The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-30
OVER TWO MILLION BLIND
From the New York Times.

From the New York Times
 K HANY facts regarding the blind
 M population of the United States " 4 are brought out in bulletin just issued by Director Sam l.. Rogers of the federal bureau of the census, and prepared under the direction of pr. Joseph A. Hill, expert special agent in charge of revision and results. The sta
 tistics just made public are for 1910, and show that in that year blind persons in this country numbered 57,272, or 62.2 to each 100000 of the total population of that year.
 In fact it has apparently decreased among the youngest classes of the pop
 ulation in the last half century The revelation is made that the affliction is more prevalent among men than among women, and very much more prevalent among Indians, and consid erably more common among negroes than among whites. The investigation conducted by the census agents shows that trades taught in schools or work shops for the blind have equipped more than 1500 blind persons for total or partial self-suppert. The total number Of blind persons in the world is rough ly estimated at 2,390,000. The total number enumerated at the most recent censuses of the blind in all countries is 1,194.346. These countries represent all of Australia, nearly all of Europe and North America, and parts of South America, Africa and Asia, together with certain of the insuar possessions of European and American countries. The countries and provinces in which the ratio of the blind to the total popula-. tion is lower than that for the United States are Canada, where the ratio was 44.9 per 100,0 in 1911; Belgium, where lit was 43.5 in 1910; Denmark, 52.7 in lands. 46.3 in 1909; New South Wales, 61.4 in 1911; Western Australia, 5o.3 in 1911. and New Zealand AIS in 1911.
 The census enumerators found that in the United States blindness is most prev alent In New Mexico and Nevada, in which the ratio of the blind to total popu- lation in 1910 was 1893 to 100000 and 11S 5 to 100000 It Is explained that the high ratios for these states were due to the fact that Indians, among whom trachoma Is of frequent occurrence, constitute rea- lively large elements In their population.
 In Arizona, Kentucky. Tennessee and Vermont the ratios are also high-95.9, 94, Ss.5 and SAG. respectively. The relatively largo Indian population of Arizona is re- sronsible for the high ratio in that state; trachoma is prevalent in certain parts of Kentucky and Tennessee. while the reason assigned for the high ratio in Vermont is the longevity of it's population. Rela- tive to the latter state the report says: Tn Vermont there are relatively more persons of advanced ages than in other parts of the country, to which fact is doubtless due the high ratio for that state. since susceptibility to blindness in- oreases with advancing age"
 The report says that the fact that blind ness is more common among foreign-born whites than among native whites is, how ever, due to the fact that the former class contains relatively more people of ad- vanced age than does the latter.
 Much space is devoted to the occupations of the blind. It is shown that of the 31,473 blind males 10 years of age and over in 1910, only 7976, or 25.3 per cent
 were reported as being gainfully em-