[264] As we have noted, Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia have similar arrangements for their colored deaf and blind.
[265] In New Mexico, however, where there are schools for both classes, the governor has advised their consolidation, as one institution "could administer to the needs of both". Message, 1907, p. 21.
[266] Report of Colorado School, 1908, p. 20. See also Report of Board of Charities of West Virginia, 1910, p. 209.
[267] The educators of the blind have particularly arraigned this plan. At one of the first conventions of the American Instructors of the Blind, the following propositions were enunciated: 1. Deaf-mutes and the blind differ from each other more widely than either class differs from those having all the senses; 2. the methods of instruction peculiar to each are entirely unlike and incompatible; 3. the deaf engross the main attention; 4. the development of the blind department is retarded. Proceedings, 1871, p. 87. Educators of the deaf have likewise stated their objections. At an early conference of principals, a resolution was adopted that the arrangement was bad, the methods being entirely different. Proceedings, ii., 1872, pp. 146, 151. See also Report of Michigan School, 1855 (first report), p. 1; 1880, p. 62; Louisiana School, 1870, p. 30. In times past, however, advantages of this arrangement have been pointed out. See Report of California Institution, 1869, p. 15; 1873, p. 19.
[268] See individual accounts in William Wade's monograph on the Deaf-Blind, 1901; see also National Magazine, xi., 1857, p. 27; Review of Reviews, xxv., 1902, p. 435; Ohio Bulletin of Charities and Corrections, xiii., 1907, p. 47; Proceedings of American Instructors of the Deaf, xvi., 1901, p. 175ff.; Annals, l., 1905, p. 125.
[269] The chief schools where they have been of recent years or are now being instructed are the New York Institution, the Pennsylvania Institution, the Western Pennsylvania Institution, and the schools in Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. The number in any one school at one time seldom exceeds two or three, most often there being but one.
[270] A considerable proportion of such children are rather dumb than deaf, having some oral, as well as mental, defect.
[271] On this question, see especially Report of Illinois School, 1860, p. 15; Michigan School, 1887, p. 25; Maryland School, 1885, p. 13; 1897, p. 13; Mississippi School, 1909, p. 24; Minnesota Companion, of Minnesota School, Nov. 22, 1911; Report of Board of Charities of New York, 1912, i., p. 144. Of the Alabama School, it is said that it "has turned away a number of these feeble-minded children during the past two years". Report, 1904, p. 21. In Ohio there are stated to be a hundred such children. Report of Ohio School, 1909, p. 17. In another state there are said to be 150 feeble-minded deaf. Annals, liv., 1909, p. 444.
[272] In 1910 the census reported 294 deaf persons in institutions for the feeble-minded, or 1.4 per cent of all their inmates. Insane and Feeble-minded in Institutions, 1914, p. 92. It has also been estimated that five per cent of the deaf are feeble-minded. Proceedings of Conference of Charities and Corrections, 1906, p. 254ff. On the subject of the feeble-minded deaf in institutions, Mr. Cyrus E. White, of the Kansas School, sent letters to the heads of 55 schools, receiving replies from 45. No state, it was found, had made special provision for the feeble-minded deaf. It was the general agreement that they should be in institutions for the feeble-minded, one superintendent declaring that "feeble-mindedness is a better classification than deafness". Another superintendent suggested the establishment of such an institution in a central state, to which the different states could send suitable cases. See Annals, lv., 1910, p. 133. A committee of the Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf has found that all of the three feeble-minded institutions in this state are crowded, and that there is no hope for the feeble-minded deaf in them. Proceedings, xxiv., 1910, p. 9. In one institution for the feeble-minded there are said to be twenty deaf feeble-minded. Annals, liv., 1909, p. 444. In the institution for the feeble-minded in Iowa a special class of such inmates was organized in 1912. Ibid., lviii., 1913, p. 107. It is to be remembered in this connection that in many states there are no institutions for the feeble-minded. Educators of the deaf have often been instrumental in securing the creation of such institutions. See Proceedings of Convention of American Instructors, iv., 1857, p. 227. In a few states, as Illinois, Minnesota and Washington, departments for the feeble-minded have been created in schools for the deaf, the feeble-minded being removed later. In Montana a department is still maintained.
[273] The Columbia Institution is considered a corporation, its governing board being composed of nine members, one of whom is a senator appointed by the President of the Senate, and two members of the House appointed by the Speaker, while the President of the United States is patron.