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One objection which is sometimes made to "Industrial Education for the Blind" is that impossible for the blind to compete successfully with seeing people; consequently the products of their labor will remain unsold or would have to be disposed of at a loss. This objection is simply theoretical and will be made only by people ignorant of facts.

At our own institution, while we may not be able to score quite so large a profit as may be shown by shops equipped with labor-saving machinery and seeing help, yet we sell our goods at a fair profit above the cost of manufacture. In the broom department, for instance, during the fiscal year ending September 30, 1904, we manufactured about twenty-thousand brooms, all of which found ready sale. The present year I think will show an increased number manufactured and yet, much to our regret, several times we have been obliged to refuse orders which we were utterly unable to fill. The brooms which we place upon the market with our label affixed will not suffer by competition nor comparison with any brooms made by seeing men.

This matter, however, will naturally come in connection with the next paper and the discussion that follows it.

But this problem of education for the adult blind is not solved simply by working from the dollar standpoint. The element of manhood and womanhood that enters into the solution must be reckoned with. Who dares estimate in money the value of a man? When Miss Stone was among the brigands, money was poured out like water for her redemption. When a man is imprisoned in a mine or his life is endangered in any other way the question of the cost of deliverance is never for a moment considered. With the sainted Whittier we believe.

"That the one sole, sacred thing beneath the cope of Heaven, is man.
That he who treads profanely on the scrolls of law and creed,
In the depths of God's great goodness may find mercy in his need;
But woe to him who crushes the Soul with chain and rod,
And herds with lower natures the awful form of God."

When we are privileged to look into the happy, contented faces of men and women as they sit or stand at their work, or listen to their intelligent, cheerful conversation as they mingle freely with their fellows, and remember that some of them but a short time before were rescued from a condition of hopeless despair in which they had attempted to put an end to their lives in order to avoid being a burden to those that were dear to them; others who had brooded in enforced idleness over the misery of their darkened lives until the foundations of reason were giving way and their friends were facing the added calamity of insanity or idiocy, when, I say, we see such as these practically raised from the dead, clothed and in their right minds, cheerfully and skillfully laboring from day to day for the support of themselves and their families, who will dare propound the query, "Will it pay?"

Now, shall this people who by disease or accident have been suddenly and unexpectedly plunged into hopeless darkness be plunged also into hopeless despair simply because no door of hope opens before them upon other avenues of pleasure and profit than those which their feet erstwhile trod?

Shall the State say to these whose plans for life are frustrated and whose savings have been exhausted in their vain effort to regain lost sight, who are asking not for charity nor even sympathy, but for opportunity, shall the State say to these, "Nay. My responsibility for the education of my people ceases when they have reached the age of nineteen years. Beyond that I offer no relief except what is found at the crib of public charity."

God forbid that any State should thus reply to the outstretched arms and the uplifted but sightless eyes of the hundreds of her men and women who, unaided, must rust and whither in almshouses or suffer under a constant sense of helpless dependence upon those they love. Rather let the great mother-heart of each state respond to this appeal for opportunity to stand again among the bread-winners and wage-earners, by providing and offering such facilities as will make it possible for these hopes and aspirations to be fully realized. While we may not be able literally to give sight to the blind, we can, by opening before them new avenues of usefulness, assist in developing their remaining powers until the limitation of blindness is reduced to the minimum.

DISCUSSION.

In opening discussion, Mr. Muck thought schools should place more emphasis on industrial training; unsuccessful graduates frequently ask for readmission to school to learn trades; thought pupils should not be left to choose course for themselves, but some industrial course should be insisted upon.

Mr. Jones, answering questions, said he had experienced great difficulty in transferring his most competent workmen of whatsoever calling to places of employment outside institution; lack of public confidence greatest obstacle; assistance of influential friends most valuable.