The woman looked at me accusingly, “Not Theodore Dreiser?”
“Oh, yes,” I agreed, “he’s good.”
A man suggested, “Not Upton Sinclair?”
They were apparently sadly disappointed in us.
At last one of them, making a sweeping gesture, said to me, “Your American Government has never built anything like this for its workers, has it?”
“No,” I replied, “we never had a Tsar,” which was very tactless of me.
He answered something to the effect, “You people have opinions but no convictions. We have been to prison for ours.”
Tanya volunteered, pointing to me, “This lady has been to prison eight times for hers.”
Astonishment was registered, and one man spoke hurriedly to Tanya who translated, “He wants to know who you are. Shall I tell him?” She then explained I was advocating birth control.
“Well, we have that. Haven’t you visited any of our hospitals? Thousands of women have it.”