Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-07-18
Press This Humane Bill
To Speedy Enactment

~ the humane and socially protective
measures which have been before the
~ Georgia Legislature in recent years
nole has aroused deeper or wider interest
than the pending bill for the care and train
ing of the feeble-mindeG. A more pitiable
lot is hardly Imaginable than that of per-
sons who, being men and women physically,
have the minds of backward children. 1t is
,'-J - entered that they are tossed as
'- rs enid the stress and COM
pleXity of our modern civilization, nor that
from their ranks comes so large proportion of
paupers, juvenile offenders and criminals,
They furnish twenty-four per cent of the in
mates of our State reformatory for boys,
twenty-seven per cent Of the inmates of the
training school for delinquent girls, and near
ly forty-three per cent of the women at the
State prison farm. Furthermore, as the Off
cial report from which these figures are TAX
en- informs us, three and one-half per cent,
or approximately three thousand, of the chill
dren in our public schools "are unable to
benefit by the instruction given them, le-
cause Of feeble-mindedness
No thoughtful citizen can ponder these
facts without realizing the need, the impera-
tive need, of remedial action. Conscience
and self-interest alike warn the State that
she dare not continue treating these mental
detectives as common criminals, nor con-
tinue ignoring the pathetic problem of their
presence. What avails it to send feeble
y,
she is twenty-one turn her forth into the
world as mentally weak and defenseless as
when she was first taken in charge? What
avails 1t to bring to repeated trial and i'm
prisonment those whose dim understanding
can see no meaning in the process? Why
continue spending large sums of tax money
in this worse than fruitless way, when a
comparatively modest appropriation for the
efficient care Of the feeble-minded would
bring substantial and permanent results?
Every State in the Union has given con-
structive answer, except five. And Georgia is
one of those five. In the last year O., so our
neighbors, Florida, South Carolina and Ten
nessee, have taken cognizance of their duty
in this grave matter by appropriating one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars each to
provide industrial training schools for their
feeble-minded children. Surely, Georgia will
no longer lag! Following the report of a
special Legislative commission which made a
careful study of the entire subject, q we'll
considered bill to this end was introduced in
the House by Messrs. Covington, of Colquitt;
Lawrence of Chatham; Alfriend, of Baldwin,
and Sibley, of Green, and was passed on July
the eighth by vote of one hundred and
forty-eight to nineteen. More recently the
measure has been approved by the Senate
committee on appropriations, and now needs
only to be put upon it's passage in the upper
House to be assured of fulfilling it's benef-
cent purpose, for it has the Governor
Wholehearted Endorsement. 49,
That the bill may be pressed to the ear
Hest possible enactment is the earnest wish of
thousands of Georgians who realize its i'm
portance. Rarely, indeed, has proposed leg
slation enlisted so widespread support; the
State Medical Society, the Georgia Educa-
tional Association, the Georgia Bar Associa-
ton, the State Federation Of Labor, the
State Federation of Women's Clubs and
divers other bodies of civic, business or
professional nature have gone OH record as
urging it's enactment. 1t is deeply crafty
rg that the House has expressed its own and
The peoples enlightened will by so great ma
~~itv for the measure. May the Senate
speedily follow the example. -.