746 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



great markets with, its manufactures, and obtaining a foothold against 

 all competitors, the invitation to retaliation holds a danger far greater 

 to its own interests than any that can be inflicted on other peoples. 

 The greater the advances made the more readily will recourse be had 

 to reprisals and hostile legislation; and in support of every act appeal 

 may be had to examples set by the United States.* 



MENTAL DEFECTIVES AND THE SOCIAL WELFARE. 



By MARTIN W. BARK, M. D., 



CHIEF PHYSICIAN, PENNSYLVANIA TRAINING SCHOOL FOR FEEBLE-MINDED CHILDREN, ELWYN, PA. 



PERIODS of extraordinary efflorescence or fruitage are followed 

 by exhaustion and sterility not infrequently demanding the free 

 use of the pruning knife; and, just as we remark how frequent is 

 idiocy the offspring of genius, so do we find the same seeming paradox, 

 of mental defect in rank and increasing growth the product of this 

 most wonderful nineteenth century. 



True, science has contributed to numbers by revealing as mental 

 defectives the many " misunderstood," " the backward," " the feebly 



* " The old protectionist, with the stock arguments about the influence of the tariff upon 

 wages and all the rest of it, is beginning to die out. He told us all he had to say about the 

 ' pauper labor ' of Europe, by which he often meant the best educated and most skillful 

 artisans of the world. We got tired of hearing about how the importer paid the tax, how 

 it was Europe and England in particular that was all the time squeezing our lives out, till 

 nearly all of us, being of English ancestry ourselves, wondered whether we, even, could be 

 so good as we hoped we were, if we had sprung from something so essentially perverted 

 and bad. We were told, too, that American tourists who went to Europe and spent money 

 there which they ought to have squandered at home were not friends of their country, and 

 that they did us a particularly hostile act when they brought clothing, statuary, or diamond 

 rings back with them from foreign parts. A season of high prices was a real heaven, and 

 wars and fires were good things because they destroyed property that would have to be 

 replaced, and this would create that demand which, reacting on supply, would increase 

 prices. To say that an article was cheap was to say that the political party in power was 

 no longer worthy of public confidence. It was related that each government could make 

 its people so rich, and the idea was thought to have been traced down from Henry 0. Carey, 

 that the rest of the world could be safely disregarded altogether. 



" Seriously, who believes any of this stuff nowadays ? The protectionist is not reckoning 

 with such popular impotency and stupidity. He believes in his fellow-man, and wants to 

 give him a helping hand. He does not care what effect it has on England or Ireland. He 

 is not sure that a protective tariff in and of itself will increase the wages of the workmen. 

 He is even inclined to think that less wages and profits would do well enough for every 

 man, if it were cheaper to live and there were not such extravagant demands upon every 

 person from all sides — this without being a socialist. He is certain that 'a cheap coat' 

 does not necessarily make ' a cheap man,' but the cheaper the coat the better it will be for 

 the wearer. That is what we are all trying to do, improve our processes, increase our 

 effective working power, which means, if you please, to make things cheaper." — The Manu- 

 facturer (organ of the Manufacturers' Club of Philadelphia). 



