Feeble-Mindedness—Indiana. 87 
an inmate of the farm at twenty years of age, and last summer she 
gave birth to an illegitimate baby, which fortunately died at birth. 
You may turn your head as you will, you still face mental defect, 
and the bulk of it is feeble-mindedness. We have established, as the 
result of the survey of ten counties in Indiana, that 2.2 per cent of the 
population is defective. Of this, 1.7 per cent is feeble-minded. Much 
of our crime, nearly al! of our pauperism, a large proportion of school 
failures, practically all public prostitution, and a share of the gamut 
of ills that society is heir to, springs from among the feeble-minded. 
It is none of their fault. They stumble along the pathway of life, 
poorly prepared for the battle they fight. They are only grown-up 
children, and as such should not be blamed, imprisoned or cast aside, 
but sheltered, trained and supervised. 
