by the worst. At first this may seem
plausible. Granting our opponents' premise temporarily, the
conclusion is logically unavoidable that in order to restore a
normal relation between the so-called more and less intelligent or
desirable classes of society, we must put into the hands of all the
methods of restricting their increase, now utilized only by the
few."

On June 1, 1913, "Woman's Sphere" of "The Call" contained a four-column
article on race suicide, entitled, "Musings of a Socialist Woman." The
author, Antoinette F. Konikow, who was a delegate to the Socialist
National Conventions of 1908 and 1912, thus expresses her views:

"I consider the question of the prevention of conception to be of
greater value to women than even the knowledge of sexual
diseases....

"After meeting hundreds of women and girls in heart to heart talks,
I came to the sincere conviction that lectures on sex hygiene which
do not give a thorough understanding of conception in its definite
bearings on practical life and also of its possibilities of
prevention--that such lectures miss their main aim in bringing help
to distressed humanity....

"Instead of meeting every need and demand of the worker, we are so
hampered by the fear of getting a bad reputation among our enemies
that we express our support to a new tendency only after it has
acquired a certain respectability in society....

"Do the daring words of Comrade Clara G. Stillman or Dr....'s
article not hurt the feelings of some of our Comrades? No doubt
some readers felt dissatisfied but not more so than others who had
to read the conservative statement of Comrade Carey in 'The
Leader,' that he considers Bebel's conception of the family
un-Socialistic and anti-Socialistic....

"Do our morals stand on a higher plane, thanks to the careful
guardianship of our laws?...

"It is high time then to serve notice upon all our benevolent
censors and upholders of such laws, and declare ourselves fit to
get along without their superior guidance. It is time to open a
crusade against this hypocritical suppression of knowledge, which
leads to endless and needless suffering. It is time to emphatically
declare the right of the mother to control the functions of her own
body for her own good and the welfare of her offspring."