ersistently killed all the dogs and
cats his family kept. Finally, when they ceased keeping the animals he got
at the canary cage and killed the bird by pulling the feathers out singly.
He had no compunction about lying, and looked you right in the eye when he
lied. Otherwise he was charming and natural."
While moral insanity is hereditary, yet it can be produced in one
generation. An alcoholic man with clean antecedents may leave tainted
descendants. The only way to combat these conditions in the city is to have
strict registration of all feeble-minded and insane. The state should
discover them, examine them through public officials, and segregate them.
Not only physicians, but school teachers and officials in public
institutions should detect them. There should be in each state an
institution for feeble-minded delinquents.
The history of the average "gangster" shows a taint of alcoholism. This is
further aggravated by living under immoral surroundings, where petty crimes
like stealing and lying are considered "smart." This is the starting point
of the New York "gangster." He is handicapped, and under ancestral
disabilities and the disadvantages of environment that is pernicious, he
cannot get very far. A boy usually qualifies with a gang on his own [42]
personality and tastes. He will often wander from one gang to another until
he has found his particular atmosphere. The best will never find any one
gang congenial enough to hold him, and he finally emerges a decent citizen.
It is all a process of finding himself. The aim of the police should be to
discount as much as possible any swaggering and false hero worship.
The time has come when this great nation should take national cognizance of
this problem. There should be a national institution on some isolated
island. Civilization is coming to recognize such a necessity. With a close
eye on the tide of immigration and a careful segregation of these defective
types, we should soon rid ourselves of what is now growing to be a serious
menace to the home and the nation.
THE SEGREGATION AND TREATMENT OF THE FEEBLE-MINDED.--Dr. John Punton, of
Kansas City, Mo., in an able and exhaustive article on "The Segregation and
Treatment of the Feeble-Minded," writes as follows:
"Your attention is directed to a recent report issued by Wentworth E.
Griffin, Chief of Police of Kansas City, Mo., in which he claims that
recently within six months' time no less than 2,480 juvenile
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