This section is from the "The Subvention In The State Finances Of Pennsylvania" book, by Frederic B. Garver.
The relative share of the state in the cost of operating the two schools is shown by the table on the following page. From all appearances *27 the older institution had been more liberally dealt with than had the institution for the blind. Whether it had received a larger subsidy in proportion to its needs, or in proportion to its actual achievement, cannot be determined.
27 See Table I, Appendix.
The table on page 48 shows clearly that in the case of the older institution the relative contribution of the state to the total annual revenue increased steadily during the years 1825 to 1844. In the latter year practically no assistance was received from private bequests and donations, the revenue of the school being derived from the state subsidy, from pay pupils, and from payments of other states for their indigent children educated in the school. In fact, the institution seems to have assumed a commercial role and to have bid openly for the patronage of other states, charging the same amount as was paid by Pennsylvania for her indigent scholars. *28
28 Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Annual Report (1842), p. 9.
The managers of this school recognized that they had been deserted by the charitable people of their own city. An urgent "APPEAL" for donations and bequests, published in their Annual Report for 1842, *29 deplores the lack of interest in their work exhibited by the public generally. Whether or not the decline of private giving was caused by the increasing liberality of the state cannot be definitely determined. The statistics of receipts would seem to indicate that such was the case; but the failure of the school to attract any considerable number of important bequests might well be due to causes entirely independent of the feeling that there was no need for the support of individuals.
29 Idem, p. 12.
Receipts | 1825 | 1840 | 1842 | 1844 |
From the state...................................................... | $7,954 906 1,558 2,123 2,263 993 | $9,990 3,124 2,633 148 78 906 | $11,285 3,206 2,580 436 | $11,000 3,563 2,240 |
Pay pupils of other states................................. | ||||
Other pay pupils.................................................. | ||||
Donations and income from investments........ Subscriptions and gifts........................................ | 300 34 | |||
Miscellaneous........................................................ | 377 | 229 | ||
Total.......................................................... | $15,797 | $16,879 | $ 17,884 | $17,366 |
Receipts | 1835 | 1838 | 1841 | 1844 |
From the state For maintenance...................................... | $ 666 10,000 307 | $ 5,421 10,000 400 10,449 | $4,104 | $11,042 |
For buildings............................................ | ||||
Pay pupils and from other states...................... | 2,778 558 330 238 1,167 | 1,492 | ||
Donations.............................................................. | ||||
Annual subscriptions.......................................... | 663 307 1,183 | 184 | ||
Interest on investments...................................... | 751 358 | 8,516 1,737 | ||
Miscellaneous........................................................ | ||||
Total.......................................................... | $13,126 | $27,379 | $9,175 | $22,971 |
1 These statistics are taken from the Annual Reports of the institutions to the legislature. Receipts from loans and from the sale of property have been excluded. The composition of "miscellaneous" is: doubtful items, sale of manufactured articles, and labor of inmates. The data in the original report are so badly confused and so meagre that only the roughest kind of comparisons can be made. The receipts from the state do not agree with the amounts given in Table I, Appendix, chiefly because the fiscal years of the institutions were different from that of the state.
 
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