ederal statute making it a felony punishable by
$5,000 fine and five years at hard labor to impart any information
_whatever_ relating to the preventing of conception. The information may
concern a thing, an instrument, or it need not be any material substance
at all--only a "method." I obey that law as I am not foolhardy enough to
walk into absolute danger.

Every day we see examples of heart-breaking misery caused by lack of
knowledge of the proper means of prevention. The limitation of the
number of offspring has become an important problem to be considered.
There are thousands of families that would be perfectly happy if the
number of offspring could be limited. There are thousands of young men
who would be glad to get married but are afraid to do so for fear of
having a family larger than they could supply with the necessities of
life. These same young men, because they are not married, frequent
questionable houses and often contract one or more of the venereal
diseases.

There are thousands of women who have become semi-invalids because of a
too prolific offspring. The babies came so fast the mother had no
opportunity to regain her health and strength. There are other thousands
of women who are made invalids because of attempts at abortion, or have
been driven into early graves by these attempts, while some have
actually killed themselves.

There are thousands of children half starved because their parents are
unable to supply them the necessities of life. There are other thousands
of children below par mentally and physically because of the fact that
the mother was weak from too frequent child-bearing. There are other
thousands of children born of syphilitic, tubercular or epileptic
parents who never should have been born at all because they came into
life so handicapped and had to fight against such severe odds that they,
after a brief struggle, met an early death. There are children brought
into this world amidst cursing who never hear much else.

We find it necessary to regulate the parentage of our domestic animals
in order to insure a good race. But children can come by chance. The
most degraded of men is allowed to beget children of his kind. There is
small chance for race improvement under such conditions. The same laws
hold true as to the future generation of humans as are true of animals
or plants.

Human beings are not mere animals and they should be allowed to decide
how many children they should