Amidst the public excitement caused by this famous trial, The Malthusian League was called into existence, and has since carried forward the work of propaganda in an organised and systematic fashion. It was founded to promote the following objects:
I. To agitate for the abolition of all penalties on the public discussion of the Population Question, and to obtain such a statutory definition as shall render it impossible, in the future, to bring such discussions within the scope of the common law as a misdemeanor.
II. To spread among the people, by all practicable means, a knowledge of the law of population, of its consequences, and of its bearing upon human conduct and morals.
Dr. Charles R. Drysdale, M.D., F.R.C.S., Eng., has from the first been the President of the League, and has devoted himself to the work of explaining and advocating the New-Malthusian principle. The list of Vice-Presidents has included the names of the late M. Yves Guyot, a distinguished French deputé and Minister of State, and of Mr. J. Bryson, President of the Northumberland Miners’ Association. A reference to its present composition will show the reader that the efforts of the League to spread enlightened views on the population question have the approval and sympathy of influential persons in this and in other countries.[3]
The work of the League is chiefly carried on by public lectures and meetings, the dissemination of literature, and letters addressed to the editors of newspapers. By these means the public mind is constantly being influenced in the direction of rational views upon the population question.
The annual meetings of members and friends of the League have afforded valuable opportunities of obtaining expressions of opinion upon the subject of Malthusianism from many influential persons. Letters expressing hearty approval of the movement have been received from Mrs. Mona Caird, Lord Derby, Lord Pembroke, the late Lord Bramwell, Mr. Leonard Courtney, M.P., Mr. W. B. Maclaren, M.P., Professor Bain, Mr. Arnold White, Mr. G. H. Darwin and others.
Four years after the formation of the League, a “Medical Branch” was established for the following purposes:
I. To aid the Malthusian League in its crusade against poverty and the accompanying evils by obtaining the co-operation of qualified medical practitioners, both British and foreign.
II. To obtain a body of scientific opinion on points of sexual physiology and pathology involved in the “Population Question,” and which can only be discussed by those possessed of scientific knowledge.
III. To agitate for a free and open discussion of the Population Question in all its aspects in the medical press, and thus to obtain a recognition of the scientific oasis and the absolute necessity of Neo-Malthusianism.