religious leaders, economists, and statesmen as unmoral and unsound. That there is misery in so-called overpopulated countries no sane person will deny; but this is, in my opinion, primarily the result of man's ingratitude to man. Man's selfish greed and lust for wealth and power are the factors that bring about impoverished conditions in these overpopulated countries.

It has been said in argument that this movement will in a sense obviate the necessity of war. This argument is so unsound that it does not justify the dignity of a rebuttal. War will cease when racial and religious passions subside; when intolerance is forgotten; when a better distribution of the world's goods insure to every man, woman, and child in this country sufficiency and security; and when the nations of the world invoke the aid of a Common Father as the creator of all mankind.

There is existing law which prohibits the importation of these contraceptives and birth-control literature in the United States. The bill now pending before you provides for the removal of these restrictions and the admission to our shores of these contraceptives from foreign countries. The sponsoring of such an act would assist in destroying the sanctity of the home and encourage further immorality among the youth of our country. I recited a story before the Committee on Manufactures at a Senate hearing about two months ago, when Senator Bingham's beer bill was under consideration, which is apropos of this question. A wealthy manufacturer in my city related an incident concerning his 16-year-old daughter, in whose welfare, like all parents, he is vitally interested. He had given his daughter an automobile for her convenience in going to and from high school each day. One morning he had occasion to enter his garage quite early, and opening the door of his daughter's car he discovered on the floor an empty whisky flask and a device to prevent conception. Horrified, he returned to the house and when he inquired of the child, "Are you drinking liquor, and what about this? She responded, "Why, daddy, don't be old-fashioned; all the girls in our class are doing it." What a sad commentary upon the moral fiber of our youth-and yet this is but a cross section of a cancerous condition growing in our Nation to-day. Deeper and more expansive will become the roots of this cancer if the apostles of birth control have their way in the indiscriminate spread of their vicious propaganda. This bill, as indicated by a member of your committee to-day, makes no exception or distinction between married and unmarried persons. If the bars are lowered, it will make possible the purchase of these contraceptives by even high-school pupils without the slightest hindrance, and undoubtedly will be a license for the indulgence of promiscuous sex relations and wholesale prostitution.

At present I am reading a book called "What We Are About to Receive," by Jay Franklin. The book is just off the press, and while it deals principally with the political aspirants to the office of President of the United States, it also touches upon some of the important problems confronting America to-day. In his discussion of prohibition the author comments on the morals of the youth of to-day as a result of prohibition, and he makes the observation that "quite as many girls take the easiest way in the back seats of parked auto

mobiles as ever went the way of flesh in the back rooms of corner saloons."

A lady from Pennsylvania testified before this committee that in the city of Reading, Pa., her organization, the birth-control group, have established nine birth-control clinics, and they are deliberately violating the law by distributing propaganda and advice on this subject through the mails and inviting persons to their clinic for similar advice and instructions. I think it is high time that your committee cease further argument on this subject in view of the information submitted by the distinguished lady from Pennsylvania. You would be doing the Nation a service if you would notify the Department of Justice of this condition and insist that where the law is so flagrantly violated and with such defiance, as referred to by this lady, that prosecution be started as soon as possible. Mr. CRISP. Mr. Burton, your next witness?

STATEMENT OF H. RALPH BURTON, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
REPRESENTING THE NATIONAL PATRIOTIC LEAGUE

Mr. BURTON. I shall take a moment for myself, Mr. Chairman. I shall take advantage of this occasion to express my own views, and at the same time those of the National Patriotic League of Washington, D. C., and its affiliated groups, representing a membership of many thousands covering every State in the Union, with reference to the provisions of H. R. 11082.

I shall not attempt to discuss birth control in general, but direct the attention of the committee to a particular danger in this billand I have reference particularly to that part of the bill that relates to section 305 (a) of the tariff act, which I consider so vital that it becomes paramount to all else.

In order to establish a premise or basis for my remarks I shall ask the privilege of making the report of the Fish special committee investigating communistic activities in the United States a part of this record by reference, it being an official document of Congress. I have for over 15 years made an extensive study of the communist movement and therefore feel qualified to speak on that subject, but because of the brevity of time I shall assume this committee has, through common knowledge, become well versed in the vicious doctrines of the Soviets. Abolition of the home, destruction of its ties, and free love are among the doctrines of communism as exemplified in Russia to-day, and for the past 14 years. Destruction of the governments of so-called capitalistic countries is probably the paramount objective of the Third Internationale, the supergovernment of the communists, and Russia, under its domination, would naturally aid in that effort.

What could be better suited, therefore, to communist purposes and objects than the unrestricted license provided for in H. R. 11082, by the proposed amendment, the first clause of which reads as follows:

The provisions of this section shall not apply (1) to information relating to the prevention of conception if published either within or without the United States by any governmental agency, medical society, medical school, or medical journal, or if reprinted, after such publication, by any person or organization whatever.

That means, of course, that if it is published by a governmental agency in Russia, or any other country, it can be reprinted in this country, or sent into this country.

This amendment, as it reads, would result in entirely eliminating the provisions of section 305 (a) of the tariff act of 1930, making it possible for Russia or any foreign country to flood the United States with literature designed to promulgate the communist doctrine of free love and at the same time supply the younger generation, to which their attention is particularly directed, with means to obviate the natural consequences of such practice. This very patent danger is sufficient, without going further or discussing the other phases of the question, to cause a repudiation of this proposed amendment. As I stated about a year ago in opposing a similar bill, with the same purpose in view, the communists have a theory that there are three primitive emotions in man-the love of religion, the love of family, and the love of country; and that if they can destroy the first two, man becomes a mere vassal of the State, and therefore it can be clearly seen that the passage of this bill would open wide the gates to a flood of propaganda and literature of this

nature.

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I wish to very definitely negative any inference which might be drawn to the effect that in this discussion there is an intention to attribute to the proponents of this bill communist affiliations. believe only that they have, through failure to see what would be the inevitable result, inadverently given assistance to the agencies of communism without intending to do so, or realizing the danger to this country.

Mr. Chairman, I would like at this point to introduce Dr. William Gerry Morgan.

I believe that Doctor Morgan could not be present, but Mr. Montavon has his manuscript.

Mr. CRISP. Please give your name to the stenographer.

Mr. MONTAVON. William F. Montavon. Doctor Morgan was detained this afternoon by a meeting, but he had carefully prepared a manuscript which he asked me to submit and deliver. If it is your desire that I read this manuscript, I will do that.

Mr. CRISP. You can exercise your own pleasure about it. To be very frank, I think the safest way is to read it, because I do not know whether the commtitee is going to read all of these hearings, but you may exercise your own pleasure.

(Mr. Montavon thereupon read the address of Dr. William Gerry Morgan, which is as follows:)

STATEMENT OF DR. WILLIAM GERRY MORGAN, OF WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I appear before you to-day in behalf of a great cause, one in which all right-minded people should take an active interest.

I have been in active practice of medicine since 1893. From the vantage point of wide experience in intimate contact with all classes of people I express to you my convictions relative to House of Representative bill 11082.

Whenever man departs ever so little from the natural laws of the universe, destructive influences to a greater or lesser extent creep in; and in the laws of nature there is no provision for birth control through contraceptic devices. You have been told by some of the proponents of this bill that women is aged in body and mind in proportion to the number of children which she bears.

This is not borne out in fact. My experience in the practice of my profession over a period of 39 years confirms the truth of my declaration. Child bearing is the normal God-given function of womanhood. It is my belief that the vast majority of the mothers of our country have the same attitude toward birth control as a certain mother of five children, who, when asked if she did not now believe in birth control, replied: “Do I believe in birth control-all I can say is that I do not know which of my dear babies I would wish unborn." I repeat that I believe that this reflects the sentiment of every true mother.

Another argument offered in support of this bill is that physicians are handicapped in dispensing advice to those mothers-and God forbid that they should desire to offer it to any others—who through physical infirmity require such protection. This is a specious argument having no foundation in fact.

Were it otherwise, the house of delegates of the great American Medical Association numbering more than 100.000 members would not, only last week, have refused to indorse this or any other bill for birth control through contraceptive methods. Rarely, if ever, is it necessary or wise to communicate such information through the medium of the written word. Where advice of this nature is requested by a patient residing in another State, the safe and logical course for the medical advisor to follow is to refer his patient to an experienced physician in the community or vicinity in which she resides. This physician can, by personal contact, make such investigations as may seem wise and give advice accordingly.

The medical profession as a whole, I believe, does not sponsor, nor in fact favor the passage of this bill, or any other of like nature, because it requires no aid in this direction and further because it realizes the dangers inherent in such legislation.

The basic argument which the propogandists for birth control through contraceptive methods put forth is the protection of society from the birth of mentally, morally, or physically defective children. The experienced, conscientious student of the section of society aimed at, can but realize that such a bill as is under discussion to-day would fail of its objective, for the reason that those who are the most likely to procreate subnormal children would not avail themselves of contraceptive devices. This would appear to be proven by the fact that such individuals do not do so now, although, as we have been informed by the proponents of this bill, such devices are readily procurable.

The implication that the poor are in crying need of the help of birth control through contraceptive devices is a horrible one, and one which I feel certain this class of society would vigorously resent en masse.

It is my privilege, and a very sacred privilege I consider it, to daily administer to those in the humbler walks of life, many of whom have large families of splendid children giving bright promise for the future. Never have I heard the wish expressed by a mother or a father that any of these children had not come to them. Indeed it is a fact that in more than one instance in my personal experience have I known a mother of several children to take into her family an orphan child, even though her family budget was meager. It is to this section of society, honest, self-respecting, and hard working, that we must look for the future well-being of our Nation. Indeed, it is from such families that the majority of the leaders of the world have come. Not infrequently the flower of the flock is the last child born in a family.

What a very dreadful statement for a conscientious woman to say that the present laws classify every married woman in this country as a child-bearing conscript. Methinks such a statement will arouse the righteous indignation of every true mother.

The statement that the passage of this bill "will be the first attempt on the part of the country to place the responsibility of contraceptive instruction in the hands of the medical profession where it rightly belongs" is to subvert the facts as they are now. Such responsibility and privilege already rests in the keeping of a conscientious, dependable, right-minded profession, where it can be safely left in its present state. And equally subversive is the statement that "it simply gives the right to physicians to obtain up-to-date information themselves and allows them to advise it when it is needed." Few indeed must be the experienced clinicians who are not already conversant with methods, safe and sane, for the control of procreation. And methinks few indeed are there among the proponents of this bill who have such definite first-hand information

as to warrant them in speaking, much less writing upon this very serious phase of medical practice.

How puerile is the assertion that "its passage will directly affect the quality of future generations who shall inhabit this land." My only answer to this is that if it shall affect future generations at all it will prove only destructive.

In the name of the God of all creation, how can any person, least of all a woman, state in public "that about 20 per cent of the population have availed themselves of knowledge, or have secured in spite of the laws some information by which they have controlled their fertility. Half of the other 80 per cent are desperately trying to get some information, while the other half are those generally classed as unfit, mentally and physically, and include morons and mental defectives who usually come upon our social vista as permanent unemployables and dependents. In the first group we have the educated, cultured, well-to-do citizens, professors, doctors, lawyers, ministers, scientists, artisans, and skilled laborers. Here we find the spacing of children an adopted rule. The mothers health being first consideration, and so forth." This charge is so monstrous and untrue as to need no contravention. All the defense to the passage of this bill that would be needed is the widespread publication of the quotation which I have just given. Such matter as is contained in the above quotation sounds strangely like commercial propaganda and such I believe it to be.

To attribute overcrowding, illiteracy, ignorance, and infant and maternal mortality and child labor to the present safe and sane laws discloses either pitiable ignorance or wilful distortion of facts. Overcrowding in the majority of instances is merely indifference to creature comforts, or to the desire to accumulate or to spend the earnings on things which bring a greater measure of personal enjoyment. The responsibility for illiteracy rests on those who are charged with rounding up the children for school attendance, for there is no lack of opportunity in our school privileges. Who shall say just where the responsibility lies for the infant and maternal mortality.

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And may I add here that has been widespread misinformation given out from certain bureaus as to the relative infant and maternal mortality in this country compared with that of other countries. Certain it is that no contraceptive methods, devices, or contraptions will lower by one jot or tittle this infant and maternal mortality. What I have just said relative to infant and maternal mortality applies equally to child labor. I truly feel sorry for any woman whose contacts among women of the very lowest grades of intelligence" who really comes away with the impression that "they are willing to avail themselves of information to prevent conception at any cost and at any trouble to themselves." Poor, indeed, must have been those contacts. I, too, in the course of my daily routine, have come into intimate touch with hundreds and hundreds of women in the class referred to, during my years as physician to the poor, and I say in all frankness that I would hesitate through fear of giving insult to suggest to these women, many of them wholesome minded, that they should turn to the drug store or the charlatan to help them to a state of artificial menopause, or a condition similar thereto.

But enough of the discussion of what others have said. Let us for a moment-just a moment-turn to the effect upon the moral fiber and the physical well-being of those women who are willing to contravent nature.

It can not be successfully gainsaid that the habitual use of birth control through contraceptive contraptions make an indellible, unwholesome impression upon the moral outlook of every woman who turns to them to escape motherhood. It removes normal, wholesome restraint and gives reign to profligacy. Two thousand years ago it was said "He who would gain the mastery is temperate in all things." Never was there a more fitting application of this age-old saying than to this phase of human life.

Every physician of experience knows that all contraceptive contraptions, devices, and methods have a direct, more or less, harmful effect upon the pelvic organs and the nervous systems. I truly believe that any physician, if he has had wide experience, who testifies otherwise closes his eyes to the facts as they present themselves in daily practice.

At the risk of being classed, by the minority, the proponents of this bill, as among those who " oppose it regardless of the costs of women's lives, regardless of the low standards of living that increasing hordes impose upon a nation, regardless of the advance of science or the need of our civilization," I say in spite of this I do oppose the passage of this bill with the conviction that I stand in the light of God's law for the protection of future generations.