New Britain herald., 1928-06-15
Sight-Savers
 Opening Drive
Start Worldwide War
 on Blindness.

New York, June 15--Ealuable eX- perience gained by America in an organized war on blindness during the last 20 years will be made avail able to the rest of the world at the International Conference of Social Work in Paris July 1-l3.
 Delegates 10 the conference from European and other countries in which movements arc on foot to or ganlze societies for the prevention of bllndnsS and conservation of vision will be interviewed by Miss Eleanor T. Brown, secretary of the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness in the United States, who will offer suggestions based on the accomplishments in this country through research and public educa- ton.
 Much Progress Made
 Many Of the 100, 1000 blind per sons i'll the United States lost their sight through prevcntable causes" Miss Brown said. "In addition, the eyes of hundreds of thousands more have been injured. or weakened necdlessly. But definite progress is being made in the prevention of blindness.
 The frequency of blindness from babies' sore eyes has been reduced by 80 per cent i'll the United States during the last 20 years. This has been made possible through wide spread use of propilylactic drops in the eyes of babies at birth.
 Scientific studies of other causes Of blindness are being carri,1 on constantly. Notable among these is the attempt to determine the fac tors that bring. on trachoma. Great progress in this investigation was made by Dr. IIidcyo Noguchi, bac- teriologist of the Rockefeller Insti. tutc for Medical Research, but Dr. Noeuchi had not quite finished the task when he died recently. One of the most serious prob loms confronting workers in the movment to prevent blindness in thls country at present revolvcs around the numerous and compile cated eye hazards in the dangerous industrial occupations II is cstimat- ed that 15,00o American men and women who are blind today lost their sight through industrial acci- dents.
 "1he National Society has been particularly active in encouraging I, S h lF1an nf C,,h clinics and special sight saving classes for children with. defective viion. By means of an interesting game in which the imagination of children is called upon to regard the letter 'E' as three-legged anil n,al, the pre-school age clinic tests the vision of youngsters who are unable 10 read the alphabet.
 Need Special Equipment
 Special books, seats and lishts have been provided in 300 sight saving classes throughout the United States where children with defective vision may receive an education. Until a few years ago it was necessary for them to at tend classes planned for children with normal sight or schools for the blind, To adequately provide for all the public school children with seriously defective vision in the United States there should be at least 5000 of these special sight saving classes
 Health authorities in several other countries have expressed great interest in the work for the conservat tion of vision, that is be- ing carried on in this country A study by the League of Red Gross Societies revealed that the num- Der of blind persons in the worlG is about 5000, 0,000."