a tremendous benefit will result not only in the saving of money. and energy, but in the better treatment of the unfortunate.

President Folks. When the bill to establish the State Probation Commission was pending there was discussion as to whether there ought to be another State department. It was intended at first to establish a probation bureau in the State Board of Charities but later it seemed wiser, at least in the early stages of its work, while the matter required study and development from the bottom up, to create a separate board. I expect, in the course of time, to see a reorganization of all state departments dealing with penal and reformatory work, and I would not be surprised to see the work of the present State Probation Commission ultimately carried on by a bureau or division of some larger department.

It was thought proper at the time this Commission was created to include in its membership one member of the State Board of Charities, and one member from the State Prison Commission, and because a good many truants come before the courts, it was also thought advisable to include as an ex-officio member the State Commissioner of Education. He was good enough to accept the position and has been one of our soundest, wisest and most useful advisors. Commissioner Draper is particularly interested in the problem of truancy as related to probation and the work of city magistrates, and he has consented to say something on that or some other subject.

Commissioner Andrew S. Draper: I thank you heartily for your kindly words, and in consideration of them I assure you that I shall make a very brief talk. I, like the speaker, have an engagement at half past two which is very peremptory and I will be in contempt of somebody unless I make this talk exceedingly short. I have not planned to make an address. Indeed, when I saw that the official Speaker of the State was to talk just ahead of me, I was sure that he would do all the speaking necessary.

I am not going to talk about the importance of attendance upon the schools and about methods for securing attendance. When you have another conference and I have more time, I would be glad to talk about the interests of my constituency the million and a half children in the schools, and the million more that ought to be in school, and about ways and means for such officers as you are, and the state educational authorities, to work together for the good of the commonwealth.

The office of a committing magistrate is an all-important one, not an insignificant nor an indifferent one at all, but an all-im

portant one. It is esteemed by the people. You deal with fundamental problems in human society, and I think you are dealing with them upon the whole very wisely. It is equally as important that you should have large human sympathies and good sense as that you should know all the provisions of the statutory law. Probably the city magistrates have more opportunity than any other public officers to help people to be better.

I am opposed to restricting freedom in the innocent amusements of the people, and yet we must enforce our laws.

It is well that government is being organized as it is into commissions which express popular feeling. It is very desirable that committing magistrates and these commissions, representing popular sentiment, should understand each other; and that the magistrates should know that it is not the purpose of these commissions to under-estimate the importance of their position, but only that we should work together to accomplish the ends desired. If you do it, you will receive the plaudits of all good citizens.

There ought not to be much politics about this sort of thing. Judge Brady and I may very likely differ upon large political questions of fundamental importance, but I shall vote for him as long as it will be necessary to do so in order to keep him in the position of police magistrate in this city and surely as long as he does his work as wisely as he has done it heretofore.

I do not know whether my long time friend Bishop Burke who is here will support me or not, but I believe that if you go on administering the functions of your offices with regard to the law of the State, with interest in humanity, and in the fear of God, you will, when you reach the gates of Heaven, be admitted without any troublesome questions being put to you.

President Folks: Before introducing the next speaker, I want to say a few words as to why we happen to be here today. Th› State Probation Commission was created in 1907, and its work directly relates only to probation officers. It was established. upon the theory that probation officers were doing a kind of reformatory work that should be just as important, as real, as disciplinary and as valuable, as reformatory work done within the walls of an institution. We have in the persons of probation officers a series of reformatory institutions throughout the State, without walls and without dark cells. We were expected to do two things: to conservatively urge the extension of the use of probation, and to endeavor to increase the efficiency of the work carried on.

The Legislature had full knowledge that the probation officer is responsible primarily to the magistrate appointing him and not to the State authorities. The probation officer is appointed by the magistrate, and works on cases assigned to him by the magistrate. The State Probation Commission is in a position somewhat like that of the State Board of Charities in inspecting an institution. The Board of Charities is not responsible for the management of the institution. It is only to see what is there, and to advise, suggest and report, without impairing in any way the complete authority and responsibility of the managers of the institution. Our relation to the probation officer is very akin to that.

We could not get very far along in our work without continually bearing in mind that we must work in co-operation with the magistrates. Probation is only one of a large group of problems in the magistrates' courts. It is not a thing by itself. It is not a panacea. It is not to be used indiscriminately, but in its relation to other things; and it must be studied in connection with all the other phases of your work.

Almost all other local public officers come together occasionally to compare notes and interchange experiences, but there has never been hitherto any meeting of the magistrates of the State. It therefore occurred to us that it might be wise to ask the magistrates to meet with us on this occasion. We have not asked you here to try to commit you to any policies of the State Probation Commission or of anybody else. We have not asked you here to form any new organization, or to do anything else other than what you may want to do. We asked you here to discuss the topics suggested in the program and to get acquainted with each other. To the best of my knowledge nobody has any resolutions in his pocket. In order that it might be a conference at which people can confer, and not like the usual conference at which people listen to formal papers from the beginning to the end of the meeting, with no chance whatever to confer, we decided that we would have no stated addresses except one or two at the start, but would select a few topics for discussion and, getting right down to hard-pan and brass tacks, would informally talk about the specific work coming before magistrates' courts.

To make you personally acquainted with a magistrate who is so popular that his fellow citizens nominated him for the office of mayor (which he declined to accept, preferring to remain the police justice), and to assure you that the Albany people are glad to have you here, I am going to call upon one of your representatives in

Albany, Honorable John J. Brady, to say whatever he may have in mind to say.

Judge John J. Brady of Albany: I assure you that the good old city of Albany, the oldest in the State, welcomes you today. It will be a pleasure for all of us to have this opportunity to discuss the work in which we are daily engaged. I hope and believe that the deliberations of this conference will be beneficial. Not only will good result to the unfortunates arraigned in our courts, but in helping and uplifting the wayward we greatly benefit those who never come to our courts. Although the criminal class are less in number than our law-abiding citizens, the effects of vice and crime upon those who are upright and honest are far-reaching and important. By correcting the ways of the unfortunates and improving their conditions, we contribute to the welfare of our communities and make more hopeful the future of our country.

I believe there is no better way for the State at large to become better acquainted with the conditions as they exist, than by allowing the magistrates to tell of their daily work.

We will each learn much in comparing notes one with the other. This conference ought to be a means of enlightenment to all. I am of the opinion that as a result of the efforts put forth along correctional lines for the delinquents of today, there will gradually be brought about a better community of youngsters, a better condition of home life, and a greater security of State and Nation.

Albany welcomes you in this your first meeting, and it is the hope of Albany that the results of your meeting will be beneficial.

DISCUSSION ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON.

JAILS, PENITENTIARIES AND REFORMATORIES.

Topic No. 2: (a) Are the jails and penitentiaries in this State providing proper reformatory influences for male misdemeanants between 16 and 21 years of age; (b) if not, how can persons of this class needing institutional treatment be segregated and given more satisfactory reformatory training?

Secretary McLaughlin of the State Commission of Prisons: I thank you for this opportunity of saying a word to these judges. The Prison Commission, for ten years, has been urging the Legislature to establish an additional state institution. When a young man commits a felony, he may be sent to Elmira, where he is given some school education and is taught a trade, and a sincere effort is made for his reformation. If, however, a boy between 16 and 21 commits a misdemeanor, there is no institution making a real effort for his reformation. He can be sent only to the jail or penitentiary, and this is a serious defect. There is much more hope of reforming a boy guilty only of a minor offense, than in allowing him to continue until he commits more serious offenses. We have therefore been urging a place where, in the discretion of the committing magistrate, boys of these ages guilty of misdemeanors can be sent for a reasonable length of time to receive scholastic and industrial instruction.

The difficulties about sending them to the jails are manifold. There is no school in connection with an ordinary jail, and there is not, and probably never will be, any provision for giving a boy industrial training in a common jail. The same is true of our penitentiaries. Instead of the boy being benefited in a jail or penitentiary, the chances are that he will come out more inclined to be criminal.

Last year we had a bill, which passed the Assembly, to establish a school to be known as the John Howard Industrial School, where boys from 16 to 21, convicted of misdemeanors, can receive instruction and be taught at least the rudiments of a trade; and where they can be committed long enough so that some progress