ONAN ESCHEWED - Rick Grunder

told that she must empty her bladder without assistance. For thirty-six hours
subsequently she obstinately insisted on her inability to urinate. When she was
told no catheter would be employed again there was no further retention. Soon
after she left the hospital I learned that a physician friend of mine was treating
her for uterine disorder, but he, too, soon found out the true nature of the case,
and advised her to get married." [pp. 20-21, quoting "Howe"]
69 MABEE, Charles R[alph]. NATURE SUFFRAGE. Every Man and Woman, Married
or Single, Inherits at Birth, the Inalienable Right to Live in Harmony with the Immutable
Laws of Nature. Buffalo, N.Y.: The American Association for the Taxation of
Church Property, Inc., 1917.
20 cm. 582 pp.; [2 (blank form, verso blank; Index of (2) pp.)] ff. Original green
cloth gilt-lettered on spine. Binding rather dull and a trifle shaken; internally
very good. $40
Dedication, page [3]: "To my son, Douglas C. Mabee, who, in his nineteenth
year, died, in Harper Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, as the result of a hemorrhage
induced therein by incompetency, the death certificate, issued by the hospital,
making no reference thereto, and being at variance with a post-mortem
statement, signed by a professing Christian, in charge of the case."
Only edition shown by OCLC of this unusual freethought publication (locating
17 copies, 4 in New York; not at URMC). "The Carnage of Self-Abuse," pp. 518-
19. Among other chapters of this iconoclastic work are such titles as "Presidents
Who Denounced Christianity," "Has a Single Woman the Right to Choose the
Father of her Child?" and "Sex Suffrage Promotes Efficiency and Intellectuality."
Dr. Mabee clearly has strong feelings and many axes to grind, and he particularly
wants laws removed from the books which prohibit sex between unmarried
persons. With all such liberality, however, his views on masturbation seem no
more advanced than earlier works seen in this collection. Mabee seems to
contend that Churches perpetuate secret masturbation for their own gain . . .
The Church Trust appears to prefer that the carnage of self-abuse continues,
regardless of the slaughter, in order that it may live, and its officers continue to
draw their salaries.
. . . . .
In the United States, there are today, between 1,000,000 [p. 518 ends] and
2,000,000 victims of self-abuse. Decisions rendered by courts as to the value of
human life, places the value of these lives at from $15,000,000,000 to
$30,000,000,000. While these victims are not totally incapacitated, their health is
sufficiently impaired to reduce their physical and mental efficiency at least 50%.
. . . The humiliation, and the enormous loss of health and money, due to self-
71