New-York tribune., 1921-11-21
Birth Control
Talks Decried
By Archbishop
Ri. Rev. Patrick j. Hayes Says
in Statement the Subject
Should Never Be Dis
cusscd Outside Clinic
Sets Forth View of Church
Declares Limiting Mother
hood Means immortality,
but Mrs. Rublee Denies 1t

control is decried in a statement issued
yesterday by Archbishop Patrick J..
Hayes, of the Roman Catholic Arch
diocese of New York. His Grace, as
serting that the subject is one which
should never be discussed outside of q
/ clinic, says that the Church's opposition
i to birth control is based on natural law,
! and that the legalization of such con-
troll would result eventually in the
country passing into the hands of the
children of aliens.
After the Archbishop's statement had
been made public Mrs. Juliet Barrett
s Rublee, vice-chairman of the American
Z Birth Control League, issued reply,
in which exception is taken to portions
Z OF the statement and a denial is made
that there is any "immoral law of pas
sion and irresponsibility" in the pres
ent birth control advocacy.
+ The Archbishop's statement says:
AS a citizen and churchman. deep
s ~ concerned with the moral wellbeing
\ of our city, / feel it a public duty to
: protest against the use of the open
> forum for the propaganda of birth con-
troll. This | do In no sectarian spirit.
Z but in the broader one of the common
5 veal.
Cites Protest of Women
MY protest is made in the name of
: ten national organizations of women
: with combined membership of nearly
i million, as we'll as in the interest of
( thousands of other indignant women
I and distressed mothers, who are
alarmed at the daring of the advocates
OF birth control in bringing out into
Z an open, unrestricted, free meeting a
{ discussion of subject that simple
S prudence and decency, if not the spirit
of the law, should keep within the walls
5 OF a clinic, or only for the ears of the
4 mature and experienced.
"The Federal law excluding birth
4 control literature from the mails and
! the New York penal law making it un-
I lawful to disseminate information on
: the subject reflect the will of the peo-
! pie most emphatically. The latter law
I was enacted under the police power of
) the Legislature for the benefit of the
I morals and health of the community
s submit that illegal information was
4 given and the law made mockery of
: by clever evasion at the meeting held
in Town Hall on October 27 under the
auspices of the Voluntary Parenthood
! League. The holding of this meeting
: evidently has been lost sight of by
s the public.
s THE stenographic report of that
S meeting disclosed to me illegal infor-
: nation or the subject that l never had
before. Representative women of this
{ city, all citizens, and working for the
E social welfare of the community have
s requested me to indorse their protest
Z against such future public expressions.
Z do so now publicly"
"The law Of God and man, science,
i public policy, human experience, are
& all condemnatory of birth control as
s preached by a few irresponsible indi-
: viduals, without Endorsement or ap-
E proval, as far as | know, of reputable
s body of physicians or medical so-
{ ciety, whose province it is to advise
the public on such matters
i Quotes Eugenic Authorities
"The tenets OF birth control are in
direct opposition to the opinion of the
( most distinguished scientists of the
s world, who have been aroused to make
& serious study of the causes of the
impending deterioration of the race as
foreseen by well known biologists. At
the recent International Congress of
Eugenics, held in New York last Sep
tember, prominent scientists in attend
ance emphasized the necessity, il the
race was to be better born, of the pro-
t~NSiOh vi homogeneous HldALldkt, sWltu
limitation of divorce; more children in
the families of the well-to-do es a
moral duty; earlier marriages.; better
safeguards against the marriage of i'm
a, beetles and the insane; more shell
tered life for mothers and unselfsh
devotion to the family as a patriotic
duty.
Major Leonard Darwin stated adj
visedly that there ought to be great
moral campaign against the exagger-
ated regard Tor personal comfort and
the limitation of families
Human experience confirms all this.
Physicians have found that, on the
average, successive children in family
are stronger up to the fifth or sixth in
succession, and that those marked with
special genius are very often born
after the fifth in the family. The sew
enth child has been regarded tradition
ally with some peoples as the most
favored by nature. Benjamin Franklin
was the fifteenth child, John Wesley the
eighteenth.
"lgnatius Loyola was the eighth.
Catherine of Siena, one of the greatest
intellectual women who ever lived, was
the twentyfourth. 1t has been sug-
gcsted that one of the reasons for the
lack of genius in our day is that we are
uot Setting tHe endS OF the families.
Moreover. vital statistics of New Soutl,
Wales show that mothers of from five
to seven hildren live longest, while
Alexander Graham Bell asserts that the
greatest longevity occurred in fam
lies of ten or more children.
The voice of Theodore Roosevelt
still echoes throughout the world in his
strong denunciation of race suicide and
fne sins against the cradle. His love
OF family life remains one of the most
wholesome memories of his noble
character.
-: pablic policy in the spirit Of
r9afety first must set its face against
the methods of birth control propa
ganda Just because this movement as
conducted isfone of the serious dangers
OF our disordered times, this months
issue OF current review carries an in,
dlctinent which states: There is some.
fhing almost terrifying in some Of the
criticisms nov. being passed on Ameri.
can, iiie ny American thinkers
Writers Warn Of Lawiessne.-
James NJ. Beck, Solicitor Genera, a
fhe United states; Owen Johnson. thf
novelist. and Mary Roberts Rinebart
the writer, warn against the lawless
ness and the responsibility of the da,
with the new freedom and changing
standards, 49, Current Opinion. n. 617
"Confronted with such social nroh