Malthusian League (London, 1877–1927; nominal to c.1961)

[Report #196] **In plain terms:** a British birth-control society founded out of a courtroom. Its creed was that poverty had one cause — too many births — and its answer was fewer births among the poor. FOUNDING. Formed in July 1877 out of the Knowlton trial (see knowlton_trial_1877), in which Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh were prosecuted for publishing a birth-control manual. First president Charles Robert Drysdale (to 1907); then Dr Alice Vickery; from 21 February 1921 their son Charles Vickery Drysdale. C. V. and Bessie Drysdale were co-secretaries from 1907/08; Bessie held the office alone 1921–1923 (Ledbetter pp. 63–64; the '1911–1923' figure in circulation has no source behind it). POSITIONS, in the words of its historians: it 'saw itself as playing primarily an educative role'; 'The sole cause of poverty was an excess of births'; strikes were 'ineffectual'; its paper 'was written by and for members of the middle class' (McLaren 1978). League Principle 6: 'That over-population is the most fruitful source of pauperism, ignorance, crime, and disease' (Ledbetter p. 66). C. R. Drysdale: 'If the preventive check to population be increased, Socialism is not needed; if not, it is useless.' END. Last annual meeting 16 December 1927; activity ceased except its journal and council. It 'maintained a shadowy existence for another thirty-four years' with C. V. Drysdale still listed as president (Ledbetter p. 237) — i.e. to about 1961, one year before Esalen opened. The word 'dissolved' is wrong; 'suspended' is the record. WHERE IT GOES. Its officers crossed into the Eugenics Society (see charles_vickery_drysdale); its clinic and successor bodies became the British family-planning line (walworth_clinic_1921, birth_control_racial_progress_line). It is the documented 19th-century start of the 'population = poverty' frame that runs on through huxley_julian, population_council, nssm_200_kissinger and club_of_rome_degrowth. NO documented tie to Esalen (see esalen_institute, Report #196 absence note). Held; name no holder.