piece was planned before the court decision. See Florence Rose to Stella Hanau, Oct. 12, 1936, MS-LC. Also see
Time
, Dec. 21, 1936, clipping in MS-LC; “Birth Control Today,”
The Nation
144:2, (Jan 9, 1937), p. 34; “Mrs. Sanger Gets Town Hall Medal,”
The New York Times
, Jan. 16, 1937, 15:5. For Catholic attack when medal was announced in Dec, see “Town Hall Club Honors Dishonor,”
Ave Maria
44 (Dec, 19, 1936), pp. 791-92. And, finally, press release, “Birth Control Committee Disbands, Victorious,” July 3, 1937, MS-SS; and
A New Day Dawns for Birth Control: Summary of Seven Years Which Led to Legislation and Cleared the Way for an Epoch-Making Advance
, NCFLBC pamphlet, July 1937, MS-LC.

5.
“A.M.A. and Birth Control,”
Birth Control Review
16:6 (June 1932), p. 164; “Resolution House of Delegates, American Medical Association, 1933 Annual Session,” copy in MS-SS; Ira S. Wile, M.D., “Critique of Commentary on 1937 AMA Resolutions,” Jan. 1937, MS-SS. On the 1937 AMA report, see
JAMA
108: 22 (June 1937), pp. 2217-18; and William Laurence, “Birth Control is Accepted by American Medical Body”
The New York Times
, June 9, 1937, 1:2-3.

6.
Editorial, “Contraceptive Advice, Devices and Preparations Still Contraband,”
JAMA
108:14, (Apr. 1937), pp. 1179-80; reply by Morris L. Ernst, et al., “Correspondence: Contraceptive Advice, Devices and Preparations,”
JAMA
108:21 (May 1937), pp. 1819-20, copies also in Ernst file, MS-LC. The signatories were Frederick A. Ballard, Alexander C. Dick, Harrison Tweed, and Charles E. Scribner. For a concurring opinion, also see Charles Scribner, memorandum for the NCFLBC, Apr. 16, 1937, MS-LC. The Ernst quote is from Morris Ernst, “Public Health and Birth Control Laws,” speech delivered Dec. 19, 1936, MS-LC. Also, see Hannah Stone, M.D., “Birth Control Wins,”
The Nation
, Jan. 16, 1937, reprint in MS-SS; Margaret Sanger, “The Status of Birth Control: 1938,”
The New Republic
, Apr. 20, 1938, clipping in MS-LC; and, finally, Kennedy,
Birth Control
, pp. 215-17 and 255-56, and Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, p. 190. Morris Ernst,
The Best Is Yet
(New York: 1945), a reminiscence, contains several favorable comments about Sanger.

7.
United States v. One Package, 86 F 2d 737 (1936), concurring decision of Learned Hand, copy in MS-NYC papers, now in MS-SS. The legislative history is best summarized in C. Thomas Dienes,
Law, Politics and Birth Control
, pp. 188-93, 245-52.

8.
“Contraceptive Caravans and More Clinics Urged by Mrs. Sanger,” press release, BCCRB, July 19, 1937, MS-SS. “List of Contraceptive Centers in the United States, September, 1936,” identifies the 300 facilities to which Sanger referred, many of them shoestring operations, and forty-four of them in New York State alone. A copy of the list is in the Morris Ernst Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College. Also see, Arthur W. Packard to Rockefeller Files, “Memorandum of Conversation with Mrs. Sanger,” Oct. 9, 1936, and A.W.P. to files, “Conversation with Margaret Sanger,” June 15, 1937, both in Rocky-RG2.

9.
Robert Hardie, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farm Security Administration to Gladys Smith, Jan. 3, 1937, MS-LC. Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, p. 266, documents the FSA story from materials in the papers of Clarence Gamble, who funded it. On the distribution of contraception among migratory workers in California, see Grace Naismith, “The Birth Control Nurse,”
Survey Graphic
32:2 (June 1943), also cited in Reed,
idem
.

10.
Edna McKinnon to M.S., memoranda dated Nov. 23/24, 1936, Jan. 12, 1937, Apr. 6, 1937, and Apr. 13, 1937, all in MS-LC; “Report of Marguerite Benson, Executive Director of the American Birth Control League,” Sept., 1936, copy in PPFA-SS. An entire file on the Conference on Better Care for Mothers and Babies is in MS-LC, including a notation of the initial invitation that went to the ABCL; a copy of a letter from M.S. to Katherine Lenroot, Jan. 5, 1938, asking that she be invited as well, along with Lenroot's form response. M.S. to Fred Adair, M.D., Jan. 13, 1938, describes the situation regarding Hannah Stone. Hazel Moore, memorandum, “Special Interview with Mrs. Elwood Street,” explains the exclusion from the planning committee. Sanger subsequently wrote letters to all the participants in the conference protesting the exclusion and silencing of Stone. See M.S. to “Associations, Members of the National Conference on Better Care for Mothers and Babies,” June 22, 1938. The recollections of Martha May Eliot, M.D., are in her interviews with Jeanette Cheek, November 1973 to May 1974, in the Oral History Project on Women in the Family Planning and Abortion Movements, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, pp. 425-26.

11.
Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, pp. 247-52. Also see speeches by Pascal K. Whelpton, Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems, and Ralph Chester Williams, M.D., medical director of the Farm Security Administration, at the Third South Conference on Tomorrow's Children, Oct. 31, 1941, Nashville, Tenn., copies in MS-SS.

12.
See especially, Lydia A. DeVilbiss, M.D., to M.S., Oct. 20, 1933, May 21, 1934, Jan. 10, and Jan. 22, 1935, M.S. to L.D., Jan. 18, 1935, and M.S. to Dr. Wells P. Eagleton, May 12, 1937, all in MS-LC. Also see M.S. to L.D., Sept. 19, 1935, Nov. 2, 1936, a listing of the Florida clinics, a suggested program of operation, and a copy of the case records they used, dated July 17, 1936; a preliminary report on the use of rubber sponge pessary and Fern Foam, May 1, 1936; and “Dorothy” to Hazel Zborowski (a Sanger clinic administrator), Aug. 8, 1935, all in MS-SS. Hannah Stone to M.S., Oct. 9, 1936, MS-SS, suggests that she did not approve of the foam method, but Sanger overruled her, and let the trial go ahead. The American Birth Control League refused to work with DeVilbiss, not because she was a racist, but because it disapproved of her simple method. See Linda Gordon,
Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America
(New York: 1976), p. 309.

13.
Anthony R. Measham, M.D.,
Family Planning in North Carolina: The Politics of a Lukewarm Issue
(Chapel Hill: 1972), pp.1-11; Wilma Dykeman,
Too Many People, Too Little Love, Edna Rankin McKinnon: Pioneer for Birth Control
(New York: 1974), pp. 45-87; Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, pp. 252-56, p. 268; Martha Eliot interview, pp. 427-28; Phyllis Tilson Piotrow,
World Population Crisis: The United States Response
(New York: 1973), pp. 141-42. Also see, Hazel Moore, Report, 1937, “Birth Control for the Negro,” MS-LC; and Clarence J. Gamble, medical field director of the BCCRB, “An Outline of the Recent Field Work of the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau,” Jan. 1939, MS-SS.

14.
“Committee on Public Progress” files in MS-LC and MS-SS include, for example, M.S. to “Dear Friend” forms for 1938 and 1939, pointing out the
One Package
decision and AMA endorsement and asking that individual letters be written to Roosevelt, Lenroot, and Parran, along with Francis Harrington, the new administrator of the WPA. Fact sheets accompanied these mailings. Letters were also solicited to be sent to various popular magazines and journals. A 1938 Public Progress Committee letter to the
Women's Home Companion
elicited a full-page editorial in support of birth control, see MS-LC. Florence Rose to Morris Ernst, Dec. 1, 1938; M.S. to Mary Woodard Reinhardt, Dec. 8, 1938; Hazel Moore to F. Rose, Dec. 16, 1938; Moore to Reinhardt, Jan. 6, 1939, and Reinhardt to M.S., Mar. 3, 1939, detail discussions with Senator Wagner, all in MS-LC. The league's activities are chronicled in Marguerite Benson, “A Public Trust,”
Birth Control Review
4:1 (Sept. 1936), p. 1;
The Most Important Thing in the World
, ABCL pamphlet, 1938; and “263,990 to be Sought for Birth Control Work,”
New York Herald Tribune
, Mar. 24, 1938, clipping, all in MS-SS. On Parran and the VD campaign, see Allan M. Brandt,
No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880
(New York: 1985), pp. 143-47. The final quoted material is from the reference sheet attached to M.S. to “Dear Friend,” asking for letters to Dr. Thomas Parran, Jr., n.d. (1938), MS-LC.

15.
An extensive and highly personal correspondence between M.S. and Elizabeth Arden is at MS-SS. Also see Grant Sanger, Schlesinger Library interview; M.S. to Mabel Dodge Luhan, “Thursday,” n.d. (1937) in MDL-Yale;
Tucson
, a 1953 pamphlet by Bernice Consulish, society editor of
The Arizona Daily Star
, copy in the archives of the library of the University of Arizona; and, finally, Blake Brophy, “Tucson's Arizona Inn, the Continuum of Style,”
The Journal of Arizona History
24:3 (Autumn 1983), reprint available at the inn. My thanks to Stuart Sanger for his lively tour of Tucson in March of 1986.

16.
M.S.,
Autobiography
. Stanley Rinehart to M.S., Apr. 12, 1935, tells of his inability to get
My Fight
reprinted. M.S. to Robert Parker, Nov. 5, 1939, says the book has not sold out its first printing of 5,000 copies. On the writing of
Autobiography
, also see M.S. to Juliet Rublee, Feb. 7 (1938), MS-DC, and M.S. to Mabel Dodge Luhan, Mar. 13, 1937, MDL-Yale. Additional information came from the author's 1985 telephone interview with Katherine Bredt of New Jersey, who acted as secretary to Heywood and Holt and transcribed the interviews. Clippings from the reviews are in MS-LC; see especially “Sanger Saga,”
Time
, Nov. 14, 1938; “Personal History of a Pioneer,”
Saturday Review of Literature
, Nov. 12, 1938; “Love for Children Tends to Grow,”
Knoxville Tennessee Journal
, Oct. 30, 1938; “Margaret Sanger--An Autobiography,”
Women's Press
, New York, Jan. 1939. Again, I am indebted to Carolyn Heilbrun's rich perspective on female autobiography in
Writing Women's Lives
(New York: 1988).