What is Morality?

Since American taxpayers contribute millions annually for the dissemination of birth control devices and education abroad, it seems at best inconsistent that William Baird, a population-control advocate from Valley Stream, N.Y., has been arrested seven times "and jailed a total of 42 days in four states for preaching what the Government says should be practiced. In the latest episode, Baird was lecturing one evening in Huntington, N.Y. On a bulletin board he displayed two diaphragms, an intrauterine coil and other contraceptive devices.

Tipped off, they say, by a phone call, plainclothes Huntington police rose out of the audience and arrested Baird along with 27-year-old Nancy Ann Manfredonia. The charge was that Baird and Mrs. Manfredonia, who attended the lecture with her husband and 14-month-old daughter Kathryn--she could not find a baby sitter--were guilty, under a state penal law, of impairing the morals of a minor. Baird and the mother spent the night in jail; the baby stayed at the station house until 1:30 a.m., exposed to the same contraceptive display, now state's evidence, that supposedly impaired her morals earlier.

A week later Mrs. Manfredonia brought Kathryn back to the lecture hall, where Baird delivered another talk on contraception. There were no police this time. A federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order that stopped further arrests--but not the mentality behind them.

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