Indiana's feeble-minded. 187 



Feeble-mindedness is a condition and not a disease. It is not susceptible 

 of cure; it is susceptible of immense improvement in many cases under proper 

 care and training. I believe, however, that the training should be of such 

 a nature as to fit the individual for a useful life in the institution or under 

 supervision elsewhere. He should be given some work in the school of letters 

 because, if he can be taught to count, to read, and to write, his services may 

 be more easily used in the industrial pursuits with which he should be 

 occupied. The chief value of training lies, however, along industrial lines, and 

 I believe, that our present institutions for the feeble-minded generally give 

 too much attention to the school of letters and too little attention to the 

 industrial training of their inmates. While it is true, that because of his 

 lack of judgment and application the feeble-minded individual can not be 

 taught a trade, strictly speaking, yet he may be taught to do good work in 

 some of the trades under proper supervision. The robust out-of-door life 

 on the farm is particularly suited to the adult male feeble-minded; and could, 

 I believe, be very readily extended to the adult female feeble-minded in the 

 cultivation of small fruits, raising of poultry and chickens, and work of that 

 character. At the institution at Fort Wayne, we make very largely with the 

 help of the inmates all the brick that are used in the institution; we success- 

 fully conduct a farm of 500 acres furnishing employment for the able-bodied 

 boys and men; we make all of our own shoes, om* own mattresses, all the 

 clothing worn by the inmates including the tailored suits for the boys, dresses 

 for the girls, and underwear; also do the necessary sewing for the institution 

 in the manufacture of bed and table linen. Besides these industries, we find 

 employment for our boys in the carpenter shop, in our green house, helping 

 to handle our coal, and care for the lawns and grounds of the institution. 

 With the help of a few employes our girls do aU the laundry work, the work 

 in our kitchens and dining rooms, and the general house work of the institu- 

 tion. We believe and put in practice the theory that occupation is the 

 salvation of the feeble-minded as well as the normal individual. 



These people furnish the material for a very large part of our charitable 

 work in this State. They constitute fifty per cent of our paupers ; they number, 

 at least, twenty-five per cent of the people in our correctional and penal in- 

 stitutions; they are incompetents that exist in every community; lazy, shift- 

 less, worthless members of society; perhaps able to eek out a precarious living 

 under the most favorable conditions when health is good and wages are 

 plenty, but becoming quickly submerged under any stress or strain of social 

 existence. They Hke the drunkard are the first men turned off from jobs 

 and the last men hired. Every last one of these people should be segregated 

 from society; should be put somewhere, where it would be impossible for 

 them to reproduce their kind, and my personal belief is that these people, 

 both men and women, should be put into farm colonies with inexpensive 

 buildings and under such conditions that many of them can earn their own 

 support. Our present institution at Fort Wayne is crowded to its doors. 



