The fact that the control of conception was not once mentioned by any member on the floor of either House is most convincing evidence that their minds were not taken up with that question, but that they accepted on faith the general aim of the measure, which was to suppress gross indecencies. In this connection a further quotation from Sumner’s letter to Senator Cummins is noteworthy. Although he attempts to convince the Senator that the Comstock bill had ample attention from Congress and was thoroughly understood before it was passed, and that it was also backed by the press of the country, he was unable to muster a single quotation from a member of Congress or from the press that so much as named the control of conception, much less discussed whether information regarding it should be banned in the law. His contention has no more strength than the mere statement that “each time the bill came before Congress it was described as a measure for the suppression of trade in and circulation of obscene literature and articles of immoral use.” Nor are the few press items he quotes any more specific. He tried to make them so by underlining the word _articles_ in each one. But as there are various “articles” used or usable in abnormal sex practices, the mention of “articles” does not connote the control of conception, and certainly not the use of contraceptives in normal life. So his contention is flimsy to the last degree. Congress knew that it had voted to suppress indecent matter, but it did not know it had also voted to suppress scientific knowledge. People who well remember Comstock’s procedure during the short session of 1873 have described his very effective way of getting support for his bill. He simply showed to the members of Congress whom he interviewed, specimens of the disgusting pictures and publications which were then in circulation and from which the publishers were deriving large profits. The stuff was so obviously outrageous and it was so revolting to know that it was being diligently spread among the youth of the country, that the response of the Congressmen to his proposed bill for making the matter unmailable was immediate. This is the outstanding fact which accounts for the ease with which the bill was put through without debate. In writing of his own work afterward, Comstock said, “I am positive I personally presented the full facts to the large majority, both in the Senate and House.” Below are extracts from the _only_ speech made in behalf of the Comstock bill, and that speech was _never spoken on the floor of the House_. “Leave to print” speeches have long been a peculiar and questionable characteristic of American legislation, and this instance is of exceptional peculiarity in that the “speech” was made _after_ the bill was passed.