Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1918 — STERILIZATION OF UNFIT INDORSED BY A. W. BUTLER [ARTICLE]

STERILIZATION OF UNFIT INDORSED BY A. W. BUTLER

Warsaw, Ind., July 30.—Amos W. Butler, of Indianapolis, secretary of the state board of charities, speaking before the Conference Against Crime at Winona Lake this afternoon, declared himself to be a strong advocate of sterilization of men and women to prevent an offspring of feeble-minded children. “Two Indiana Governors have opposed it,” he said, “but Governor Goodrich favors the plan.” Mr. Butler’s topic was “The New Freedom,” and his talk was on subnormal people. He declared that sterilization has been applied to more than 700 Indiana persons up to the present. Judge James A. Collins, of the Marion County Criminal Court, and president of the Indiana State Conference of Charities and Corrections, in an address advocated the paying of criminals for the work they do while in state institutions. “A prison should not be a place for punishment, but a place for a «new start,” he said. “Pay the convicts and give them a start when they get out.”