The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-27
SHOULD THEY BE KILLED OFF .

81 - I NJ L "a Ely BE KILLED OFF !?
Prof. Powers. of Cornell university, is
quoted in the daily press as having de-
clared within a Gay or two in addressing
his pupils that ne was in favor OF ex-
terminating the congenitally weak. GRIM
incl and diseased men bers of society as
so many rattesnakes might be killed.
The statement has occasioned some ex-
element and will bring on it's author, no
doubt, much abuse and criticism.
There is really nothing new or start
ling in this proposition. Nor is it in any
sense or to any degree inhun1an or even
unfeeling. It represents a conviction
which has been forcing itself on all really
thoughtful men. It embodies a proposed
policy which is for the good of human
Ity-a policy which there is the amplese
reason for believing to be necessary to
the safety and welfare of human So
ciety.
No doubt there will be an effort made
to misrepresent the position taken by
the Cornell professor No doubt thou
sands of good amiable people will con-
denim him. When CzoIgosz is the re-
cipient of sympathy and flowers at the
hands of thousands of well-meaning per-
sons. it is natural to expect that such
sentiments as those attributed to Prof
Powers will be regarded as quite shock
ing in themselves.
Why should the morally and physically
diseased members of society be allowed
to continue to infiict the evil of a de-
PRAYED heredity on the human family :?
Why would it not be humane and So
cially wise policy. to bring the existence
Of such creatures to an end? We are
now doing in crude and ineffective way
something to segregate such creatures
TO prevent them from reproducing them
Eelves. Yet it is the merest fragment of
such unf6rtunates over which society is
permitted to exercise jurisdiction.
We kill off deformed and vicious ami
mails. They have no place in the economy
Of life. Why should we not pursue the
same course toward human beings, whose
Inheritance of disease, moral, mental or
physical. makes their lives a burden to
themselves and others and involves a con-
slant menace to future generations of
their fellow creatures?
The old notion about human disease
and misery being Of divine origin-of the
insane, the epileptic, the dipsomaniac,
the kleptomaniac, the degraded and per-
verted nature, being an inf1iction from
heavens gone. 1t can never be revived
Humanity has reached too high plane
Of intelligence to be content with any
such explanation.
Like begets like Detectives and crimi-
nails for thousands of generations. have
begotten detectives and criminals. HUI
man ignorance and blindness. not divine
wisdom, L. is which has permitted this.
The human brute is the heir of centuries
of~erime and brutality. The human
idiot and imbeci1e is not natural being.
It is a long line of abnormal animal life
OF which he is the visible end. Had saw
nge society in some forgotten day rid
itself of his true progenitor he would not
be today.
1t would be easy to quote the most con-
vincing figures showing that crime and
debauchery is an inheritance. It is I'M
necessary. The best we have to offer
today to the poor drunken degenerate is
+. the workhouse. He is kept confined
there, thirty. sixty, ninety days, like a
muzzIed mad dog. Then he is turned
loose to herd with his kind and to beget
thenl-to communicate disease and pain
to those aroud him. The selfish crimi-
nal whs-robs and Expresses within the