But the third and last part of the answer is by far the dominant part, and that is, as had doubtless been evident through all the previous pages of this book, that the subject is embarrassing. It brings sex considerations and sex consciousness to the surface. And this creates varying degrees of fear and inhibition. It would have done that to a certain degree, no doubt, even if the proposition had come to Congress before the birth control movement flared into a sensational affair ten years ago. But with the background of the modern movement as it has been, the tendency has been greatly augmented, so that the fear of being conspicuous in the matter has been the outstanding obstacle. The inhibition has been very powerful in many instances. But there is much reason for concluding that the six years of effort directly with the members of Congress, together with the greatly increased articulateness of the public, has worn the inhibitions so thin and lessened the fears so much that they should evaporate in the very near future, and let the latent common-sense of the majority of the members have an unimpeded chance to function. An assertion of this sort, that sex consciousness and fear have been the chief reason for the delay in Congress, needs the backing of proof, especially as one dislikes to believe it and would prefer to assume it to be impossible. It must be said at the outset, that probably the same reaction would have been found among any other 435 men, if placed in a similar position. The members of Congress are presumably representative of American life and feeling. They are not unique. The attitude of almost any average citizen with regard to birth control is that he wants the information, but he does not want to make himself conspicuous in getting it. Just so with members of Congress. And the sticking point with them was that they would have to be conspicuous in regard to it, if they sponsored the bill or voted it out of Committee. In giving various instances of the evidence of the fear and distaste which have been so chronic among the members of Congress it is best, for the purposes of this book, that they shall stand just as instances, without names. It makes relatively little difference what particular Senator or Representative said or did this or that. The only matter of consequence is that this inhibition has been notably prevalent, and that it is the one thing which has chiefly held back the bill from passage. The general policy of the Voluntary Parenthood League has been to report in its paper the character and episodes of the blockading of the bill, and all official action regarding it, but not to make public the revealing interviews with the individual members of Congress. The one exception to this custom was at the close of the 68th Congress in March, 1925, when a report on the stand of each member of both Judiciary Committees was given in the Birth Control Herald (March 10). It was prefaced as follows: