There is no need for any one to explain to the working men and women
in America what this pamphlet is written for or why it is necessary
that they should have this information. They know better than I could
tell them, so I shall not try.
I have tried to give the knowledge of the best French and Dutch
physicians translated into the simplest English, that all may easily
understand.
There are various and numerous mechanical means of prevention which I
have not mentioned here, mainly because I have not come into personal
contact with those who have used them or could recommend them as
entirely satisfactory.
I feel there is sufficient information given here, which, if followed,
will prevent a woman from becoming pregnant unless she desires to do
so.
If a woman is too indolent to wash and cleanse herself, and the man
too selfish to consider the consequences of the act, then it will be
difficult to find a preventive to keep the woman from becoming
pregnant.
Of course, it is troublesome to get up to douche, it is also a
nuisance to have to trouble about the date of the menstrual period. It
seems inartistic and sordid to insert a pessary or a suppository in
anticipation of the sexual act. But it is far more sordid to find
yourself several years later burdened down with half a dozen unwanted
children, helpless, starved, shoddily clothed, dragging at your skirt,
yourself a dragged out shadow of the woman you once were.
Don't be over sentimental in this important phase of hygiene. The
inevitable fact is that unless you prevent the male sperm from
entering the womb, you are going to become pregnant. Women of the
working class, especially wage workers, should not have more than two
children at most. The average working man can support no more and the
average working woman can take care of no more in decent fashion. It
has been my experience that more children are not really wanted, but
that the women are compelled to have them either from lack of
foresight or through ignorance of the hygiene of preventing
conception.
It is only the workers who are ignorant of the knowledge of how to
prevent bringing children in the world to fill jails and hospitals,
factories and mills, insane asylums and premature graves.
The working women can use direct action by refusing to supply the
market with children to be exploited, by refusing to populate the
earth with slaves.
It is also the one most direct method for you working women to help
yourself _today_.
Pass on this information to your neighbor and comrade workers. Write
out any of the following information which you are sure will help her,
and pass it along where it is needed. Spread this important knowledge!
* * * * *
The Small Family System: Is it Injurious or Immoral? by Dr. C. V.
Drysdale. B. W. Huebsch, New York City.
The Problem of Race-Regeneration, by Havelock Ellis, Moffat, Yard &
Co., New York City.
The Task of Social Hygiene, by Havelock Ellis. Houghton Mifflin & Co.,
Boston, Mass.
The Limitation of Offspring by the Prevention of Conception, by Dr.
Wm. J. Robinson, Critic & Guide Co., New York City.
"What Every Girl Should Know" by Margaret Sanger.
Paper cover, 25 cents.
Cloth cover, 50 cents.
"What Every Mother Should Know" by Margaret Sanger.
Paper cover, 25 cents.
Cloth cover, 50 cents.
The above are obtainable from Max Maisel, 424 Grand Street, New York
City.
"The Birth Control Review" Edited by Margaret Sanger.