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and physical possibilities, her powers to respond intelligently to complex 

 situations, such as we had in our own civilization, and whether or no she 

 is able to be self-conservative in a social mechanism such as our State 

 affords. We have already answered this question negatively. We know 

 positively that the feeble-minded girl cannot survive intelligently in the 

 State of Indiana. She will fall if left to herself. She will end in prosti- 

 tution and crime unless she is protected. The State cannot afford to turn 

 her loose upon society, for obvious reasons. Then what shall we do for 

 her? My statement of the case will be straightforward and above board. 

 First of all she should not be allowed to attend the public school. As 

 soon as she is discovered by the psycho-clinicist, when all the expert evi- 

 dence is in with reference to her and it is positively determined that 

 she comes well within the class of feeble-minded, she should be taken 

 from the public school and placed in a school which is equipped for the 

 careful treatment of such cases. This school should be centrally located 

 for a large territory in the community, and every means should be em- 

 ployed to protect such children to and from school. Parents should be 

 warned of the dangers to which the feeble-minded girl is subjected on 

 the streets, on the playground, in alleys, outhouses and barns and on 

 vacations ; and in cases where there is any possibility that parents will 

 not adequately protect the feeble-minded girl from immorality, she should 

 be taken from them and placed in an institution for such mental delin- 

 quents for life. She should never marry, for under no circumstances 

 should she be allowed to propagate her kind. In my judgment, as a 

 perfect safeguard to society, she should be sterilized at the pubescent 

 period. 



Her education should proceed in such an institution according to lines 

 of her interests. She should be made happy in the work that her likes 

 demand, and should remain protected throughout her lifetime. The State 

 of Indiana probably has at the present time several hundred feeble-minded 

 girls at large, attending no school, under poor parental supervision, run- 

 ning the streets, responding to sense stimuli, gradually going into prosti- 

 tution, giving birth to illegitimate children, and placing upon society some 

 of her heaviest burdens. It is the duty of the State to bring them under 

 control and save them from the life of social degeneracy which inevitably 

 awaits them if they are allowed to mingle freely with licentious men and 

 are afforded no protection from their sexual suggestions. Her only salva- 



