RURAL HEALTH MENTAL 211 



contains the item of partial support of three children in the 

 State School for Feeble-minded. The births, minus the deaths, 

 during this same period caused an increase of about 59 per cent, 

 in the number of individuals connected with the Hill families. 

 This means, then, that for 59 per cent, increase in numbers, 

 their expense to the public has increased 430 per cent. 



Turning to the court and prison records for the last thirty 

 years, we find that at least sixteen persons from the Hill fam- 

 ilies have been sentenced to prison for serious crimes during that 

 time. A majority of these crimes were against sex, and the 

 sentences varied from ten years to two months, or were inde- 

 terminate. The cost of these sixteen persons to the county and 

 State through the courts and institutions has been at least $10,- 

 763.43. The arrests for drunkenness and disorder have not been 

 included. They are very frequent and the cases are usually 

 disposed of by a fine or thirty days' imprisonment. About a 

 third of the business of the district court comes from these 

 families. 



The third large item of expense which falls upon the public, 

 through the State treasury, is the maintenance of the wards 

 which have been taken from their homes. 



Of the thirty-five, twenty-one are still under the control of 

 the State as institutional cases or because they are under twenty- 

 one years. The expenses of commitment, board, clothing, school 

 tuition and officers' salaries is difficult to compute, but as ac- 

 curately as can be estimated, these children, during the last 

 twenty-three years, have cost the State $45,888.57. This means 

 that for nine families about $2,000 each year has been expended 

 to maintain children whose parents were unfit to care for them. 



The financial burden, then, which the Hill people entail is 

 constantly increasing, and that far beyond the proportion of 

 their increase in numbers. This burden rests especially upon 

 the town in which they live. The 400 per cent, increase in the 

 finacial aid which they have required in the last decade pre- 

 sents this fact in a startling manner. The large percentage of 

 the crimes which were against sex indicate that the influence 

 which such persons exert in a community is of far more im- 

 portance than the 10,700 odd dollars spent in punishing the 

 criminals after the influence has been established. The money 



