Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.Sanger, Margaret
History
Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control -- United States -- Biography; Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
The interrogation, prompted by this sinister individual, who bent over
occasionally to murmur into Mr. Lahey’s ear, held bitter malice.
Nevertheless, I answered every query as completely and as honestly as I
was able. I had nothing to hide, and still believed that my interlocutor
could arrive at no decision unless he heard the truth in its entirety. I
was all for telling it.
But never throughout any of the hearings could either the examiners or
police be kept to the point. They were not genuinely trying to find out
who had given the orders and why, but attempting to justify the illegal
proceedings; and always they went off into vague irrelevancies
extraneous to the issue, such as trying to embarrass dignified, elderly
witnesses by asking, “What are you doing with birth control?”
Chiefly the investigation focused around the Brownsville clinic raid. I
denied emphatically that certain contraceptives for use by men only had
ever been there; they were of a type which I did not recommend, and had
been brought in by the police themselves.
“Do you mean to say, Mrs. Sanger,” went on Mr. Lahey, “that this
statement of the police officer as written into the records was untrue?”
“I do.”
Mr. Lahey lifted an official finger to an attendant. The door of the
anteroom opened and Mrs. Whitehurst, who had been the leader of the
raid, was dramatically framed before us.
“Do you say that if she,” he waved to her, “made the statement referred
to in the police records, she lied?”
“She did,” I affirmed. This was the first time in all my life that I had
ever called a person a liar. I felt as though I had stepped down into
the lower brackets of common decency, but the police are accustomed to
such words, and I had to meet the circumstances.
Mrs. Whitehurst was instantly dismissed. I, too, was dismissed, and
Juliet took my place. She had learned from her husband and other lawyers
how witnesses could protect themselves, and tossed off her answers
readily, now and then returning, “I don’t know,” and, frequently, “I
don’t remember.” The black-coated gentleman who had hoped to trip her up
but was getting nowhere, became exasperated and said roughly to Mr.
Lahey, “Oh, stop this! Ask her if she’s read the law.”
Juliet admitted she had read Section 1142, but, to further questioning,
replied she did not recall when, she had not read it in my presence, she
might or might not have talked it over with me.
Mr. Lahey rose and left the room. Then the Unknown shouted to a young
Irishman who had been busily taking notes, “Arrest that woman!”
We could not have been more astonished if a thunderbolt had struck the
place. For a few seconds, which seemed longer, everyone was paralyzed.
At last Mr. Marsh asked, “On what grounds is Mrs. Rublee arrested?”
“She has violated Section 1142.”
“She said she had read the law—is that a crime?”
No answer.
Mr. Marsh then inquired, “On whose authority is Mrs. Rublee arrested?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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