The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1916-11-09
SEES MENACE OF DECAY NOW
Great Proportion of These Unfortunates
Are Victims Of Heredity According
TO DIR. Alexander johnson, the
Philadelphia Expert.

"None who has ever drunk alcoholic
beverages so as to become seriously
affected by the indulgence and none
who has been victim Of syphilis
should be allowed parenthood, said
Alexander Johnson, student Of the
causes of idiocy, imbecility and lesser
degrees of feeblemindednes and prac-
teal demonstration Of how best to care
for the victims Of these Affections, in
an address given under the auspices of
the Associated Charities in the High
School Thursday night to a large
audience.
Pointing the finger of warning to the
citizenry that ignorantly or negligently
refuses to care for the Predetermined
portion of its population, and faying
the mistaken extravaganza of boards
and builders of public institutions in
many instances, Mr.. Johnson held his
audience Of representative Kenosha
people deeply interested in the appall-
ing facts which he presented and which
he gave the statistics to prove.
'fThe Predetermined are ordinarily
gentle, lovable, and oh, so easily led!
said the speaker. cit is this very
quality of being easily influenced that
constitutes their chief danger to society,
and at the same time makes them
capable Of useful existence if they
are properly protected"
M T0bpeo, Ahor xo-oI,,ooI a4o4soAs -
to show the appalling prolifcness of the
predetermined. He presented charts of
families where each of the feeble
minded women had produced from ten
to dozen children, practically all
Predetermined, and in the large number
Of instances, illegitimately born.
We warned Wisconsin that it now
has 1875 feeble-minded in the care of
its institution at Chippewa Falls, that
another thousand are known to be
ready, parents consent having been
secured, to be put into similar insti-
tuition, when such institution is made
ready, and that at least 5000 more are
at large in the confines of the state
where no information as to whether
their families want them to enter in
situations has been obtained. He
showed that with the extraordinary
prolifcness of this class of unfortu.
mates, unless they are segregated a real
danger threatens the race in the i'm
pairment of its mentality as whole,
as we'll as in the incurment of a bur
den of taxes for their support, for un-
less they are properly cared for in in
stitutions fitted to their needs, he show.
ed by statistical reports that they be-
come greater financial burden to the
taxpayer through the cost Of trials to
incarcerate them in prisons or expense
of keeping them in poorhouses. He
gave facts as to several poorhouses in
which predetermined women had been
lodged and had given birth to illegiti-
mate child after child. He emphasiz-
ed, again and again, that these women
are not immoral, that they are simply
combination of the intellect of the
child of from two to eight years, with
the judgment that the child of that
age has, with the body of adult women.
and that their natural inclination to
be influenced in any dirfection makes
them easy prey to usefulness.
AS to the causes of feeble-minded-
ness, he said that by far the greatest
proportion Of predetermined individuals
are the offspring of predetermined an
cestry, if not of Predetermined parents,
then of those farther back. OF those
remaining, it is found, he said, that
the prophecy Of the Bible is being car
ried out, for the feeble minded not
born of minded ancestry, are
practically all the children of those
who drink or who have been affected
by syphilis, gonorrhoea or other ven
ereal disease.
He added that in rare instances he
has known of feeble-minded children
having been born in families where the
parents were clean, God fearing peo-
pie, but he added that in the ancestry
that they were unable to get details in
regard to, it might be that there were
secrets that would explain the appear
4nce of the afflicted ones.
Mr.. Alexander had only criticismy for
the board which is erecting an institu-
ton for Wisconsin Predetermined at
Union Grove which at the expense of
he taxpayers is to cost 81, 400 per bed.
lie then showed pictures of a model
home for the Predetermined that cost
but $4,000 per bed to erect. He con
iders it all nonsense and useless ex-
ravagance to build the sort of thing
being erected at Union Grove. All that
Is necessary, he says, is to have the in
,titution clean, plain, comfortable and
N shape to properly care for the in
mates and that marble slabs set in the