290 



GENETICS AND EUGENICS 



capable of being useful members of society in manual or 

 mechanical occupations not demanding too much planning 

 or initiative. But it is evident that as they are easily in- 

 fluenced and imposed upon and more than ordinarily fecund, 

 since they do not exercise the prudence and self-restraint of 

 normal individuals, their numbers are likely to increase un- 

 duly, unless some restraint is put upon them. A self-govern- 

 ing democracy with universal suffrage is seriously threatened 

 by a large increase in the unintelligent portion of its popula- 

 tion, and is justified in adopting strong measures to counter- 

 act it. This is often urged as an argument for restricted immi- 

 gration without due regard for the distinction between low 

 intelligence and illiteracy. Many of our immigrants who are 

 illiterate, because they have never had an opportunity to 

 attend school, are people of unusual intelligence and energy. 

 Their illiteracy is usually speedily removed when they get 

 within reach of American schools and the next generation is 

 represented among the most earnest students in our univer- 

 sities and later among the successful men in the professions. 

 But the person of low intelligence, whether literate or illiter- 

 ate is more dangerous to society than the intelligent illiterate, 

 because he and his descendants for all time will require 

 parental protection and care from the state to prevent them 

 from becoming cruninals, paupers, idlers, and purchasable 

 voters. 



To prevent the natural increase of the feeble-minded, God- 

 dard recommends their segregation, so far as possible, in 

 schools and institutions under state control. This is already 

 being done to some extent in many of the states, but alto- 

 gether too few individuals have yet been segregated to insure 

 a decrease in the proportion of feeble-minded in the popula- 

 tion. Many have hitherto been unrecognized as feeble- 

 minded, who are classed as. backward pupils in school, and 

 later as truants, drug fiends, drunkards, criminals, tramps or 

 prostitutes. A proper recognition of the source from which 

 these classes are recruited and of what really ails them 

 should lead to more intelligent efforts to reduce their number. 



