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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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REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON COLONIES FOR SEGREGATION OF DEFECTIVES

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BY ALEXANDER JOHNSON, SUPT. SCHOOL FOR FEEBLE-MINDED, INDIANA.

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A possible inference from the title of this committee, that the National Conference is practically agreed upon the question which that title suggests, might not be altogether safe. It is true that discussions and papers leading up to the acceptance of the theory, have had place in our proceedings for many years past. Segregation of such of the defectives as may be properly classed as degenerates, has been the leading topic of at least one presidential address. Many of our best known speakers who have touched upon the subject, have seemed to be of the opinion that, while complete and permanent segregation of all degenerates is impossible, it is desirable that many of them should be separated from the outer world. But the question involves so many things and people, and the opinions of our mixed membership are so diverse that we must beware of assuming universal consent because no serious note of opposition has been heard.

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It is certainly agreed that those defectives who need specialized instruction -- the blind, the deaf, the feeble-minded should be segregated during their school life, in institutions designed for special classes. But the term segregation as used in our title, has a much wider connotation than the separation of scholars in different schools. The theory upon which this committee is to report is that of the permanent segregation of those who have inherited their defective condition from their ancestors and who, therefore, should they become parents, would bequeath a similar condition to their children.

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Before going further let us forestall criticism by a word of caution. There are few people in the world who are physically and mentally perfect. There are few even in this intelligent assembly, who do not exhibit some of the so-called stigmata of degeneracy. The degenerates whom we have in mind are those who, either physically, or morally, are so far below the normal that their presence in society is hurtful to their fellow citizens, or that their unhindered natural increase is a menace to the well-being of the state.

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Before we can state our question intelligently, we must agree on the terms we use. Here is a partial list of those who are often classed as degenerates:

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"The chronic insane, the epileptic, the paralytic, the imbecile and idiotic of various grades, the moral imbecile, the sexual pervert, the kleptomaniac; many, if not most, of the chronic inebriates; many of the prostitutes, tramps and minor criminals; many habitual paupers, especially the ignorant and irresponsible mothers of illegitimate children, so common in our poor houses; many of the shiftless poor, ever on the verge of pauperism and often stepping over into it; some of the blind, some deaf-mutes, some consumptives. All these classes in varying degree with others not mentioned, are related as being effects of the one cause which itself is the summing up of many causes -- 'degeneracy'."

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Perhaps none of the advocates of segregation of the defectives would desire the immediate, complete control by the state of all who come within the definition given above. Whatever may be done in the future, we are not yet ready for such thorough work. We have neither the perfected methods nor the trained men to carry them out. But there are certain classes of defectives who are either truly, hereditary degenerates or whose condition resembles this so much that they may be treated like them, for whom the time has come for complete and permanent control. These are, besides the chronic insane, who are universally recognized as eligible for such care, the feeble-minded and idiotic of every grade and the epileptic. This ruling does not interfere with the release to normal life of the few questionably feeble-minded who develop under our training until they are practically normal, nor of the epileptic who under scientific treatment and skilled training recover from their condition of unstable equilibrium and gain a normal, nervous balance.

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As we get acquainted with defective people and learn their family relations, we discover that not only are they connected as being results of the same general cause, but that close relations of blood may often be found between them. These relations are so frequent that they cannot be accidental. It is a commonplace in institutions for the defectives, that many of their inmates have brothers, sisters, parents or other relatives in the same or similar institutions, or are otherwise members of the great host of defectives, dependents and delinquents whose existence is the reason for our existence as a conference. The neuropathic taint (for all degenerates are neuropathics although neuropathics are not always degenerates) shows itself in different traits in different members of the family. The child of a chronic insane mother may be an idiot, an epileptic, or only a weak-willed, shiftless dependent. The sons of an inebriate will surely be nervous wrecks of some kind but not necessarily all the same kind. Many epileptics have had drunken parents, but some of their brothers and sisters are not epileptics. The kleptomaniac or the sexual pervert probably inherits some form of syphilis or some neurosis caused by the dissipation of his father or his grandfather, but he may be the only one of his family showing such consequences. Some of the scandalous lives of the children of virtuous people have their initial cause in the weakened nervous systems of the parents who lived at high tension in the intellectual and emotional sides and forgot that to keep their bodies in health and strength was as sacred a duty as to keep their souls pure from sin, but many neurotic parents have children who lead blameless lives.


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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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No such colony exists in its full possible development but there are the beginnings of many such in our country. No state has yet avowedly adopted the policy of segregating all her degenerates. States do not adopt such policies, they slowly and gradually do more and more of what some of their leading citizens think ought to be done, until at last they are doing a great deal more than those who voted for the initial appropriations thought they were being committed to. Yet many states have agreed to care for all their insane, both the acute cases for whom recovery may be hoped and the chronic cases who need permanent care. Many states have got well on the way to care for the feebleminded, not only by establishing training schools where they may be developed as far as their condition admits, but also by maintaining custodial asylums for them, either in connection with the training schools or as separate institutions. A few states have provided similarly for epileptics and the colonies of Sonyea, N. Y., of Gallipolis, Ohio, and the state village for the epileptics of New Jersey, are the first of many to come.

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Several states have recently devoted large bodies of land for custodial asylums for the feeble minded on the colony plan. Notable among these are Ohio, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. The colony farm for the adult feeble-minded of Massachusetts is one of the largest of its kind in the world, covering several square miles of land. It is admirably adapted for its purpose and is. being equipped and conducted with great economy. The colonists are housed in simple one-story buildings. They live a normal, homely, country life.

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The principle of colonization in a simple way, on cheap land, has become a popular one in Massachusetts, where it is being adopted for the insane. A tract of 1,500 acres has been set aside for a farm colony for the chronic insane and each of the hospitals for insane is making provisions for certain classes of their patients on tracts varying in size from 500 acres down. Massachusetts is the only state, so far as we know, in which the example of the feeble-minded has been so quickly followed by the insane. But others will probably do likewise. We are not surprised to see those who have the care of the feeble-minded taking the lead in economic as well as educational reform.

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Besides state institutions, where the care of the defective is usually humane and scientific, another public provision is made in almost every commonwealth for all classes of degenerates. In each of the county or town poor-houses may be found a doleful collection of the wrecks of human life. Here is the last refuge for the broken, hopeless, social failures. Here may be found victims of the sins of their parents, of their own vices, of unchecked vicious heredity. Here children are born to a life of pauperism. Here rest the chronic insane, the idiotic, the unfortunate, the unsuccessful; the criminal who is too old and feeble for crime, the worn out veteran of labor for whom the world's struggle has been too severe. Here is the "talus" of society.

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In a few populous counties the poor house is a large building with some attempt at order and classification; these are the exceptions, in most the evils resulting upon the lack of classification are intense. Under conditions which you can imagine more easily than we can describe, the taxpayers support their feebler brethren and sisters, support them, but rarely control them, so that the denizens of these tax-supported institutions often become the parents of another generation like themselves.

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Most statesmen are willing to admit that it would be desirable, were it possible, to segregate and therefore control all the degenerates. But the usual objection raised is that the expense of doing this by the state renders it impossible, that the taxpayers are already over burdened. To this two answers may be made: First, that no plan should be considered too costly if it promises results in future economy which would many times offset the immediate expenditures, and that may certainly be expected of any well considered scheme to arrest the propagation of the unfit. The second is that the question of the support of the degenerates is settled. Do your best to avoid them, they are already saddled upon the over-burdened taxpayer; at least the worst of them are so, those for whom this committee would advocate segregation at the state's expense. In some way, either in the state institutions, by public relief of the poor, in the poor house, in the jail or the prison, in the public hospital or by miscellaneous and sundry charity, the degenerates live a parasitic life. They are, and must be, supported by their abler brethren. What we would urge is not to support those who are now supporting themselves, but to do what we must do in the best possible way. Is there anything more worthy the thoughtful attention of the statesmen of our land than to improve our methods of support of the weak ones so that we may add to it the needed element "control?"


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We have assumed that the degenerates in receiving proper care will always be an expense to the taxpayer; but it is by no means necessary that the ratio of expense, which has hitherto been usual in institutional care, is to continue. It is to the colony plan that we look for proof that a large proportion of those who most sorely need the motherly care of the state will cheerfully earn their own living when that care is given with a modicum of brains. It is to this fact we look with most satisfaction in urging upon the conference and through it upon the nation, the claims of those for whom we speak. There are many examples of great economic success in our own country and others in Europe. But the plan is at its beginning. The best arranged of our colonies are only a few years old. They have a great future of development along economic and other lines before them.

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But even though there should be no economical development such as we hope for; suppose that the cost of wise and humane care should remain at what it has been in the past for the few who have been protected, should that be a reason for the continued neglect of these uphappy people? We do not think so. Some of us believe that while the teachings of the Carpenter of Nazareth have in them the most sublime, spiritual signficance, yet their chief significance appears when they are applied to the common affairs of life. Some of us believe that those who have been given strength and wisdom, those of us who enjoy the sweet serenity of home, the gracious influences of culture, the peace of order and comfort, those who have been allowed the great responsibility and given the high dignity of leadership, owe something to the weak, the helpless and the sinful. Some of us believe that the "little ones" of whom Jesus spoke, are, for every man, those within his influence who are younger or weaker, or more sinful or more suffering than he. And when we organize our governments and conduct our public affairs in such a way that the feeble and helpless are not protected from the assaults, or the temptations, of the wicked, then we have caused the little ones to offend. And it would be better for us that a mill stone be hanged about our neck and that we be cast into the depths of the sea, unless we have done all that man may do to abate the evil and the wrong, to protect the simple and the helpless. The good mother state may wisely take into her care the weaker as well as the wickeder of her children and keep and control them that the family may be well.

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ALEXANDER JOHNSON, Chairman,
EDWARD W. WILSON,
DANIEL B. MURPHY,
W. A. POLGLASE,
MATTIE GUNDRY,
A. W. WILMARTH,
L. G. KINNE,
A. C. ROGERS,
Committee on Colonies for and Segregation of Defectives.

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