To which may be added the inmates of prisons, penitentiaries and jails, in which there was a daily average of some 10,000 persons.

It is important to note, as indicative of what the future increase in the extent of this great burden may be, that the average number of beneficiaries grew from 47,000 in 1880, to 80,000 in 1893, and the expenditures from $8,000,000 in 1880 to $20,000,000 in 1893.

Under section 10, article 8 of the Constitution, neither the credit nor the moneys of the State can be given, loaned to or in aid of any associations, corporation or private undertaking, except as far as may be proper for the support and education of the blind, deaf and dumb and juvenile delinquents.

Under section 11 of the same article counties, cities, towns and villages are forbidden to loan their money or credit to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation, except for the aid or support of its poor as may be authorized by law.

Excepting a few institutions directly managed by the State, no funds are expended by it other than institutions caring for the blind, the deaf and dumb and juvenile delinquents.

The rest of the 80,000 dependents are supported by cities, towns and villages as authorized by the Legislature, out of funds raised generally by taxation and from licenses and excise fees, and either in institutions managed by the local authorities, or, as is universally the case with orphan children, and generally the

case with foundlings, by arrangement with private institutions upon a per capita basis, which has in no case been found to be excessive.

Up to 1875 orphan children were largely lodged in the poorhouses throughout the State. But in response to the almost general demand of the community, laws were enacted that made it compulsory upon the local authorities to contract either with families or with orphan asylums, with proper provisions for a commitment of orphans to denominational orphan asylums of the religious faith of the parents of the orphan, and similar methods have prevailed, not so universally, with respect to foundlings.

The attention of the Convention, as to the deliberate charac ter of this arrangement and the necessity therefor, the wisdom of the course which has been adopted and the injury which would result from any change of method, is called to an admirable paper prepared by William P. Letchworth, LL. D., Commissioner of the New York State Board of Charities, read at the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, held in Chicago, June, 1893, and embodied in the report of the Committee on the History of Child Saving Work of the United States.

The charitable institutions of the State have not been without supervision and inspection of some character. The existing State Board of Charities, in 1875, succeeded the Board of State Commissioners of Public Charity, created in 1867, and they were, and still are, authorized to visit and inspect any charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory institution in the State, excepting prisons, whether receiving State aid or maintained by municipalities or otherwise. This board now consists of eleven persons, and is intended to be superseded by a consti tutional board to consist of the same number.

In 1889, a Commission of Lunacy, consisting of three persons, succeeded to the single commissioner whose office had been created in 1873. The power of this commissioner extends to visiting and supervising all institutions for the insane. The membership of the constitutional board, which is to succeed the present commission, is intended to be increased to five, three of whom shall be the members of the existing commission.

The Superintendent of State Prisons has, by the existing Con. stitution, duties that are wholly executive, and with these there is no design in the proposed amendment to interfere. The power

intended to be conferred, in respect to State prisons, on the Board of Prisons not being of an executive character, and is to be exercised over all institutions in which are confined adults who are charged with or convicted of crime, including county jails, the deplorable condition of which has been emphasized by the Prison Association, but excluding the inmates of reformatories, who are to be placed under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Charities.

Briefly, then, a State Commission of Lunacy would have jurisdiction over all institutions, public and private, for the care of the insane. These include at present nine State hospitals, six county asylums, seventeen private asylums, and one hospital for insane criminals, containing in the aggregate a total of 18,154 inmates.

The State Board of Charities would have supervision over seven reformatories, eight institutions for the deaf, two for the blind, one for epileptics, three for idiots, one for Indian children, one for soldiers and sailors, fifty-eight county poor-houses, 141 orphan asylums and homes for the friendless, 112 hospitals, forty-five dispensaries, a population of 62,154, together with the supervision of a number of charitable and benevolent societies not included in the above list.

This would leave for the jurisdiction of the State Board of Prisons, four prisons, six penitentiaries and sixty county jails. The proposed amendment submitted by your committee results in part from conferences with the representatives of the State Charities Aid Association and the State Prison Association of New York, whose vast experience in all matters connected with State charities and the management of State prisons has been placed at the service of the committee, which has had the benefit of many important suggestions from the officers of these associations.

Your committee recognizes the objection that exists to the creation of further State officers, and is in full accord with the sentiment that their number should not unnecessarily be increased; but so great is the expenditure of public and private moneys for the charitable works of the State; so enormous is the responsibility for caring for these dependent and criminal characters; so susceptible of abuse may be the administration of the affairs of these institutions; so much of hostile criticism has been indulged in, that your committee feels that it is justified in

urging the Convention to adopt the proposed amendment as the only method of securing to the State the advantages which co-operation with private institutions affords, while securing it against the possibility of any injury while pursuing that policy. August 2, 1894.

Respectfully submitted.

EDWARD LAUTERBACH,

Chairman.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

COMMUNICATION FROM COMPTROLLER IN ANSWER TO REQUEST FOR INFORMATION.

To the Constitutional Convention :

June 12, 1894.

In conformity with the resolution of your honorable body, passed on the 23d ult., requesting a detailed statement of all moneys paid by the State during the past three years by way of direct or indirect appropriations, as salary or otherwise, to institutions not owned by the State or a political division thereof, whether sectarian or not, I beg leave to submit the following:

We have no record in this office that will show whether the 375 educational institutions participating in the distribution of the literature fund are public or private, or what their denomination may be. That information is probably in the possession of the State Board of Regents. The only other private or corporate institutions which have received money from the State are the following, and the amounts received by each during the past three years are set opposite :

Institution for the Blind, New York City :

Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, New