giving us unlimited publicity, and the business clubs, the Rotary Club, the Women's Clubs, and such clubs are strong for us. We are a recognized part of the city of Toledo, and the inspiration that has come from the work has made it a privilege to be hard of hearing.

PRESIDENT PHILLIPS: The next report will be that of the Pittsburgh League for the Hard of Hearing, by Miss Ruth Robinson.

REPORT OF THE PITTSBURGH LEAGUE FOR THE HARD OF HEARING

BY MISS RUTH ROBINSON

The Pittsburgh League for the Hard of Hearing has been active for one year with the following officers: W. A. McKean, President.

B. S. Johns, First Vice-President.
Mrs. J. J. Clark, Second Vice-President.
Miss Mary B. Loos, Third Vice-Presi-
dent.

M. Burkey, Director of Special Schools, promises that there will be, beginning next fall. A demonstration of lip-reading was given before him which will be repeated before the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Wm. Davidson.

2.

Entertainment. This has been the most important department of League Work. Many parties have been given, in the League Rooms and at the homes of members, which have been successful in every way. Average attendance was forty; largest crowd, seventy-five.

3. Arts and Crafts. A class in basket weaving was conducted each week under the direction of Miss Mary Loos. Baskets are for sale. There was sewing in the rooms in preparation for a Christmas Sale. Baskets, handkerchiefs and dolls were sold, the League receiving a percentage of the proceeds.

4. Employment. This department has just been organized. Form letters were sent to employers, and many encouraging replies have been received. No general

President.

Mrs. J. D. Miller, Secretary.

Miss Ella Price, Treasurer.

The three rooms of the organization, which are maintained jointly with the Pittsburgh School of Lip-Reading, are in the Highland Building, East End. Our membership is 85.

There are four departments of work in charge of the four vice-presidents. Following is a brief outline of these depart

ments:

1. Lip-Reading. Free lessons were given privately to four persons:

a. To a school boy: through the success he has had, there is a hope of introducing lip-reading into the public schools.

b. To a young woman, who after she had all her lessons, insisted upon paying for them. She said she had never had a good time in her life until she came to the League.

C. To a girl of sixteen who was very unhappy, but who found out there was much for her to do after she came to us. She became very proficient in basketweaving.

d. One scholarship was given. There are no free classes in lip-reading in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Mr. J.

was an inopportune time to announce the founding of a free employment Bureau.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Young Women's Christian Association offered the League Worker on Employment the use of their employment organization.

A six ear-piece acousticon has been placed in the Jewish Temple through the influence of a member of the League who is also a member of the Temple.

With the permission of the Atlantic Monthly, where the article was published, one thousand reprints of "The Road to Silence," by Margaret Baldwin, were made and distributed. Requests for copies of these reprints have come to us from all parts of the United States.

Subscriptions to the VOLTA REVIEW were sent to six deaf persons.

Officials of several large churches were told of poor light on Pastor's face. The lighting arrangements have been changed.

The use of the League Rooms was granted to all ex-service men who were taking lessons, affording them a place for study, rest, recreation and social inter

course.

Our growth to eighty-five members within a year speaks of the lively interest manifested by the members and foretells greater development and usefulness.

PRESIDENT PHILLIPS: The next report is that of the Speech Readers' Guild of Boston, Mrs. H. C. Ernst, Vice-President. That is the Guild that is so royally entertaining us while we are here. I am sure we are very grateful.

REPORT OF THE SPEECH-READ

ERS GUILD OF BOSTON

BY MRS. H. C. ERNST, Vice-president The Speech-Readers Guild of Boston was just five years and five months old yesterday, June 7, for it was on the 7th of January, 1916, that a group of 35 people, all with impaired hearing, united to form a club for mutual help and encouragement and to spread the gospel of speech-reading.

These 35 people had studied speechreading with Miss Bruhn, and knew the advantages to be gained from the use of eyes when ears were failing.

We had no very clear idea at first how to work out our plan, but one thing we did know, and that was that we intended to keep the management of our club wholly in the hands of those whose hearing was impaired. That while we should welcome the association and friendship of hearing friends, all officers must be hard of hearing people. We were told "you can't do it," but where there is a will there is a way; we had the will, and we found the way.

At first our meetings were held in a room which we hired for each meeting; then in the autumn of 1916 we rented a suite of four rooms in Trinity Court; in two years we rented a second suite; and in two years we were crowding the walls of these two suites, and when the wonderful opportunity came to have the large, roomy house we now оссиру, we streamed in rejoicing, and our original 35 members is now increased to 297, with

88 associate members and 4 honorary members, a total of 384.

In the spring of 1920 we were incorporated; so much for our growth.

Our activities embrace social meetings, talks, entertainments, out-door excur

sions, games, study classes, practise classes and an Exchange.

During the war year we carried on a branch work of the "American Fund for the French Wounded" and supplied a large number of surgical dressings; also our members knit 716 articles for the Navy League and we did a large amount of clerical work for the Red Cross and the Committee on Public Safety at the State House, and when the war ended we did considerable Refugee Sewing. So that we felt that we were being a little help in those years of distress.

Our Exchange is our most recent activity, and is meeting with most enNovember $416.83 has been paid to concouraging results; since its opening last signors. This has good promise for the

future.

The study classes are a manifestation of the fine spirit of cooperation which

animates our Guild. Each of the three

schools of Speech-Reading is represented, offering the Muller-Walle, Nitchie and Kinzie methods to students. These

classes are for the benefit of those who cannot attend the regular schools, and are held in the evenings, 5 classes on 4 evenings a week. A small fee is required for attendance. The total attendance has been 1,512 this season, November 1st to May 1st. Afternoon practise classes are also held, and these are very helpful, and free to all members.

A men's organization has been formed, which holds its meetings independently one evening each week. Of course those of our men members who can do so come also to the general meetings.

The best of our Guild cannot be put into words, it can only be realized in the spirit which animates it, the spirit of cooperation, each one doing something to help its success:

The Spirit of Friendship,
The Spirit of Service,
The Spirit of Joy.

We hope you will feel something of this as you pass through our beautiful home, and we are glad that we have this house in which to welcome you now.

PRESIDENT PHILLIPS: The director of the Speech-Reading Club of Philadelphia, Miss Kinzie, is not able to be

1

present at this meeting, I know very much to her regret. She will be represented by Miss Florence Cannon, of Philadelphia.

REPORT OF THE SPEECH-READING CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA

BY MISS FLORENCE CANNON

I have a letter from the Misses Kinzie, which I have been asked to read to you: (Reading)

To the Members of the Speech-Reading
Profession and their Friends:

Greetings:

It is a matter of deepest regret to us that we cannot be with you and partake of the inspiration of this great meeting, which we believe to be of especial significance in the development of our beloved work.

Under ordinary circumstances, nothing could possibly keep us apart from you, and there are no words in which to express our disappointment.

Permit us to say that our hearts are with you in whatever you may accomplish for our great cause, and, that we shall rejoice with you in your achievement.

Assuring you that you have our sincerest wishes for a thrilling and an overwhelming

As I am not deaf, I am honored in representing The Misses Kinzie at this meeting. I have never seen anything so thrilling as what the Misses Kinzie have put over. Today they have $27,000 and seven hundred members. We have a real Community House-The House of Happiness, in which every branch of work is organized. We have the richest and poorest people of Philadelphia coming there.

About March I there was a notice sent in one afternoon that unless we could decide to buy our house for $50,000 by the next afternoon, we would have to get out, as another purchaser had been found. If we could place $5,000 down by the next afternoon and make the settlement by June 1, we could stay there. We have a wonderful house for our purposes. The house is situated in a very quiet section of Philadelphia and one of the best places in the city, and it is exactly adapted for our work. We have some very large rooms in it, which help to

make it self-supporting. At the time we received this notice that the building was to be sold, we felt we could not get out. Miss Kinzie called the Board of Directors together that night. Mrs. Dewey reminded me of Miss Kinzie. I do not think there is anything Miss Kinzie could be stopped by. She got her meeting together and they voted to buy the house. The next week a meeting was called to open the drive, and I will never forget it. The soldier boys were there with tin pans and other things with which they could make noise, and even the deafened could hear very well that day.

After we got the drive started that Wednesday, we had regular campaign luncheons and at these luncheons we interested the people of Philadelphia by having prominent men and women as our guests. We have a very beautiful tea room in the house. There we had our luncheons. At the table in the center, Miss Kinzie and her sister and whatever guests we had, sat, and during the course the speakers would get up and talk to us. We had such people as Mr. Vauclain, President of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, and other influential men. One day a gentleman who is very much interested in deafened people, brought the manager of a big department store in Philadelphia, in for luncheon, without telling him anything about the place. He said to me, "Where are the deaf people here?" I said, "Every one in this room is deaf but you and me." He said, “I am going to help these people," and he got up and pledged $2,000.

We are trying to spread propaganda for lip-reading and make the cause known to the people of Philadelphia, where there are thousands of deafened people.

We have done everything we could to spread the propaganda through the people. That is the main thing.

We are all trying to get people interested who are not deaf. These men who come in say, "You cannot keep this to yourself; you will have to share it." Mr. Vauclain has said, "You have no right to have this beautiful room for luncheons and not have the public in. Why don't you get a list of people who will enjoy this, and let us come once a month all the time, make it a permanent thing?" They

are the people we feel we must interest, and they have been perfectly wonderful to us, and we will soon have our $50,000, we think.

We are doing every kind of community work. We have receptions once a month which are real receptions, where all the members can come and bring their friends. We have afternoon tea one afternoon a week at four o'clock for anybody who wants to come. We have all kinds of entertainments and dramatics, and the thing they feature most is the church service. There are many deafened people who are fond of going to church who are not happy now. We have a regular church service, a regular Bible school every Sunday in our big hall room, where we have our meetings. It is such an inspiring thing that there are a lot of us who are not deaf who feel that we must help and are glad to think that they will let us. At first they thought we did not belong to them, but I think now they feel we do belong as long as we are interested.

I hope when you come to Philadelphia you will see our house because it is really very interesting.

PRESIDENT PHILLIPS: We will hear from the Lip-Readers Club of Cleveland, Miss Howell.

and were incorporated under the state laws of Ohio, January, 1921.

The class at the Normal School is the most responsive and attentive I have ever seen. The School Board has agreed to make this work a permanent feature of the school system, and we expect to have a steady increase in our membership from this source.

We have our staff of five officers, the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees being our final authority. Our Trustees agree that as a very important feature of the work is to have the hard of hearing accomplish by his own efforts, we had better stand on our own feet financially and not draw from the Community Chest. We, therefore, decided to send our letter of appeal as a coöperative organization to the Welfare Federation of Cleveland.

Our letter of appeal for membership to all the hard of hearing of Cleveland is being held until we are notified of the Action of the Welfare Federation. Up to the present time no authoritative answer has been received.

CLUB OF CLEVELAND

BY LOUISE HOWELL, President Origin: Since the establishment of the Cleveland School of Lip-Reading occasional small social gatherings have been held. In December, 1919, we formed a club of about 30 members with a membership dues of 25c a month which we soon decided to raise to 50c per month.

Organization: Last fall under the direction of the School Board I started a

free evening class in lip-reading at the Normal School. This brought together many of the old pupils and also beginners. In the first two weeks we registered over 60 and now have enrolled 93. This group increased our membership to such an extent as to make it virtually the organized representative of the Hard of Hearing in Cleveland. We decided to form a permanent organization, elected our officers

the best result of the efforts of the group work.

Plans for the Future. Club quarters. We are very much handicapped because of having no clubhouse. My office is at present the headquarters. A room across the hall has been at our disposal throughout the winter for our socials, but we were so crowded there that for the past two months we have rented a larger room for the purpose. Through July and August we have secured a good sized room at the main branch of our Public

Library. We shall all be very happy when we have our own clubhouse, which we are hoping for not later than this fall.

When Helen Keller visited Cleveland this spring I talked with her and was so amazed and inspired by the wonderful victory she had gained that I asked Miss Keller for a message from herself to my

people. This was the message she gave, "Be strong. Tell them they can do anything they want to do if they try hard enough."

Employment Work. We have a number of our own group who are trying to find congenial work, now that they have become deafened.

That, to my mind, is one of the hardest problems we have to face, and I believe it is much harder for the educated man or woman who has become deafened to find

congenial work than the uneducated person. We have quite a number who are looking toward commercial art. I do not know whether any of you have thought of that, but two or three men have taken that up and they feel they will get good financial returns. One man has assured me that in the fall he is going to be able to take private lessons. He is following up commercial art.

We want to thank the medical profession for the fine endorsement of our work in Cleveland. I am sure we are backing up the medical profession there. They were very much pleased when we handed out our club posters.

Our thanks are also due to our sister organizations who have, through the pages of "Our Magazine," told about the fine work they are doing. We have been encouraged by the fine write-ups we have been able to read in THE VOLTA REVIEW.

You are an inspiration and an incentive. to us. We have joined the National Association and I want to mention the fact that the amount necessary to gain admission did not come from the treasury, but was voluntarily subscribed by the individual members, an evidence of their appreciation of the work outside of the purely local field. We trust there will be ways we can help you and we are very sure you can help us. Our reach is far beyond our grasp, but we are reaching out expecting to accomplish far more this coming year than has been accomplished the past year. We are confident that the best is yet to be.

PRESIDENT PHILLIPS: Miss Zimmerman reports for the St. Louis League.

REPORT OF THE ST. LOUIS LEAGUE FOR THE HARD OF HEARING

BY MISS ELINOR C. ZIMMERMAN I did not know until this morning that I was expected to bring a report from the St. Louis League.

The St. Louis League for the Hard of Hearing was founded last fall. That was about the first of October. The membership of the League is now between fifty and sixty. We have held business meetings during the winter. There are also classes in lip-reading at the Central High School and at the Central Institute on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. This work is now part of the public school system.

At present our work is not very well organized but we hope in time to have ast much as the rest of you.

PRESIDENT PHILLIPS: Miss Suter will

report for the Speech-Reading Club of Washington. I believe this is the infant organization in the club line.

REPORT OF THE SPEECH-READING CLUB OF WASHINGTON

BY MISS MARY D. SUTER The Speech-Reading Club of Washington had its beginning February 12, 1921. Since then eleven meetings have been held, with an average attendance of 43 out of a membership of 50.

A large meeting was held on March 17 for the purpose of acquainting the people of Washington with the work accomplished for the hard of hearing in other cities. Prominent members of organizations in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, and the officer in charge of reconstruction work for deafened soldiers, were the speakers of the evening. more successful meeting could scarcely have been imagined. The auditorium of the Volta Bureau was packed to overflowing and many had to be turned away.

A

The following committees have been active in promoting the welfare of the club:

EDUCATION PUBLICITY