cleverly deceive the public but really is dishonest, is a bright and smart man, that picture will be patronized. It will cause thrills. And so we have a business built upon creating thrills which are made by attacking our moral code. Think about that. The ACTING CHAIRMAN. We thank you, Doctor Chase, for your presence and for your contribution to the hearing. Who is your next witness? Mr. BURTON. Mr. Chairman, I wish to call Mrs. H. L. Solyom, of Bethesda, speaking in her own behalf. STATEMENT OF MRS. H. L. SOLYOM, BETHESDA, MD. Mrs. SOLYOм. Mr. Chairman, I represent no association, no committee of any kind. I simply come before you as an average American citizen and as a wife who has been happily married for 27 years, as a mother of three children, and a grandmother. As such an individual I speak. Undoubtedly there has occurred to you, gentlemen, the great similarity between the eighteenth amendment and this proposed law. Now, I am not in favor of alcohol drinking, but I ask you, Has the eighteenth amendment stopped alcohol drinking or has it opened the door to organized crime, and has it provided a negative cloak for vice and crime such as could not have been foreseen by those good men who, in all their high desires to benefit the American people, passed that amendment? Have you followed out the consequences of this proposed law in the light of the experience with that other law? You are lawmakers, but you are dealing with human nature. Will this law that you are contemplating passing for the American people bring about better conditions, such as you hope, or will it unleash human passions and usher in such an era of vice, license, and unrestraint as can not be foreseen by you now and as could not be foreseen by these other men? The restraint of human passions is brought about by eating the bread of bitter experience. Let people take as far as possible the results of their own actions, and gradually and slowly they will learn. How safe would the city of Washington be if all the policemen were taken away? Give the people a cloak of legal protection; let their vices be unrestrained; and you absolutely have no conception of what an age would come upon us.' We can learn by experience, by studying the conditions that we are in, and not put over another law similar to the one that has just been passed. Let us learn by observing and watching those things through which we go and profiting by that experience. The ACTING CHAIRMAN. We thank you for your presence and your contribution to the hearing. Who is the next witness, please? Mr. BURTON. Miss Margaret T. Lynch, representing the National Council of Catholic Women and affiliated groups. STATEMENT OF MISS MARGARET T. LYNCH, ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE SECRETARY NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC WOMEN, WASHINGTON, D. C. Miss LYNCH. The National Council of Catholic Women, which I represent, presents the following protest to the bill H. R. 11082: Believing that the oath of office prescribed in the Constitution is testimony to the fact that this Republic of the United States of America recognizes responsibility to a Supreme Being; Believing with the great Father of our Country, whose bicentennial we are now celebrating, that "reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle," We, the National Council of Catholic Women, a federation of 16 national organizations and 2,000 local groups, representing in membership more than 1,000,000 women, pledged to the service of “God and country," beg to call to the attention of the Ways and Means Committee that the propaganda for birth control which the Hancock bill (H. R. 11082) is designed to facilitate, violates reason and religion by denying that procreation is the essential purpose of sex; that to use this power, and, by deliberate chemical or mechanical interference defeat its essential purpose, as ordained by the Creator, constitutes, as claimed by the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism, an act of 66 'practical atheism." That is quoted from their own literature, distributed by that group. That this denial breaks down personal sense of responsibility to God for the use of the procreative act, and, hence, by exclusion of this "religious principle" strikes a severe blow at "national morality." That "national morality" is further lowered by the repeated assertion of the proponents of birth control, that self control, abstinence, or continence at need, is impossible to man, thus demoting him to the rank of the brute without control of his appetites or the unselfish exercise of free will. That by means of the Hancock bill (H. R. 11082) the Government of our great Republic founded on belief in God and respect for the moral law, will give official sanction to the dissemination of the means for artificial birth control. And that in so doing, will associate itself with the breakdown of a fundamental religious principle and contribute to the deterioration of national morality with consequent debasing of youth and disintegration of the integrity and sanctity of family life. The National Council of Catholic Women begs, therefore, that your honorable committee do not approve this measure. I ask that this be placed in the record; likewise some protests which have been sent to our office, for your consideration; and I would ask that the executive session have these exhibits. I thank you. The ACTING CHAIRMAN. The documents you offer for the record, without objection, will be placed therein. We thank you for your presence and your contribution to the hearing. (The matter submitted by Miss Lynch is as follows:) Ways and Means Committee: [Telegram] MAY 10, 1932. As president of 40,000 members Minnesota State Council Catholic Women, I voice their protest against Hancock bill. SAN JOSE, CALIF., May 11, 1932. Mrs. THOMAS P. RY,N, President. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC WOMEN, Washington, D. C.: We would like to join with other organizations in voicing our strongest protest against the passage by Congress of the proposed Hancock bill, which is in direct opposition to the moral standards of a Christian nation. NELLIE GRISEZ, Executive Secretary Catholic Charities and Children's Aid. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC WOMEN, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF., May 9, 1932. Washington, D. C.: Twelve thousand members of the Young Ladies Institute of the Pacific Coast unite in protesting against all bills favoring the propagation of birth control. ETHEL CULLEN, Grand President. JOSEPHINE MOLLOY, Grand Secretary. MAY 9, 1932. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC WOMEN, Washington, D. C.: Women members Italian Catholic Federation of California wish to register emphatic protest against Hancock bill. Italian Catholic women of California want their families protected against all forms of birth-control propaganda. Miss MARGARET LYNCH, National Council of Catholic Women: AMERICA ROSSI, President. NEW YORK, N. Y., May 12, 1932. At the executive session of the Ladies of Charity of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York (Inc.) held may 11, 1932, the following resolution was passed unanimously and the president directed to send a copy of the resolution to Congress. The Ladies of Charity, composed of 3,000 American citizens and voters, strongly oppose the passage of bill No. 11082 as a bill intimately affecting the medical profession represented by a lay group as prejudicial to morality in that it will open the way to widespread dissemination of unrestricted advertising, even among the young and unmarried, of the means of contraception, as stimulating the already dangerous trend toward population decline and therefore accentuating rather than relieving the present economic and industrial situation in that it tends to the constant reduction of the number of consumers. THRESA R. O'DONOHUE, President. NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y., May 10, 1932. Miss AGNES REGAN, Washington, D. C.: Re amendment 305, a tariff act of 1930, section 211, 245-312 of Criminal Code, for the better protection of youth in the interest of morality and decency 850 members of Court Niagara, 662, Catholic Daughters of America, hereby protest against the dissemination of birth control by any agency whatever in the United States. ANNA V. MCMAHON, Grand Regent. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF., May 11, 1932. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC WOMEN, Washington, D. C.: If the bill favoring birth-control propaganda is passed, it will be the end of our famed modern civilization and possibly the end of the white race on this earth. The death of Roman civilization, resulting from the elimination of offspring among its citizens, should be a warning to our national legislators. We are now in a debacle. Is suicide our only way out? Mrs. B. P. OLIVER. MAY 9, 1932. Miss MARY G. HAWKS, Washington, D. C.: Sixteen thousand members of the Advisory Senate Ladies Catholic Benevolent Association of western Pennsylvania hereby file protest against passage of Hancock bill. BERTHA C. MCENTEE, President. DEAR SIR: The Omaha Council of Catholic Women representing 5,000 women wish to protest the passage of the Hancock bill because we believe it would1. Practically remove all restrictions on the dissemination of birth-control information and instrumentation. 2. Constitute a national menace to our youth. 3. In general be a menace to public health and morals. 4. Add immeasurably to the present obnoxious advertisements in magazines, newspapers, and store windows-which even now are arousing the curiosity of children. Hoping you will give this your respectful attention, Sincerely, Mrs. ARTHUR F. MULLEN, President. As president of 5,000 members Minnesota Catholic Women's Union I voice their protest against Hancock bill. Miss AGNES G. REGAN, Mrs. ANNA LORENZ. Executive Secretary National Council of Catholic Women, MAY 11, 1932. Washington, D. C.: We, the directors of St. Francis Welfare League, San Francisco, devoted to the welfare and protection of young girls, consider the Hancock bill a serious menace to the health and morality of American youth, a debasing influence on human society, and a source of incalculable evil. We ask you to place in most influential hands our vigorous protest against said bill and all similar bills favoring birth control and the dissemination of contraceptive information and practices. Miss AGNES REGAN, GERTRUDE G. DRUM, President. THE TOLEDO CATHOLIC CHARITIES, Executive Secretary National Council of Catholic Women, Washington, D. C. DEAR MISS REGAN: Recently House bill H. R. 11082 to amend tariff act (1930) and Penal Code to permit importation, distribution and sale of contraceptive literature and instruments, has come to my attention and I hold serious objections to such a bill being passed in our National Government. May I ask you to convey my protests to the proper committee in charge of this bill? For the past six years I have been employed by the Toledo Catholic Charities in Toledo, Ohio, and my work has been concerned with delinquent and predelinquent children, both girls and boys. At the present time I am supervisor of the department of juvenile guidance of that organization. May I illustrate an instance from my own experience. About a year ago we were interested in a foreign family where there were four children. Much against the will of both the husband and wife an operation was performed on the woman which rendered her sterile. Up until the time of this unfortunate event the home was a happy one but immediately following this the woman acted queerly and in less than six months it was necessary to place her at the State Hospital for the Insane. She remained there for about six months more and returned to her home but has proven totally incapable of caring for her home or her children and has become a prostitute in spite of all that could be done for her. This one instance in itself is, I believe, sufficient to make a thinking person hesitate for a long time before aiding or putting their stamp of approval on such a bill as the above-mentioned one. In my work I have seen much grief among the young high-school girls and boys because of information that has been given them even in a limited degree. Information on birth control and contraceptive methods have made our boys and girls ruthless and daring and the only result can be total dissipation for those to whom we look as the parents of our future generation. Trusting that you may find sufficient information to present this letter to the committee with the request that it be placed in their official record, I am Most sincerely, WELTHA M. KELLEY, WOMEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB, Long Island City, May 10, 1932. The members of the Women's Democratic Club of the first assembly district of the Borough of Queens in the city of New York respectfully protest against the enactment into law of any birth control bills. We consider these measures a piece of vicious legislation in that they endanger the morals of our young people by legalizing the sale and possession of articles and literature that may be the occasion of sinful and degrading practices. The majority of our 500 women are mothers, and we wish our protest to be entered on the record. The fact that our police commissioner has called attention to the large number of criminals between the ages of 17 and 21 years makes us feel a great responsibility to guard boys and girls from the dangers of loose conduct as we would protect them from physical danger. Respectfully yours, Mrs. MAE ROUSSEAU, President. (The following organizations also protested the passage of this measure :) Catholic Women's Union, St. Paul, Minn.; 5,000 members. Antioch Institute, No. 101, Young Ladies' Institute, Antioch, Calif. St. Mary's High School Mothers' Club, Oakland, Calif. Cincinnati Circle, International Federation of Catholic Alumnæ, Cincinnati, Ohio; 1,600 members. Young Ladies' Sodality of St. Paul's Church, San Francisco, Calif.; 140 members. Holy Names' Alumnæ, College of Holy Names, Oakland, Calif. California Institute, No. 1, Young Ladies' Institute, San Francisco, Calif.; 400 members. Delmar Institute, Young Ladies' Institute, San Francisco, Calif. Catholic Ladies of Charity, Kansas City, Mo. Mercedes Guild, San Francisco, Calif. St. Liguori Council, No. 177, C. W. B. L., Astoria, N. Y.; 600 members. McKinnon Institute, No. 3, Young Ladies' Institute, San Francisco, Calif.; 260 members. Ephpheta Society, Oakland, Calif.; 400 members. St. Mary's High School Mothers' Club, Oakland, Calif. Norwood Circle, No. 143, Daughters of Isabella, Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati Circle, No. 142, Daughters of Isabella, Cincinnati, Ohio. Roselia Foundling Asylum and Maternity Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa. St. Patrick's Parish, Water Valley, Miss." Idaho Catholic Council of Women, Boise, Idaho. Cincinnati Archidiocesan Federation of Catholic Women, Cincinnati, Ohio, Approximately 20,000. St. Joseph's Academy Alumnæ Association, Wheeling, W. Va. Toledo Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, Toledo, Ohio; 22,000 members. Alumnæ Association, National Catholic School of Social Service, Toledo, Ohio; 188 members. Toledo Deanery Council of Catholic Women, Toledo, Ohio; 9,800 members. Mother's Club of St. Rose's School, Santa Rosa, Calif.; 121 members. Natchez Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, Natchez, Miss. San Francisco Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, San Francisco, Calif.; 50,000 members. Cleveland Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, Cleveland, Ohio. |