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As long as most of the superintendent board members were advocates of New York Point, they had been able to prevent any of the federal money being used for publishing in braille. This forced the schools using braille to rely upon private philanthropy, or upon state appropriations for their books.

In 1910, however, it was evident that the forces of New York Point and the braille advocates on the board were nearly equal in number. This resulted in what at the time looked like a smart maneuver on the part of New York Pointers to preserve the New York Point monopoly on government funds.

It had been customary, since 1880, for the American Printing House for the Blind to hold a meeting of its board of trustees at the same place and time as the biennial convention of the American Association of Instructors of the Blind. This saved the superintendents attending the conventions the expense of going to Louisville to attend the annual meeting of the Printing House those years. In 1910, nineteen of the superintendents of schools using braille petitioned Colonel Andrew Cowan, President of the American Printing House for the Blind, to hold its usual board meeting that year at Little Rock, Arkansas, immediately following the convention of the American Association of Instructors of the Blind. Shortly before Mr. Benjamin B. Huntoon, Superintendent and Secretary of the American Printing House, sent out a letter announcing that it had been found to be illegal for the American Printing House as a Kentucky corporation to hold its board meetings outside of the state. To the braillists this seemed to be a sharp move. Several of the superintendents lived on the Pacific Coast, and meeting the cost of going to Louisville from Little Rock would be a hardship for them.

When the superintendents gathered for the convention that year, emotions were running high. Since 1902 it had not been customary at these conventions to hold any public discussions on the type question. Experience had shown that the acrimony engendered made calm deliberation on educational problems well-nigh impossible. However, it was decided to disregard the old custom and bring into an open meeting the whole question of braille versus New York Point, as well as the sudden discovery of the illegality of American Printing House board meetings being held outside the state of Kentucky. The braillists had long looked forward to the time when they would have a majority on the board. They then could demand and would be able to force the allotment of a certain proportion of the federal appropriation for the embossing of braille books. Now it looked as if this opportunity might be snatched from them, for the year at least, through what seemed to many of them like a trick.

Those who attended the 1910 meeting will never forget the debate which was held in that hot, humid room in Little Rock that afternoon, late in June. Feeling ran so high that it was hard to find a member of the association whom they all could trust to preside. However, they finally selected a rugged old Hoosier, George Wilson, Superintendent of the Indiana School for the Blind, who had the reputation of rock-bound integrity. He professed to be entirely openminded on the subject of braille and New York Point. After careful study he had chosen for his school the braille system of music notation, while New York Point had been selected for literary purposes.

It was not an easy task to preside over this assembly. On one hand there was a group fearing that their favorite New York Point type was about to go down to defeat at the hands of an ill-advised group of newcomer braillists, and, on the other hand, a group of braillists who saw themselves about to be swindled by a technicality out of an opportunity to have government money made available for books in their type.

As the gentlemen assembled one could feel the tension in the air. It was decided that no questions would be barred at this meeting and that no punches would be pulled. Mr. Huntoon, who had exploded the legal bombshell, became both the target of criticism and the defender of the American Printing House for the Blind.

Everybody wanted the floor, so it was ruled by the chair that no one could speak more than once, until everybody else had had a chance. In fairness to the Printing House, it was also ruled that its superintendent might answer questions regardless of the number of times he had had the floor previously. Mr. Huntoon was, at that time, a zealous, elderly man who believed earnestly in New York Point. He was one of probably not more than ten per cent of the group who could personally read either system. As the author looks back on that meeting he remembers the eagerness of Mr. Huntoon to bring out certain points. Since he could not personally raise these points, except in answers to questions, he would appeal to the chair in his high-pitched voice to have someone ask him "the following question." Finally, Mr. Huntoon objected to one of the questions which seemed to reflect unfairly upon him and his institution. He said that he would not "waste his breath on a jackass like the questioner." The chairman ordered him to withdraw that remark or he would suspend the discussion immediately. After a tense minute or more, Mr. Huntoon rose slowly to his feet and said, "Having delivered myself of the epithet, I now gladly withdraw it." This broke the tension and the meeting burst into prolonged laughter which seemed to give everyone as much relief as Mr. Huntoon's epithet had afforded him.