214 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



offer of a situation. If such an offer be refused, both 

 majority and minority recommend that the offender 

 should be sent to a detention colony, where, under 

 proper supervision, he should be given the opportunity 

 of recovering his right to freedom, or, in hopeless 

 cases, be deprived permanently of the power of further 

 injuring society and degrading the future quality of 

 the human race. 



Here, then, we have two proposals, supported by 

 the unanimous authority of two separate Royal Com- 

 missions. About these proposals there should be no 

 difference of opinion among all right-thinking men. 

 Consideration has been long and deliberate ; the time has 

 come for action. The next Session of Parliament should 

 see the closing of the flood-gates through which has 

 poured this devastating torrent of degraded humanity. 



Much of the petty crime of the country may be laid 

 to the door of the feeble-minded, and will cease when 

 they are brought under control and gradually dimin- 

 ished in number. But besides these cases, there exist 

 families of incurably vicious tendencies, producing a 

 definite low type of habitual criminal. In dealing with 

 men and women of this character, where we cannot 

 hope to accomplish individual and radical cure, we 

 must, as with the feeble-minded, organize extinction 

 of the tribe. In old days, the law attempted this ex- 

 tinction by hanging, a preventative of the sternest and 

 most efficient nature. In so-called barbaric countries, 

 where even nowadays self-protection of the community 

 proceeds on still more drastic lines, not infrequently 

 the immediate family of the offender perishes with 

 him. The purification of the State is the first concern 



