I beg you to be _human_ about it. Act on this measure as if the need for knowledge were your own, instead of that of millions of poor people. Suppose you were a young man on a small wage, with a frail wife and more children already than your pay could support, would you be patient on hearing that your Senators were “too busy” to spend the five minutes it would take to send this Bill on its way to passage? Suppose you had any one of the many good reasons that millions of parents have for needing desperately to get this knowledge in decent, scientific, reliable form, instead of from hearsay and in abominable underground ways, wouldn’t you put that need first? Would you stop to debate about the French birth-rate, or any other irrelevant question? Without speaking personally of individual Senators, it is entirely justifiable to assume what Senators _really_ think about this question, for the average birth-rate in their families and their children’s families has proven it long ago. Can you then be any longer callous to the needs of millions of your poorer fellow citizens who, unlike you, are struggling with poverty and the whole train of worries induced by poverty? And most of all, can you not break through the _fear_, which has held many of you back from acting promptly; fear not of public opinion but of each other, the flippant, facetious comment that comes easily to the lips of many men, even good and fine men—in their instinctive effort to cover the embarrassment they feel because this question touches upon sex? Many members have admitted that they were inhibited by this fear. But can you not forget it, through sympathy for the suffering of others? Isn’t it more precious to you to be just and generous to your fellow citizens than to further indulge this fear, which in the last analysis could never be a source of real pride to you as a servant of the public? Gratitude and respect await your favorable action. Yours very truly, ____. Director of the V. P. L. What followed is reported in the Birth Control Herald (March 8, 1923). As soon as possible after the Committee adjourned on the twenty-sixth, we found Senator Cummins and said, “Well, please tell us the worst.” He threw up his hands and replied, “I simply could not get it brought up. When they were discussing the constitutional amendment which was the subject of the meeting, I gave notice that as soon as that was settled I should bring up the Birth Control Bill, and by the time the amendment was disposed of they had simply faded away.” “Leaving you like Casabianca on the burning deck alone?” “Yes.”