Because he feels that the 64,000 persons who comprise the blind population of this country are out of step with the times and because he desires to prove that a blind man can earn a living other than by basket weaving or some other inconsequential work, Bernard Krebs, blind New York University senior who will receive his degree in journalism this Wednesday, plans to start a daily paper in Braille for his fellow blind. The enterprising young man, who refuses to be handicapped in his chosen profession, confidently expects to publish Volume 1, Number 1 this fall.
Friends of the blind, he believes will help him with his plant, and the paper will be kept going by advertising revenue. And if this sounds a bit far fetched, listen to this unanswerable high powered salesmanship.
GOOD ADVERTISING MEDIUM
“In Braille, you can’t skip anything,” he points out, “so the advertisers can be sure of getting their advertising’s worth.”
It also, though he doesn’t mention this, obviates what any advertising manager will tell you is his greatest worry, the giving of next-to-reading-matter position to all his advertisers.
The dark, curly-haired collegiate will staff his paper, so far as possible, with blind writers. It will be a twenty-four page paper, issued five day a week, carrying condensations of the day’s news and special articles written by or of special interest to the blind. To start with, the paper will be distributed free to 5,000 blind in the Middle-Atlantic states. he hopes later for a larger and more national distribution.
Speaking fondly of his dream castle, Mr. Krebs remarked: “Perhaps I won’t be a Greeley, an Ochs or a Pulitzer but I hope that I will be able to open up the world and its affairs to our thousands of blind and that I will help other blind to suitable occupations at a fair wage.”
SIGHTLESS SINCE NINE
The son of Mrs. Rose Krebs, 1385 Stebbins avenue, Bronx, Bernard Krebs has been blind since his ninth year when he met with an accident. Throughout his scholastic career he has been an outstanding student. In P.S 16, he was winner of the Roosevelt Memorial Prize; at Evander Childs H.S., where he completed four years’ work in three and a half, he was at the top of his class. At New York University he maintained a “B” average through his four years and in his last year, was honored by election to Sigma, senior honorary society of the Washington Square College.
Krebs was given financial assistance through college by the New York Guild for Jewish Blind. Volunteers of the Guild read his classroom assignments to him but otherwise he was on his own throughout the four years. He travels on the subway by himself, follows lecturers by taking notes in his Braille notebook, and was generally active in college activities. As a senior, he was appointed by university authorities a student advisor to freshmen.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
