QUIT BREEDING DEFECTIVES 109 



There are 60,000 feeble-minded persons 

 in our public institutions, and over 20,000 

 outside. 



When, in Eussia, I tested their trotting 

 horses, I found the breed to be peculiar; 

 they were well calculated for the uses 

 of the country, in that all of them could 

 trot a mile in 2 :50, and pull heavy weights ; 

 few could do better. Few 2 :50 horses could 

 be trained, as a rule, to go faster. That 

 was the limit of their speed. They suit the 

 conditions in Eussia. Just so, to try to 

 educate these 50% of subnormal pupils 

 beyond their limit, would make them un- 

 happy and unfitted for the positions their 

 breeding had preordained they should fill. 



Permit me to say to the parents and 

 teachers of America, when the brain power 

 of the child is limited, its education stops 

 at that point. The remedy is not more 

 schools for defectives, but to quit breeding 

 that kind of children, as they do not repay 

 the family and State for the expense of 

 their keep or education, and it is not just or 

 fair to the real taxpayers when, if proper 

 laws were passed, two-thirds of this ex- 



