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1,579

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Dependent children (exclusive of 1,964 com

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The large reduction in number from the reports of previous years, is due to the omission of the inmates of institutions not in receipt of public moneys; in accordance with the decision of the court of appeals.

STATE INSTITUTIONS.

Fourteen of the State's charitable institutions are subject to the visitation and inspection of the Board.

These, named in the order in which they were established, are as follows: State Industrial School, Rochester, 1846; Syracuse State Institution for Feeble-Minded Children, Syracuse, 1851; New York State School for the Blind, Batavia, 1865; Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, Iroquois, incorporated in 1855 as a private institution, and by chapter 162 of the Laws of 1875, reorganized and established as a State institution; State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Women, Newark, established as a branch of the Syracuse State Institution for Feeble-Minded Children in 1878, and incorporated separately by chapter 281 of the Laws of 1885; New York State Soldiers and Sailors' Home, Bath, 1878; House of Refuge for Women, Hudson, 1881; Western House of Refuge, Albion, 1890; New York State Reformatory for Women, Bedford, 1892; Rome State Custodial Asylum, Rome, 1893; Craig Colony, Sonyea, 1894; New York State Woman's Relief Corps Home, Oxford, 1894; New York State Hospital for the Care of Crippled and Deformed Children, Tarrytown, 1900; New York State Hospital for the Treatment of Incipient Pulmonary Tuberculosis, 1900 (not yet open).

The receipts of these institutions for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1901, including balance on hand at the beginning of the year ($91,506.71), amounted to $1,401,520.27. Their expenditures aggregated $1,335,211.95; $916,894.73 being for maintenance, $384,370.96 for improvements, while $33,946.26 was returned to the State treasurer pursuant to the provisions of law. The number of their beneficiaries was 7,756.

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PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS RECEIVING STATE APPROPRIATIONS.

The following named schools and institutions, ten in number, under private management but mainly supported by State appropriations, are also subject to the Board's visitation and inspection: New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, New York, 1817; Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the city of New York (commonly called the House of Refuge), New York, 1824; New York Institution for the Blind, New York, 1831; Le Couteulx St. Mary's Institu tion for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, Buffalo, 1853; Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, New York, 1869; St. Joseph's Institute for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, Fordham, with branches at Brooklyn and Westchester, 1875; Central New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes, Rome, 1875; Western New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes, Rochester, 1876; Northern New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes, Malone, 1884; Albany Home School for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf, Albany, 1891.

The receipts of these institutions for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1901, were from cash on hand, $43,907.52; from public sources, $685,623.92; from private sources, $210,784.78; total receipts, $940,316.22; their expenditures aggregated $883,483.32, and the total number of their beneficiaries was 3,306.

During the year all the State institutions under the juris diction of the Board, were visited and inspected by the President of the Board, and also by the several committees of the Board respectively charged with their oversight. These and the private institutions receiving State appropriations were regularly visited and inspected by the Board's Inspector of State Charitable Institutions.

SHOULD THE STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES MANAGE AND CONTROL THE STATE CHARITABLE AND REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS?

It has from time to time been suggested that the authority of the State Board of Charities over the State charitable and reformatory institutions should be increased, by placing the management and control of such institutions in the hands of the Board.

The State Constitution, article VIII, section 2, requires the Legislature to "provide for a State Board of Charities which shall visit and inspect all institutions, whether State, county, municipal, incorporated or not incorporated, which are of a charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory character, excepting only such institutions as are hereby made subject to the visitation and inspection of the State Commission in Lunacy and the State Commission of Prisons, but including all reformatories except those in which adult males convicted of felony shall be confined." Section 15 of the same article provides, "The Legislature may confer upon the Commissions and upon the Board mentioned in the foregoing sections any additional powers that are not inconsistent with other provisions of the Constitution."

From this it seems clear that the people of the State, through their representatives in the constitutional convention, and subsequently by the adoption of the Constitution at the election held in 1894, apparently did not contemplate that the State Board of Charities should exercise administrative control over any of the institutions under its jurisdiction because the management and control of the institutions on the one hand, and their independent inspection on the other, are obviously separate and distinct functions, each absolutely inconsistent with the other.

Even the language of the statute which seems to give a supervisory power makes it questionable whether it was intended to give the Board managerial powers over the State institutions. To place the administration of the institutions in the Lands of the State Board of Charities would be practically to deprive the State of the services of an independent and impartial board of inspection which the Constitution requires, inasmuch as such Board could not be expected to visit and impartially inspect the institutions it would manage and control.

Furthermore, the State Charities Law distinctly recognizes the fact that visitation and inspection and control and management are incompatible functions by providing as follows: "No commissioner shall qualify or enter upon the duties of his office, or remain therein, while he is a trustee, manager, director or other administrative officer of an institution subject to the visitation and inspection of such Board."

Local Boards of Managers.

The management and control of State charitable and reformatory institutions should be intrusted to individual boards of managers composed of philanthropic citizens of the State. Men and women of character and intelligence who have time and ability to give to the service of the State should be encouraged, as they are in other States and countries where charitable and reform work has reached a high state of development, to devote themselves to the service of the State, by acting as members of the boards of managers of its institutions. This course not only greatly benefits the institutions through the enthusiasm, the special knowledge and the disinterested and gratuitous service which such members bring to the work, but also keeps their man

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