ELECTION OF OFFICERS. At the stated meeting of April 13, 1898, the annual election of officers was held, as provided by the by-laws. President William Rhinelander Stewart and Vice-President Enoch Vine Stoddard were unanimously re-elected to their respective offices for the ensuing year. The other officers of the Board were continued in office, subject to the pleasure of the Board, in accordance with the provisions of law. STANDING COMMITTEES OF THE BOARD. 1. On Publication: The President, Commissioners Stoddard, Litchfield, Smith and Dahlgren. 2. On Finance: The President and Commissioners Walrath and Rosendale. 3. On Inspection of Charities: Commissioners Stoddard, Smith and Dahlgren. 4. On State and Alien Poor: Commissioners Walrath, Litchfield and McCarthy. Additional. 5. On Reformatories: Commissioners Litchfield, Stoddard and de Peyster. 6. On Idiots and Feeble-Minded: Commissioners Walrath, Putnam and McCarthy. 7. On Soldiers and Sailors' Homes: Commissioners Rosendale, Walrath and Dahlgren. 8. On Craig Colony: Commissioners Stoddard, Walrath and Putnam. 9. On the Thomas Asylum: Commissioner Putnam. 10. On the Blind: Commissioners Putnam and Smith. 11. On the Deaf: Commissioners Dahlgren, Notman and Aldrich. 12. On Almshouses: Commissioners Walrath, Rosendale and Aldrich. 13. On Hospitals: Commissioners Smith, Notman and McCarthy. 14. On Orphan Asylums and Children's Homes: Commissioners Notman, McCarthy and de Peyster. 15. On Legislation: Commissioners Rosendale, Putnam and Notman. 16. On Construction of Buildings: Commissioners Smith, Litchfield and McCarthy. 17. On Placing out of Children: Commissioners Stoddard, Walrath and Putnam. APPROPRIATIONS TO THE BOARD BY THE LEGISLATURE OF 1898. The appropriation bill, chapter 593 of the Laws of 1898, gave the Board the sum of $25,000 to carry on the work assigned to it by the State Charities Law, chapter 546 of the Laws of 1896, and by various other statutes. This was exclusive of the salary of the Secretary, which is customarily provided for by a separate item in the bill. This appropriation of $25,000 was designed to cover the per diem compensation for attendance at Board and at committee meetings and the traveling expenses and other necessary disbursements of twelve commissioners charged with important duties under the statute and the by-laws of the Board, the traveling expenses and disbursements of the Secretary and the Inspector of Charities, the salaries and traveling expenses of six inspectors, the salaries of seven clerks and the running expenses of the Board's offices in Albany, New York and Rochester, together with various other necessary expenses of a miscellaneous character which accrue from time to time and yearly aggregate a considerable sum. From this brief statement it may readily be understood that the Board is obliged to carry on, in the most economical manner possible, the work entrusted to it by the constitution and the statutes, if a very considerable deficit is to be avoided. As a matter of fact, the Board has been seriously hampered in its work by an insufficiency of means. By the supply bill, chapter 606 of the Laws of 1898, the sum of $5,000 was allowed to the Board to meet the probable deficiency in its appropriation of the preceding year. APPROPRIATION REQUESTED FROM THE LEGISLATURE OF 1899. It is estimated by the Board that the sum of $40,000 will be required to enable it to conduct in a satisfactory manner during the coming fiscal year the work assigned to it under the State Charities Law and various other statutes, exclusive of its work under the Poor Law, which is covered by a separate appropriation hitherto ample in amount. For this sum, therefore, the Board respectfully makes application. The State Charities Law imposes upon the Board the duty to visit, inspect and supervise all the public and the private charities in the State, except the hospitals for the insane, and a careful examination of the provisions of this law makes it evident that the visitation, inspection and supervision which it requires are not meant to be of a superficial character, but on the contrary are designed to be of the most thorough and searching kind, reaching to all departments of the work of these institutions, societies and associations. Included within the Board's jurisdiction, and subject to the provisions of this law, are twelve State charitable institutions, eight schools for the deaf, one for the blind, and an institution for juveniles, mainly supported by State appropriations, and over one thousand other institutions, societies and associations under private control, including hospitals, homes, dispensaries, orphan and other asylums, reformatories, day nurs eries, general and special relief societies and other charitable organizations. The inmates and other beneficiaries of these institutions, societies and associations aggregate over 2,500,000, and the expense of their maintenance amounts to nearly $22,000,000, annually. The Board is also required to approve or disapprove the incorporation of all institutions, societies and associations of a charitable, eleemosynary, reformatory or correctional character or design, and to examine and pass upon the plans of almshouses and other public buildings prior to their adoption by local authorities. To perform these duties involves a vast amount of careful and painstaking labor, for which a trained force of considerable size is required, and this Board ventures to repeat the opinion which it expressed last year, to the effect that it will be true economy on the part of the State to have this work accomplished thoroughly and well so that abuses may be discovered and remedied, the proper assistance of the poor made possible and the growth of pauperism dis couraged and averted as far as possible. CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION AND SELECTION OF INSPEC TORS. During 1898 the Board held two examinations to determine the fitness of candidates for the position of inspectors who had been certified by the Civil Service Commission as having satisfactorily passed the examinations for merit which had been held by the Commission at the Board's instance. The first of these examinations for fitness was held simultaneously at Albany and Rochester, on April 9, 1898, by a special committee of the Board consisting of Commissioners Stoddard, Marvin and Putnam, and was for the purpose of selecting two inspectors to visit and inspect the various county, city and town almshouses. Eighteen out of the twenty-one candidates on the merit list certified by the Civil Service Commission took this examination with the result that Henry D. Kerr of Brooklyn and Cyrus C. Lathrop of Albany, were appointed, and entered upon their duties on the first of June. The other examination for fitness was held by the Committee on Inspection simultaneously at New York, Albany and Buffalo, on November 14, 1898, and was for the purpose of selecting a candidate to fill the position of inspector in the Western Inspection District. This examination was participated in by eleven out of the twelve candidates certified by the Civil Service Commission and resulted in the appointment of Jesse W. Clarke of East Syracuse. LEGISLATION OF 1898. Several bills receiving consideration by the Legislature of 1898, some of which became laws while others failed of passage, elicited the Board's interest and attention. |