schools in trust for deaf-blind
pupils.[600]

PRESENT TENDENCIES OF PRIVATE BENEFACTIONS

Private benefaction, as we see, has not played any great part in
providing the means of education for the deaf in the United States. In a
few schools private gifts have been of appreciable aid in the work, but
on the whole they have not been of considerable moment, and in the great
majority of schools they have been practically negligible. To judge from
past experience, it would not seem likely that in the future many of the
schools will to any great extent be beneficiaries from private means,
or that they will thus be enabled to extend their plants or to make
innovations as yet unattempted, though of course such a thing is
possible.

This condition, however, is not to be entirely deplored. Many of the
schools, it is true, could receive large money benefactions to most
desirable ends, and in many cases the work of the schools for the best
results is hampered for lack of sufficient funds. Yet the schools may
feel that they are in reality but agencies of the state in carrying out
one of its great functions, and as such should have no need to call upon
or depend upon means other than the state's. Whether or not in the
course of time there may be an increased incentive for private gifts, it
would seem that the schools should be entitled to look with full
confidence to the attention and care of the state, since it is but
contributing to the education of its citizens.

FOOTNOTES:

[595] In the case of some of the schools, figures of a financial nature
are not to be had, and in many little record has been kept, especially
when gifts have been small.

[596] In our discussion, few estimates have been made, and these have
been conservative. It should be stated that only a part of the figures
given are "official", and for the rest the writer alone is responsible.
No reference is made to schools that are not now in existence, nor is
any money value set on the land which has been donated to some of the
schools.

[597] Now and then a gift has been in the form of a scholarship, usually
of $5,000. Some of the schools aided by fees are the Pennsylvania
Institution, Western Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Oral, New York
Institution for Improved Instruction, and Le Couteulx St. Mary's (New
York). Some that receive annual donations varying in amount are the New
England (Massachusetts), Sarah Fuller (Massachusetts), Pennsylvania
Home, New York