It is astonishing what other states are expending for pensions and relief. This is especially true of the West. One mid-western state, we are told, has recently appropriated $1,600,000 for pensions for the blind. Another expends annually about $450,000. There seems to be a mad rush to have a part in this thing. A neighboring state the past year appropriated more than $100,000 for the relief of the blind for twelve months, and before the year was over the state government had to supplement the sum by $20,000. The secretary believes that this trend is most dangerous and that unless curbed, it will bring the work for the blind into disrepute and the results will be serious.

While we recognize that we have not yet sounded in any certain way the probable requirements for relief in this state, we see no indication as yet that the following statement taken from our report four years ago, when this matter was under discussion, does not hold true:

"We believe that 12 per cent is a fair estimate of the number of blind persons in this state who are in actual need. We recognize, however, that in no state where pensions have been introduced has the number of beneficiaries been as small as this. It has varied anywhere from one-fifth to four-fifths of the total number. If 12 per cent of the 1080 blind adults in Connecticut were to receive a maximum expenditure of $5.00 a week, the total would amount to $34,000 at the end of the year. This Board would be inclined to feel that such an amount would be in excess of the actual needs, although it would not be out of proportion to the course taken in other states. Probably $15,000, and at the most $20,000, would meet the annual requirements for the relief of the needy blind in Connecticut."

We are asking, however, for a $5,000 increase in this appropriation. We should like to hire with Relief Fund money a competent woman who will devote her full time to the sales work. We should probably have to pay her $1,400 to $1,500 a year and traveling expenses. The burden of this work is becoming too heavy and the issues at stake are too important to be carried much longer by the makeshift arrangement which we now have. In 1922-23 our total sales were $2,017.37, and in 1923-24 the total was $3,326.14. All of this money was given to blind people who contributed the articles. There has been a great deal of time and labor put into this effort and other phases of our work have not

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received the attention they merited because of this. The situation has another side which is important. If we are to retain the interest and patronage of the public the sales work must be standardized and improved. New designs and ideas must be secured and all the work must be carefully inspected and some finishing touches added. Our teachers do not see and we cannot obtain this service from them. One who had full charge of the work could do this. She could also do the buying and cutting. At present we have no satisfactory arrangement for this. We are mindful of these lacks in the sales service and have hoped the public would be indulgent, but as the work increases there is a growing desire to improve the standards and to give it the attention that it demands. We believe that the salary and travelling expenses of such a worker be a legitimate charge against the relief work.

HOME TEACHING REQUIREMENTS

We are asking an increase of $10,000 for home teaching. Through the regrettable failure of the 1923 Legislature to accept the recommendation of the State Board of Finance for a $25,000 appropriation for this work, the proposed appropriation was cut to $20,000. Through the good offices of Governor Templeton and the State Board of Control we were authorized to put the $25,000 program into effect and this has been done. It means, however, that we have no legislative appropriation for this and $5,000 of the increase noted above is to be used to catch up with the work as it is now being carried on.

The balance of the $10,000 increase ($5,000) would be used to secure a man to do special forms of home teaching among men. Mr. Reasor cannot be expected to give much time to teaching in the future, since the investigating and help with the placement work is making large demands upon his time. Such a man as we would like should have some knowledge of rug weaving, shoe making, the weaving of hampers, chicken raising, canvassing, netting, chair seating, basketry, light blacksmithing and crafts such as a blind. man could ply with some profit in his home. There are blind men who know most of these crafts and who know how to teach. If we can secure such a person he would be most valuable in a field for which we can at present make no provision.

A BRIEF SUMMARY

To recapitulate, then, we are asking for a 17 per cent increase in our appropriation ($27,200), of which $10,000 will be used for tuition, $10,000 for home teaching, $5000 for relief, and $2700 for office and Board expenses. This will provide two new workers, one to standardize and push the sales work, and another to do special teaching among men in their homes, and will assure us of the continued services of a stenographer for whom there is now no appropriation.

The time is coming when the Board should make generous and more specific provision for work in the fields of conservation of vision and prevention of blindness. Humanitarian and economic reasons will point the need.

FUNCTIONS OF THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

OF THE BLIND

The State Board of Education of the Blind was established, by legislative enactment, in 1893. The outstanding figure in the early work was the late Mrs. Emily Welles Foster, who died in 1918, who became interested in the blind when she stumbled over a blind and deformed baby in an alley, who later became the widely-known Blind Tony, proprietor of a newsstand at the union station in Hartford. Before Mrs. Foster came to the work the only provision this state made for the blind was the statutory permission given the Governor to authorize annually the attendance of not more than twenty blind children at Perkins Institution in

Massachusetts.

On the whole they

Mrs. Foster interested F. E. Cleaveland, a blind lawyer, in the work. They labored earnestly and in the face of much opposition, accounted for in part, probably, by the aggressiveness and strong convictions of these two leaders. Iachieved very good success, and their indomitable determination resulted in a steady growth of the work. first secretary of the Board, and Mrs. Foster was the assistant secretary, and retained membership on the Board until her death.

the

It was through the efforts of this Board that the Connecticut Institute for the Blind was established. This is a private corporation without stock, and has three distinct departments, each under the direction of a superintendent. They are the Nursery Department at Farmington with about fifteen babies and small children; the School Department at Hartford with sixty-five boys and girls; and the Trades Department at Wethersfield with about fifty-five men and women. From a very small beginning the Connecticut Institute for the Blind has grown to a prosperous, tri-part institution with real estate valued at probably more than $400,000 and endowment funds of $100,000 and more. The three departments are operated partly on the income from the endowment and on collections made by a solicitor, but by far the larger source of revenue is from the blind pupils and workers whom this Board sends to them and pays for at the rate of $450 a year. At various times of stress the State has come to the assistance of the hardpressed departments and has made special appropriations in their favor. The State has liens against the buildings of the School and the Trades departments.

The State Board of Education of the Blind is directed to visit. and inspect and to make reports regarding the work of the Connecticut Institute for the Blind; and is further charged with searching out the blind children and adults of the State and arranging for their education. The Board may send them to one of the three-named institutions in this State, or may arrange for their education elsewhere in the State, or outside it. The Board is charged also with the responsibility of establishing those who are qualified at the close of the period of education, in some small business, and is given special funds to be used for this purpose.

A careful survey made by this Board indicates there are more than 1400 blind people in Connecticut. Only 10 per cent of these are under 20 years of age; about 30 per cent are between 20 and 50 years of age; while 60 per cent are 50 years of age and more. These figures indicate how largely the problem of blindness is one of adult life, and how large a percentage of these men and women are in middle life and beyond.

The group of blind people in this State, both children and adults, who are being educated in institutions, has never been more than 10 per cent of the whole number. While the work with this limited number of the blind is of exceptional importance, the

Board has come to realize the possibilities among the other 90 per cent of the blind population. Through legislative enactment the scope of the Board's work has been enlarged. While the Board is ready to perform any service for a blind or nearly blind person, which is wise and reasonable, its work in general might be grouped under nine heads, as follows: 1, Educational advantages; 2, trades instruction; 3, placement work; 4, home teaching; 5, sales service; 6, relief and assistance; 7, conservation of vision; 8, prevention of blindness; 9, publicity and information.

Briefly, these various benefits might be characterized as fol

lows:

Educational Advantages-Include tuition and board at schools for blind and partially blind children; also instruction, for those qualified, in classes for semi-sighted children; as well as continuation courses in music or other work.

Trades Instruction-This is for both men and women and includes work in piano tuning, basket and reed furniture making, rug weaving, mattress and broom making, chair caning, massage, dictaphone training and shoemaking, while special arrangements could be made for training in other branches if the person is qualified.

Placement Work-This calls for a study of the blind individual and a careful appraisement of his temperament, habits, past training and employment, his ability (mental and physical), and his home surroundings and family ties, with the purpose of establishing him in some work in the community where he will be self supporting or nearly so. It also calls for the re-education of both the employer and the public, to the end that both may be brought to realize that the normal, ambitious blind person can often take his place in industry and the community life as a wage earner, if he is assisted intelligently to do so. It also involves the necessity of preventing the poorly-prepared blind person who is lacking in character and stability from bungling his way into industry with the result that the work for the blind is brought into disrepute.

Home Teaching-This calls for a capable person possessing unusual tact, common sense and ability at handwork, who is nearly or totally blind, to go into the homes of the blind and teach them how to read with their fingers and how to do work with the hands. If the teacher is blind the State must furnish a guide for her and pay the guide's travel expense as well as that of the teacher. The