Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-23

nverted by the proper care ana segreEaliou
Of mental detectives, especially Of feeble
minded women of child-bearing age inc
Public Charities Association exhibit Ia an
| object lesson in the result OF neglect,
| livery one except few fanatics agrees
! IT. that persons suffering from smallpox and
| diphtheria and other contagious diseases
should be quarantined. But only few, and
! they have been described fanatics, believe
! that the feeble.minded should be segregated
| for the protection of the community.
The menace Of feeble-mlndedness however,
| is much greater than that of communicable
and durable diseases. Feeble.mindedness is
hereditary and it is not durable. The feeble.
minded adult has the intellect Of child and
the morals of an ape. He or she contaminates
the morals of the normal youth falls into
crimes against property as well as against
the person, enarges the population of the
prison and the insane asylum and is also a
source of constant expense to the State.
There is in this city a feeble.minded woman
who Is the mother of nine children, most II
not all of whom are feebleminded. She and
her family have to be cared for by various
charitable societies. The societies have been
spending an average of $4,000 year on this
family for several years. and will have to
continue to spend it so long as the mother
and her children remain at large. AS the
children grow up they will reproduce after
their kind-one of the daughters has already
begun it-and the expense will be multiplied
as the degenerate family grows.
This woman has already become centre
of social contamination and unless the State
isolates her and her defective offspring her
case is likely to dsplace that of the Kallikak
woman of New Jersey as a horrible example
of what neglect of its obvious duty can bring
Lro1f flgalr nT1pn n c
socologists know, was feebleminded. She had
child by Revolutionary soldier. Today
there are 1856 descendants of this child in New
Jersey They are nearly, If not quite, all Grim
inas, mental detectives and perverts.
There is a county in northeastern Penn
sylvania where the feeble-minded are espe.
cially numerous In one district of 30S in
habtants SO are mentally defective, and in
another containing So persons, 80 are feeble
minded to q greater or less degree. In the
last 25 years the taxpayers of the county have
had to meet n charge of S265,OOO for the pun
ishment of crime and the relief of poverty
growing chiefly out of the fact that these
feeble.minded persons were allowed at large
The whole State contains $4,000 persons Of
subnormal mental development, and only 5000
of them are cared for in public or private
institutions. In a spasm of social responsible
ity the General Assembly appropriated $4,000
for the establishment of a village for feeble
minded women between 16 and 40 years OF
age. The Governor reduced the appropriation
to $4,000. This was in 1913. A site has been
bought in Laurelton Union County, and one
or two buildings have been erected. The last
Legislature declined to make any appropria-
ton for completing the buildings or for using
what had already been built. If 1t had under
stood the Importance of such institution
it would have put at the disposal of the board
of managers enough money to equip the vii
lage for the accommodation of all about whose
moral and mental incompetence there could
be no doubt. The opening of the homes in the
proposed village would effect immediate econo-
mics in the care of the dependents in the
counties There is probably not q county
almshouse in the State which does not harbor
one or more feeble-minded women over whom
no effective restraint is put These women are
bringing forth children to inherit their defects
and to become a burden upon society. So long
as these conditions prevail the criminal popu'
latlon will be increased every year by the
offspring of detectives.
The L4aurelton village is planned for the
purpose of segregating the women Of child
bearing age in the confident hope that by pre-
venting reproduction the number of detectives
can be gradually reduced.
Whoever doubts the Importance of the ques-
ton should visit the exhibit which the Public
Charities Association Of Pennsylvania has ar
ranged in the Widener Building. None can
study the data there offered to public view
without becoming convinced that there should
be a thorough reorganization of the present
system of caring for mental detectives. 1t is
not enough TO build the LaureltOn village for
the women. The sorting out of the hopelessly
defective should begin in the public schools,
and those who cannot be safely allowed to
remain at large should be put in institutions.
The feeble+ninded in the insane asylums-
there are 600 of them so confined because OF
lack OF a better place-should be put where
they can receive proper training and treat
ment: and the criminals in the prisons who
are there because OF mental defects should be
put where they can be supervised as imperfect
human beings instead Of punished as crimi-
nails.
There are thousand other reasons for this
great reform, but the fact that It will pay in
dollars and cents ought TO convert to 1t those
who can see no force in any other reason.
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