[473] See report of Dr. Sheldon Jackson, Proceedings of Conference of Charities and Corrections, 1895, p. 322. In the Report of the Department of the Interior for 1908, pp. 274, 278, we have the following: "Congress in its appropriations for the education of the natives has also provided for their support. Acting under this authority, an effort is being made to reach the sick and indigent". It is possible that the needs of the deaf will be discovered in this way.
[474] In the Report of the Minister of Public Instruction to the Hawaiian legislature, April 14, 1854, p. 17, it is stated: "Provision for the deaf, dumb and blind: No provision for such sufferers among us, and from the returns of the census there are on the islands 106 deaf and dumb, and 329 blind". No mention of "such sufferers" has been found in a later report. For much of the information concerning the American possessions presented here, the writer is indebted to the Chief Bibliographer of the Library of Congress.
CHAPTER XV
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS FOR SCHOOLS
Extent of Constitutional Provisions
Not only has provision for the education of the deaf been consummated in all the states, but in some of them this provision has been buttressed, as it were, by a permanent guarantee in the organic law. This regard, while not necessary practically for the continuance of the schools, is none the less commendable,—and indeed is one that should be declared in every state. Such provision concerning the education of the deaf, more direct in some than in others, is found in the constitutions of twenty-seven, or a little over half of the states. These are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.[475]
New York in 1846 was the first state to make reference thus to a school for the deaf. Michigan, however, in 1850 was the first state to provide directly for their education, followed in 1851 by Indiana and Ohio. Of the forty-two states adopting constitutions since 1846, twenty-seven have made reference to schools, while fifteen have failed to do so. Of the twenty states adopting constitutions since 1889, sixteen have made such provision.[476] It is to be noted, however, that many of the states with special reference to the education of the deaf have comparatively recent constitutions, while in others where no such provision is found, the present constitutions often date far back in our national history, and were adopted before attention had been called to the needs of the deaf and similar classes. Hence, in general, it is not to be concluded from the mere presence or absence of a reference in the constitution that certain states are more solicitous than others for the education of their deaf children.