DECEMBER 15, 1913 



dod 



Our Homes 



A. I. Root 



Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 

 every creature. — Maek 16:15. 



"darkest AMERICA;" HOW TO GROW IDIOTS 



AND IMBECILES. 



I have recently been talking to you about 

 '"starving America;" but now we have 

 something that confronts us that might well 

 be called " darkest America." In this day 

 of gi-eat progress and wonderful enterprise 

 we have not only whole farms but whole 

 regions devoted to growing separate things. 

 A great part of Michigan is devoted to 

 growing white beans; and in riding through 

 these big bean-farms one might almost 

 think Michigan could supi3ly the world 

 with tliis great staple. Then we have great 

 egg- farms; cranberry-farms; and just re- 

 cently I spoke to you about fox- farms for 

 growing furs for fashionable women. But 

 I believe none of you ever heard of not only 

 a fai'm — and may God forgive us — but a 

 whole region for growing — what do you 

 suppose? Imheciles, idiots, paupers, and 

 criminals. Read the following: 



Mr. Root: — Read the piece marked in inclosed 

 page of Atlanta Journal, and say if you don't think 

 missionary work is badly needed there. 



Moultrie, Ga. J. E. Williams. 



Below are some clippings from the article 

 submitted to me. As the article was of too 

 great length for our pages, I have simply 

 quoted the three first and three last para- 

 graphs. If you want the whole of the of- 

 ficer's statement I presume the editor of the 

 Atlanta Journal will be glad to furnish you. 

 Ask for their issue for September 14. 



" Why do the good civilized folk of America ig- 

 nore a countryside people with adults who are men- 

 tally children; strong self-willed men and women of 

 native stock who are without reason, judgment, or 

 self-control?" 



Miss Elizabeth Kite, State agent for the New Jer- 

 sey School for Feeble-minded, put the question with 

 a finality that accused. "You doubt the possibility? 

 Then come with me to the Pines. You will find the 

 district a plague-spot of moral contagion — a feeder 

 for our jails, almshouses, and hospitals." 



Next morning found us motoring through a lonely 

 tract of 2000 square miles between the barren coast 

 of New Jersey and the fertile Delaware Valley. This 

 area of scrub cranberry-bogs and salt marsh is peo- 

 pled with families of degenerates. 

 ********** 



"Aunt Lil " was a little girl of twelve when her 

 first baby was born. So was imbecile Louise. So, 

 think of the avs^ul pity of it, were a score of women 

 in the sand-holes. 



Consider the intermarried Dixon-Osborn clan, 199 

 individuals, of whom 13 are normal, 124 degenerate, 

 20 illegitimate, and 22 criminal, living on the out- 

 skirts of a country town. 



Imbecile Betsie married defective Zacher, and be- 

 came the mother of nine feeble-minded children, 12 

 feeble-minded grandchildren, 23 feeble-minded great- 

 grandchildren. Of these, one died in infancy, eight 

 lived in public institutions, no one knows how many 



went to jail. One granddaughter, Mag, bore eight 

 illegitimate children. 



Can all this be really true in our United 

 States of America? I devoutly hope it is 

 not true, and that it has been largely gotten 

 up for the " Sunday edition " to make a 

 sensation. However, a large part of it 

 must be true. Will the readers of Glean- 

 ings who are competent to tell us something- 

 more about it give us the facts? 



I believe every one of our Protestant 

 churches is supporting several missionaries 

 in foreign lands. We have been priding 

 ourselves that the great wide world has been 

 pretty nearly canvassed; that there are veiy 

 few places in Africa, South America, or the 

 remote islands of the sea, where the Bible 

 has not been placed and the gospel preach- 

 ed; but these people, as we learn from the 

 part of the article I omitted, can neither 

 read nor write. If this is true, what about 

 the enforcement of our laws for eomi^ulsory 

 education ? Do not these just and righteous 

 laws include every portion of the United 

 States? There are public institutions for 

 the care of idiots and feeble-minded in that 

 vicinity, for the article alludes to the.n. 

 Where are our missionary societies? Does 

 the A. M. A. of the Congregational Church 

 know any thing about it? I ask the question 

 because I have in years past given it thou- 

 sands of dollars to attend to just such cases 

 as these. We have been told for years past 

 of their great work among the " mountain 

 whites " of the South ; but the mountain 

 whites can read. Booker Washington, in 

 his great work among his people, does not 

 mention ever having found a condition 

 among the colored people anywhere equal 

 to this. Our missionaries in Africa have 

 never told us any thing to equal it. In this 

 region the marriage ceremony is a dead le! - 

 ter. These people are " swapping " wives 

 indiscriminately; and some poor motheis, 

 who have children by different fathers si'dl 

 living, when they protest about being swaj)- 

 ped about in this way are obliged to put up 

 with it. If it were somewhere away off, we 

 might shirk a great part of the responsibil- 

 ity; but this tract, covering ever so many 

 square miles, is right in the neighborhood 

 of PhiladeliDhia, Baltimore, New York, and 

 last, but not least, Washington. Can not 

 something be done to stop breeding chil- 

 dren from idiotic and imbecile parents? 

 The Atlanta Journal gives a picture of a 

 whole family. The father can neither read 

 nor write, and the mother is an imbecile. 

 The terrible responsibility rests on every 



