see, have
become free to all, while compulsory education laws have also been made
to apply. Hence if schools for the deaf are educational, they can be
regarded as charitable only to the extent that all schools are so
considered; they should not be looked upon in a different light, and the
public should be as fully alive to their claims.[510]

ARGUMENTS FOR THE CONNECTION WITH THE BOARDS OF CHARITIES

Hitherto we have been discussing the theory in regard to the proper
place in which the institutions are to be held, but we are now to see
what are the actual grounds upon which the connection with the state
board of charities is to be justified. Much might be said of the
practical workings of schools in connection with such boards, and it is
claimed that the schools get the substance at least in the way of
beneficial treatment. By one superintendent it has been stated thus: "In
theory it is all wrong, but in practice it could not be improved upon."
Where the boards are composed of capable, broad-minded, sympathetic men,
the needs of the schools can be satisfactorily looked into, and their
experience with other institutions, where the problems are akin in the
way of housing a large number of people, can be utilized to great
advantage, especially in connection with sanitary, hospital and other
arrangements.[511] Such boards may secure supplies on more favorable
terms, may systematize all the institutions, may properly apportion the
appropriations to be asked of the legislature, may exercise a wider
supervision, and may correlate all the means of the state for the
maintenance of certain classes of its population. These boards may also
have peculiar opportunities for coming across poor and neglected
children and of getting them in the schools. Lastly, and most important
of all, even though the institutions are educational, there is much also
to be considered besides education alone, for a home and board are
furnished during the school year, and usually transportation and
clothing as well to those in need of them.[512]

By the boards of charity themselves the institutions are not necessarily
regarded as charitable.[513] Many of them hold the institutions to be
educational, despite the charity connection, and few are unwilling to
give recognition to their educational features. In none is there a
desire to injure or stigmatize the deaf. The aim is to consider the
matter in its practical bearings, and the question is held to b