Criminals, Imbeciles, and Defectives
DR. ARTHUR MACDONALD, who has written numerous volumes upon the defective and criminal classes, several of these volumes having appeared as government documents, is seeking to secure the passage of a bill by Congress to establish a bureau for the study of the criminal, the pauper, and the defective. The bill provides for a competent head of this bureau, and numerous assistants who shall make an expert study of criminals and defectives. Other governments have already made similar provisions; and this bill, if passed, will make it possible for those who are studying the subject in this country to avail themselves of the studies carried on in other countries. It is desired that some of the brightest young men who are now in the universities shall have their attention directed to the study of these matters, with the end in view of pointing out, through the principles of science, the means by which the alarming situation of criminals, imbeciles, and other defectives may be helped, and their numbers decreased by preventive measures that will save others from entering their ranks. These classes have risen among us in such alarming numbers as to constitute not only an international problem, but an international peril.