as a result of the constant efforts of the boys. The total value of our farm products during the past year was $67,286. During the year the boys at the colony cleared six acres of rough land ready for plowing, built 606 square yards of cement sidewalk, 1,750 square feet of cement partitions, 618 square yards of basement, 2,200 square yards new roads, and re-surfaced 1,800 square yards of roads. This work was in addition to the work done by the boys in the construction of the new cement cow barn and hayshed, and the fireproof bungalow for 15 boys." The colony of which Dr. Fernald speaks has 2,000 acres and four sets of buildings, with a population of 300 boys. The colony is really four colonies, for each group is about a mile apart, and the grouping is based upon differentiated treatment for different types, and the total cost for buildings and furnishings per capita was $200.00. Dr. Fernald further says, "Boys who had become restless, unhappy, and troublesome at the home school, who felt aggrieved at seeing things they could'nt have, and at seeing other people enjoy privileges which were denied them-these boys now make our estate their home. They never go to town. The house-mother of their colony represents to them what a mother is to a normal boy. This is the nearest approach to family life which many of them are capable of knowing." I shall not soon forget the impressions I received at Vineland, N. J., when I visited the colony maintained there. The simple buildings were models of comfort and convenience. They were built with the aid of the labor of patients who were all busily engaged about the farm, performing more or less useful work. They seemed contented and happy and were learning the routine of farm life so far as their individual capacities permitted. Minnesota has an abundance of wild land which needs clearing. Our climate is, of course, colder than that of the states where the farm colony plan has worked so successfully, but there are no insurmountable objections. It is not practicable to establish in northern Minnesota a colony for the epileptics, so that all of them may be transferred from Faribault and another colony for the feeble-minded, perhaps as a beginning only for the males? The more able-bodied men and boys can be transferred from Faribault and others could be sent there by commitment. The plan is not an untried experiment, but a proved success, and I believe Minnesota will do well to adopt it immediately, with such adaptations as local conditions may make necessary. The need for additional facilities is so overwhelming

2Since this paper was delivered the state legislature, at the request of the Board of Control, has given the Board authority to select four sections of state timber land, two sections to be used as a colony for epileptics and two sections

that immediate provision should be made for not less than 500 patients, and this should be regarded simply as a beginning. It is also clear that if the present plan for supervision of patients outside the institution are to be made effective, the State Board of Control will need at least two additional trained agents who can devote all of their time to that work. There should also be a trained psychiatrist on the staff who could make examinations in probate court when requested by the judge under the commitment law. None of our state institutions, save, of course, the school for the feeble-minded, has a skilled mental expert on its staff. There should be someone to examine all inmates at the institutions. Dr. Kuhlman cannot multiply himself sufficiently to meet our present needs, and he has important research work to be done. This expert could also aid in the establishments of mental clinics in the various localities of the state, especially in the large cities, perhaps under the supervision of the county child welfare boards. Our charitable agencies, the schools, and the courts are working blindly at times for lack of complete knowledge of the person with whom they are dealing. There should be a clinic available for the use of all, where examinations could be made and where proper information could be obtained. Our cities have medical clinics-mental clinics are at least equally necessary, for diagnosis is a pre-requisite to intelligent treatment. One hesitates to think of the number of men who are repeatedly before the criminal courts on serious charges, who may be utterly irresponsible because of defective mentality. Jails and prisons do nothing for such people-they need a very different handling. A clinic with an out-patient department would be of inestimable assistance in our problems of parole supervision. The clinic will make possible helpful and constructive action and will be a registry for the feeble-minded of the community.

Any state plan for the care of the feeble-minded must relate itself definitely to the public school system and to the work of the department of special classes and the departments of vocational guidance. Under our compulsory education law, every child should come to the attention of the school authorities and if there were a proper mental examination of the pupils, the school record would eventually constitute a complete registration of the feeble-minded. Of course, there is no such examination made save in special instances. We are only slowly being committed to general physical examinations, but we know what good results have been achieved where it has been tried-the hidden for the feeble-minded. An appropriation of $150,000 was also granted to begin the construction of the colonies.

defect disclosed-the obvious defect remedied. Mental examinations are in the same case. I can cite no better authority than the War Department, which has established mental clinics in certain of the cantonment cities, and they are being extended. Mental examination. discloses defects and aptitudes-limitations and capabilities-and the men can be assigned in accordance with their special talents. It is a prophetic development in a hitherto unexplored hinterland. If our school system is to be adapted to the child and not the child to the system, we shall have to know what the child needs or is capable of, mentally as well as physically. How can this knowledge be obtained save by psychological inquiry? All of our school children will one day be examined both as to body and mind. Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth at the present time examine children who are obviously backward or behind in their grades for the purpose of putting such children in special classes suited to their particular needs. The state grants a special bounty to every school maintaining such special classes, and children are received who are not more than six years retarded; in some cases four years' retardation is the maximum. Minneapolis has twelve such classes, with an enrollment of about 200, and a need of more classes for about 120 additional children. What the number might be with complete examination, one can only speculate. St. Paul is now caring for approximately 150 mentally subnormal children. Duluth has seven special classes, with an enrollment of 105. But what of the rural counties? There are 122 children in various parts of the state being cared for, and in scarcely no county is there anything which approaches adequate examination. The larger number in need of special training in the cities gives a glimpse of what the real problem is in the rural districts; for no one should be deceived into thinking that there are fewer backward and feeble-minded children outside the cities than in. It is surely as important to train properly subnormal as normal children. We are not justified in making any less provision for one group than the other. The special classes should be greatly enlarged and extended, with proper equipment and competent teachers. There should be attached to the classes, social service workers doing work akin to that now done in some communities by the visiting teachers; i. e., establishing contact between the home and the school so that there may be mutual sympathy and understanding. The child after he leaves the school must not drift unaided-that is the real test time of his training and he should be helped to adjust himself to the community on a basis of self help. It is again a question of wise supervision.

When the mental examinations become a part of general routine, the records should be tabulated yearly, and all pupils too far retarded for special class work should have state care and should be reported to the State Board of Control-it may then be necessary to commit to the Board, but at all events complete registration will have been affected, which is the basic need in adequate state care.

Dr. Fernald has said that "the problem of the mental defective in the home, the school, the street, the police court, the jail, the brothel, the pauper asylum, constitutes one of the great sociological and economic questions of modern times." Minnesota has faced that problem with courage and efficiency in the face of the fact that scientific thought on the feeble-minded has been developing slowly out of the confusion of conflicting counsels. The record of our state and of the men who have directed the state's policy is one of great achievement. We have done better than some other states, but our responsibility is measured by the work to be done, by the claims of defective human beings and not by what some one else has failed to do. A good record is sometimes a danger, for it may lull public opinion to sleep and we may only dream about the problem of the present and the future. These are days when conservation of human vitality becomes of supreme importance-the preservation of healthy life is patriotism plus humanity plus good business for our civilization. The human values are of peculiar significance in war time more than in time of peaceneglect of them is less justified now than ever before. If adequate provsion in these matters be called visionary and impractical, I can reply that sometimes the difference between what is regarded as visionary or practical is measured only by the increased effort necessary to secure that which approaches the ideal. The feeble-minded of the state in the poignant tragedy of their condition are deserving of the utmost consideration.

ON THE RELATION OF MENTAL DEFECT TO DELINQUENCY; A STUDY OF CASES BEFORE THE VOLUNTARY DEFENDERS COMMITTEE OF NEW YORK CITY

BENJAMIN Malzberg1

Recent studies in the causation of crime have centered about the relation of mental defect to delinquency. As a result of such investigations, the belief has been firmly established that there is a marked correlation between the two. There is no such unanimity of opinion, however, as to the quantitative relation between them. Estimates of the proportion of mental defectives among delinquents have varied from 10% to 100%. The British Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feebleminded stated that 10% of offenders are defective. Dr. Goddard has insisted upon a minimum estimate of 25%, with the probability that a higher proportion of offenders are feebleminded As a result of an investigation at Elmira Reformatory, it was asserted that 70% of the inmates were defective. Dr. W. J. Hickson of the Psychopathic Laboratory of the Municipal Court of Chicago stated that 93% of the cases were defective. And so the estimates vary from place to place and time to time.

There have been but few attempts to estimate the proportion of mental defectives in an undifferentiated criminal population. By this is meant the offender as seen in court prior to sentence. The usual procedure has been to select for investigation an institutional population, i. e., either the reformatory or prison inmate. This has resulted in certain fallacious deductions. In the first place it has been assumed that a sample criminal population, taken at random from a penal institution, will be typical of the entire criminal class. Then, when the proportion of mental defect existing in this alleged sample has been obtained, the result has been interpreted as a true description of the entire, or undifferentiated, criminal class. The consequence is that investigators, studying different types of prison inmates have reached extremely varying conclusions as to the quantitative relation between mental defect and delinquency.

There are two possible methods of determining this relation. The first is to adopt the statistical method of obtaining a weighted average. 1Voluntary Defenders Committee, New York City.