Library Collections: Document: Full Text

By S. M. GREEN
Superintendent of the Missouri School for the Blind

THE recognized end of the training given by the various institutions of the blind is capable citizenship.

One of the most important assets of the capable citizen is his ability to make a living for himself and those dependent upon him, and for that reason the technical training which may be applied to some breadwinning pursuits forms the most valuable part of the curriculum. 'Tis a part of life to make a living. The blind man, as well as his seeing brother, may starve in five languages, may know the miseries of dependence even though he is also conversant with the beauties of Shakespeare, may have a Beethoven sonata at his fingers' ends and not have the ability to teach the scale of "C."

The purpose of the training given in the schools and institutions of the United States is to give an all-round development that will obviate these distressing situations, for these schools have most thorough academic courses for mental training, excellent gymnasia for physical development, industrial or manual training shops for teaching trades, and thorough courses of instruction in music for such as have talent in that direction.

Twenty-nine states have schools for the young blind, the usual age limits for admission being six to twenty years. In addition to these, ten states have dual schools which have the deaf taught in the same school with the blind, and under the same management. Training is given in the majority of these schools in broom making, mattress and mop making, piano tuning, recaning of chairs, wood-stayed basket making for the boys, and hand and machine sewing, knitting, crocheting, rug weaving, making of reed and raffia baskets for the girls. In eighteen states broom making is taught to boys. This occupation is more profitably followed in the Middle Western States, because the broom corn is a product of these states, and can be obtained at a low rate. In twelve states mattress making is taught.

The yearly appropriations for running these schools is $1,105,500; the shops and industrial schools, $120,000, making a total of $1,225,500 spent yearly in the United States for the instruction of the blind.

By the census of 1900, there were 64,763 (1) blind in the United States. Of these, 65 per cent were over 20 years of age. Direct and systematic efforts are made by these schools to secure the full number of the 35 per cent remaining eligible to their advantages. The million of dollars expended in their respective plants and the further millions required for their maintenance have procured a most excellent system of schools for the training and development of the young blind. There are 4,500 pupils and 500 teachers.

Of the adult blind, 25.3 per cent are from 20 to 40 years old, 13.2 per cent from 50 to 59, or of a possible working age, 48.2 per cent are 6o years old, or past working age, and .5 per cent are of unknown age.

The 38.5 per cent of working age gives 24,920, of whom 10,668 are women; 12,506 are engaged in profitable occupations; 891 are farmers, planters, and overseers; 766 are musicians and teachers of music; 206 are merchants and dealers, while 75 are teachers and professors in colleges; 545 are laborers, and 416 are agents.

For the adult blind, there are eight industrial homes and ten shops, with nearly 6oo workers. These institutions have annual state appropriations amounting to $120,000, and sales of over $305,000. (2)

The oldest of these is the Perkins shop at Boston, founded in 1840, with earnings last year of $30,000. Next in age comes the Pennsylvania Working Home for Blind Men, founded in 1874 with earnings of $27,755.79, and appropriation of $22,500. The California Industrial Home has an appropriation of $25,000, with earnings of $27,141.78. The Indiana Shop for the Blind has earnings of $4,223.09. The Brooklyn Home, in New York, has earnings of $5,538.08. These first four establishments present the unusual condition of the earnings exceeding the expenses.

Other industrial homes are at Chicago, Mt. Healthy, Ohio, Hartford, Conn., and Saginaw, Mich.

Of the workshops for the blind, the Wisconsin workshop, in the city of Milwaukee, has specialized in the manufacture of willow baskets. The earnings for last year were $7,500, the weekly wages running from $2 to $16.32. The sales have steadily increased since the first year of opening the shop, due to the alert exploitation of its wares by the energetic superintendent, Mr. Oscar Kustermann, and the fact that willow is now obtained much cheaper, as several state institutions now raise it for the purpose of supplying the shop.

The Massachusetts Commission for the Blind maintains a shop for men, and one for women, at Cambridge, which are the latest additions to shops for the blind, being the outgrowth of the Experiment Station for the Trade Training of the Blind, founded in 1904 under the supervision of Mr. Charles F. F. Campbell, who has given efficient service to the cause of the blind by extending the limited field of the occupations open to the unsighted by placing the blind worker by the side of his seeing brother in the factory work. Stringing hairpins, cutting box corners in the box factory, stripping tobacco, other factory work, and the weaving of art fabrics in artistic patterns are the contributions due to Mr. Campbell's energy. The weaving of artistic fabrics, rugs, portières, and draperies, as inaugurated by Mr. Campbell, has been adopted by the shops in Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ohio, and also at the Michigan Employment Institution.