The state of Oregon has long been interested in the problems of the blind. In 1872 a school for the blind was established in Salem; in 1921 the Oregon Employment Institution for the Blind (now the Oregon Blind Trades School) first began to function as a state institution; in 1936 the state first began to provide pensions for the blind. Although there have been a number of investigations of the two state institutions which care for a portion of the blind in Oregon, there have never been any thorough studies made showing their purposes or accomplishments in detail.
