32 JOHN KOREN 



fluences that can not so easily be supplied by public institu- 

 tions. 



A little more than three and one half million dollars is 

 annually devoted to the care of the deaf and bUnd in institu- 

 tions, or 6.3 per cent of the total expended for all institutions. 

 Except as they are found in almshouses and other special in- 

 stitutions, the deaf and blind are in many states exclusively, 

 and in most states for the greater part, cared for at pubhc cost. 

 Ecclesiastical charity enters this field only to a very limited 

 extent, and private institutions for the deaf and blind, al- 

 though comparatively extensive in operations, are in numerous 

 instances maintained only in the absence of provisions of a 

 public character. For this reason, presumably, the private 

 institutions for the deaf and bhnd succeed in obtaining more 

 than one half of their cost of maintenance from public grants. 



Although the cost of maintaining day nurseries is insig- 

 nificant v/hen compared with the other classes of institutions, 

 the total expended for them in the year aggregates $327,659. 

 This class of establishments is also made a beneficiary through 

 public subsidies, but probably without exception these sub- 

 sidies are contributions from the communities in which the 

 nurseries are located. 



About one fourth of all the benevolent institutions in the 

 United States are devoted to the care of orphans or other de- 

 pendent children. Private and ecclesiastical bodies each con- 

 trol 478 establishments, and but 119 of the total are directly 

 under public management. In making comparisons it should 

 be remembered that the details in regard to orphanages in the 

 different states are more or less influenced by the prevailing 

 pohcy regarding the care of children. If the institutional 

 policy is general, the number of institutions and inmates, cost 

 of maintenance, etc., will be proportionately greater than in a 

 state following a noninstitutional poUcy. In order to supply 

 a perfect statistical picture of the care of dependent children, 

 it would be necessary to account for all those placed in families 

 without passing through institutions; but to do so is not 

 within the province of this article. The state of Iowa 

 may be taken as an example. It has but 12 orphanages, while 

 New Jersey, with a smaller population, supports nearly four 



