“Suppose there were a public meeting in your district, Mr. X, and you stood before an audience of your own constituents, and told them that you believed that most of the young folks were better off ignorant than with knowledge on this subject, because they couldn’t withstand the temptation to misuse it, and so the laws that tried to keep them from knowing were good laws. Then suppose someone else were standing beside you, saying just the reverse, another Congressman who might say, ‘My dear young friends, I believe in you. I know you are human, with all the impulses that sway live people, and I know that some people are swayed when they ought not to be, but I believe the majority have the strength of mind and character to go right, even if they do know how to go wrong and cover it up, and so I am against all laws that try to keep knowledge away from you.’ Which man do you think would get the response of the audience?” “Oh, of course it would be the one who said he believed in them, that’s natural. They would want to believe in themselves, too, but think how it would be that night, when the young girl goes out with the boy, and she can’t help thinking, what difference will it make if nothing ever shows? And then she will forget all about character, and will let herself go, whereas if she was afraid of the practical results, she wouldn’t. Yes, there are thousands of girls that are held back just that way.” Then I asked if he didn’t know that there was such a lot of contraceptive knowledge in circulation—and most of it bad too—that the number of girls that could be protected by their ignorance was diminishing every hour, and that there was absolutely no effort at enforcement of the laws? He said people argued that way about enforcing the prohibition laws, but he thought it ought to be enforced and could be. He insisted he was “just being practical, that’s all.” I insisted that I was the more practical, as I had faith in knowledge and strength which were dynamic, and not in just fences, which are dead. “Well, you certainly are a pretty talker, Mrs. D—— and I may be wrong. Of course, if you can convince me....” “I don’t think I can convince you, but I think you can convince yourself, if you make a business of turning your face toward the light instead of to the darkness.” “Well anyhow, you think what would happen in all these government boarding houses over here,” pointing out the window to the wartime buildings which still house hundreds of women clerks, “a lot of them are confirmed old maids too, but I wouldn’t trust what would happen to them, if they all knew they could do what they pleased and no one would be the wiser.”