The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-09-05
England Will Try New Plan Unless
the Opposition to 1t Develops
Too Strong a
Protest.
BILL HAS SOME MERIT
Mentally Deficient People to be Taken
Care of by the Government
and Not Permitted to
Marry.

lBy Ed. L. Keen, London correspon-
dent of the United Press.l
LONDON, Sept. 5.-England will
shortly enter upon her first national
experiment in eugenics-unless the
growing opposition to the so-called
bill for the treatment of mental de-
fectives shall overcome the big ma
jority by which it passed its second
reading.
The measure provides for the de-
tention of the mentally deficient in
government institutions and makes
marriage with them a misdemeanor.
Frankly the bills aims to prevent the
addition of an undesirable element to
the population. On its second read
ing it received an affirmative vote OF
242 to 10.
Then the international congress on
eugenics met, and set folks to think
Ing. Attention was directed at the
pending measure, and since then it
has been the target for all sorts OF
attacks. Someone discovered that
you don't have to be lunatic to be
a mental defective,'' under the terms
of the bill. According to the Royal
College of Physicians, a mental de-
fective is one who is really too sane
ito be locked up as lunatic. He is
merely a person who is unable to
compete on equal terms with his
normal fellows.
| In the opinion of its opponents the
bill puts too great power over the
liberties of the people in the hands
of the magistrates who will be called
upon to administer it. They argue
also that its effect would be to dis.
criminate against the poor.
1t would arm doctors, acting
through county judges, or magis
trates," says James Douglas, one Of
London's leading sociologists, who is
! conducting the campaign against the
bill, with power to imprison poor
1 citizens who have committed nc
crime, and to keep them in prison
for life in order to prevent them from
marrying and having children. In
other words, certain forms of poverty
are to be treated as if they were
/ forms of lunacy."
1t is estimated by the bills support
ers that only about 100000 would fall
under its provisions, but SO admitted
ly vague and shadowy is the line be-
tween mental regularity and mentai
deficiency that there is an apparent
ure could be utilized by the unscrupu-
lous for reprehensible purposes.
One of the speakers against the bill
argued that certain variety of suf-
fragettes might readily come under
the terms of the measure, without
unduly stretching them; and another
suggested that if liberals with a
strong party bias were charged with
its execution they might be unable to
resist the temptation of imprisoning
their political opponents.
Meantime distinguished alienists
are making dire predictions as to the
future of the race unless measures
even more drastic be adopted For
4 instance, DR.. Forbes Winslow, one OF
England's most prominent experts in
mental diseases, says that 800 years
hence there will be more lunatics in
the world than sane persons Accord
4 ing to another authority. one in every
4! 21T of tion-independent of the
number of lunatics-is mentally de
4 fective."
Taking advantage Of the public In
terest in the subject. Dr. Bernard
Hollander has Just published a book
on First Stages of Insanity" from
which the dillgent reader may ascer-
4 tain for himself, without consultation
with an expert, the exact position OF
his mental trolley. AT the approach
of insanity says the author, there
is often consciousness of gradual
loss of control over thoughts, feel
4 ings and fears; and the real differ
/ ence between sanity and insanity con
sists in the degree Of self-control exer.
| cised.
I'm the earliest stage of insanity nc
| intellectual defect may be apparent
The reasoning power may remain
clear, the intellect as bright as ever
and in the course of a long converse
ton friends may not perceive the
slightest cloud on the understanding
Or if there be any intellectual defect
it is displayed in the inability to rec
ognize and realize the improperly OF
conduct If one demonstrates with
such patient. one is astonished at
the astuteness with which he justifies
and accounts for his conduct"