468 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
country is probably within 25 per cent, of being adequate. And yet, if the facts set forth in the former paper are actual, the idi- otic present a more serious menace to the commonwealth than do the insane. The cause of this anomalous condition is not hard to find. The average citizen is afraid of the insane. A few among them are so dangerous that the whole class is feared. People knowing an insane man to be at large in the streets would dread personal violence. The dangers from the idiotic are less obvious. The evils that they cause are chiefly economic evils. True, there are some thieves, fire-bugs, rapists, and murderers among them, but these are the small minority. So the average citizen looks upon the feeble-minded with contempt or indiffer- ence, and is careless whether they are cared for by the state, at a high standard of care and cost, and with almost perfect protec- tion to themselves and the community ; or by the town or county, at a low standard of care and cost, and with little or no protec- tion ; or whether they have no care and no protection, and there- fore cause no public cost which is apparent at the first glance. The average citizen only sees things that are very prominent, and only dreads consequences that are immediate. The man of large means, whose annual tax bill is a heavy one, looks with much questioning upon public expenditures for measures of pre- vention. He feels the cost at once ; the advantages, to be gained in a few years or, perhaps, in the next generation, he does not appreciate. The members of our legislatures are mostly ordinary citizens, upon whom receiving the majority of the votes cast in their district has conferred no genius for statesmanship; they must be chiefly reached through their feelings. They are willing to relieve the distress and suffering of the poor, neglected idiot, when it is made clear to them ; but few of them entertain the states- manlike view of averting dreadful, remote consequences, by action involving immediate and, perhaps, unpopular appropriations.
In other words, let us say, the public conscience is not yet awake to the claims of the feeble-minded. The dangers they threaten are not known, their distress is not understood or felt by citizens at large. It is part of the purpose of this essay to help awaken a public interest that is so sorely needed.
