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Lot 241
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Birth Control Advocate Margaret Sanger "I really don’t believe that people are ready for the intimate talks"
Birth Control Advocate Margaret Sanger "I really don’t believe that people are ready for the intimate talks"
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Margaret Sanger
Chicago, IL, November 8, 1923
Birth Control Advocate Margaret Sanger "I really don't believe that people are ready for the intimate talks"
TLS
MARGARET SANGER, Typed Letter Signed, to Mrs. George Raab, November 8, 1923, Chicago, Illinois. 1 p., 8½ x 11 in. On "Middle Western States Birth Control Conference" letterhead.

In this typed letter from a week after the meeting of the Middle Western States Birth Control Conference in Chicago, Margaret Sanger used the conference stationery to write to Helen Raab of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sanger suggests that it is probably not worthwhile for Raab to have her return to Milwaukee for a women's meeting in the near future. Ten months earlier, Sanger had lectured in Milwaukee, thanks to the organizing efforts of Raab but over the protests of many groups. Some women's groups urged the mayor to ban the "indecent and degrading" presentation, while an alderman made a motion to ban this "tendency toward paganism."

Complete Transcript
November 8, 1923.
Dear Mrs. Raab:
I thought I might see you again before I left last evening.
You will be interested to know that I was able to address the Labor Trades Council. Naturally, we were all a little discouraged about the lack of enthusiasm of the audience. I began to feel that it was just as much the nature of the subject as it was the fault of the audience, and that makes me believe that it would not be wise to go ahead with the women's meeting, as suggested.
I really don't believe that people are ready for the intimate talks that this involves. They will come when it is free of charge, but I heartily believe that it would not pay you or me for the effort it involves on all sides. Unless you have already contracted for the hall and have made some plans, I would be willing to call it off for the time being.
Just a hurried note to tell you how much I appreciate what you are doing, and to thank you for your helpfulness.
Sincerely yours,
Margaret Sanger
President.

Mrs. George Raab,
Box 1059,
Milwaukee, Wisc.

Historical Background
The American Birth Control League, of which Margaret Sanger was the president, held its midwestern states' conference at the Drake Hotel in Chicago on October 29, 30, and 31, 1923. At 8 p.m. on the first day, Sanger gave the opening address on the subject, "Birth Control: Is It Moral?" Approximately 2,500 delegates were scheduled to attend the conference. Local health commissioner Herman N. Bundesen refused to appear before the group or to explain why he refused a permit for a local birth control clinic.

Sanger's own magazine described her reception in Milwaukee on January 30, 1923: "There was no strenuous opposition in Chicago, where Mrs Sanger spoke at the Sinai Centre, to over 2,000 people and where the cosmopolitan atmosphere of a great city makes organized opposition more difficult. But in Milwaukee, the seat of a great Catholic University, the enmity was intense. Mrs Sanger was to speak under the direction of the Open Forum. Three halls were engaged, three halls were taken away, the managers and owners intimidated by the lily-white Galahads. Finally Mrs George Raab secured the Auditorium. The Knights went to the Mayor, who is a Socialist and has a broader vision than most of our regulation made-to-order mayors. He refused to interfere with our meeting. He declared he would defend to the utmost the right of Margaret Sanger to speak in Milwaukee. Furthermore, he point[ed] out to the knightly delegation that if he were to interfere with the right of a Birth Control advocate to free speech, merely because of the opposition of Roman Catholics, he would, to be fully consistent, be compelled to interfere with the rights of Catholics, to oust them from halls where they held meetings. The Knights then appealed to the Chief of Police. But owing to the fact that there was a Socialist administration in Milwaukee, there was a greater respect for American traditions and constitutional rights than exists in such a municipality as Albany. The Knights were foiled again. The result was a great over crowded meeting in Milwaukee. Fully 1,500 people crowded into the hall, and hundreds were turned away."

Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) was born in New York and attended Claverack College before enrolling in 1900 at White Plains Hospital as a nurse probationer. She married architect William Sanger, with whom she had three children. In 1911, they moved to New York City, where she worked as a visiting nurse and participated in socialist politics and social activism. She wrote articles on sex education for a socialist magazine that were later published in book form. She promoted contraception but opposed abortion. When her publications ran afoul of federal obscenity laws in 1914, she fled to England, where she refined her socioeconomic justifications for birth control, believing that over-population led to poverty, famine, and war. After World War I, Sanger began to support a form of eugenics focused on limiting the number of children to those that a family could support. She also supported compulsory sterilization for the profoundly retarded and other "irresponsible and reckless people." She founded the American Birth Control League in 1921, and the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control in 1929. The purpose of the latter organization was to lobby for legislation to overturn restrictions on contraception. When the effort failed, she ordered a diaphragm from Japan, which was confiscated by the U.S. government. Sanger challenged the confiscation, which led to a 1936 court decision that overturned anti-contraceptive provisions of the Comstock Act of 1873. From 1952 to 1959, Sanger served as president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

Helen Hammond Raab (1889-1970) was born in Nebraska and married trainman Hedley B. Ware in Lincoln, Nebraska, in January 1907. She moved to Milwaukee and met artist George Raab (1866-1943) while working at the Layton Art Gallery; they had a son in 1908 and married in 1912. George Raab studied art at the Wisconsin Art Institute in Milwaukee and also in Germany. When he returned to Milwaukee, Raab helped found the Society of Milwaukee Artists, taught at the Milwaukee Art Students League, and served for twenty years as the curator at the Layton Art Gallery in Milwaukee, which meat packer Frederick Layton had built in 1888 to house his collection and gave to the city of Milwaukee. From 1923 to 1937, he directed art institutes and taught college in Illinois. In the 1920s, Helen Raab operated a lecture bureau that brought widely known artists and writers to the city. In the 1940s, she purchased and restored Dawn Manor, built in 1855, and filled it with art treasures gathered from her many world tours.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8.5" x 11"
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