Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 173, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1915 — FACTS ABOUT BUND [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT BUND

Affliction Less Common in America Than Other Countries. More Prevalent Among Men Than Among Women—More Blind Indians and Negroes Than Whites— Many Self-Supporting. Washington.—The blind population of the United States in 1910 numbered 57,272, or 62.3 to each 100,000 of the total population in that year. Blindness is less common in America than in most other countries; it has apparently decreased among the youngest classes of the population in the last half century; it is more prevalent among men than among women; it is very much more prevalent among Indians, and considerably more prevalent among negroes, than among whites. Trades taught in schools or workshops or the blind have equipped more than 1,500 blind persons for total or partial self-support. These are some of the facts brought out in a bulletin, “The Blind Population of the United States, 1910,” recently issued by Director Sam L. Rogers of the bureau of the census,' department of commerce, and prepared under the direction of Dr. Joseph A. Hill, expert special agent in charge of revision and results. The total number of blind persons in the world is roughly estimated at 2,300,000. The only countries and provinces in which the ratio of the blind to the total population are lower than that of the United States <.62.3 per 100,000) are Canada, where the ratio was 44.9 per 100,000 in 1911; Belgium, where it was 43.5 in 1910; Denmark,. 52.7 in 1911; Germany, 60.9 in 1900; Netherlands, 46.3 in 1990; New South Wales, 61.4 in 1911; western Australia, 50.3 In 1911; and New Zealand, 47.8 in 1911. In the United States blindness is most prevalent in New Mexico and Nevada, in which states the ratios of blind to total population in 1910 were 169.3 to 100,000 and 118.5 to 100,000, respectively. The high ratio for these states are due to the fact that Indians, among whom trachoma (granulated eyelids) is of frequent occurrence In those sections of the country, constitute relatively large elements in their population. In Arizona, Kentucky, Tennessee and Vermont the ratios are also high—9s.9, 94, 89.5 and 84.6, respectively. The relatively large Indian population of Arizona is responsible for the high ratio in that state; trachoma is prevalent in certain parts of Kentucky and Tennessee; and in Vermont there are relatively more people of advanced ages than in other parts of the country, to which fact* is doubtless due the high ratio for that state, since susceptibility to blindness increases with advancing age. In 1850 and at every succeeding census the proportion of blind has been greater among males than among females. Although blindness may occur at any time of life, it is peculiarly a defect incident to old age. In fact, approximately one-half —49.4 per cent — of the blind population reported in 1910 were sixty years of age and over, whereas only about one-fifteenth —6.8 per cent—of the total population were sixty years of age and over. Among native whites, the number of blind persons per 100,000 population of the same race and nativity was only fifty-five, whereas for the total population the ratio was 62.3 to 100,000. The corresponding ratios for other ele-> ments of the population were. For-eign-born whites, 74.5 to 100,000; negroes, 90 to 100,000; Indians, 302.6 to 100,000; Chinese, Japanese and all other nonwhites, 23.2 to 100,000. The fact that blindness is more common among foreign-born than among native whites is, however, due to the fact that the former class contains relatively more people of advanced age than does tne latter. Of the 31,473 blind males ten years of age and over in 1910, only 7,976, or 75.3 oer cent, were reported as being

gainfully employed, while of the 24,000 blind females ten years of age and over only 1,345, or 5.6 per cent, were reported as gainfully employed. The corresponding percentages with reference to the total population were 81.3 males and 23.4 for females. It does not follow, however, that more than 9,000 blind persons were actually selfsupporting, since in most cases their earnings were far from sufficient to constitute a livelihood, and often amounted to a mere pittance of less than SIOO a year. In this connection it should, of course, be borne in mind that a very considerable proportion of the blind population have already passed the age when retirement from active employment usually occurs, so that the number of blind persons not reporting an occupation does not by any means indicate the number of individuals lost to the working force of the United States by reason of blindness. Of the 7,976 blind males reported as gainfully employed, 1,768, or 22 per cent, were returned as farmers; 665, or 8.3 per cent, as broom makers; 646, or 8.1 per cent, as musicians and teachers of music; 619, or 7.8 per cent, as retail merchants and dealers (other than hucksters and peddlers); 401, or 5 per cent, as hucksters and peddlers; 349, or 4.4 per cent, as piano tuners; and 242, or 3 per cent, as chair caners.