under present existing conditions, without the very liberal aid of charitable and philanthropic agencies.

It has occurred to me to suggest to you the consideration of a plan by which some good may be accomplished in the direction outlined in the papers of Mr. Frankel and Mr. Rice. I have suggested this plan before to an organization called the "Doe Ye Nexte Thynge Society," which meets monthly at the Bible House, where the general problem of support in sickness received serious consideration. The managers of the society were anxious to find some means of furnishing financial support in case of sickness on the basis of an insurance organization, but as I pointed out to the members of the society, it is absolutely impossible at the present rate of wages and at the present cost of living for a workingman to save a sum sufficient to do away with all the social and economic misery of modern life. What I suggested was that the society encourage its members to save a specified sum by small weekly payments for the one specific purpose of meeting the necessities in case of illness and this would be easily possible if carried out under proper directions by means of friendly visitors rendering voluntary services. The sum of $20 or $30 saved in this manner and left with the society as an absolute trust fund for the sole purpose of support in sickness, would in most cases prove amply sufficient to meet the necessary expenses of medical treatment in the first stages of the disease. And I see no reason why this idea cannot be properly applied to consumptives, in fact to all who are predisposed to the disease, or to all who are likely to suffer from the disease, by inducing them to save by small weekly payments a sum sufficient to defray at least in part the cost of sanatoria treatment. Thus, if about $30 had been saved, the remainder of the $65, assuming the lowest cost of treatment, could be advanced as a loan by the philanthropic organization, to be repaid in small installments. What is possible on a philanthropic basis, or what

is possible on a purely individual basis, is not possible on an insurance basis, which must provide an elaborate machinery of first collecting and then investing and finally distributing the funds accumulated.

The suggestion could be made applicable to other problems of the poor, in that the sum thus accumulated and invested at interest by the society could, if not required for aid in sickness, be made to serve the purpose of a small annuity in old age. Of course, there would be no restriction as to the amount saved, and in many instances sums of considerable amount would possibly be laid aside and make charitable assistance in old age unnecessary.

I see no other way out of this difficulty, since it represents a problem which strikes at the root of our social life, in which under present conditions a vast majority of the people must continue to suffer the inconveniences and hardships of poverty. The wages received by the average man are insufficient and will remain insufficient for many years to come to meet all the requirements which a healthy and a happy social life imposes upon them. Since sickness is always a remote contingency, the surplus earnings will be devoted to other purposes for the time being, rather than put aside for a possible occurrence which, however, may never take place. Death is a certainty and hence insurance against pauper burial or pauper medical support in the last illness has become so extensively developed and universally popular. The time may come when insurance principles will be applied to the solution of other social problems. For the present we have limited our own efforts in this direction to alleviating the distress caused by this disease to the distribution of educational literature, setting forth in plainly written language the facts about consumption and the means by which the disease may be prevented.

SIXTH SESSION.

Thursday Evening, November 21, 1901, Association Hall.

The first subject given consideration at this session was the report of the Committee on Defective, Dependent, Delinquent and Neglected Children, presented by Dr. F. Park Lewis of Buffalo, Chairman of the Committee. Dr. Lewis presided throughout the session.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON DEFECTIVE, DEPENDENT, DELINQUENT AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN.

It was a true follower of Wordsworth who said, "I always have more reverence for a boy than for a man, for I know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat."

With whatever problems we are dealing, whether of disease or of crime, of education or of poverty, the results of practical work bring us all back to the same conclusion, that it is with these possibilities -the possibilities of youth-that the horizon brightens.

Much may be done, much must be done, to alleviate suffering, to prevent crime and to make more wholesome conditions prevail among those who are no longer young. But if a large part of helpfulness is hopefulness, then is one more reason added to confirm the belief that the golden opportunity is given to us before the "shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy," as they do often too literally,- very early in the careers of children in our large cities.

The betterment of home conditions among the children of the poor has received a great uplifting, in the work being carried out

under the leadership of Mr. de Forest, the Chairman of this Conference, in his tenement-house investigations.

And few of us doubt that the corner-stone of all civilizing influences is laid there, in the home and its surroundings.

Hardly second in value is the work done in the kindergartens, which cannot receive too constant encouragement and coöperation. When, however, these have done all that they can, there still remain many uncared-for or wayward children, who, if left to follow the natural course of events, would drift into pauperism or crime, and for whom, until recently, no strong effort has been made.

These are now receiving discriminating attention, and many problems are being solved for and by them.

Some of the ablest men in the State have been chosen to present such of these topics as time will allow to this Conference, and since the opportunities are at best so limited, I feel that it is a privilege to be granted even a few words.

The time being so limited, you will perhaps permit me not merely to introduce this general topic to the Conference, but to present very briefly a subject which in our State has perhaps been inadequately considered, in which the possibilities are enormous and the accomplishments far less than we could wish.

It deals with a class of our people numerically large, many of whom are of rare intelligence, some of whom are gifted; a class upon whom the State spends annually thousands of dollars, and the problem which we are required to solve is one of a difficult and highly technical character.

I speak of the blind. Nowhere in the State, so far as I know, is the per capita expenditure necessarily so large and nowhere the proportionate results more meagre.

Education for the blind means, or may mean, independence; the lack of it, for most of them, inevitable pauperism in the end, and that means ultimately on the part of the State an expenditure

of sums vastly greater than it would have cost for their education.

There is to-day no organized method of reaching the blind, nor are there schools sufficient for them if they could be reached. There is an annual census of the school children of the State, but there is no method of determining their physical condition from this enumeration.

The last United States census shows that there are about 5,000 blind in the State of New York. Of this number it is safe to estimate that at least 1,000 are children.

All the provision that the State has made for its blind children is in one school, with the exception of the sum that it contributes toward the support of the institution in New York city, to which children from contiguous counties may be sent by the State, but over which the State departments exercise very little control.

The New York school has about 250 pupils, and the State school about 125. Less than 400, therefore, of the 1,000 or more blind children of the State are receiving any attention or education at its hands.

Since it is only by educating the blind until they are rendered capable of self-support that they are prevented from being dependent, and occasions of expense to the State, it would seem to me a matter apparent to the simplest understanding that to reach and put under instruction its blind youth is one' of the primary duties which the State owes to itself.

But — and “there's the rub ”. to put under instruction is not sufficient, unless that instruction is of a character to accomplish what is expected of it.

There would be some incentive to effort, not only in providing schools, but in reaching out for the blind children and drawing them within the influence of the instruction, if the result of the education that is now afforded were such as to relieve the State of the care of its blind, after the completion of the school course.