The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-07
From a Deaf Mute

I "To the Editor of the Republics: Tn your issue of the 1Sth in a lec-
 ture at Washington university by the director of the School of Social econ omy Dr. George B. Mangold, deaf mutes are classified as feeble minded. Allow me some space in your valu- able paper to voice my protest and l the protest of all deaf mute citizens against such classification, and some | of the methods the learned doctor ad- vocates so far as deaf mutes are con cerned. for the reduction of the nun Der of deaf mutes, idiots, morons and backwards This doctor advocates the l permanent institutional or custodial control by the state of the defecative. particularly the feeble minded. as the better way to rid society of the men | tally defective. This is intended to prevent marriage among the mentally
 defective, and thus keep as low as
 possible the number of mentally defec- tive born into the world.
 | Whether such control by the state
 of the idiotic. imbecile or otherwise
 mentally defective would bring about
 the desired effect, I do not know, but | I do know that deaf mutes as a class | are not feeble minded Anyone who knows deaf mutes knows this. and if Mr. Mangold had taken the tfouble to | get better acquainted with deaf mutes | he would know it, too.
 l "In the United States there are about | 45, ,0O00 persons classified as deaf mutes. Of course, some of them are idiotic, i'm
 beetle or otherwise mentally defective, | but the percentage of mentally defec- tive among them Is no greater than among any other class of people, Idiots
 imbeciles and epileptics are found in all
 classes of society.
 Aside from being unable to hear, a
 deaf mute is like any normal person
 He can read write and often use speech. He can express his ideas in as good written language as anybody else He can earn living at a trade or pro- fession. If he owns property he ie
 taxed for it. He casts his ballot on election day. He marries and rears children. His wife may be deaf like
 himself, but his children are not. ex- cept in very rare cases. The children are just like anybody else's children mentally and physically.
 "Dr. Mangold says: Scientific ih lvestigation has shown that 65 per cent | of feeble mindedness Is hereditary | he means the idiotic. the imbecile the back ward and the epileptic, he migh, be correct in his percenetage, but be. Iieve that the statistics about deat
 mutes. published by Dr. Edward Aller Fay of Washington. D. C.. will prov. l that less than 10 per cent of the pres ent number of deaf mutes cannot heal because their parents or grandparents were also deaf mutes
 "As to the state exercising perma lnent or custodial control over dea, mutes, nothing worse was ever advo cated from an economic or any other point of view. Such step. if taken would be going backward from tho
 humanitarian and enlightened methodl of the twentieth century to the darl ages of the past, when no one though lit worth while to try to educate dea mutes.
 "It Is less than a century and hal iago that the education of deaf mute,
 was first started in Europe, and les, Ithan century in our country 1t is b, I education alone that they have becom,
 useful and self-supporting citizens There are more than 100 schools fol the deaf In the country, and in thes, deaf mute boys and girls are pepare<