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Mr. Allen's home is situated on one of the stately avenues of our city. It is always a pleasure for him and Mrs. Allen to have the neighbors drop in when he is at home, which, as far as possible, he aims to be at each week end. Though he has many matters of interest in his own city and elsewhere one soon discovers that he has one absorbing topic on which he is ready to discourse at any time, and before one is aware of it, one finds oneself listening to some new development of the problem of the crippled child.

'How,' I ventured to ask him, 'did you become interested in the crippled child?'

At once he leaned back, and his mind began to traverse events of former days.

'Before my real interest in crippled children could be brought forward,' he said, 'I must sketch in a little of the background. The shocking Memorial Day accident in 1907 resulted in an appalling loss of life. This was due in large measure to the lack of proper hospital facilities, and the crushing sense of our inadequacy in this respect led to the movement for a hospital in the city. The task was laid upon me to undertake the raising of the requisite funds. Up to this time I had been engrossed in business affairs. I had been traveling in one direction; I turned and went in the other. The hospital was soon an accomplished fact. On October 30, 1908, it was dedicated and opened. For the next ten years I devoted my entire time to the new institution as its treasurer and manager.

'Soon after, a little boy, affectionately known as "Jimmy," was admitted. He was brought in by Dr. H. D. Baldwin, one of the members of the staff. Through "Jimmy," I might say, was aroused my first real interest in crippled children.'

'Was it "Jimmy" that led to the building of the Gates Hospital for Crippled Children in this city?' I queried. I had often heard that this was so, hence my question to "Daddy" Allen. Very quickly came the answer,

'It was "Jimmy," for his condition set some of us thinking seriously. Dr. Baldwin said to me one day, "Why don't you do something for crippled children?" I was not aware that there was any great need. I commenced, however, to make inquiries, and found that most people were as ignorant as I was of the existence of crippled children. Even the city school superintendent knew of only two or three, but he promised to institute an inquiry in the schools, and over twenty were found. A survey of Lorain County was then made, disclosing at least two hundred crippled children. Others followed in nearby counties with similar results. This convinced me that we sadly needed a special hospital to care for these children. I suggested the need to the Hospital Board, and was told to go ahead-if I could raise the money. This was not difficult to do because my appeal touched a responsive chord in the hearts of many. School children sold paper bricks, a handsome subscription for $25,000 was given by Mrs. W. N. Gates, (now Mrs. Ada Gates Stevens) as a memorial to her husband. From all sides money flowed in freely, and on April 5, 1915 Gates Hospital for Crippled Children was opened, and we felt that we had added something unique to our hospital facilities.'

'What did you expect when the Gates Hospital for Crippled Children was opened?'

'We expected that crippled children would pour in from all over the state, but much our surprise this neither happened the first year nor the second.'

'What was the reason for this condition of things, may I ask?'

'We had expected our institution to be a Mecca for all crippled children in Ohio, but a study of the situation led us to believe that we were tackling the problem at the wrong end. We had to reckon with the fact that children, owing to parental diffidence and other causes, could not be brought a great distance from their homes. It became imperative, therefore, to devise some plan whereby the proper medical attention might be made more nearly available for the child We had thought, and quite naturally, that our task was to bring the child to the facilities; we found that we had to consider how to bring the facilities to the child. We also discovered that hospital care in itself was not enough; it became of all things most desirable to institute a systematic plan of follow-up work, so that these children, after the period of acute hospital care was over, might be safeguarded against relapse and furthered in their course toward complete betterment. So the idea of one central institution in the state, to which all children might be brought, was not so much discarded as found to be impracticable. The inevitable result was the elimination of the centralized plan in Ohio for the care of crippled children. With this fundamental principal in mind, I began to seek some way of working it out, and succeeded in interesting the Rotary Clubs. With their support, a real step forward was made. And on May 8, 1919 the "Ohio Society for Crippled Children" was formed. According to our best wisdom at that time, and it has proved essentially sound since, it was thought that the most satisfactory results could be secured by dividing the state into eight districts, each with its own center. Thus the facilities, which of necessity were of a highly specialized kind, were placed at an average of one hundred miles from the child rather than three hundred miles -and farther; and it has been our experience that by this method we have been able to render service to a greater number of children than would otherwise have been possible."