ommunity, and
an eyesore to humanity. Many of them live nomadic lives, and make
occasional use of workhouses and similar institutions when the weather
is bad, after which they return to their uncontrolled existence.
Feeble-minded and defective women return again and again to the
maternity wards to deposit other burdens upon the ratepayers and to add
to the number of their kind.

But the nation has begun to realise this costly absurdity of leaving
this army of irresponsibles in possession of uncontrolled liberty. The
Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded, after
sitting for four years, has made its report. This report is a terrible
document and an awful indictment of our neglect.

The commissioners tell us that on January 1st, 1906, there were in
England and Wales 149,628 idiots, imbeciles, and feeble-minded; in
addition there were on the same date 121,079 persons suffering from some
kind of insanity or dementia. So that the total number of those who came
within the scope of the inquiry was no less than 271,607, or 1 in every
120 of the whole population.

Of the persons suffering from mental defect, i.e. feeble-minded,
imbeciles, etc., one-third were supported entirely at the public cost in
workhouses, asylums, prisons, etc.

The report does not tell us much about the remaining two-thirds; but
those of us who have experience know only too well what becomes of them,
and are painfully acquainted with the hopelessness of their lives.

Here, then, is my first suggestion--a national plan for the permanent
detention, segregation and control of all persons who are indisputably
feeble-minded. Surely this must be the duty of the State, for it is
impossible that philanthropic societies can deal permanently with them.

We must catch them young; we must make them happy, for they have
capabilities for childlike happiness, and we must make their lives
as useful as possible. But we must no longer allow them the curse of
uncontrolled liberty.

Again, no boy should be discharged from reformatory or industrial
schools as "unfit for training" unless passed on to some institution
suitable to his age and condition. If we have no such institutions,
as of course we have not, then the State must provide them. And the
magistrates must have the power to commit boys and girls who are charged
before them to suitable industrial schools or reformatories as freely,
as certainly, as unquestioned, and as definitely as they