Anthony Comstock’s successor, John Sumner, has arrested Alfred Knopf for publishing Przybyszewski’s Homo Sapiens. It was suggested that magistrate Simms read the book before passing judgment. The assistant district attorney protested that “no such cruel punishment be imposed on the court”; but Mr. Simms promised to try it.
P. S. Since writing the above something has happened which my brain still refuses to believe. I have just been told that Mr. Knopf has pleaded “guilty” to this asinine charge, in order to avoid the expense and the publicity, and that Homo Sapiens will no longer be circulated in this country. If it is true it is the most inexcusably ridiculous thing that has happened for many months. It is incredible!
“The World’s Worst Failure”
Read Rebecca West’s brilliant articles in The New Republic.
Margaret Sanger and the Issue of Birth Control
Nothing makes me so positively ill as the average radical. The average conservative is a ghastly figure, but at least he is true to type. The average radical is a person who professes to believe something that he does not believe. If he did, he would be in trouble. No one gets into more involuntary trouble than the splendid fools who think they can do quite simply what they believe in, and who proceed to do it.
Margaret Sanger’s trial is set for the twenty-fourth of this month. She is under three indictments, based on twelve articles, eleven of which are for printing the words—“prevention of conception.” It is these words which are regarded as “lewd, lascivious, and obscene.”
Many “radicals” have advised Mrs. Sanger that the wisest thing to do is to plead guilty to this “obscenity” charge and to throw herself upon the mercy of the court—which would mean that she could get off with a light sentence or a small fine. And what would become of her object, which has been to remove the term “prevention of conception” from this section of the penal code, where it has been labelled as filthy, vile, and obscene? No revolution has ever been started by evasion. No one wants Margaret Sanger to be a martyr. The point is that every one must see to it that she is not made a martyr. There is no other way out of these issues. You can’t really believe in a thing without knowing that some time you will have to fight for it. Margaret Sanger is taking the stand that her type always takes—just because it is the type that insists on believing hard. We should do all the rest. If you will wire your protest to the District Attorney, office of U. S. Marshal, Post Office Building, New York City, it will help. You may write Margaret Sanger, or send contributions to her, care of Ethel Byrne, 26 Post Avenue, New York City. Please, please do it!