be of any real use, we must at the outset reconcile ourselves to the
fact that the birth-rate is voluntarily controlled.... Certain persons
who instruct us in these matters hold up their pious hands and whiten
their frightened faces as they cry out in the public squares against
`this vice,' but they can only make themselves ridiculous."

Taught upon the basis of conventional and traditional morality and
middle-class respectability, based on current dogma, and handed down to
the populace with benign condescension, sex education is a waste of time
and effort. Such education cannot in any true sense set up as a standard
the ideal morality and behavior of the respectable middle-class and then
make the effort to induce all other members of society, especially the
working classes, to conform to their taboos. Such a method is not only
confusing, but, in the creation of strain and hysteria and an unhealthy
concentration upon moral conduct, results in positive injury. To preach
a negative and colorless ideal of chastity to young men and women is
to neglect the primary duty of awakening their intelligence, their
responsibility, their self-reliance and independence. Once this is
accomplished, the matter of chastity will take care of itself. The
teaching of "etiquette" must be superseded by the teaching of hygiene.
Hygienic habits are built up upon a sound knowledge of bodily needs
and functions. It is only in the sphere of sex that there remains an
unfounded fear of presenting without the gratuitous introduction of
non-essential taboos and prejudice, unbiased and unvarnished facts.

As an instrument of education, the doctrine of Birth Control approaches
the whole problem in another manner. Instead of laying down hard and
fast laws of sexual conduct, instead of attempting to inculcate rules
and regulations, of pointing out the rewards of virtue and the penalties
of "sin" (as is usually attempted in relation to the venereal diseases),
the teacher of Birth Control seeks to meet the needs of the people.
Upon the basis of their interests, their demands, their problems, Birth
Control education attempts to develop their intelligence and show them
how they may help themselves; how to guide and control this deep-rooted
instinct.

The objection has been raised that Birth Control only reaches the
already enlightened, the men and women who have already attained a
degree of self-respect and self-reliance. Such an objection could not be
bas