e are seven blind students now attending
the university, and that the state provides three hundred dollars a year
to defray the expense of a reader for each student. New York was the
first state to provide readers for blind college students, and this was
brought about through the efforts of Dr. Newel Perry, a blind graduate
of the University of California, now a teacher of mathematics in the
California School for the Blind. Dr. Newel Perry was largely
instrumental in the passage of a similar bill in this state, and so once
again, the blind are indebted to a blind teacher for advancement.

But all the children in the special classes will not care to go to
college, and for those who do not, other work will be provided, manual
training given, and all sorts of trades encouraged. Here, too, they will
have the added stimulus of studying side by side with their sighted
companions. It is my earnest hope that some day this state will
establish a technical school for the blind. In such a school, a
deft-fingered intelligent blind boy could learn electric wiring, pipe
fitting, screw fitting, bolt nutting, assembling of chandeliers and
telephone parts, trained as a plumber's helper, and taught to read gas
and electric meters, by passing the fingers over the dial--in short, a
variety of trades and occupations could be pursued with profit to the
school and to the students. But while waiting for the establishment of
such a school, there is much to be done by way of preparation. We must
prove the truth of Clarence Hawkes' assertion that "blindness is, after
all, but a 25 per cent handicap in the race of life." But it _is_ a
handicap, no matter what profession is adopted. I analyze the handicap
thus: 24 per cent of it is the prejudice and unbelief of the public, and
the other 1 per cent is the lack of eyesight. I believe this is not too
strong. In speaking of the handicap, Clarence Hawkes continues: "a blind
person, in order to succeed equally with the seeing, must put in 125 per
cent of energy before he can stand abreast of his seeing competitor."

But in order to prove blindness to be but a 25 per cent handicap, we
must train our blind children from their earliest infancy. We must not
sidetrack them. We must plant their feet firmly on the highroad of life,
encourage their first, faltering steps, teach them to go forward
fearlessly, with head erect and shoulders squared, warn them of pitfalls
and hidden thorns, show them the wisdom of m