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"If, in the unanimous judgment of this committee of experts, procreation is unadvisable, and there is no probability of improvement of the physical and mental condition of the inmate, it shall be lawful for the surgeon to perform such operation for the prevention of procreation as shall be decided safest and most effective.

"This operation shall not be performed except in cases that have been pronounced non-improvable, after a year's test; and in minors, the consent of both parents, or the guardian, if living, shall be procured in writing, if possible.

"Penalty, $100 fine for the non-fulfillment of any of the provisions of this Act."

The future has for us yet another question -- another work in which we are called to press forward.

What are we doing for those who are to follow us? For what are we training our assistants? The trend of the times shows a demand for specialists.

We take a young man fresh from a medical college, filled with theories, with little, or no practical knowledge, into the weary rounds of institution duties which in the best are yet the same -- and with the idea of specializing uppermost in our minds -- we immure him, bend him, break him, impose our personality upon him, and let him have no thought beyond that of the superintendent and the senior assistant. Train him? We violate the law of personal liberty, destroy his manhood, teach him that life as well as nature has its night-shade berries, and what have we at the end of ten years? A man in years and a dwarfed mind, despite nature's original purpose. In fact he ceases to be a man and becomes an automaton, a lay-figure -- the creature which in our arrogance we pride ourselves upon having made -- blindly ignorant of having perverted from natural channels the gifts of God.

I can remember in one hospital, (where I gleaned my experience, literally by the sweat of my brow and the work of my hands) when I occupied an anomalous position, not having the authority of the supervisor nor the personal liberty of the attendants, being left entirely out of the superintendent's confidence, cut off from all society with only study for a recreation. How can a a man's mind flourish, his faculties live in this refinement of cruelty? Let us cast aside these musty ideals and learn a better lesson from the creative Florentine artist of the Renaissance, to whom art meant the "embellishment of the daily life."

There should be better opportunity for choice of material, unfettered by personal or political influence. Then, with good men and women to work with, we should see to it that there be no case of arrested development or crushing out of individuality. Would it not be well to bear this in mind in training our assistants who are to lead the future medico-pedagogic schools, and equally so with all assistants in the various departments, both higher officers and attendants, whenever we recognize earnest, devoted purpose, not only permitting but encouraging a freedom which shall further this, and, even at the cost of a few mistakes, go to build up a true motor force?

The enlarging of existing institutions, the growth in numbers, the possibilties -sic- demonstrated in methods of training and the recognition of a class who will surely come to us, bringing to a much higher figure the one hundred thousand which late statistics give -- all these, coupled with the need of greater facilities for training workers for all departments, point to a third epoch in our history. Having developed first School, second Institution, we now come to add the more extended sphere of Community Life.

Assuredly if we are to rise to the responsibility of the times, to grapple with this enemy one hundred thousand strong, which enters all homes alike and threatens the very life-blood of the nation, we must enlarge our borders and extend our operations. We need space, and yet more space, and who than we better fitted to claim it?

United and persistent warnings on our part must convince the most sceptical, and in less than another decade the return of the imbecile to the world will be deemed almost a crime, and opposed to all ideas of sound policy.

The wonderful Colony of Mercy at Bielefeld, Hanover, the efforts of the industrial Colony associations with us, and the inauguration of the various child republics following close upon the success of W. R. George's philanthropic experiment, should command our attention and generous emulation, knowing as we do that these must number of our class not a few.

The National government has provided for the Mute, the Negro and the Indian-then, why not for this branch of population increasing as rapidly as they, and becoming yearly more inimical to national prosperity. A reservation set apart, affording facilities for agricultural pursuits as well as all the varied industries of a town, would provide an outlet for the surplus population of our institutions, to find there a home with definite life aims constantly realized. Such a colony, under such restrictions and protective care as our experience has proven is essential, a congregate number of institutions, so to speak, each with its own corps of officers and supervisors, might in time draw largely upon us for its inferior force -- sub-assistants, attendants and foremen in shops and work rooms -- which we, if relieved of extraneous burden, and training, with definite aim, could readily supply. A community, not of paupers but of honest laborers, living under a system of "wise protection," insuring the personal liberty and personal responsibility which alone renders permanent the moral tone.