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Transforming the Progressive Era Welfare State: Activists for the Blind and Blind Benefits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

Thomas A. Krainz
Thomas A. Krainz
Affiliation:
Framingham State College
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Extract

On the evening of 21 November 1918, more than one hundred people gathered at Sullivan's Hall in Denver, Colorado, to celebrate voters’ recent approval of the Act for the Relief of the Adult Blind, a statewide initiative commonly referred to as blind benefits or blind pensions or blind aid. The new law guaranteed up to $300 annually in cash relief for each impoverished blind resident. The evening's entertainment included piano, violin, and vocal solos and duets as well as readings of poetry and literature. While people listened, they enjoyed a simple assortment of sandwiches, pies, and doughnuts. The electoral victory capped years of hard work by a small group of dedicated activists, most of whom were themselves blind. One leader of the local blind community, Mrs. Jennie Jackson, addressed the gathering to thank those who had helped to secure the initiative's approval and to proclaim joyously that “the adoption of this bill will be a great benefit to many of the blind of this state.”

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , April 2003 , pp. 223 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 2003

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References

Notes

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98. Quote, Twenty-second Session of the General Assembly, 311. For the entire law, see 310–14.

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109. Auditor of State of Colorado, 1919–1920, 130.

110. Mrs. Lute Wilcox to Governor Oliver H. Shoup, 1922, Box 26959, Colorado State Archives, Denver.

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135. “Report of the State Commission for the Blind from June 2, 1925 to December 1, 1926,” Box 26962, File 10, Colorado State Archives, Denver, 1. While the United Workers were powerless to reverse completely the changes in the blind benefit law, they were, nevertheless, able to enact some small modifications. Another blind benefit law passed the legislature in 1927, which softened the previous act. The 1927 law allowed, in part, applicants under forty to receive benefits when the commission believed “the case is extreme.” Despite these legal changes, the state's spending for blind benefits remained largely unchanged. See Laws Passed at the Twenty-sixth Session of the General Assembly of the State of Colorado (Denver, 1927), 210–214, quote 213Google Scholar; “The State-wide Social Welfare Survey of Colorado—The Administration of Colorado's Blind Benefit Act,” Colorado Historical Society, Mss 1224, File Folder 1, Denver, 1.

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137. “Biennial Report of the State Commission for the Blind, 1928–1930,” Box 13791, Colorado State Archives, Denver, 4.Google Scholar

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139. tenBroek and Matson, Hope Deferred, 59.

140. Quote, Koestler, The Unseen Minority, 178, see also 176–79; tenBroek and Matson, Hope Deferred, 59–63; Irwin, As I Saw It, 178–81.

141. The creation of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program in 1972 attempted to standardize and unify state-run programs, including Title X; nevertheless, various disabilities and causes of poverty still receive different treatment within SSI and in other welfare programs. In fact, at the same time that the federal government created SSI, it also established a separate program for black-lung sufferers, once again fracturing the welfare state. See Berkowitz, Edward D., Disabled Policy: America's Programs for the Handicapped (New York, 1987).Google Scholar