"It is only because we are accustomed to this waste of life and are prone to think it is one of the dispensations of Providence that we go on about our business, little thinking of the preventive measures that are possible."
Charles E. Hughes.
EUGENICS AND THE UNFIT
The Deaf and Dumb—The Feeble-minded—A New York Magistrate's Report—Report of the Children's Society—The Segregation and Treatment of the Feeble-Minded—What the Care of the Insane Costs—The Alcoholic—Drunkenness.
In order to achieve success in eugenics we must strive to encourage the parenthood of the worthy or fit, and to discourage the parenthood of the unworthy or unfit. The unfit are those, as previously explained, who, because of mental or physical disability, are unable to create fit or healthy children.
The Deaf and Dumb.—The condition known as deaf-mutism is due to innate defect in about half of all cases. Deaf children have one or two deaf parents or grandparents. There may be two or three such children in a family. That the deaf should not marry is generally conceded by those who work amongst them. It should be our aim to discourage the intimate association of the adolescent deaf and dumb in institutions. It has been found that such intimate association frequently results in marriage. They should be educated and instructed in the knowledge that they cannot marry. When they understand the eugenic principle upon which this social law is constructed they will be amenable to reason. No process of suasion will be necessary, however, if their intimate association is prevented.
The Feeble-Minded.—This includes the criminal, the imbecile, the insane, and the epileptic. The feeble-minded, technically speaking, belong to the degenerate
class. They enter life mentally deficient, not necessarily diseased. They should, therefore, be regarded as fit subjects for educational modification rather than for penal correction or punishment. It is conservatively estimated that there are five million feeble-minded people in the United States to-day and not one-eighth of them are receiving adequate treatment or education. Recent statistics, from various countries, show that the percentage of deficient or feeble-minded children is decidedly on the increase. According to a bulletin issued by the United States Bureau of Education (August, 1912) there are 15,000,000 school children suffering from physical defects which need immediate attention and which are prejudicial to health. It would seem as though the time had passed for anything other than radical measures in the interest of the race.
Apart from the eugenic fact that these feeble-minded children are not fit subjects for parenthood, they are a constantly contaminating influence on society morally, and are a detriment and a hindrance to social and economic advancement. One illustration of this contaminating process, which is of serious eugenic import, is the presence of these deficient children in our public schools. By reason of their lack of attention and concentration, their mental or psychic insufficiency, their moral delinquency, and uncontrollable instincts and impulses, they are a menace to the well-being and to the progress of the normal or fit pupils; they retard and undermine the discipline of the schoolroom, and they affect the efficiency of the teachers. They are allowed to stay in school because of the indifference of the authorities, or because of the influence and social standing, or political "pull" of the parents, despite the recognition of the injustice done. Many of the parents of these children seek medical advice but, because of absurdly inadequate civic or state provision for such cases, the physician is practically helpless. Most of these irresponsible children are allowed to wander through the years unrestrained and unprotected. They easily become the victims of vice and crime, and eventually they become degenerates and end their lives in insane institutions. Because of the stigma
of degeneration these feeble-minded individuals fall into the hands of the law and are thereby robbed of the medical assistance which society should afford them in the early years when improvement is yet possible.
The following report which recently appeared in one of the daily papers is interesting and suggestive in this connection. One of the New York City Magistrates, in his annual report, said: "There is growing up in this city a menacing army of boys and young men who are the most troublesome element we have to deal with.... From the ranks of these rowdies that are organized in bands, or bound up with chums or pals, come most of the crop of burglars, truck thieves, holdup men, gun-bearers, so-called 'bad men' and other criminals and dangerous characters. Without reverence for anything, subject to no parental control, cynical, viciously wise beyond their years, utterly regardless of the rights of others, firmly determined not to work for a living, terrorizing the occupants of public vehicles and disturbing the peace of the neighborhoods, they have no regard for common decency."