y be a lowering both of public and private morals. What the
fathers of this country termed indecent and forbade the mails to carry,
will, if such legislation is carried through, be legally decent. The
purveyors of sexual license and immorality will have the opportunity to
send almost anything they care to write through the mails on the plea
that it is sex information. Not only the married but also the unmarried
will be thus affected; the ideals of the young contaminated and lowered.
The morals of the entire nation will suffer.

"The proper attitude of Catholics... is clear. They should watch and
oppose all attempts in state legislatures and in Congress to repeal
the laws which now prohibit the dissemination of information concerning
Birth Control. Such information will be spread only too rapidly despite
existing laws. To repeal these would greatly accelerate this deplorable
movement.(1)"

The Catholic position has been stated in an even more extreme form
by Archbishop Patrick J. Hayes of the archdiocese of New York. In a
"Christmas Pastoral" this dignitary even went to the extent of declaring
that "even though some little angels in the flesh, through the physical
or mental deformities of their parents, may appear to human eyes
hideous, misshapen, a blot on civilized society, we must not lose
sight of this Christian thought that under and within such visible
malformation, lives an immortal soul to be saved and glorified for all
eternity among the blessed in heaven."(2)

With the type of moral philosophy expressed in this utterance, we
need not argue. It is based upon traditional ideas that have had the
practical effect of making this world a vale of tears. Fortunately such
words carry no weight with those who can bring free and keen as well as
noble minds to the consideration of the matter. To them the idealism of
such an utterance appears crude and cruel. The menace to civilization of
such orthodoxy, if it be orthodoxy, lies in the fact that its powerful
exponents may be for a time successful not merely in influencing
the conduct of their adherents but in checking freedom of thought and
discussion. To this, with all the vehemence of emphasis at our command,
we object. From what Archbishop Hayes believes concerning the future
blessedness in Heaven of the souls of those who are born into this world
as hideous and misshapen beings he has a right to seek such consolation
as may be obtained; but we who are trying to better