The day book. [volume], January 27, 1917, LAST EDITION, Image 30

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
NEW YORK BIRTH CONTROL REBEL IS FED
FORCIBLY MRS. SANGER EXPLAINS FIGHT
CHICAGO WOMEN DISAPPROVE
HUNGER STRIKE, BUT FAVOR
BIRTH REGULATION
New York, Jan. 27. Mrs. Ethel
Byrne, hunger striking in protest
against conviction for disseminating
birth control literature and advice,
was forcibly fed early today in the.
hospital at Blackwell's island work
house. She had gone more than five
full days without food and water and
was reported to have collapsed
shortly before midnight-
New York, Jan. 27. Mrs. Ethel
Byrne faces "death or insanity" in
her hunger strike at Blackwell's
Island prison "as a protest against
state laws against birth control that
cause the d$ath annually of 8,000
working mothers in New York and a
quarter of a million in the nation."
She is hunger-striking because she
has been "denied the inherest right
to test the constitutionality of that
law," Mrs. Margaret Sanger, her sis
ter and co-defendant in the birth
control dases, declared today in a
statement written for the United
Press.
"Birth control is not an attack on
the birth rate as such," says Mrs.
Sanger. "It is a scientifically just
and humane effort to prevent the
birth of more children than parents
can endow with strong bodies, sound
minds and a fair chance in the bat
tle of life. Nothing more."
Chicago women, while unanimous
in their advocacy of some kind of
birth control reform, are equally
united in censuring Mrs. Ethel Byrne
for adoptiflg English suffragist tac
tics in protesting against her incar
ceration at Blackwell's Island.
"We are rapidly approaching a
time when we will deal with some
.ijhase of the birth control problem,"
Mrs. Harriet Vittum, head of North
western Settlement, said. "It is as
much our duty to protect society as
to conserve our natural resources. s
We raise pedigreed cattle and chick- J
ens, but we never worry about what
kind of children are brought into the
world. A few years ago we were
afraid to even mention vice. Now
we deal with it in a matter of fact
way and call it by its right name.
"As for Mrs. Byrne's tactics In
starting a ( hunger strike, that may
be her method of protesting. Others
wouldn't use such methods."
Miss Jane Addams, after refusing
to talk about the San Francisco ,
"Magdalenes," was equally positive
that she had nothing to say about
birth control or Mrs. Byrne.
"I'll be able to discuss those ques
tions in a few months, after I re
cover from my present illness," she
said.
Mrs. Joseph Tilton Bowen, close'
associate and personal friend of Miss
Addams, strongly rebuked advisora
of Mrs. Byrne for allowing the hun
ger strike and resulting publicity.
"I am thoroughly out of sympathy
with Mrs. Byrne's hunger strike and
the disgusting publicity that is
sought by her advisers," she said. "I
am really in accord with her views
on birth control and believe that
scientific knowledge along such lines
should be disseminated through rep
utable physicians or others compe
tent to teach it, but I don't sanction
breaking laws to attain desired ends.
It would be much more sensible if
Mrs .Byrne and he rassociates would v
devote their energies toward secur- ,
ing the repeal of the obnoxious law."
Mrs. Harriet Stokes Thompson,
president of the Chicago Political
Equality league, said:
"I believe In quality and not quan
tity. I'm against race suicide and
also against indiscriminate raising of
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