The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1914-01-08


repeatedly take human life even now,
out of high sense of duty, but they
dare not make the practice general,
lest they be convicted of murder.
Paralysis, leprosy, cancer imbecil-
ity, many hideous or repulsive incur
able diseases and the worst kinds of
deformity are included in the cate
CORY coming within the provisions of
this bill"
College President Wants Weak Des-
troyed.
President Andrews, of the Univer-
sity of Nebraska, expressed his belief
that society would be benefited by de-
stroying all weakly and defective chill
dren. "The Spartans, Modes and Per
SLAMS who put their imbecile or de-
formed to death as soon as born, were
wiser than We" declared Mrs. Mar
garet Forwerg to club of society
women in Chicago.
Justice Truman C. White, of the
! New York supreme court, notes the
growth of a public sentiment in his
state favorable to physical elimination
of the "unfit"-the idiotic, the insane,
the epileptic, etc.
In explaining the system of CLASH
fication adopted in 1905 by the school
board for the disposal of backward
children, DIR. Brown of the board of
health of the City of New York, made
this statement:
Every child with the slightest de-
ficiency receives a special examina-
ton. II he is blind, or deaf, he is
sent to an institution where that de-
ficinecy is given special treatment,
and possibly cured. In like manner
the imbecile Is often made into use
| full citizen. But for the idiot there is
absolutely no hope. When it is found
that he is too far gone for the sur
geon's knife to help his life had bet
ter be extinguished. We would then
have more time and energy to spend
on children in whom there are posi-
bilities of success"
Mothers Should Have Deformed In
fants Killed Says Boston Doctor.
'If mothers would be willing to
have their children quietly put to
sleep forever when they are very
young and show signs of deformity
or degeneracy, the world would be bet
ter" says DR.. Andrew Christian, of
Back Bay, Boston's aristocratic dis
trict.
"Of course, that could not be unless
the women could be educated up to
the fact that it would be the kindest
way to end life which will be of no
use to itself or anyone else.
''If l. myself had little child born
and it was deformed or showed that
it would be mentally weak then l
would be willing that it should be put
to death with no suffering and it
would be the prudent thing to do, be-
cause it would save it from untold
suffering later. This may seem harsh,
but it really is not"
"Removal" of Feeble-Minded.
During the year 1903 a bill was in
troduced in the Michigan legislature,
by Representative Rogers, in which 1t
was proposed to remove" by some
painless method, "all feeble-minded
children" One wonders why this
genial gentleman did not begin with
the incurable insane in the state asy-
lum. But even cold-blooded murderers
are not hanged in Michigan! Strange
commentary on the spirit of our age
that Mr.. Rogers would rather ask for
the execution of helpless children!
In the opinion of Mr.. Ambrose Bierce
the noted critic, poet and all-around
literature, Society has an indubitable
moral right to remove those of its
members who will not live in harmony
with it's just and necessary require
ments (?). The first or the second
felony is the felon's fault Cd; for the
third and all subsequent ones the state
is to blame. Century after
century we suffer this rabble of de-
generates, fully identified and ayow-
eddy impenitent, to conduct their irri-
tating hostilities against life and prop
erty, while we have it in our power to
put an eternal end TO the aggressors. /
The criminals have no right
to anything, not even, as this proposal
assumes, TO life"
Real Aim Of Revival of spartanism.
Here We strike the keynote of the
noble Spartan movement: The aim is
TO lay a foundation for legislation