Woman of Valor (94 page)

17.
M.S. to Rabbi Sidney Goldstein, Jan. 16, 1941; Florence Rose to Goldstein, July 29, 1941, MS-LC.

18.
M.S., Journal, “1938--Tucson”; June 30, 1938; and Jan. through Mar. 1939, MS-SS. Also see M.S. to H.E., Nov. 13, 1937, and M.S. to Françoise Cyon, Oct. 9, 1938, MS-SS; and M.S. to Juliet Rublee, Jan. 12, 1937, Jan. 30, 1938, MS-DC. References to awards, lectures, and local clinic visits are in the Arizona files at MS-SS. See especially “Notes on the Mother's Clinic,” Tucson, July 11, 1935; “Margaret Sanger, Award Winner Here,” clipping from
The Arizona Republic
, Feb. 19, 1937; and “Population Pressure,” editorial,
Arizona Daily Star
, Mar. 16, 1938. The Sanger-Slee correspondence for these years in MS-SS gives a general flavor of their deteriorating relationship.

19.
M.S., Journal, Feb. 3, 1938, Sept. 1, 1939.

20.
Havelock Ellis,
My Life
(New York: 1940), pp. 629-34; H.E. to M.S., Feb. 16, 1939, MS-LC; M.S. to Françoise Cyon, Jan. 30, July 13, and July 18, Aug. 7, 1939, Dec. 14, 1940; Journal, Aug. 7, 1939, and undated reference to publication of Ellis's autobiography in 1940. Transcript of “Let's Talk It Over with Dorothy Gordon and Margaret Sanger,” July 17, 1939, MS-SS.

21.
The Sanger reference is in Ellis,
My Life
, p. 520, also see pp. 299-309, 458-59, 474-77, and Arthur Calder-Marshall,
A Life of Havelock Ellis
(New York: 1956), p. 226. Françoise Cyon to M.S., Oct. 29, 1946, MS-SS, is the first in a decade-long correspondence on the subject of the book, which upset Françoise as well, so much so that she wrote her own memoir to complement it. Also see M.S. to Vincent Brome, Jan. 6, 1954, MS-SS. The final quote is from M.S. to H. de S., Mar. 18, 1948, MS-LC.

22.
See George Perrott, secretary, Intergovernmental Committee, to Robert L. Dickinson, Jan. 10, 1939, Dickinson to Perrott, Jan. 12, 1939, and “Digest of Remarks” before the committee, including Margaret's quoted remarks, n.d. (1939), all in MS-LC. Telegram, M.S. to Eleanor Roosevelt, Jan. 11, 1939, ER papers.

23.
Clippings from
The New York Times
, the
New York Herald Tribune
, the
Baltimore Sun
, and other papers, all dated Jan. 17, 1940; Eleanor Roosevelt to M.S., invitation for lunch on May 15, 1940; and M.S. to E.R., May 28, 1940, both in E.R. papers.

24.
Kennedy,
Birth Control
, p. 263, citing “Opinion of the General Counsel, January 23, 1939,” USPHS records, National Archives; M.S. to Mary Lasker, Nov. 12, 1939, and Sept. 18, 1940, MS-SS; Birth Control Federation of America, “Birth Control and the Negro: An Analysis and Program,” July 1939; Albert Lasker to M.S., Feb. 9, 1940, and M.S. to Albert Lasker, July 9, 1942, all in MS-SS. Additional Lasker correspondence of a later date has been collected by Esther Katz of NYU, and overall impressions were refined in the author's interview with Mrs. Lasker at her home in New York on Jan. 31, 1989.
Margaret, in turn, was fiercely loyal to Lasker. When an irritable staff member complained about having to indulge Lasker, referring to her as another rich woman “who's made us her hobby,” Sanger urged her to “curtail her frankness” until she'd had a rest or a vacation. See Cecil Damon to M.S., Feb. 1, 1941, MS-SS, and Sanger's reply.
On the problems of the Negro Project, also see M.S. to Clarence Gamble, Nov. 26, 1939, Dec. 10, 1939, and Feb. 4, 1940, MS-SS. Finally, the Vatican issue is in M.S. to Samuel McCrea Cavert, Esq., Jan. 5, 1940, MS-LC. Gordon in
Woman's Body
, pp. 332-33, selectively quotes racially insensitive language in the proposal that certainly cannot be condoned, but was regrettably typical of the times. For example: “The mass of Negroes, particularly in the South, still breed carelessly and disastrously, with the result that the increase among Negroes, even more than among whites, is from the portion of the population least intelligent and fit, and least able to rear children properly.” Gordon's unqualified indictment of the project as elitist and racist has since been used to condemn Sanger on the same grounds, resulting in the need for repeated explanations from Planned Parenthood officials. See, for example, a memorandum from Planned Parenthood of Mid-Iowa to its board members, committees, and funders dated Jan. 27, 1989, enclosing a biographical statement dated May 30, 1986, prepared by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Again, my thanks to Molly Ivins for these documents.
Finally, for an unqualified endorsement of the project from a black woman, see Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, M.D., National Council of Negro Women, “Planned Parenthood as a Public Health Measure for the Negro Race,”
Human Fertility
7:1 (Feb. 1942), pp. 7-10.

25.
“Report on Washington D.C. meeting, March 5, 1941,” MS-SS; Eleanor Roosevelt to Mary Lasker, June 17, 1941, MS-LC; Kennedy,
Birth Control
, p. 264, citing “Eleanor Roosevelt to Dr. Parran, Aug. 16, 1941” and “Dr. Warren F. Draper to Mary Lasker, October 17, 1941,” USPHS records, National Archives. “Report of Luncheon Meeting Held at The White House at the Invitation of Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” Dec. 8, 1941, ER papers, which includes the material quoted. Another report on the meeting is in Edna McKinnon to Florence Rose, “Memorandum, Dec. 12., 1941,” MS-LC. McKinnon's effectiveness as a lobbyist may have been compromised by the fact that her sister Jeanette was the only member of Congress to oppose American involvement in the war on pacifist grounds. Also see D. K. Rose to M.S., Dec. 12, 1941, MS-SS. Another interesting aside on Mrs. Roosevelt's personal education in birth control is in M.S. to William Meyer, M.D., of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., MS-LC enclosing foam powder for the wife of one of the Roosevelt gardeners who apparently was having trouble with a diaphragm. “What happens in these quarters carry a very important influence, not only in Washington, but also in the rest of the country,” Margaret observed. Dykeman,
Too Many People
, has the White House story and many others.

26.
Draft of revised U.S. Public Health Directive on the acceptability of Planned Parenthood programs, Feb. 1942, and “Summary of Conference…with Dr. Warren F. Draper, Mar. 12, 1942,” both in MS-SS; Kennedy,
Birth Control
, pp. 266-67, citing “Memorandum, Warner W. Gardner, Solicitor of Labor, to Katherine Lenroot, June 1942, Children's Bureau Records, Central Files, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Washington, D.C.”; and “J. G. Townsend to C. C. Pierce, May 1, 1942, Population Council.”

27.
M.S. to Eleanor Roosevelt, Oct. 27, 1941, and receipt for contribution, Nov. 25, 1941; E.R. to Mary Lasker, Jan. 21, 1942, including material quoted; M.L. to E.R., May 12, 1942, Oct. 7, 1942, and Dec. 22, 1942, all in ER papers, Hyde Park. Margaret's personal correspondence with Eleanor Roosevelt is in MS-SS; see especially M.S. to E.R., May 28, 1940; invitation to the WH, Jan. 14, 1946; and M.S. to E.R., July 8, 1952, which is quoted. Also see “Statement by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt,” Jan. 27, 1943, and D. Kenneth Rose to M.S., Feb. 3, 1943, MS-SS. In our 1986 interview, Margaret Marston remembered her grandmother saying she'd been born a Socialist and would die a Republican--anyone sensible wouldn't be a Catholic or a Democrat.”

28.
On the military's VD campaign, see Allen M. Brandt, p. 164, and on discrimination against enlisted women, Susan M. Hartmann,
The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s
(Boston: 1982), p. 39. Mildred Delp, R.N., memorandum, “My Days,” California, Mar. 27-Apr. 15, 1944, recounts her activities among women war workers, MS-SS. Gertrude Bailey, “Birth Control Urged for WAAC,” the
New York World-Telegram
, undated clipping in the Mary Compton correspondence, MS-SS.

29.
On the merger, see “Birth control organizations of America will join forces,” press release, Jan. 19, 1939, and for background: Arthur Packard to John D. Rockefeller III, Jan. 6, 1937; M.S. to Arthur Packard, July 11, Sept. 12, and Nov. 18, 1938, and Rockefeller funding memoranda on the ABCL, May 9, 1938, the BCCRB, Dec. 12, 1938, and the BCFA, Apr. 28, 1939, all in Rocky-RG2; also, memo to Mrs. Sanger from Mr. Hastings, May 24, 1938, on his meeting with Mrs. Diego Suarez, a board member of the ABCL and a past funder of the BCCRB who had become critical of Sanger's personal leadership style, MS-SS; ABCL Annual Report for 1938, copy in PPFA-SS; and, finally various letters between M.S. and George Aubrey Hastings, a public relations and fund-raising consultant for the BCCRB between 1935 and 1938, which details how tough it became to keep raising money, all in MS-SS. BCCRB papers for 1935-38 in MS-LC document efforts by Margaret to compete with the league by opening clinics out west under its tutelage.

30.
The quote is from M.S. to C. C. Little and to Mrs. Lewis L. Delafield, Dec. 30, 1937, MS-SS. Also see “Summary of Recommendations to Joint Committee of ABCL and BCCRB,” Oct. 10, 1938; “Minutes of the Meeting of the Birth Control Council of America,” June 22, 1937, and press release, Jan. 19, 1939, MS-SS. A withering attack on the John Price Jones report for its sleight of hand with respect to Margaret's accomplishments is in Penelope Huse to Paul Franklin, Jan. 25, 1938, FR-SS. A more balanced view, but one still sympathetic to Sanger no matter how difficult her personality, is in Mrs. Walter E. Campbell of Massachusetts to Marguerite Benson of the ABCL, Feb. 18, 1938, PPLM-SS. Dorothy Brush to M.S., Jan. 12, 1938, identifies the problem of no succession. M.S. to Edith How-Martyn, Feb. 1, 1938, has the lizard reference. The final quotes are from M.S. to D. K. Rose, Dec. 27, 1939, and M.S. to Cecil Damon, n.d. (responding to a Damon letter of Dec. 24, 1939), all in MS-SS. For newspaper coverage, see “Birth Control Rift Ended by Merger,”
The New York Times
, Jan. 19, 1939, 15:5. Also see Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, p. 265, and Kennedy,
Birth Control
, pp. 256-57.

31.
Kenneth Underwood,
Catholic and Protestant: Religious and Social Interaction in an Industrial Community
(Boston: 1957), esp. pp. 19-21, 31-38. Ruth Smith, ed., Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts,
PPLM Reports
24 (Spring 1974). PPLM, confidential memorandum “Re: Our Present Plight,” Nov. 1953, MS-LC. Loraine Campbell, president of the Mother's Health League in Massachusetts, made a $10 contribution to the union in gratitude. See Campbell to Mrs. Anne Sullivan, PPLM-SS. Also see M.S. to Rabbi Sidney Goldstein, Jan. 16, 1941, and Richard H. Field, Esq., to Florence Rose (n.d.), 1941 or '42, both in MS-LC; and finally, Eugene L. Belisle, “Birth Control in Massachusetts,”
The New Republic
105:23 (Dec. 8, 1941), pp. 759-60; and Eugene L. Belisle, “Church Control vs. Birth Control,”
The Nation
, Nov. 28, 1942, clipping in Florence Rose to Charles Scribner, Jan. 11, 1943, MS-LC.

32.
The Rose quote is from the “Summary of Recommendations,” Oct. 10, 1938, which he drafted for John Price Jones, MS-SS. Also see “National Referendum on the Name to be Adopted by State Leagues, Affiliated Committees and Federation, April 17, 1941,” copy in Clarence Gamble's papers, cited by Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, p. 421; Margaret's objections are in Proceedings of BCFA, Conference on Plan for Framing a Public Health Program, June 30, 1941, MS-SS, and in M.S. to D. Kenneth Rose, Jan. 22, 1942, MS-SS. Her quotes are from M.S. to Thomas Parran, M.D., July 3, 1942, MS-SS, and from my interview with Olive Byrne Richard.

33.
The funding history of the BCFA is in Arthur Packard, memoranda to files, Mar. 15, 1940, Jan. 6, 1941, May 13, 1941; D. Kenneth Rose to Packard, Feb. 12, 1941, and Rockefeller funding memoranda for the BCFA, Apr. 3, 1940, and May 20, 1941, all in Rocky-RG2. The one exception was Mrs. Diego Suarez, who contributed $10,000 per year for three years. Also see Albert Lasker to M.S., Feb. 9, 1940, and D. Kenneth Rose to Mary Lasker, Mar. 17, 1942, MS-SS. The Cromwell provision is in Marion Paschal to Mrs. Walter Stenson, n.d. (1940), MS-LC. The Packard quote is from A.W.P. to files, Oct. 29, 1941, Rocky-RG2.

34.
D. Kenneth Rose, “Speech Delivered at the Annual Dinner, Jan. 28, 1942,” and “Notes on Talks with Mrs. Sanger and Mrs. Lasker,” n.d (1941) MS-SS. Rose's contrary point of view is in Rose to Mrs. Albert D. Lasker, Feb. 5, 1941, and Rose to M.S., Feb. 7, 1942, both in MS-SS. Also see M.S to Mary Lasker, Jan. 6, 1945, uncollected Lasker letters. J. H. J Upham, M.D. (board chairman), “Report on Planned Parenthood in Wartime,” 1942; minutes of workshop sessions, Annual Meeting, June 15, 1942; “Suggested Policy on Planned Parenthood and Public Health,” Apr. 6, 1943; “Suggested Policy on the Catholic Church, April, 1943,” MS-SS; Richard N, Pierson, M.D. (chairman of PPFA Medical Committee and former U.S. Public Health Agency official), “Birth Control Comes of Age,” in “Proceedings of the 24th Annual Dinner Meeting,” Jan. 24, 1945; and Pascal K. Whelpton, “Population Forecasts and Problems in a Post-War World,” BCFA Annual Meeting, Jan. 28, 1942, all in MS-SS. A cogent summary of Sanger's complaints is in the resignation submitted by her former secretary Florence Rose: F. Rose to K. Kenneth Rose, Sept. 10, 1943, MS-SS. Press coverage included “New Drive Planned for Birth Control,
The New York Times
, Jan. 31, 1941, 21:6; and for the Catholic angle, Edgar Schmiedeler, “Are American Women Shirkers?”
Catholic World
153 (July 1941), pp. 426-29 and Edgar Schmiedeler, “Putting Birth Control Over,”
Catholic Mind
41 (Apr. 1943), pp. 34-44.