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Show Utah Legislature Urged to Provide for Feeble-Minded by Governor Dem, Welfare Organizations Clubs, and Mental Hygiene Society. Utah is one of only three states In the entire country which has not provided pro-vided a separate Institution for the care of its feeble-minded, according to a recent report of the United States bureau of census on feeble-minded in state institutions. Realizing the urgent need for such an Institution the Utah Society for Mental Hygiene Is leading in a movement to urge upon the legislature legisla-ture the necessity of making an appropriation ap-propriation to bulldi a home for this class of un'o! iunates and provide them with the training necessary to make them useful members of society. The seriousness of the present situation sit-uation is shown by facts gathered under un-der the direction of the society. They bring out very forcibly that the neglect of the feeble-minded results in criminality crimin-ality and degeneracy, all the more pitiful pit-iful because It could be prevented. Under proper care potential criminals could be made into useful ciftzens. According to a survey made in Utah by Dr. George L. 'Wallace director of the committee on mental hygiene In the United States, and other reliable reli-able information available there are about 500 feeble-minded children in this state In pressing need of custodial custo-dial care. Dr. Wallace's investigation shows that Utah's percentage of feeble-minded is from one to one and one-half per cent The present haphazard manner of earing for the few feeble-minded who are given any attention these unfortunates, unfor-tunates, according to figures compiled by the society, la coating the taxpayers taxpay-ers much more proportionately than If a central institution were provided lor this purpose. The per capita cost of providing for feeble-minded children in the Salt Lake City public schools for forty weeks of the school year, six hours a day, five days a week, is $70. For , Instruction in the Twelfth school for the Bime length of time the per capita cap-ita cost for the same amount of Instruction In-struction Is 243. The cost to the state department of public instruction for the thirty-four and three-tenths weeks of the elementary school year for Biz hours a day, five days a week, is $77, according to the findings of the society. According to a report of the director ' of education at the State Industrial school, twenty per cent of the inmates are feeble-minded, and tie per capita cost of caring for them is more than 394 a year. This is not considered a fair per capita cost since it Includes many Items that cannot be fairly eharged to Individual up-keep. At the same time many counties are paying 360 per capita for the cars in private houses for their feeble-minded charges. None of the foregoing schools or Institutions, In-stitutions, the society point out. Is quipped to train the feeble-minded, either in correct social habits or ia elf-supporting labor. Many socially disastrous experiences experienc-es of neglected feeble-minded individuals individ-uals of the higher type are related by oclal workers who oftea contact them In aome conflict with organized society. so-ciety. And because the particular individual in-dividual concerned is neither insane, deaf and dumb nor blind he does not draw public sympathy. The mental blindness which impells him to take the wrong turning does not show. To the average citizen the feeble-minded transgressor with the mental age of eight years looks about like everyone else. This fact makes it even more Imperative that some scientific and well-managed institution be provided for their care. In commenting on the fate of a typical ty-pical feeble-minded child under existing exist-ing conditions, the society says: "Lack of success in the school room makes the mentally defective child unhappy, un-happy, restless and frequently delinquent delin-quent Hishome life may be econcmi- . cally depressed. When he reaches the limits of his capacity to learn in the class room, and has neither a job nor the endurance to stay in school, the truant officers may do the only thing left for them to provide some care for the misfit urn him over to the juvenile court. Onesuch boy became a ward of the court under the following follow-ing circumstances: "He was a confirmed truant with the actual age of eleven and the mental men-tal age of eight years. His mother was a moron drug addict, and no matter how much money his industrious indus-trious father earned the children never nev-er had enough satisfying food. Various Var-ious persons attempted to do something some-thing with the family, but they could not break It up In time to salvage the children. All the children stole whenever when-ever hunger pressed them too savagely, sav-agely, and the older girls, with their mother's approval, entered Into lives of shame. "The boy already mentioned and his older brother became wards of the juvenile ju-venile court, both progressing through - th Detention Home, the Industrial school, the city and county jails to the penitentiary. The younger boy is a killer. Whenever he is hungry he holds up the first person that crosses his path. So far nothing but his poor aim has saved him from choosing whether he would rather be shot or hanged. He has served two terms in the state prison and is now at large. Although the boy has been a ward of the state of Utah since he was eleven years old he is still- nn-I nn-I trained to earn his living. When a small boy he liked shop work and might, at one time, have been trained Into social and economical usefulness." The society believes that hundreds of human beings like this could be salvaged sal-vaged and not onl ysaved from down-, down-, fall but made useful and self-respect-; ing citizens through the training which : a state Institution for the feeble-mind-ad would provide. It Is reasonable to believe the re-' re-' cent crime committed against June ' Nelson could have been prevented j should the offender received proper medical and mental care. The public ' should demand an Institution that woould provide carcand training for our most petlful unfortunates. to the coast. "A preliminary survey for construe- ' tion of the road from Las Vegas to the site of the dam is being made by the government and the Union Pacific Paci-fic system," Gray stated. - "This survey will be completed soon," he continued. "Of course its adoption or alteration must await final action on the dam." |