Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-12-31
Poisoning the Springs of Life.


Since 1905 a royal commission
has been at work investigating the
subject of feeble minded persons
in the British empire. The COM
missioners have recently reported
by sub-commission the amount OF
idiocy they have found in the asy-
lums and retreats of the United
States, and the report has been
published as a Blue Book. The
commissioners announced that in
the United States the word "feeble-
minded" is used to denote all kinds
of mental defect except acquired
insanity, and that, in 1904, 14,3Oo
predetermined persons were de-
tanned in special institutions main
tanned by the states.
According to a statement made
in the journal of the American
Medical Association October 10,
1900, by DR.. Eugene Cohn, first as
sistant physician OF the Illinois
Southern Hospital, "the most au-
thentic records of Europe and this
country show that one-fourth OF
the feeble-minded have ancestors
who are affected by alcoholism"
or. in other words, are directly or
indirectly chargeable to the liquor
traffic.
Let us suppose that one-half OF
these feeble-minded persons (that
is, of the 4,766 credited to alcoholic
ancestry are males, which would
give US 1888 in the institutions OF
the United States in 1904-the num-
Der is much larger now-and this
number does not include anything
like the total of feeble minded
throughout the country. tits per-
haps a conservative statement to
saw that there are more than twice
as many outside the asylums than
inside. The 1888 alcoholic male
feeble-minded, if untouched by
this curse, would have grown into
workingmen, according to the fig
ures of all the industrial bureaus in
the United States, the economic
value of whose annual labor out
put would have been S5,957, 500.
This says nothing about the
wages of these potential working
men spoiled by liquor. 1t says
nothing about the economic value
of the females forever barred from
becoming the foundations of fam
lilies, and the like is true regarding
the feeble-minded males.
The cost of maintaining these
poor creatures ruined by alcohol IL
the feeble-minded asylums OF thu
United States, at the conservative
figure of St66 apiece, in 1904 wa
1896, 57S. Adding this to the tota
loss OF any economic output fron
them shows a deficit due to alcoho.
ism of annually among the feeble
minded Of Sc, 353, 078, and this as w
have said, pertains to but one-hal
the alcoholic feeble minded in tn
asylums, and never touches the ia
greater margin among females an
the vast numbers outside. Tn
conduct of the United States wit
respectto tolerating the liquor rai
fc is thus a poisoning of the yer
springs OF life for a multitude of il
future citizens. They come int
the world imbeciles, they pas
through it demented, because {
this governmental policy-and tn
government is nothing but the pee
pie of the United States.
Any nation which thus poison
the springs of life at this first is
suance in this world is economic
ally a fool.
Morally, if it knows what it
doing, it is worse than a murdere
A murderer mercifully kills his vi,
tim at ouce and is done with it, bl
to knowingly and deliberately Pc
son the lives of human beings
their very start, to make them id
OTIS and bring shame and life-lor
sorrow to their families-a ia
worse than DEATHS worse thu
murder.
One OF the prime necessities
of the present time in the Unit
States is that it should find out t
economic and moral monstrosi
of its connivance at the liquor tr;
ic. 1t is almost infinitely wor
than the BLACKLIST records of t
old slavery days.
Wayside Condolences.
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