Chapter XII 

 Who Pays the Bill ? 



IN previous chapters we have been deaHng with criminals, 

 the insane, the defective in mind, and all those suffer- 

 ing from serious hereditary diseases. Such persons as 

 these, who may be described as the unfit, are not difficult 

 to separate from the rest of the community. 



The unfit throw a heavy burden of expenditure on their 

 neighbours in many ways, some of which often escape 

 notice. That the care of this class of persons necessitates 

 heavy public expenditure is indeed obvious to all. This 

 expenditure includes all that falling on the State on account 

 of the presence of the unfit in prisons, workhouses, hospitals, 

 asylums for the insane, for idiots, and for other mental 

 defectives, together with the cost of all public services 

 dependent on these institutions, including their construc- 

 tion and repair, and also that on outdoor rehef. Great 

 numbers of persons are employed as judges, magistrates, 

 prison officials, doctors, nurses, special school teachers, and 

 attendants of many kinds ; and the services of most of 

 these could be dispensed with if there were no unfit in our 

 ranks. It is difficult to get an accurate estimate of all 

 this expenditure, but the sum must be very large. 



The unfit also throw a heavy burden on private in- 

 dividuals, the cost of maintaining mental defectives, the 

 insane, and the diseased at home or in private institutions 

 being especially heavy. 



It is obvious, therefore, that if all the unfit could be 

 replaced by hard-working citizens, the gain to the country 

 would be great; and we shall see that there are other 

 reasons even more important for coming to this conclusion. 

 Before considering them, it should be observed that there 



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