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I esteem it a very high honor to be requested to address this Conference upon a subject which is demanding and receiving ever increasing attention from men and women whose hearts have responded to the touch of the Divine One, and who, as His representatives, are incessantly laboring for the betterment of humanity by minimizing the barriers to success on the part of those handicapped by physical defects or infirmities.

In the longest recorded prayer of Jesus Christ we find these words, "As thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world;" and the apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans declares that "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves."

I do not intend in this paper to preach a sermon, but I desire at the very beginning to place myself upon record as believing that this Conference called in the interests of our blind brethren and sisters, is a part of the gospel that Christ was sent into the world to declare, and which He in turn sent His disciples into the world to continue to declare until by His grace we arrive at that home where no physical disabilities or differences will exist, but all will be perfect and complete in the presence of infinite perfection. In every benevolent and philanthropic enterprise, the wide world over, I recognize the nearer approach of humanity to the acceptance of the gospel as condensed by Christ himself; "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself."

This being in the broadest as well as in the strictest sense an educational conference, you will allow me to enunciate a few general principles, which I believe are of much importance and which lead us directly to the subject.

True prosperity in any state can be secured only by the development of an intelligent, industrious and self-supporting citizenship. Such a citizenship will result only from the proper education of all classes; hence it becomes the absolute duty of the State to secure to all, even by compulsion, if necessary, such an education.

As the result of the recognition of these facts our free school system has been developed until it has become the glory of the American people and the admiration and envy of other nations of the world. But this system of which we are so justly proud represents the growth and accumulated wisdom of many generations and is not yet perfected. This keen, practical age in which we live is not satisfied to accept as an authoritative "ipse dixit" "thus far shalt thou come and no farther"; on the contrary it is reaching forward with eager expectancy; never satisfied except when consciously adding to the value and efficiency of the already rich educational inheritance received from proceeding ages. In evidence of this, note the almost bewildering multiplicity of advantages and opportunities afforded the child of to-day as contrasted with his fellows of less than half a century ago. I am not by any means endorsing all of these modern appliances, but they indicate the forward trend of the ages. It was the development of our Christian civilization that rescued our blind, deaf, deformed and otherwise defective children from the cruel death which is still the portion of these unfortunates in many lands where Christianity has not yet shed its protective influence.

It was the larger development of this same Christian civilization that at a later age recognized the fact that these defective children had rights that neither their parents nor the world had the right to ignore. That simply to spare their lives and to make no effort to rouse and to develop the latent powers of mind and body was a crime against the children and against the State. It required centuries for this thought to obtain a practical hold upon the public mind. Even the sainted Augustine held that as "faith cometh by hearing," the deaf were not eligible to salvation because they could not hear, and his views were accepted by many of his day and even of a later date. Hence these defective classes were sadly neglected until idiocy or insanity often resulted.

It would be interesting, had we the time, to trace the little stream of thought that first hinted at the possibility but finally broadened out into the bold assertion of the truth that even one of these deformed or defective human beings was, in spite of all, a true Shechinah, a dwelling place of God, that all these latent powers were worth developing; that the obligations of the State were not met by pension nor almsgiving; but that simple justice demanded that these defective classes should be educated by the use of such means and along such lines as were best adapted to the limitations by which they were affected; that the question of "Will it pay?" must ever be answered by the reply to that broader, holier question "Is it right?" But our limited time forbids. Suffice it to say, it was not until the past century that any widespread interest was developed; but so rapidly did the leaven work when once it became operative that now among all the civilized nations of the world schools for the defective classes are established, and the best thought of the best thinkers is being exercised toward making these schools in the highest degree effective. Regarding blindness, both blind and seeing people are coming to understand, and seeing people need to understand it fully as much, if not more, than the blind themselves, that blindness of itself is no valid excuse for idleness or pauperism. Blind children are being taught that their parents, friends and the State expect them to develop into useful, self-respecting, independent men and women; that by the great law of compensation, the lack or loss of one sense may be largely met by the increased development of the others.