New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-24

unable to advance in school because of physic.,
disability are referred to these clinics. Ale.
psychological examinations are held Ma.,.
instances be quoted Of direct benefits con
ferred result Of these clinical examine.
tons Of the backward
An extension Of the prrole system. 90 th..
there may be authorized supervision Of c.ve.
that are discharged from ungraded clas.o.
in the public schools at the age OF sixteen :.
recommended by DR.. Bailey.
DIR. Bailey points out that in the casa "a
civil prisoners the percentage of defective.
among the "repeaters" is especially b;oh
Many of these "repeaters" have been arrestaa
from five to twenty times a degree Of rec;a;-
ration which proves without a shadow ..
doubt a mental inferiority. The trials ~
these s'repeaters" cost 81 GOO apiece and con
stitute great expense to the community
The expense of detectives, in the mataes
of care alone, is often appalling. In ono
case of brother and sister, both in the count,
almshouse as children, the brother married
feeble-lninded woman. They had six chill.
dren, who were either in jail or in jnst;tn.
lions for the Predetermined in later va.rv
One of these children has since married and
has two babies and has been twice referred
for neglect and non-support. The exact cost
of the brothers family for twenty-five vears
and eight months was $5,118 The feeble.
minded sister, who was in the almshouse from
1899 to 1914, cost the community 81 OK
Thus this family in its entirety cost mare than
$1,000.
What is known as the moron, or borderlns
case, offers a problem which can be solved
only by supervision outside Of institutions
The word moron" is from the Greek, neanino
fool" These border-line cases in many in.
stances get along well with little personal
supervision. In such work Dr. Bernstein has
interested himself, with results that can onlu
be sketched here.
DR., Bernstein estimates that within the lash
decade there has been notable change in tina
character of cases coming under observation
Ten years ago 80 per cent were idiots and i'm,
beetles, and 20 per cent were rnorons, whereas
those figures are reversed to-day, so per cent
being border-line cases and only 20 per cent
hopelessly defective. Dr. Bernstein believes
that the reason why SO many more of these
social insists are being received is that ma.
chinery has to a great extent replaced hand
labor, calling for greater specialized ability.
Eleven farm colonies for boys, and ten colonies
for working girls have been opened. These
colonies have served double purpose They
have prepared the boys and girls for larger
work in the world and have at the same time
aroused public interest in these detectives.
In the opinion of DR.. Bailey, the great need
to-day is for better public understanding of the
fact that the heart of the problem is not IL
filling the vacancies in reformatories and pris-
ons, but in the prevention of the development
of criminal tendencies in sub-normal children
This can best be done in the school. Of the
one million school children in the state it is
estimated that 10000 are defective. Special
care must be given in ungraded classes. Seven
hundred defective children are discharged from
the public schools of New York City every
year, DR.. Bailey estimates, and these children,
after they have reached the age of sixteen are
virtually turned loose on society without fur
Their supervision. An Identification of defec-
tive school children and supervision Of those
who are likely to become offenders after leav.
ing school constitute the greatest needs Such
children can be identified by psychological ex.
aminations similar to the army tests, by which
means the mental defects Of thousands were
discovered in the draft