The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-02-13
BIRTH CONTROL is
BEFORE CONGRESS
Margaret Sanger Leads in
Attack on Old Law at
Senate Hearing.
E.y Tim eS Special

By Times Special
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 A mil
lion and a half mothers and fifteen
million children have died because
federal law forbids distribution Of
birth control information, Margaret
Sanger told senators today, bringing
the problem to congress after more
than 100 years of agitation on the
matter.
She led a group Of social scien-
fists, physicians and clerics before
a senate judiciary subcommittee,
seeking a liberalized law to permit
of birth control advice
through medical channels.
Want Law Changed
The bill, introduced by Senator
Gillett (Rep., Mass), would limit
federal laws SO that they would not
apply to contraceptive information
published by a government agency
or medical society, and sent by any
physician to any patient.
1t would also permit doctors to
furnish contraceptive materials to
a patient or to furnish her with
the address of a clinic where in
formation could be obtained.
This bill might we'll be the foun-
dation of mother bill of rights, !"
Mrs. Sanger said to the committee.
DR.. j. Whitridgc Williams, pro-
lessor of obstetrics at Johns Hop
kins university, Baltimore, pointed
out the danger he is in, under the
present law, if he gives advice on
means of avoiding motherhood,
even to a woman whose children
might suffer from inherited dis
ease.
The Rev. Charles F. Potter,
founder of the first humanist So
ciety of New York, argued that
birth control prevents war and
earlier marriage.
Overpopulation Problem
Birth control was pictured as a
way out of the unemployment
dilemma by Dr. Sidney E. Goldstein,
rabbi of the Jewish Institute Of Re
ligion of New York.
I'VE should realize the relation
of birth control and the unem-
ployment crisis he said. eve are
developing surplus working class,
but no new industries are on the
horizon.
Professor Henry Pratt Fairchid,
social scientist of New York uni
warned that the world now
faces a critical problem of over
population, giving rise to the
of unemployment and
war"
This country alone increased its
by 100000 in the last
ten years
Natures Remedies Are Cruel
We must control population, he
stressed. This great increase can
not be projected into the next CEN
tury. There are no new continents
to discover.
I'VE are forced to choice,
natures remedies are pestilence,
war, disease. and famine. Person
ally l prefer to substitute the more
human method to the cruel natural
process"
The birth control advocates
ago by the Rev. Thomas R. NAL
thus, English theologist and po-
litical economist. He viewed with
alarm the increase of population,
and gave rise to the Malthusian
theory, now known to most school
boys
Nautilus theory was predicated
upon the belief that the more peo-
pie there are, the less chance a
person has to progress in this
world. He suggested cejbacy and
delayed marriage as a remedy.
Birth control advocates went him
one step farther, suggesting medical
control.
Enforce COmStock Law
This precipitated century of
clashes. Zea'otS of the
cause def1ed bans, we're jailed and
went on hunger strikes with mill
tant protests, they carried their
cases to the high courts of Britain
and America. But they failed to get
official recognition.
The movement was given a hard
blow in this country in 1873, when
Anthony Comstock. 29-year- old
New England purity leader, put
through congress a bill making it
crime to send birth control informa-
ton through the mails. For forty
two years he fought to enforce this
measure until in 1925 he died of
Mrs. Sanger's appearance today
recalled a career in which she was
Fariously arrested. tried and forced
to serve sentences for violating
f~r@sa