dent of the Ohio Institution for the
Feeble Minded wrote in 1902: "Unless preventive measures against the
progressive increase of the defective classes are adopted, such a
calamity as the gradual eclipse, slow decay and final disintegration
of our present form of society and government is not only possible,
but probable."

The latest census reports for the United States give data relative to
the dependents and defectives in institutions. The numbers not in
institutions can only be guessed at. But from the available sources we
can gain an approximate conception of the numbers in our country
to-day as follows:--insane and feeble minded, at least 200,000; blind,
100,000; deaf, and deaf and dumb, 100,000; paupers in institutions,
80,000, two thirds of whom have children, and are also physically or
mentally deficient, and to say that one half of the whole number of
paupers are in institutions is to give a ridiculously low estimate;
prisoners, 100,000, and several hundred thousand more that should be
prisoners; juvenile delinquents, 23,000 in institutions; the number
cared for by hospitals, dispensaries, "homes" of various kinds, in the
year 1904 was in excess of 2,000,000. From these figures we get a
rough total of nearly 3,000,000. Must we define a civilized and
enlightened nation as one in which only one person in every thirty can
be classed as defective or dependent?

It is needless to continue descriptions of this kind. The foregoing
are representative data; they are published by the volume. It is
always the same story--rapid increase of the unfit, defective, insane,
criminal; slow increase, even decrease of the fit, normal, or gifted
stocks. It is with such conditions in mind that Whetham writes:
"Although this suppression of the best blood of the country is a new
disease in modern Europe, it is an old story in the history of nations
and has been the prelude to the ruin of states and the decline and
fall of empires."

The ultimate aim of Sociology is doubtless the working out of the laws
according to which stable communities are formed and maintained, and
in which each component individual may enjoy and contribute the
maximum of pleasure and profit. So the primary purpose of Statecraft
is to produce a nation which shall be stable and enduring. This is all
familiar ground. The objects of the nation's immediate activities and
concern, protection from enemy, development of commerce and
manufacture, agriculture, and edu