OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE OF THE TWENTIETH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA, APPOINTED TO VISIT THE INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND LOCATED AT VINTON. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. DES MOINES: GEO. E. ROBERTS, STATE PRINTER. REPORT. To the Twentieth General Assembly: Your committee appointed by the Twentieth General Assembly to visit the College for the Blind, at Vinton, most respectfully report: We find the Institution in a most satisfactory condition, and every facility was cheerfully accorded your committee for a close examination of the accounts and the details of the College work. The building is substantial and well adapted for the use for which it was designed, but the roof is leaky on account of imperfect construction, and we recommend that it be either repaired thoroughly or rebuilt at once. We find that the employment of experienced oculists during the past two years has been productive of substantial good, and recommend a continuance of this practice. Your committee are pleased to find that the able principal of the College, Mr. McCune, has, during the past year, made successful efforts to bring the young blind people of the State under the influences of the adequate provisions that have been made for their education. We approve the course of study pursued at the College, and are especially pleased to note the advance made by the pupils in the mechanical arts, whereby many of them are lifted from a state of dependence and fitted to earn their own living. In regard to the special instructions issued by the General Assembly to your committees, we have duly examined, and find First. That the appropriations made by the last General Assembly have been wisely and economically expended. Second. That they have been expended for the object appropriated. Third. That chapter 67, of the Acts of the Seventeenth General Assembly, has been complied with in not contracting indebtedness in excess of the appropriations. Fourth. That .there has been no diversion of the money from the specific purpose for which it was drawn from the State treasury. We also report the persons employed in the institution, and the salary received by the same, to-wit: NAME. Thomas F. McCune.... Principal Miss Hortense McCrory Teacher, Acad. Dep't.. Institution.. Miss L. Mattice.. Teacher, Acad. Dep't.. Out of Institution Physician... Institution.... SALARY PER ANNUM. James A. Brown.. Steward Miss Sadie E. Waychoff Assistant Principal. Geo. W. Tannehill 350.00 700.00 300.00 300.00 350.00 1,000.00 250.00 150.00 350.00 150.00 300.00 PER MON. 75.00 25.00 F. S. Bendert Assistant Steward. 111 Phoebe Bales.. Lizzie Niermeyer.. Nellie Lawson.. Nurse... Joseph Hartley (blind) || Kitchen work. *And furnishes medicine. +Seventy-five dollars per month during winter and $65 per month during summer. Not employed during warm weather. And one suit of clothes per year, about $15 or $18. We also examined carefully the means at hand for protection against fire and of opportunity of escape, and find abundant stair cases to furnish means of exit, but would recommend that the hose and water apparatus be at once put in full and complete repair, and that a night watchman be employed to give alarm and assist the pu pils in their escape in case of fire. Your committee are also led to believe that the present Board of Trustees is too expensive, and recommend that if the number be not reduced they be selected in the future as follows: two from the county of Benton and the remainder from a locality not over one hundred miles from the College. Your committee cannot close this report without expressing their sense of the high value of the services of Secretary James A. Brown in organizing his admirable system of accounts, and also of Principal McCune for the fine state of discipline and general progress of the College; and they cheerfully recommend that the appropriation asked for be granted. Signed: C. A. MARSHALL, On behalf of the Senate. G. W. HAYZLETT, W. B. CULBERTSON, On behalf of the House. |