This report is a terrible document and an awful indictment of our neglect.
The commissioners tell us that on January 1st, 1906, there were in England and Wales 149,628 idiots, imbeciles, and feeble-minded; in addition there were on the same date 121,079 persons suffering from some kind of insanity or dementia.

So that the total number of those who came within the scope of the inquiry was no less than 271,607, or 1 in every 120 of the whole population.
Of the persons suffering from mental defect, i.e.feeble-minded, imbeciles, etc., one-third were supported entirely at the public cost in workhouses, asylums, prisons, etc.
The report does not tell us much about the remaining two-thirds; but those of us who have experience know only too well what becomes of them, and are painfully acquainted with the hopelessness of their lives.
Here, then, is my first suggestion--a national plan for the permanent detention, segregation and control of all persons who are indisputably feeble-minded.

Surely this must be the duty of the State, for it is impossible that philanthropic societies can deal permanently with them.
We must catch them young; we must make them happy, for they have capabilities for childlike happiness, and we must make their lives as useful as possible.

But we must no longer allow them the curse of uncontrolled liberty.
Again, no boy should be discharged from reformatory or industrial schools as "unfit for training" unless passed on to some institution suitable to his age and condition.

If we have no such institutions, as of course we have not, then the State must provide them.