Menace of Defectives Pointed Out

The large number of mental defectives with whom my office is brought into contact each year, together with the many attempted murders, incendiaries and other crimes committed by sub-normal types, once more shows the crying need in this state for the establishment of special asylums for imbeciles and epileptics.
Amont the states to have established high class institutions for the segregation and care of defectives is Ohio, with its asylums for imbeciles at Columbus, where more than two thousand of these unfortunates are not only cared for in a humanitarian way, but are held in restraint as a protection to both themselves and society. There is no doubt but an institution of this character would appreciably cut down the records of assaults, murders and incendiaries in the state of Illinois.

To Classify Them
In order that the public shall be duly informed as to the actual depredations by mental defectives and half-wits in Cook County, I have instructed by statistician to hereafter make a special classification of this kind of murders and assaults in order that the cost in life and property may be vividly set before the minds of the public in my next report; for not only are the delinquencies of this class far more numerous than is supposed, but it frequently happens that innocent persons are accused and tried for revolting crimes committed by sly sub-normals who are incapable of comprehending the enormity of their acts.
Like in all plant and animal life, the human species year after year produced a certain percentage of super-normals, normals, and sub-normals or culls. Every age and every condition of society has produced its "culls," but where these are segregated from the rest and prevented from injuring them or reproducing their kind, and where the normal portion of the community employs the highest educational methods generation after generation, the percentage of defectives produced and the damage they do can be reduced to a mininum.

Experts Able to Discriminate
While frequently great delicacy is necessary in passing upon sub-normal cases and there are possibilities of the law being taken advantage of by unscrupulous persons desiring to get some one out of their way, there is no doubt but on the whole our psychopathic experts are able to discriminate wisely and to the interestof every community, and I take this opportunity of urging that a state institution for sub-normals be established in Illinois at the earliest possible date.
There is a considerable class of school children who are slow in their studies, linger behind from year to year, and finally drop out in the fourth or fifth grades. I wish to urge special attention to these, for by increasing their intelligence as far as possible, many of them can be made self-supporting and to a considerable degree the danger of their wrong-doing can be minimized, for ignorance and dullness will always remain a chief menace to society.