Mexico weekly ledger., 1897-07-22
A New And Queer Society.
WOULD EXECUTE ALL DISEASED
AND DEFoRMED CHILDREN,
IF INCURABLE.
Murderers Should be Imprisoned For
Life and Receive a Daily Beating
Persons Under Is Years Old
Could Not Join Churches
What is Sect or Greed?

WnaC Is sect OF Cf0edl
Editorial Correspondence OF the Ledger.
SOUTHAMPTON, LONG ISLAND, N. Y,
July 15.-We have plenty Of new
political parties in this country, but
have discovered in New York q new
organization, which is at least unique
There are many things in New York,
and some of them are very cheap,
You don't have to take hold of all the
new things unless you want to. 1t
don't pay.
Following is the platform Of this
Association for the Perfection of the
Human Species:"
The labors of this association shall
be the bringing before Legislature
such bills, the passage of which shall
uplift mankind physically, mentally
and socially, through the abolition or
reformation Of all existing absurd
customs.
1. All h~opelessly deformed, idiotic
and constitutionally diseased children
should be peacefully electrocuted
within three months after said disease
or deformity has by three State ply
sicians been pronounced incurable.
2. All children should be educated
under the immediate supervision of
the State from the time the child il
five years old to the time 1t reaches
the 18th year.
8. The education of all children
should be: First, physical; second,
mental; third, social. The children to
be allowed to choose any religion after
their fifteenth year-but not before,a as
up to that age their powers of judg-
ment and discrimination are not suf-
fioiently developed.
a. All aged, mentally unsound per-
sons to be cared for at the expense of
the State.
8. Every person losing the use of
three senses permanently, should be
peacefully e~lectrocuted by the State.
6. All incurably insane persons to be
eIectrocuted.
z. Man has no right to take the life
of another physically sound human
being. Murderers should be punished
by incarceration for lifetime and daily
logged.
8. Marriage to be entered on COM
non sense grounds; that is men and
women should marry their opposites.
Love is but the result of certain cir
cumstances, and is brought about atir-
ficially as well as accidently.
THE RULES.
Every member of the association
must be a physically perfect man or
woman Of at least twenty-one years
of age.
None shall be admitted who has not
attended college, or who has not been
student of the classics.
1t shall be the duty of every mem
Der to discourage as much as possible,
the wearing of ridiculous clothing and
ornaments. The dis
couragements to be directed princi-
pally against tight shoes, the lacing of
corsets, long dresses, the wearing of
trousers by men and women, high
and high hats, while every
member pledges himself or herself
to do all in his or her power to bring
about gradually the use of the classic
costumes of Athens and of Rome, with
such notifications as the state of the
weather may demand.
The founder of this society, Janet B.
Montgomery-M'Govern, with her
husband in an interview says:
$40 l really believe in all the laws
in the constitution of the
''Society for the Betterment of the
Species7" Yes, most emphat-
1 not only believe In all the
but intend to do all in my
power to carry them out practically in
my own life.
If my child was to be hopelessly de-
formed or perfectly idiotic, I should
the event of the bill embodying our
having been passed by
Legislature-send for the three ply
'1cians appointed for the purpose by
he State and abide by their decision
regard to the child. II it were pro-
bounced idiotic or i~ncurably deformed,
should be not only willing, but anx-
GUS that its life be ended aa speedily
Ind pa~inlessly al possible.
As for the clause referring to chill
lren being allowed to choose any re-
igion after their fifteensh year, ICON
Iider that one of the most important
blanks in the platform, for 1 have seen
90 much of the bigotry, narrow
and phariseeism resulting
rom coercion and overpersuasion of q
hid toward any one form of religious
'elief.
What, after all, is sect or creed, so
ong as men and women lead pure,
norai and upright lives? What mat
ers it about the private opinion of
ach regarding heaven, hell or indi-
idual modes of worship?
Apropos of Clause s: Had Helen
,eller or Laura Bridgeman been my
hid, although maternal instinct
rould have inclined toward the educa-
on of either, yet, from an altruistic
I would have been willing
her execution. The amount of
honey expended on the education OF
lch an unfortunate could then have
cen put to the support and education
I at least a dozen normal human be-
lgs. |,
Most murderers I consider insane,
at least with some abnormal brain ,
evelopment; therefore should be
as In my opinion should /.
, all other hopslessly insane persons.
By the word "love," In the ninth
ause, we refer to that feeling more
'ually termed affection" / think {
We between o man and . woman Z
lould have an Intellectual rather than
purely emotional basis; otherwise
tiety il the only result. Mental
'ngensalsty should be the basis Of J
'ery true marriage-provided, oil q
'urse, that there are no physical or Y
'reditary cause making such . mar Q
age inimical to future generations. \