Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-03
bA0Eq MAWs

was not known, nor because it was cheap
work, but because 1t was the best work
offered.
The European experience is thought by
typhlophiles to be particularly valuable for
Americans, since it proves the practicable
ness of work now being undertaken for in
dustrial education of these afflicted per-
sons.
in Boston and Philadelphia by DR.. Howe
and DIR. Friedlandcr fifty years after the
foundation of the Valentin Hauy in Paris
Laura Bridgmans was the first notable
case. Helen keller's was another. Miss
Keller some time since presented a paper
to the Massachusetts Association for Pro-
noting the Interests of the Adult Blind. in
which she makes an eloquent appeal for
the adult sightless. She says:
THE healthy adult blind do not want to
go to school and read books. They do not
want to be fed and clothed and housed by
other people. They want to work and sup
port themselves"
Along that line it Is interesting to know
that William Artman OF Dansville, n. Y.
aged seventy-three, who made blind
in his seventeenth year by a Fourth of July
accident, owns and operates a farm and
has written a book. achievements OF the
Blind" which would astonish the ignorant.
Helen Keller once said, speaking of the
aims of the philanthropist:
Do not think that we have any wild
impracticable idea that all the blind are
suddenly to be transformed into sclf-sup-
poIl1iS tlllZpHS. we know 100 well tie
difficulties and perplexities before us"
The New York Association for the Blind
was founded in 1893 and incorporated in
1906 Miss Winifred Holt. who was re-
Gently heard in Washington. is the secre-
tary. So great has been the response from
the blind and their friends to the efforts
of this organization that a national associ-
alton has already been spoken of, and
Washington itself has many eager workers
who are looking forward to the organiza-
ton of a branch. The motto Light through
work. characterizes the whole movement.
X
Miss Holt in a recent article gave a list
of requirements which must be the aim Of
the National American program. There
must be laws to prevent all unnecessary
blindness. AT present trere are 65 900 blind
in the United States. In one class SiXty-fye
hundred or more could have been preserved
from darkness by a simple and inexpensive
method IL mothers and physicians had
known how to treat the eyes of newborn
children. kindergarten training for blind
children should be provided in order that
they may learn to use their hands as early
as possible. There should also be technical
and manual trades taught to each blind
child, even though the best intellectual
training as is given to sighted pupils be
provided.
Separate schools for feeble-mlnded blind
are desired. Diplomas for blind people who
have satisfactorily finished their courses
are important and scholarships for quail
fled blind students are much needed Beyond
these educational devices. shops where the
pupil may continue to carry on his trade
II unable to do SO independently and where
the adult blind may acquire a trade or
obtain work are requisite well home
teaching associations in every state, bureaus
of information, employment bureaus. suit
able homes for the aged and infrm blind.
a trust similar to the Gardeners English
Trust for the Blind, or state fund to
supply needy workmen with necessary capt.
tai and to grant pensions and other finan-
cial assistance, free circulating libraries
for the blind and finally reduced car fares
for needy blind people and their guides.
Along these large lines much and SPLEEN
did work has already been done in Wash
ington by associations that have the aid Of
the blind aim. and with the general
organization of large cooperative work 1t
is thought the blind in Washington will
particularly be able to say one blind
man said with respect to the New York
association:
Heretofore we blind have walked on
cobble stones, but now we walk on as
phalt.'