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ally in the disbursement of funds, would be by collusion with the persons in whose names the vouchers are made, and against such a supposition a long life time of upright and honorable conduct might well be interposed. The charges aforesaid and every document and paper in our possession connected therewith, shall be laid before the Committee on Charitable Institutions, and we invite a careful examination, and ask a full and explicit report. The party complaining shall be served with notice and requested to present before the Committee all matters of grievance for which he has arraigned the Superintendent. We regret the circumstances which force us to solicit this inquiry, but considerations of public interest, aside from the good name of the Superintendent, demand that all the facts should be thoroughly sifted and publicly made known.

No radical change has been made within the last two years in the management of the Institution except that, as we have now ample room for the exercise of the mechanical departments, we shall discontinue the plan upon which, with limited space, the work-shop department has been hitherto necessarily conducted. All authority to the Superintendent to provide board for the pupils outside of the Institution, has been withdrawn. The work-shop department will hereafter come under the immediate supervision of a committee of the Board.

Occasionally, questions on application for admission to the School involved some difficulty in the solution. The applicant sometimes is only partially blind. In a recent case the young man was virtually blind, tolerably educated, and wishing to qualify himself for a teacher, desired to board at the School and attend the lectures at the State Normal College. We adopt a liberal interpretation of the law, and, when it is proper, try to give every aid to our unfortunate fellow-beings who are partially or totally deprived of sight. Even aged misfortune, if aggravated by blindness, can here find a temporary refuge and means afforded for learning any trade which will provide a future honest and independent support.

A comparison of the expenses incurred at this Institution with the expenses of similar Institutions in the United States, will show, we think, considerable economy in the management. In a school for the blind more teachers are required than in any other literary institution--in many branches every lesson has to be separately taught each pupil for many purposes is helpless, and greater ser

vice in every way is hence demanded-altogether, for these reasons, appropriations must necessarily be liberal for the support of this branch of public benevolence. It is a subject of almost universal complaint that eleemosynary institutions, public and private, are extravagantly managed. There is reason for the complaint. Even where criminal intent is absent, waste is seldom checked when the public purse is open to every demand. All who deal with the State, whether directly or indirectly, ask higher prices than are demanded of individuals; and managers generally, trustees and directors, whose time and attention are a gratuity, do not give to details the minute attention which is bestowed upon private affairs. The reasons are numerous why it costs heavily to support a public institution, and, therefore, it is necessary to throw all possible guards and checks around the disbursement of appropriations.

As a measure of protection to the State, as well as a satisfaction to the Trustees, we respectfully ask that we be authorized to employ a competent book-keeper or accountant, whose duty it shall be to make a balance-sheet every quarter, a copy of which is to be filed by the Trustees in the office of the Comptroller. A grouping of these statements would more plainly and clearly set forth the financial management than a general report of receipts and disbursements biennially rendered to the General Assembly. An inspection of all the numerous vouchers would, of course, attest the correctness of any report, but so great a labor can hardly be expected of a Legislative committee, the members of which have various other duties to perform. The object is to present in a condensed form, and at short intervals, the whole pecuniary management-the salaries to teachers and servants, the quantity of provisions used, number of barrels of flour, kind and quantity of groceries, and, in brief, a particular exhibit of every expense whatsoever. The daily entries on the books would, of course, be made by the officer appointed for that purpose, and this journal, at the close of every quarter, handed over to the accountant, who would analyze the entries and specify on the balance-sheet, under appropriate headings, the various purpuses for which disbursements were made. The pay of said bookkeeper or accountant should not be more than a few hundred dollars, and he need not have-in fact, it would be better he should not have, any other connection with the Institution. Such condensed statements would be a great help to the Trustees in their

supervision, and, being appended as exemplifications, would render their biennial report more satisfactory and intelligible—and, moreover, such method of auditing the accounts would be most acceptable to all trust-worthy officers, who would thereby have the integrity of their conduct constantly verified. With the permission of your Honorable Body, we shall hereafter appropriate out of the funds of the Institution, a sufficient sum for the employment of said service.

The cost of provisions and other means of living being reduced, we hope in the future to conduct the establishment on a still further economical scale, and, if possible, save something for investment in books and maps. The saving, however, will not fully satisfy our wants in this respect, and, if appropriations for the completion of the building should not meet with favor, we trust that some small amount may be spared for this worthy purpose.

We shall take pleasure in furnishing facilities for any examination into the affairs of the Institution.

Respectfully submitted,

EDWARD H. EAST,

Chairman.

JOHN M. LEA,

T. H. ANDERSON,

C. W. NANCE,

SAMUEL WATKINS,
GEO. W. SMITH,

A. V. S. LINDSLEY,

December 30, 1878.

Trustees

REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT.

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE,
December 30, 1878.

Report of the Superintendent of the Tennessee School for the Blind to the Trustees:

GENTLEMEN.-In accordance with custom, I again present a biennial report concerning the welfare and general progress of the school under your care for the two preceding years, together with such suggestions as may tend to augment its future usefulness. The annexed schedule of receipts and expenditures will show what money has been received and how it has been disbursed. Your quarterly examination of vouchers containing all items of expenditures in detail, and the itemized estimate of requisite expenditure to be made in each succeeding quarter, although it has enabled you to know when and for what every dime has been drawn and paid out, yet the exhibit of a summary for two years will show more generally how far the wants of the school have been supplied, and the exigencies which have turned a portion of this expenditure aside from its ordinary channel. The purchase of musical instruments, amounting to $1,404.25; of furniture, $1,440.61; of books in raised print and apparatus especially adapted to the sense of touch, $882.15, all in accordance with Act of March 10, 1869, making a total of $3,818.26, are special expenditures under a special Act providing for them. The items for extraordinary repairs and improvements, $1,228.85, are such as of necessity follow the partial erection of a large building by contract, where certain particulars are not inserted in the contract because they are forgotten; repairs required because of the unfinished condition of the building, and the improvements that

could not be postponed without making future expenditure for the same purpose greater. An item of this last expenditure may be mentioned for example: The grounds in front of the building were unsightly-they were being plowed up and gullied by the rain. The building committee were authorized to grade, improve and ornament these grounds, and had funds nearly sufficient to complete the work. They were graded, sodded and ornamented with trees and shrubbery, a gift from Truett's Sons & Morgan. Immediately after they were planted a drought came on, the grass was drying up, the trees dying; water pipes were laid, couplings made at various places and hose bought, all of which would certainly be needed at some future time; the sodding was preserved and a valuable portion of the gift kept alive. The money thus spent was needed for school purposes, but it would have been neither economical nor grateful to the donors to have withheld this expenditure. The aggregate of these sums, not ordinary expenditures, is $4,955.86, which, deducted from the total expenditure, $33,356.68, leaves the disbursement for ordinary purposes, $28,400.82.

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