They will find in the Standard Dictionary a quotation from Lecky to the effect that, “The greatest of all evils in politics is power without control.”  In what phase of life is not “power without control” an evil?  Birth Control, therefore, means not merely the limitation of births, but the application of intelligent guidance over the reproductive power.  It means the substitution of reason and intelligence for the blind play of instinct.

The term “Birth Control” had the immense practical advantage of compressing into two short words the answer to the inarticulate demands of millions of men and women in all countries.  At the time this slogan was formulated, I had not yet come to the complete realization of the great truth that had been thus crystallized.  It was the response to the overwhelming, heart-breaking appeals that came by every mail for aid and advice, which revealed a great truth that lay dormant, a truth that seemed to spring into full vitality almost over night—­that could never again be crushed to earth!

Nor could I then have realized the number and the power of the enemies who were to be aroused into activity by this idea.  So completely was I dominated by this conviction of the efficacy of “control,” that I could not until later realize the extent of the sacrifices that were to be exacted of me and of those who supported my campaign.  The very idea of Birth Control resurrected the spirit of the witch-hunters of Salem.  Could they have usurped the power, they would have burned us at the stake.  Lacking that power, they used the weapon of suppression, and invoked medieval statutes to send us to jail.  These tactics had an effect the very opposite to that intended.  They demonstrated the vitality of the idea of Birth Control, and acted as counter-irritant on the actively intelligent sections of the American community.  Nor was the interest aroused confined merely to America.  The neo-Malthusian movement in Great Britain with its history of undaunted bravery, came to our support; and I had the comfort of knowing that the finest minds of England did not hesitate a moment in the expression of their sympathy and support.

In America, on the other hand, I found from the beginning until very recently that the so-called intellectuals exhibited a curious and almost inexplicable reticence in supporting Birth Control.  They even hesitated to voice any public protest against the campaign to crush us which was inaugurated and sustained by the most reactionary and sinister forces in American life.  It was not inertia or any lack of interest on the part of the masses that stood in our way.  It was the indifference of the intellectual leaders.

Writers, teachers, ministers, editors, who form a class dictating, if not creating, public opinion, are, in this country, singularly inhibited or unconscious of their true function in the community.  One of their first duties, it is certain, should be to champion the constitutional right of free speech and free press, to welcome any idea that tends to awaken the critical attention of the great American public.  But those who reveal themselves as fully cognizant of this public duty are in the minority, and must possess more than average courage to survive the enmity such an attitude provokes.