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Daisy Olguin
Professor Collins
ENGL 1302
23 February 2016
Childrens Garden
On march 30, 1925, during the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and birth control
conference at the McAlpin Hotel in New York City, New York, Margaret H. Sanger delivered
The Childrens Era speech. This speech led to the beginning of the movement for planned
parenthood, and brought the spotlight to the importance of birth control and promoting the usage
of contraceptive methods. She believed that empowering women to take control of childbearing
would have a highly positive impact to the future childrens generation. At the beginning of her
speech, she talks about Ellen Keys book called, The Century of the child, claiming that very few
action has been taken. Sanger further shares that we have already passed the first quarter of the
century not doing much to revolutionize the children's poor life quality. Sanger utilizes powerful
emotional and logical appeals and builds ethos to persuade people to use contraceptives and plan
parenthood for a better future.
Sander, emotionally appeals to the audience with a combination of figurative language
and parallelism, building a special bond with the listeners. In paragraph three, she uses gardening
to symbolise the need for dedication, effort, and special care a child needs in order to grow
healthy. Margaret Sanger explains:
Before you can cultivate a garden, you must know something about gardening.
You have got to give your seeds a proper soil in which to grow. You have got to
give them sunlight and fresh air. You have got to give them space and the

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opportunity (if they are to lift their flowers to the sun), to strike their roots deep
into that soil. And always -- do not forget this -- you have got to fight weeds. You
cannot have a garden, if you let weeds overrun it. So, if we want to make this
world a garden for children, we must first of all learn the lesson of the gardener
(par.3).
The beautiful example of parallelism with a deep feeling and touch of sensibility makes an
emotional bond with the audience. She also uses words such as all, our, and we through
the whole speech in intent to unify and make everyone responsible including herself as the ones
who are to make the difference.
Logical appeals take place when she uses metaphors and realistic scenarios to deliver the
main causes of her message. Sanger compares The Grand Central Station (Overloaded train
station in New York) to life A reception committee at the Grand Central Station of life.
Trainload after trainload of children are coming in, day and night--nameless refugees arriving out
of the Nowhere into the Here. Trainload after trainload--many unwelcome, unwanted,
unprepared for, unknown, without baggage, without passports, most of them without pedigrees.
These unlimited hordes of refugees arrive in such numbers that the reception committee is
thrown into a panic--a panic of activity (par. 4). Her logical appeals become more evident when
brings she the audience in a scenario where a bureau of the Child-to-be ask basic questions to the
Parents-to-be such as If the can afford the child, have they paid the last baby yet? how many
children do they have already? and If they can provide a happy home and proper food for the
child.
Margaret Sanger builds up her credibility with her goodwill, demanding with strong
character, passion for children's lives, and humility. She states that the fight is for the

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emancipation for the mothers of the world, of the childrens of the world, and the children to be
(par 20). Sanger shows her humanity and care for children using symbolism when referring to
them has delicate seeds in need of loving parents and attention, has well with a shelter and good
alimentation. Her tone of voice variates and goes from low and delicate when talking about the
children, to highly opinionated and demanding tone of voice when talking about the living
condition of thousands of children's. Alliterations well constructed like unwelcome, unwanted,
unprepared for, unknown recount the cruel reality of children and leave a memorable words,
supporting her main goal. She sincerely states that she is not trying to establish a dictatorship
over parenting and she ask for support to make from the conference a turning point towards the
era, only so she can help to build a better future.
Sanders bravely delivered the speech building credibility, making compelling appeals and
creating strong emotional bonds with the audience. The charming way she used rhetorical
techniques such as figurative language, parallelism, and phrases made her speech memorable.
Her experience helping others shaped her into a strong, opinionated and self sufficient woman,
which later moved her to rise her voice for the suffering children. The message awakened
thousands of people in the early 1900s and is on the top 100 list of the best speeches in
American history.

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Works Cited
Margaret Sanger, ed. Proceedings of the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control
Conference, Volume IV New York, 1925, 53-58. , Margaret Sanger Microfilm, Collected
Documents Series C16:283 .