[Colorado-Talk] Tough Times in the United Workers for the blind of 1925

[Peggy Chong]

Hi:

 

Here is the Presidential Report from 1925.  President Lute Wilcox recorded
this for the December 1925 meeting.  2021 has been a tough year for the
Federation on several levels, but lots of good has happened too.  President
Wilcox saw tough times that year, but wanted everyone to look to the future
in hopes that the organization would be around for years to come.  Well,
President Wilcox, here we are.

 

Enjoy the report of almost 100 years ago.

 

Peggy Chong

 

PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1925

 

            With the close of our fiscal year on November 30th we have to
report conditions for the blind of Colorado not altogether so unfavorable as
was anticipated earlier in the period. The secretary-treasurer's tabulation
shows our financial condition was quite as favorably returned as could have
been expected during the prevalence of such strenuous times in the business
world. Those of us who live so closely within the lives of the blind, and
who comprehend the distressing circumstances under which they are
struggling, have come to realize that we must accepts things much as they
are and trim our sails accordingly. We must strive to put up with many
disappointments over which we have no control.

            We have to report with much regret in the face of a hard winter
that our stock of ready-made clothing is about exhausted and it will require
a good deal of hustling on the part of all members to replace our departed
possessions. We are planning on several schemes to replenish our depleted
wardrobes despite the urgent efforts of rival charitable organization better
equipped than ourselves to grab everything in sight. Some of the churches
have taken on such a chill that they are gathering up pretty much all the
spare purple and fine linen with which to put on rummage sales, which are
held almost daily in some part of the city, and the race is so fierce
between them, the Salvation Army and the Good Will that the blind have but
little look-in on the stuff we need the most.

            This should serve as a stimulant to our disengaged members to
get out and hustle earnestly among the neighbors who might have clothing to
give and I am offering this as a constructive suggestion. Thoreau has said,
as quoted by Dortor Fisher, that "the best I can do for my friend is to be
his friend" and Oliver Goldsmith went even further in the expression of
humanitarian philanthropy by peeling off his elegant fur overcoat one stormy
night and giving it to a beggar.

            We entered upon the past winter with the incubus of an
unfriendly legislature. Its unholy proposal to pass adverse legislation was
apparent from the first, and thus was killed our good old Benefit law,
initiated by this Association and voted so generously by the people, was
thus killed. Out of a half dozen disreputable calculated to injure us, our
despotic Governor ordered the worst one printed and passed during the
closing days of the legislature and we are now up against the most obnoxious
enactment ever put out in any state of this glorious republic. At this time
the new Colorado Blind Commission has accomplished so little that no one can
say that the ultimate outcome will be. All we can do is to watch and wait.
The principle grief lies in the fact that the appropriation is not half
sufficient to make the patch as large as the sore and the Blind Commission
now realizes the terror of the situation. Many beneficiaries are bound to be
reduced or cut off entirely as a matter of painful necessity and there is no
help in us. Still we are not snowed under yet and if this Association stands
true to its colors and remains steadfast to its principles we may yet get
out of the woods. Plans are incubating to be hatched at the right time.

Whatever happens, this Association will still be on the map and we are
asking only that our members stand pat and ratify confidence in us to do the
best thing possible for the good of the cause. We must press onward and
upwards and keep our powder dry, as Davy Crockett expressed it.

            If we can get the co-operation we are going to carry on and the
United Workers For the Blind of Colorado is not going out of business,
whatever happens.

 

 

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