Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-12-24
EXPERT On ANARCHISTS.
OF THE DEGENERATE CLASS LIKE
CRIMINALS AND INSANE.

Violence Due to Suggestion - Mental
Weakness and Heredity - Evolution of
the Anarchist-why Mental Epidemics
Are Common - Segregation Remedy.
A physician connected with many
hospitals and institutions for the
treatment of nervous and mental dis
eases made the following summing up
of his conclusions respecting the men
tai condition of the anarchist and his
relation to the criminal and insane
! clIsses:
''As a rule, anarchy is something be-
low the superficial surface of society,
closely connected with, though not
part of the submerged tenth, or pau
per class of the community. From the
standpoint of the expert on mental and
nervous disease, the anarchist stands
sharply outlined in two varieties, the
man who suggests and the man who
Is 'suggestible.' There are the brainy
men of the submerged tenth and many
others following them who are not
brainy. The followers are better
known to the police than the leaders,
who are not usually known to the pub
| lie.
"The criminals, the insane, and the
anarchists are all members of the de-
generate class, differing in many par
! ticulars, but all agreeing in being anti
| social. The deeds and actions of the
three classes may be the same, MUIR
der, or assassination, or other crimes
| of violence. A degenerate is a word
used in various ways Popular use at
tributes to the degenerate abnormal
| or unnatural crimes. The newest
| books on mental diseases uses it in
a much broader sense as indicating a
| class of mankind who are abnormal in
mind and body from inheritance. Her.
edity as understood today ignores any
definite type of disease. Because a
| parent was tuberculous oreccentric or
alcoholic the child does not of neces-
| sity inherit the same conditions. Her.
edity passes down abnormal tenden-
cies in various ways, but surely and
certainly mental abnormality super
imposed on physical abnormalities.
These comprise the chief signs of
degenerate as the word is used sci
entifically.
In examining a suspected lunatic
| the general outlines of face and head,
sometimes almost on the lines of the
old-fashioned phrenologist, are first
noted. Most painstalling attention is
! given to the position of the eyes,
whether too near together, too far
apart, or too high, or if irregularly
I ln1o pyfc
merous defects in color and shape of
pupil, which appear as rule only in
degenerate types. The ear and roof
OF the mouth are especially valuable
| in giving a hint that hereditary con-
dition is present. Next to physical
stigmata of degeneracy and of insani-
| ty in particular, come mental stig-
mata These include a variety of
| traits found in normal men, such as
passionate outbreaks, vanity, self-con-
ceit, selfishness, jealousy and numer-
Gus other mental characteristics. The
criminal having an increase of some
| one of these traits, or, what is far
more common, a complete lack of self
control or inhibition, which readily
| CAuSsotle eltc any poSiti'O tiuie Vi Niiei
/ acter, readily falls into a criminal life
and eventually finds his way to pri-
son. He may or may not have physi-
cal stigmata of degeneration. A large
proportion of criminals show them,
especially of the professional crimi-
nails. Whatever view may be taken of
! their mental weakness, as enemies of
| cnnint,y largo
scale. viewed them as subjects for
insane hospitals. Though theories of
reformation are entertained in indi-
yidual cases, as a class of the commu-
nifty they are to be regarded as enc
mics of society.
Between the ordinary criminals and
the insane and mentally unbalanced
come the class of anarchists now ex-
citing public Indignation since the as
sassination of President Mckinley.
They are more positively anti-social
than the ordinary professional crimi-
nal. The crook robber or common
murderer is an enemy of society, but
more as an individual, as man against
man.
their hostility to society, and are def
mite in their methods of waging war
against society. To them the indi-
vidual counts for little, the system
for much. Like the criminal, their
mental characteristics resolve them
selves into two varieties, those who
show excessive development of certain
aggressive traits, and those who are
weak and show the lack of self-con-
troll in marked degree. Hence come
the two kinds of anarchists; first, those
who lead. or suggest like Emma Gold
man and others less well known; and
second, the flock of rather feeble mind
ed anarchists who respond to the sug-
gestions of the master mind as GER
tainly as the subject of a professional
hypnotist.
'In the crowds of anarchists that