[104] In New York the deaf are said to "earn from $2500 a year to $6 or $7 a week", most being "journeymen at their trades or skilled factory operatives". Proceedings of Empire State Association of Deaf-Mutes, xx., 1899, p. 7. In Missouri the earnings of the graduates of the state school are reported as ranging up to $1300 a year. Report of Missouri School, 1912, p. 28. In Massachusetts, in an investigation of the state board of education, it has been found that of 84 deaf men who had left school between 1907 and 1912, the average wage was $7.78 a week. _Volta Review_, xv., 1913, p. 183. The deaf when opportunity offers often become members of labor unions. They are said "quite generally to join labor unions where the nature of their occupation permits", though, on the whole, it does not seem that a large proportion do. Proceedings of National Association of the Deaf, vii., 1904, pp. 143, 218. For other views of the deaf on their employment and its returns, see _ibid._, i., 1880, p. 10; iv., 1893, pp. 122, 167; v., 1896, p. 35; vi., 1899, p. 64; viii., 1907, p. 53; Empire State Association of Deaf-Mutes, xi., 1887, p. 9; Illinois Gallaudet Union, v., 1897, p. 25; Reunion of Alumni of Wisconsin School for the Deaf, vii., 1895, p. 2; _Louisiana Pelican_, of Louisiana School, Oct. 17, 1908. [105] Proceedings, vii., p. 190ff. Questionnaires were submitted to deaf workmen and their employers, and the conclusions (p. 227) were based on their replies. These resolutions were confirmed by further findings reported in 1907, especially as to the similarity of the wages of the deaf and the hearing, and as to the satisfaction of employers with deaf workmen. Proceedings, viii., p. 48. [106] Another conclusion was that rural pursuits are better for the deaf than factory work. [107] See Proceedings of Convention of American Instructors, v., 1858, p. 351; Report of Kentucky School, 1867, p. 13n.; _Annals_, x., 1858, p. 161; xxiv., 1879, p. 194. [108] In the year 1911 the number of impostors whose arrest was secured by the deaf was 38. _Deaf-Mutes' Journal_, Sept. 4, 1913. [109] In many issues this is made a prominent feature. [110] Proceedings, ix., p. 89. See also Proceedings of Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf, xxiv., 1910, pp. 12, 32; Iowa Association for the Advancement of the Deaf, vi., 1895, p. 29. The action on the part of the deaf is worthy of the highest praise, and speaks volumes for them. The real cause for wonder, however, is that the public should ever allow itself to be deceived by those asking alms on the pretexts given. By no disease known to medical science, save paralysis alone, can a man lose his speech and hearing at one and the same time. It may be safely estimated that of such gentry 98, perhaps 100, per cent are rank frauds.