Collection: Documents - Catalog Card

EXCERPT: In dealing with the questions of pauperism, public health and crime this is a class whose condition cannot be ignored, and it is important that the condition be recognized in childhood rather than later, and that they be searched out in the family, in the alms-houses, orphanages and other refuges, and every means applied during the early years of their lives to the highest mental and industrial development, that they may lead productive and honest lives to the extent of their capacity rather than suffer the neglect they now endure, retaliating upon society by increasing their kind, and whose increase will in their turn burden the community, with their care if helpless; or in the interchange of infirmities of this condition compel their conviction and custody as petty criminals....