Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 159, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1918 — Community Must Awaken to Importance of Controlling Feeble-Mindedness [ARTICLE]

Community Must Awaken to Importance of Controlling Feeble-Mindedness

, State Charities Aid Association of New York

By GEORGE A. HASTINGS.

Feeble-mindedness is sapping the vital forces of the. nation and is a very real danger to democracy. As. a cure for the evil community control through identification, registration, instruction, supervision and segregation is urged. A complete census of the feeble-minded in this country has never been taken, but it is estimated that there is one feeble-minded person to every 250 of the population, or approximately 400,000 in all. About > 12,000 men have been rejected from the new on account of nervous and mental disorders, and one-third of these were rejected on account of feeble-mindedness. The community must awaken to the importance of controlling feeblemindedness, or the increasing burden of crime, inefficiency, disease, immorality and poverty resulting from it will stagger coming generations. The effect of the prevalence of feeble-mindedness on the effective man power of the nation; in the light of the National army figures, can scarcely be called negligible.