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The Segregation Of Defectives

Creator: Alexander Johnson (author)
Date: 1903
Publication: Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction
Source: Available at selected libraries

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We are often asked for statistics of the degree of heredity among various classes of degenerates. Concerning no other people, with the possible exception of the criminals, are trustworthy data so difficult to collect. This difficulty has been recognized by the United States government. The last census omitted statistics of several classes of defectives, for the reason that accurate figures were impossible and the attempt to collect them was offensive to relatives and others who must be interviewed for the purpose. Anyone who has tried to use the figures collected in 1870, 1880 and I890, concerning the insane and idiotic, will agree that correct information is difficult if not impossible. Difficulty, similarly caused, exists in collecting information concerning the relatives of inmates of institutions. Efforts are made to obtain etiological data but only occasionally does one get application papers that appear to be accurate and full. It is only from such statistics as can be collected by boards of states charities, who receive information from institutions of all kinds and from all connected with poor relief and carefully condense and collate the facts received, that approximate conclusions can be reached and few state boards do such work thoroughly.

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Estimates based upon the best figures obtainable, have been made by careful people of the percentage of heredity among one most typical class of degenerates, namely, feeble-minded. These estimates have varied from as low as fifty to as high as ninety-five per cent. One superintendent who has had many years experience with the class, declares that the progeny of the feebleminded never wholly escape the fatal inheritance. While not by any means all of the feeble-minded have had defective parents, few of them who become parents will have anything but defective offspring. Many thoughtful persons say that no one who is properly classed as feeble-minded should ever be allowed to become a parent. And the same is true, in our opinion, about all who are really degenerate of whatever class.

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If the opinions above expressed are well founded, it follows that in some way or other the fatal heredity should be brought to an end. What avails the continual increase of hospitals, asylums and other eleemosynary institutions, if the numbers to occupy them grow faster than their accommodations? How can we possibly leave the world better for our work if we do not at least begin to stop this vicious stream at its fountain head?

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It has long seemed to many people that the wisest course the state can take is to separate all true degenerates from society and keep them in carefully classified groups, under circumstances which shall insure that they shall do as little harm to themselves and their fellows as possible and that they shall not entail upon the next generation the burden which the present one has borne. This is what we mean by "segregation."

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There have been other methods suggested to attain the same end. Whether some day or other in the future, science may so far conquer sentiment that the physically and mentally unfit shall be removed, or shall be sterilized, is not a matter that needs concern us to-day. It if is to come it is far in the future. Either proposition is a dreadful one. Some of us believe neither process to be just, neither to be in consonance with our civilization, which is based upon a different principle to that of ancient Sparta or Rome. Our theories of life are inseparably bound up with the belief in the infinite value of the individual human being. Our weaker brother is of immensely greater value than the sparrow which falleth to the ground, or the beasts which perish. We may call on the surgeon for any act upon an individual which is to benefit him. We may not do with him as we do with our cattle, for the benefit of ourselves or of the state.

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The term "colony," as we are learning to use it has been criticised, but is probably as nearly correct as any we shall be likely to find. A colony of defectives, in our use of the term, means a large institution occupying many houses and much land. It is a large institution because it should be conducted with rigorous economy and that cannot be, with highly skilled and educated management, in small institutions. It occupies many houses because it has many classes and an essential of successful institution management is accurate classification. It occupies much land because another essential of success is occupation and it is easier to use labor of a low quality on the soil than any where else. A colony is a place where people, who, if they mingled with the world at large, would be useless or mischievous, the cause of infinite trouble and vexation, unhappy themselves and a source of misery to others, may be transformed into orderly, quiet, happy approximately useful citizens. Carried to its perfect development each of its members would have his or her accurately adjusted place in the great complex whole. Everyone able for any kind of useful work would labor. Everyone able to enjoy innocent and healthful recreation would play. Those able to do neither would be waited upon and cared for by their happier fellow members. Those who were sick, in body or in mind, whether their sickness were acute or chronic, would be nursed and doctored. The labor would vary from the simplest manual toil up to the most highly skilled handicraft. The amusements would range from "pussy in the corner" up to base ball of professional quality and grand opera. The colony should be self-sufficing to the largest extent possible. Nothing should be done for it that it could do for itself. It should be a little world apart, a world of industry, a celibate world. Its citizens should enjoy all that is enjoyed anywhere, except, perhaps, the excitement, of popular elections and, certainly, the joys and sorrows of married life.

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