The New York herald., 1922-03-13
MONDAY. MARCH IS. 1922.
Who Is a Mental Defective?

A measure recently introduced at
Albany by Senator KNIGHT might
we'll be called the Who's Loony Now
4 bill 1t would apply to the State in
general, but its character is most
quickly seen through perusal OF
the paragraph relating to this town
and It's Inhabitants:
whenever in the city OF New
York an information is laid before
H emily a mental defective. the magis-
trate must issue summons or war
rant to any marshal or policeman
of the city of New York, reciting the
substance of the information and
commanding the appearance OF the
alleged mentally defective person be-
fore the magistrate or his arrest and
production before such magistrate"
After all that, il the magistrate
decides that the prisoner is "appar-
emily a mental defective" he must
send him to Bellevue for examina-
tion.
What joy the passage OF this
bill would be for quarreling neigh
bors! Mrs. Doe affronts Mrs. Roe,
who thereupon decides that such an
insolent person must be mental
defective. She lays information
against Mrs. Doe with a magistrate,
who must (the clause is mandatory
order the summons or arrest Of Mrs.
Doe. Even If the magistrate is wise
enough to determine the exact state
of the prisoners mentality, Mrs. Roe
has had her triumph. "She was
pinched once for being nutty" will
folBw Mrs. Doe for the rest of her
life in that neighborhood.
Aside from the opportunities it
gives to the spiteful law such as
Senator KNIGHT has drafted would
be a dangerous thing. What is a
mentally deficient person? Accord
:, ing to the International Encyclo-
pedia he is zone who by reason of
anatomical or pathological condi-
tions occurring in the brain at or
before birth is unable 20 compete
successfully with his normal fellows
in play, study or work" That is as
wide as a church door. With the
knight bill as a whip thousands Of
persons could be driven through it
into Bellevue: persons who will live
and die without harming anybody
or anything. The scientists class
among mental detectives those per-
sons who, although they make live
lihood, do so through guidance and
not Independently. Under the knight
bill they would have to serve their
time of observation in Bellevue and
their later fate might be worse.
Almost every normal child learns
before the age Of IL years who AMI
what BENEDICT ARNOLD was, and
never forgets. But HENRY FoRD,
ghen he was questioned about
ARNOLD couple of years ago, dtd
not know who he was. IL the Knight
measure and the Binet-Simon tests
lad been applied to Mr.. FORD in the
years when presumably he was 'un-
able to compete with his normal fel-
lows in study" he might have been
hurried to the Bellevue Of his town
and perhaps locked up permanently.
Yet Il is the common judgment OF
Mr.. FoRD's business competitors that
he Is about as mentally deficient as
SOLOMON was.
Commissioner CoLEB Of the Depart
ment OF Public Welfare very prop
erly opposes the Knight bill. It's
passage, he truly says, would mean
that any person could be hailed be-
fore magistrate and perhaps sent
away for observation as insane.
The bill smells like another effort
on the part OF the League to Regu.
late Everybody and Everything.