CHAPTER XXVIII 



In 1910 the state of Ohio had a population of about 

 4,700,000, and at the same time it was supporting at public 

 expense an army of 22,000 defective persons. Insane, feeble- 

 minded, epileptic, deaf and dumb and blind, criminal, imma- 

 ture, those ruined by alcohol all these were counted in. 



In 1908 the English Royal Commission estimated that 

 there were about 1 50,000 notably defective persons in Eng- 

 land and Wales. Now neither Great Britain nor Ohio is 

 counted as in worse condition than other places. They sim- 

 ply point the fact that to-day every civilized state and country 

 in the world is supporting handicapped people. More serious 

 yet, statistics prove that the number of these handicapped 

 persons is increasing by leaps and bounds each year. This 

 last fact proves two points : 



1. We are kind to the present generation, and we show it 

 by taking good care of those who are defective among us. 



2. We are outrageously unkind and carelessly cruel to the 

 next generation, because, in thousands upon thousands of 

 cases, we let the defects of one generation go on to the next 

 by means of inheritance. 



In view of this condition many of those who love their 

 fellow men are now saying that every inheritable curse should 

 die with the man or the woman who has it. They say that, 

 in addition to the three steps given in the last chapter, a final 



