Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1911-10-25
FEEBLE MINDED IN VIRGINIA.

FEEBLE MINDED In VlkGlNlA.
According to the annual report Of
the State Board OF Charities and Cor
rections, which has just been made
public. Virginia's marriage laws need
amendment. The board would have
q statute requiring clean bill of
health and evidence of normal mind
before license is issued. As mat
tiers are today, the court clerks have
no authority to refuse licenses to the
mentally and physically defective.
Apropos OF this, the boards report
says:
Whatever happens to the feeble
minded, idiotic asd epileptic. the one
thing OF parentage must not happen
to them. The only just and humane
and civilized way OF stopping the
transmission Of effectiveness is by
segregation. These people should be
taken by themselves and kept in
quiet, peaceful, Industrial communi-
ties, where they shall have everything
that other villages enjoy except the
joys and sorrows of married life and
the pleasure of voting for the COVER
nor and president. There should be
safe, permanent, custodlal care OF ali
those who are so far degenerate that
their unhindered natural increase would
result in lowering the average quality
of manhood and womanhood Of the
state.
1t is the thing to do for the
feeble-minded-getting them out OF
the big world, where they have had
such hardtime becauie they are not
like other folks. They are ignorant
and irresponsible. Its not much to
ask OF them that they shall be virtu-
Gus, because virtue demands strength.
We must BIO coutent il we can keep
them innocent.
Moreover, it is believed that under
the proper system of training, the
majority of feeble minded people can
be made self supporting. In an in
stitution especially designed for them
they could be utilized in many occupa.
tons requiring no great play OF intel
lect.
Agents of the board have made
two intensive studies in the public
schools of Richmond and Norfolk by
means OF the Binet measuring school
for intelligence. These show, the
child's mental development, graded at
normal and at one, two and three
years above and the same levels below.
The presence of ieeble-minded among
those backward in studies was clearly
shown. At Laurel Industrial School
eight Of the most backward boys
were tested, and their mental age was
found far below their actual age, show
ing that these boys, now held respon-
sible for crimes, are distinctly feeble
minded, and therefore not responsible
for their acts and not criminals at all.
In his letter transmitting the re-
port to the governor, Chairman George
H. Denny says:
After three years of investigation
and study OF the work committed
to US by the General Assembly, we
believe that, in order to enable the
state to effectively prosecute, at the
least possible expenditure of money
its work for the dependent, the delin-
quent and the defective, classes, four
reforms are indispensable: ID Pro.
vision for the cuStodial care OF and
the prevention of procreation by the
feeble, minded; (2) provision that all
prisoners shall be given healthful,
profitable employment that will not
put them in competition with honest
labor; "a the classification of drunk
ards as diseased people instead of as
criminals and provision TO give them
remunerativo employment with AIDE.
quate medical treatment; and (4) such
supervision OF dependent and deliu-
ouent children as will ensure for them
adequate religious instruction and ad,
equate mental training in healthtnl
and moral environment.
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