The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-06-13
s.udyq Msron.


quently use to designate a person of
morbidly criminaff Tendencies, is de-
fined in bulletin issued by the State
Charities Aid Association.
Moron" they say comes from the
Greek "moros," nssaning fool" And
the word, as applied by psychatrists
and mental specialists, means just
that-"fool"
1t is not applied to insane persons,
to lunatics, imbeciIes or idiots, but
to the considerable percentage of the
population whose limited reasoning
power places themson the great Dor.
der-line of mental deficiency.
Before the word moron" came into
general use such persons were called
detectives" They were those who, if
left to shift for themselves, usually
became liabilities to society"
Figuring from statistics gathered
by army draft boards the state as
sociation estimates that there are
$4,000 mental -morons-in
New York state today. This would
indicate, says the report, that one
person in every $50 is mentally de-
ficient and incapable Of passing sound
judgments as to what is right or
wrong.
Of this number, $500 are in state
institutions; 500 are in colonies at
tached to such institutions; and T.
500 are enrolled in special classes i'm
public schools. This leaves $1,000
without any special supervision-at
large in all walks of life. Describ-
ing the defective, the charities as
sociation says:
He is often unable to adjust him.
self to permanent employment and is
habitnally changing his job He is
tremendously responsive to sugges-
tion and is thus particularly suscep-
tible to the criminal influence of 9TH
ers.
NEARLY all the attempts at assas-
sination of prominent men in recent
years and of criminal assaults with
sexual phase have been the work.
of mental deicients. A moron killed
President Mckinley and another tried
to kill Roosevelt A moron tried to
kill Mayor Mitchell and shot Corpo
ration Counsel Polk. Mayor Gaynor
was shot by another defective"
There is a distinct difference be-
tween mental deficiency and insanity,
it is pointed out. They have little in
common. Insanity is a mental dis
case which is durable in at least 25
percent of cases and; preventable in
40 percent.
A moron or mental defective is a
person who definitely lacks brain ca
pacity. The condition usually is in
herited and cannot be cured, for, say
the psychiatrists, "Science cannot
add what nature has omitted" In
other words, an adult moron is just
a man or woman with the brain of a
child.
The schools are considered the
best sorting pen for the discovery of
the detectives. There he automati.
cally is separated from the children
of normal intelligence. Perhaps he
progresses to the sixth grade without
displaying any lack of power to alb.
sorb knowledge. Then he falls be-
hind. He doesn't seem able to learn
any more; his classmates go on, while
he remains, vainly trying to absorb
his lessons, but without success.
Should he continue in school at this
time the chances are he will become
an incorrigible-the sort of over.
grown bully who far outstrips his
playmates in size and strength, but
who is a dwarf in tt classroom. Or
if he leaves school he is apt to join
the class of easily-led criminals, un-
guided by any sense of right or
wrong, wholly irresponsible, who go
from misdemeanor to felony and
thence to the electric chair or to
Mattewan.
At the period of arrested develop
ment psychiatrists claim to be able
to pick out the detectives by their
reaction to certain simple questions,
included in the Binet-Simon measur-
ing scale Of intelligence. In the vo-
eabulary, test the examiner may say:
81 want to find out how many
words you. know. Listen, and when
I say word you tell me what it
means" The word nerve" comes
early in this test. Although it is
understood that to define the; physical
organism is matter, for the adult
mind, it has been found that, the nor
NAL child of eight years will. answer
with, you've got a nerye," or some
thing similar which is scored as a
normal reaction.
Another test is known as Detect
ing Absurdities.' Here the examiner
may say, Yesterday the. police, found
the, body Of girl cut into, 18 pieces.
They believe she killed. herself"
The sub-normal, the defective or
moron" will probably react with this
exclamation: think she killed her