Milford chronicle., 1914-03-20
THE HALIFAX FAMILY

If the New Jersey Training School fol-
the Predetermined done nothing else
than present US with the history Of the
kallikak family by DR.. Henry H. God
dard the eminent specialist on the men,
tai defective it would have conferred a
lasting benefit upon society. Giving us
a startling array of facts in a we'll writ
ten little book Of absorbing interest to
the lay reader and throwing a food of
lightupOn one of our deepest sociological
problems and the results of our past neg
igence in caring for the mental defec.
tive and checking the propagation of
these weddings. By a remarkable study
m genealogy DR.. Goddard traces the
history Of the family Of one man. Rev
olutionary veteran, Martin Halifax by
name, who by moral depression in his
youth had an illegitimate son, Martin
kallikak, Jr., by afeeble-minded woman.
This son was feeble-minded. The father
served honorably throughout the war Of
Independence and afterwards settled
down and married a normal woman Of
high repute, by whom he had a second
son Frederick who was normal in all
particulars. The progeny of these two
sons the one Predetermined and the sec
! NOuI
| hundred decendents. OF the family of
the second son, Frederick, with two ex-
| ceptiOns. two doctors of medicine who
became addicted to drugs were other
wise normal, all the decendents were
normal in fact honorable citizens hold
/ ing high positions in society. The pro
geny of the defective son Martin Jr.,
have all with two exceptions been de-
I "a 81
/ hundred of these detectives is definitely
known and charted and includes an ap-
| palling list of drunkards, prostitutes and
criminals. OF the balance Of the four
hundred of this line who have not been
personally and definitely determined
strong suspicious are well founded that
having drifted to parts unknown they
have maintained the i'll repute Of their
cousins who are more definitely known.
What an object lesson From one
brother the ancestor in "a hundred
years" of line of four hundred splendid
high minded, well-to do citizens, many
of them holding the highest positions Of
trust and honor. From the other broth
er four hundred wretched benighted souls /
sunk to the very depths of depravity
and debauchery. And to continue through
endless generations to produce more and |
more in geometrical progression Of their |
own kind.
By a complete census of the Delaware |
detectives we have today on file records |
of nearly four hundred Of these Martin /
Halifax, Jr's. There is no race suicide |
among these people. Most of the Halifax |
women bore families of ten or twelve |
children as incompetent as themselves. |
The vicissitudes of life have no terrors
for them. OF one of these women DR.. /
Goddard said, Her philosophy of life is
the philosophy of the animal. There is
no complaining, no irritation at the in
CAPABILITIES Of fate. Sickness, pain, child
birth, death-she accepts them all with
the same equanimity as she accepts the
of putting a new dress and
a gay ribbon on herself and children and
going to a Sunday School picnic. " If
each of these four hundred defective
Delawareans in the next four genera
tons produce four hundred of their own
kind we will have given to the world
one hundred and sixty thousand helpless,
hapless, unprOductive encumbrancesI
upon the human family Many of them
TO be maintained at the public expense,
N almshOuses, jails and reformatOries
and all to sap the fibre of the race and
'ome to become a menace and a snare
% the normal youth.
On the other hand ; if we provide care,
raining and segration of those of child
,earing age who are still numerically
within our grasp. keeping them in com
ort and contentment in useful occupa-
ions and making them happy and guard
ny them from evil contamination we
will at least check this endless chain of
and depravity, raise the
ocial standard, save great expense in
criminals and paupers and
erhaps produce some self supporting,
elf respecting citizens from this hot-