History Book: Restoring a reputation

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, February 20th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Next up, the WORLD History Book. One hundred years ago, a famous eugenicist sues a Scottish doctor for libel. WORLD’s Paul Butler recently caught up with that doctor’s grandson and brings us his story.

PAUL BUTLER: On February 21st, 1923, an academic and a doctor appear before London’s High Court. The conflict began the year before.

SUTHERLAND: In 1922, Dr. Sutherland…received a writ from Dr. Marie Stopes…

Mark Sutherland lives in Sydney, Australia. Doctor Hallidy Sutherland was his grandfather.

SUTHERLAND: And she sued him for libel because in 1922, his book Birth Control was published. The full title is Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine Against the Neo-Malthusians…

Malthusians are those who see population growth as being exponential yet food supplies and other resources as finite and linear. So Malthusians are strong proponents of population control and birth control. The eugenics ideology of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s applied those ideas aggressively—particularly for those who were poor, weak, and unhealthy. It led Marie Stopes to open a London slum birth control center in 1921.

Doctor Sutherland criticized her work in his book…

SUTHERLAND: And he said that she was handing out contraceptives that were extremely dangerous for poor women to be using.

Sutherland accused Stopes of “experimenting” on the women.

SUTHERLAND: So she sued him for libel.

During the case Sutherland was able to explain his use of the term: “experiment.”

SUTHERLAND: She was not always careful about the women she was looking after. So one of the things that was brought up in the case was a device known as the gold pin or gold spring. And effectively this device was then very new. People didn't know if it promoted conception, if it prevented conception, or if it was, in fact, an abortifacient. So on that basis, Dr. Sutherland was able to justify the word experiment, exposing the poor to experiment.

The trial lasted for five and a half days. The first question for the jury: “Were the words…defamatory of the plaintiff?” They answered: “Yes.” The second question: “Were they true in substance and in fact?” The jury said: “Yes.” The third question: “Were the comments fair?” They replied: “No.”

Sutherland’s barrister successfully argued that because the comments were true, it wasn’t libel—and Sutherland won on that legal footing—though many in the press saw it as persecution of Stopes and her work. But Mark Sutherland says it deserved criticism.

SUTHERLAND: The fact of the matter is, is that while Stopes was giving these contraceptives free of charge or at cost to the poor women who wanted them, at the same time, she was lobbying politicians—including Prime Minister Lloyd George—for the compulsory sterilization of men and women who were poor…The fact of the matter is, Stopes used quite vituperative language to describe these people. She described them as throw outs, wastrels, the spawn of drunkards, and so on…

Undaunted, Stopes appealed and the court reversed the original verdict in July 1923—levying 100 pounds in damages against Sutherland.

He appealed to the House of Lords in 1924—Britain's Supreme Court at the time—and he eventually won. He became an internationally best-selling author in the 1930s and was well-known for a time…but by the 1950s Western culture embraced Stopes’ promises of sexual freedom and Sutherland faded into oblivion.

SUTHERLAND: He was effectively—in modern parlance—canceled…

Growing up, Mark was told that his namesake only took on Stopes because the once nominal Presbyterian had become a Catholic convert as an adult.

SUTHERLAND: According to these people. He didn't like Protestant Britain not adhering to Catholic Catholic teachings on contraception. And that's why he attacked her.

But in 2003, Mark Sutherland discovered a suitcase of original documents from his grandfather…

SUTHERLAND: I found his papers in my mother's cellar in Britain. I realized that a great injustice had been done because Dr. Sutherland was much more sophisticated and a real person than this cardboard cutout villain. And what I want to do is to restore his reputation.

Mark says his life's work is to reintroduce audiences to the very timely writings of Dr. Hallidy Sutherland.

SUTHERLAND: One might think with the proliferation of abortion and contraception right around the world, that Dr. Sutherland lost the historical argument. But if you read his 1922 book: Birth Control, and read the final two paragraphs, you'll see that it's come to pass. He said that what's going to be happening in the future is that people will say, where are our children? Children, children, we must have children at any cost and it has happened. This Malthusian agenda has been with us for a long time. It's not new. It's not sciency. It's based on an English cleric Malthus getting it wrong several hundred years ago, the latest iteration would be by the Davos set. But that's why we need to remember the history. If we forget the past, then we are—as the cliche goes—condemned to repeat the mistakes.

Mark Sutherland is author of Exterminating Poverty: The true story of the eugenic plan to get rid of the poor, and the Scottish doctor who fought against it. Each day this week, he’s posting court summaries of the 1923 libel case on his website. I’ve included a link to that in today’s transcript.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

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