Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1919-06-10
Feeble MindedneSs

S'"hSo are IStDlt-lnlllutu peISOhS' lis
is a condition not due to the lack of
opportunity for proper training and
education, but is the result of abnor-
NAL brain changes, which are either
congenital in origin or due to injury
and disease, at birth or in early in
fancy
In at least twO-thirds of instances,
feeble-mindedness is due to bad her
edity, poor family stock, defective
germ plasm that carries on the faint
from generation to generation. AS an
illustration of this hereditary cOndi-
ton, the famous Kallikok family is
typical.
Martin Kallikok,. a soldier of the
American Revolution, was father to an
illegitimate child, born to a feeble
minded girl The descendants of this
predetermined girl, traced to the sixth
generation, number nearly 500 pau
pers, prostitutes, criminals and degen-
crates, who have cost their state al
ready one and one-half million dollars,
and the end is not yet in sight.
Among this class of people, the birth
and death rate is found to be several
times as high as among persons of
normal development. The offspring
of this group complcate the problems
of the Juvenile Courts-the child-plac-
ing agencies-and children's institu-
tons and later become inmates of
almshouses, jails, reformatories and
prisons
The cost to the state for caring
for this class of people, and protecting
society from their delirquencies, is
enormous.
Feeble Mindedness as Seen in the
Court.
twenty-five per cent to forty per cent
of all repeated offenders in courts and
/ prisons are feeble-minded persons. In
order to see just how difficult prob
lem these individuals presented to the
courts, an investigation was made of
10 feeble-minded persons by DR.. V. V.
Anderson, in the Municipal Courts of
| Boston.
The majority of these individuals
began school at the usual age, had am
pie opportunities for common school ed
ucation, and left school at the age of IA,
Is and 16 years, but 73 per cent never
| got further than the fifth grade and
showed, by the poor character of
their school work, their inability to
profit by the training society required
! for its future citizens. -fa-i II
Recognized as failures in school,
these unfortunates were set adrift in
early adolescence to earn livelihood,
but careful investigation showed that
| rs per cent had never in their lives
been self-supporting. Now, that same
lack of capacity to learn, that same
inability to profit by mistakes-demon-
advance in school, and later to earn
livelihood-againc crops out in their
! inability to measure up to the moral
standard of the community.
This particular group of 100 feeble
minded persons were arrested 1925
times. The futility of employing
measures intended for those capable
of profting by experience, is shown by
the apparent inability of these persons
J to profit by what is done for them,
and by the unfailing certainty with
which they return to the courts to be
handled over again.
The court placed these persons on
probation 432 times, but they had
| to be surrendered to the courts or
placed within institutions, non-penal in
character, in almost every instance.
The actual statistical results show
! ed that the chances were better than
| four to one against any one of these
! individuals being able to complete his
probationary period without being re-
arrested. The court in addition gave
735 sentences, in fixed time, 100 years
| Imprisonment, and in indeterminate
sentences $50 years, but none of these
measures have sufficed or will ever
suffice to permanently change the
course of their careers.
Finally as an explanation of all this
social maladjustment, failure in
school, inability to earn living, and
failure to conform to the standards
of conduct of the community, or profit
by the usual court and several meas
ures given, we find that all Of these
individuals were mental children, and
had the mental level of the average
American child of eleven years or
under.
Seventy-five per cent had the mental
itv of the average American child of
ten years or under
It is plain from the above, that we
have been considering the conduct of
q group of mental children. who in at
tempting to compete. on equal terms
with adults, were held to the respon-
sibility for behavior and were dealt
with nv measures, designed for per
sons able to profit by experience.
Think of the economic waste that
couId have been saved, had society
properly recognized, at a time when
prevention was possible, the real prob
| lem presented by these individuals.
Relationship of Feeble-Mindedness to
! o+har Conditions In Court,