with straight repeal bills, is dabbing at a national blemish instead of wiping it out. All of which considerations point directly to the need for Federal legislation. CHAPTER III GOING TO THE POINT WITH A FEDERAL BILL _1919 sees first concerted effort to repeal Federal law: Initiated by Voluntary Parenthood League, an outgrowth of National Birth Control League: Disbanding of earlier organization and merging of forces: Opposition from birth control advocates on “doctors only” basis arises later: The long hunt for a sponsor: Cummins-Kissel Bill introduced in January, 1923: Re-introduced in next Congress as Cummins-Vaile Bill: Survey of six-year struggle in Congress: Significant characteristics of Congressional reaction: Fear and embarrassment inhibit even those in favor of measure: Suggestions for keeping repeal “dark”: Alternate appeals to logic and humanity: Public opposition (mostly Catholic) relatively slight: Sponsor in Senate received 20 letters for bill to every one against._ The chief answer to the query “What changes in the laws have been proposed?” is that in the summer of 1919 a major move toward redeeming the whole United States from the Comstock blunder of 1873 was made by taking the question to Congress and demanding a repeal of the words “preventing conception” from the five Federal obscenity statutes wherever they occur. This move was the culmination of four years of agitational, educational, experimental and more or less handicapped work, first by the National Birth Control League, and then by the Voluntary Parenthood League, which was started in the spring of 1919, with the primary aim of accomplishing this federal action. As described in the previous chapter, the experience for two years with efforts at State legislation was sufficient to demonstrate clearly that the one time-saving, fundamental act was the revision of the Federal laws on which all State laws were modelled, and which was originally and has ever since been the legal source of the disrepute in which the subject of birth control has been held.