Fundraising

The CFLB was a small organization supporting a little-understood need in a young, growing country.  Raising money was always a challenge.  Ontario's Department of Education helped with a small grant for books, but more was needed. Here are two stories of fundraising efforts: the misadventures of Arthur Gate's Dominion Textile Press, and the sentimental story of "Mr. Goodheart."

Dominion Textile Press

Arthur Gate was a "collector," a term for someone who would go out and solicit donations.  Around 1909, the CFLB engaged Gate to raise money in Ontario, and as far west as Winnipeg.  He was paid on commission "which we were assured by him was altogether too low, but which we learned later was altogether too high," as the CFLB Librarian wrote.

Conflict between the CFLB and Gate about his activities led to his resignation.  Gate continued to canvass for donations (possibly trading on his former CFLB connection). Eventually he started the Dominion Textile Press, which published an embossed print magazine for blind readers.  The content consisted of stories copied from other magazines.  Gate sent it free of charge to any blind person whose name he acquired.  He also sent it to public libraries, in return for a letter of support, which he then used to solicit donations.

It was a terrible magazine, according to some sources.  It was poor quality, full of mistakes, and printed in the least popular format of embossed print.  But it raised money, diverting funds that could have supported legitimate organizations for blind Canadians to Gate's pockets. This led to condemnation by groups such as the Ontario Association for the Blind.

CFLB Librarian Sherman Swift described Dominion Textile Press as "nothing but a swindle which uses the blind and their necessities as an easy means of fleecing the people of this country. ...The mere fact that the promoters of this contemptible enterprise have been clever enough to put themselves within the law by actually printing a bundle of trash in raised print does not make the concern any more honest or sincere… "

After the Gate debacle, the CFLB turned its fundraising tactics to newspaper appeals.

Mr. Goodheart

At the beginning of the First World War, Canadians who had money to donate focused on war charities. It was difficult to raise funds for disabled civilians.

One CFLB fundraising strategy was to create sentimental stories for newspapers to run as inserts. An example was the heart-tugging fictional account called “Mr. Goodheart.”

 In it, a blind man named Tom Browning surprises the sighted “Mr. Philo Goodheart” by explaining how braille books are sent from the Library through the mail, enabling Tom to enjoy “a vast body of books and periodical literature…several thousand volumes in every system of raised print in common use among the blind and in many languages. These books are loaned to borrowers in every part of Canada.” Tom explains that the post office carries these large and numerous volumes for free in the mail. (The relationship to the post office is dealt with in the Consolidation and Growth section of this exhibit.) Mr. Goodheart’s astonishment turns to concern on learning that wartime philanthropy has cut off finances to the library, “threatening to kill it by starvation.”  Shortly thereafter, he writes a “cheque for $100.00 made payable to the order of the Canadian Free Library for the Blind.”