s. They direct our
attention to another phase of the problem, that of the so-called "good
feeble-minded." We are informed that imbecility, in itself, is not
synonymous with badness. If it is fostered in a "suitable environment,"
it may express itself in terms of good citizenship and useful
occupation. It may thus be transmuted into a docile, tractable, and
peaceable element of the community. The moron and the feeble-minded,
thus protected, so we are assured, may even marry some brighter member
of the community, and thus lessen the chances of procreating another
generation of imbeciles. We read further that some of our doctors
believe that "in our social scale, there is a place for the good
feeble-minded."

In such a reckless and thoughtless differentiation between the "bad"
and the "good" feeble-minded, we find new evidence of the conventional
middle-class bias that also finds expression among some of the
eugenists. We do not object to feeble-mindedness simply because it
leads to immorality and criminality; nor can we approve of it when it
expresses itself in docility, submissiveness and obedience. We object
because both are burdens and dangers to the intelligence of the
community. As a matter of fact, there is sufficient evidence to lead us
to believe that the so-called "borderline cases" are a greater menace
than the out-and-out "defective delinquents" who can be supervised,
controlled and prevented from procreating their kind. The advent of the
Binet-Simon and similar psychological tests indicates that the mental
defective who is glib and plausible, bright looking and attractive, but
with a mental vision of seven, eight or nine years, may not merely lower
the whole level of intelligence in a school or in a society, but may
be encouraged by church and state to increase and multiply until he
dominates and gives the prevailing "color"--culturally speaking--to an
entire community.

The presence in the public schools of the mentally defective children
of men and women who should never have been parents is a problem that
is becoming more and more difficult, and is one of the chief reasons for
lower educational standards. As one of the greatest living authorities
on the subject, Dr. A. Tredgold, has pointed out,(4) this has created
a destructive conflict of purpose. "In the case of children with a low
intellectual capacity, much of the education at present provided is
for all practical purposes a complete waste of time, m