a history
Birmingham Socialist Church: Bristol Street Council Schools, Sunday, November 5, at 6.30 promptly, Mrs. Hume Pinsent will lecture on “The Care and Control of the Mentally Defective.”
(see also: Clarion: Friday 4th November 1910)
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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949
Racial Problem: Mrs. Pinsent and Social Responsibility: Control of the Feeble-Minded: An interesting article by Mrs. Hume Pinsent on the subject of “Social Responsibility and Heredity” is published in the November number of the “National Review.” The article was read in the form of a paper at the recent Church Congress at Cambridge. Mrs. Pinsent is well-known in Birmingham as an authority on feeble mindedness in children. She is the chairman of the Special Schools Sub-committee of the Birmingham Education Committee, and she has rendered valuable service to the City since she became a member of the education authority. Mrs. PInsent, in the opening sentence of her article, says there is no doubt that during the last hundred years there has been an enormous increase in altruistic feeling and as a direct outcome a striking development of the sense of social responsibility … (continues with a long review that includes quotes from the article) …
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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949
The Falling Birth Rate: Marriage of the Unfit: The fall of the birth-rate in England was commented upon by the Bishop of Ripon and other speakers at one of the sectional meetings of the Church Congress at Cambridge on September 28. … … (continues) … … Mrs. Pinsent (Birmingham), a member of the Royal Commission on the Care of the Feeble minded, traced the striking growth of altruistic feeling during the nineteenth century to the consequent development of the idea of social or corporate responsibility. She pointed out that all legislative efforts resulting from this increase in altruism had aimed at improving the environment of the poorer classes, and in so doing had had the indirect effect of perpetuating the unfit. At the same time the reproduction of the higher types had been neglected, and the average standard of humanity lowered. The Idea of Fittest Heavily Taxed: Mrs. Pinsent illustrated her argument from histories of mentally defective families in which mental defect and criminal propensities could be traced through three or four generations and so the cost of such families to the community was very large. Yet good, efficient citizens were being heavily rated and taxed to provide training and ultimate support for these degenerate families, and the result was that good citizens were led to limit the number of their children, and also the educational opportunities they could afford for them. … (continues) …
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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949
The Church Congress: Devonshire Visitor’s Impression: … … This congress has been distinguished also by its lady speakers: Mrs. Pinsent’s speech was, said a Norfolk clergyman, the best he had ever heard from a lady, and Miss Powell, Mrs. Barnett, and other ladies were equally good. …
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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949
The Subject for discussion at the evening session in the Fenton Town Hall was “Poor Law Problems,” the question dealt with being the treatment of the feeble-minded. The Bishop of Stafford presided over a small attendance. The selected speakers were the Dean of St. Paul’s, Mrs. Pinsent, and Lord Charnwood. Mrs. Pinsent was unable to be present, and her paper was read by the Chairman.
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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949
One of the most remarkable speeches at Cambridge last week, was that delivered by Mrs. Hume Pinsent following the opening address on “Heredity and Social Responsibility, with Special Reference to the Feeble-minded” by Dr. G. E. Shuttleworth. This lady, as a member of the Royal Commission on the Care of the Feeble-minded” spoke with the authority conferred by knowledge of actual facts, and with the humanity and pity belonging to her sex. Her conclusions, therefore, are entitled to, nay command, the greatest respect: and this we say not because we have advocated the chief of her reforms, but because it requires great courage and unusual statesmanship for a woman to advocate such a view to such an audience as did this gifted lady. … (very long discussion of her paper and the situation) …
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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949
The Bishop of Ripon’s Forebodings: Heredity and the Birth Rate: At the Church Congress on Wednesday there was again a crowded attendance at the Exhibition Hall in the morning, … Mrs. Pinsent, of Birmingham, said that all the legislative efforts resulting from a spirit of altruism had aimed at improving the environment of the poorer classes, and in so doing had had the indirect effect of perpetuating the unfit. … (continues) …
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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949
The Church Congress: Cambridge filled up on Monday week with visitors from all parts of the country, in order to begin the real work of the Congress … (a very long review) … the Congress met on Wednesday morning in two sections. The subject of Christian Unity being discussed at the Corn Exchange by the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Birmingham, the Bishop of Hull, Bishop Ingram, the Rev. Professor Whitney, and other speakers. In the other section heredity and social responsibility was the subject of papers by Dr. E. Shuttleworth and Mrs. Pinsent who spoke of the necessity of segregating the feeble-minded with a view to diminishing the propagation of the unfit. …
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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949
Race Suicide: Bishop Afraid of Declining Birth Rate: Marriage of the Unfit. An interesting discussion took place at the Church Congress at Cambridge on the subject of heredity and social responsibility with special reference to the feeble-minded and parentage. … Dr. G. E. Shuttleworth … … Mrs. Pinsent (Birmingham) a member of the Royal Commission on the Care of the Feeble-minded, uttered a warning voice. Our altruistic feelings and efforts by improving the environment of the poorer classes were perpetuating the unfit; while at the same time the reproduction of the higher types was neglected, and the average standard of humanity lowered. We ought, (she argued) put the mentally defective under continuous control to prevent their increase. Efficient members of society must be encouraged to have larger families. There should be the recreation of the old ideal of a living faith in the paramount duty of fatherhood and motherhood. We needed in the future to give direct State encouragement to the reproduction of the better stocks. At present we were encouraging the degenerate to perpetuate themselves at the expense of the desirable citizens, who were rated and taxed to supply the degenerates with facilities for breeding (prolonged cheers). …
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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949
The Fortieth Congress opened at the Corn Exchange at Cambridge on Tuesday, Dr. Chase, Bishop of Ely presiding. … … (long discussion) … … Segregation of the Unfit: Mrs. Hume Pinsent, a member of the Royal Commission on the Care of the feeble minded, also advocated the segregation of the unfit under kind but firm control. She stated that hitherto all the legislative efforts resulting from the growth of altruistic feeling during the nineteenth century had been aimed at improving the environment of the poorer class and in so doing had had the indirect effect of perpetuating the class. … (continues with description of specific families) … …
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949