_Mr. Hersey_: Do you know what you are asking this committee to do, madam? You are asking us to do this: To report out a bill here, assuming from evidence before this committee that this committee has definite information that there exists at the present time, in somebody’s mind, this information that you say is so precious, to be disseminated among the people, and which we know nothing about. We have no evidence that anybody possesses the perfect remedy for this evil of which you complain—the bearing of children. You do not claim to have it yourself, and your organization does not claim to have that perfect information. You can not point us to a doctor who has it, and to whom we could go for the information. You ask us to say that there is such a thing that the people can have if we pass this bill. You can see the spectacle that we would make of ourselves in the House if Members should get up and ask this committee: “Do you know anything about this matter that you are asking us to adopt; whether it is a remedy for this evil of childbirth, or whether it is simply some quack that wants to sell something, and wants us to remove the bar, which is the United States law, against sending this knowledge through the mail or disseminating it among the people? You want us to allow that information to be made public, through some one who claims to have it, and you have not even an endorsement of the American Medical Association that there is such a thing as a perfect remedy for the evil of which you complain.” _Mrs. Dennett_: It would be, from our point of view, the height of absurdity to expect busy committees in Congress to be themselves authorities on questions of science; and for us to demand the passage of a law that will allow scientists to perfect their own knowledge, which now they can not perfect, because of the law— _Mr. Hersey_ (interposing): Why not perfect their knowledge? _Mrs. Dennett_: Because the law prevents. _Mr. Hersey_: No; it does not. Somebody has this knowledge, perfected or not perfected. Is it perfected or not, now? _Mrs. Dennett_: It can not be perfected until scientists are legally free to study it. _Mr. Hersey_: You must have your remedy before you can send it through the mail. You are asking us to send through the mail something that is not perfected. _Mrs. Dennett_: Research work can not be carried on legally on this subject so long as the laws stay the way they are. That is the point. _Mr. Hersey_: Then, you claim that the research work has not commenced yet on this matter?