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  YOUR VOTE
  AND HOW TO USE IT

[Illustration: decoration]




  YOUR VOTE

  _and_

  HOW TO USE IT

  BY

  MRS. RAYMOND BROWN

  _Chairman of Organization of the New York State
  Woman Suffrage Party_

  _With a Foreword by_

  MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT

  _President of the National American
  Woman Suffrage Association_

  [Illustration: decoration]

  HARPER _&_ BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

  NEW YORK AND LONDON




  YOUR VOTE AND HOW TO USE IT

  Copyright, 1918, by Harper & Brothers
  Printed in the United States of America
  Published February, 1918




  _To
  the Many Good Citizens
  who have helped and advised
  in the preparation of this book
  it is gratefully dedicated_




  THIS BOOK IS OFFICIALLY
  ENDORSED BY THE NEW
  YORK STATE WOMAN
  SUFFRAGE PARTY




  CONTENTS


                                                                  PAGE

  FOREWORD                                                          xv

  PREFACE                                                         xvii


  CHAPTER I. POLITICS AND WOMAN’S INTERESTS                          1

  The Duties of Government—The Relation of
  Government to the Home—Duties and Obligations
  of Citizenship.


  CHAPTER II. TOWN AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT                             8

  The Town Meeting—Officials, Duties, the Kind
  of Men Needed—When and How Elected—Political
  Honesty—The Relation of Country to
  City, State, and Nation.


  CHAPTER III. THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE AND
  CITY GOVERNMENT                                                   24

  Classes, Charters—Officials, Duties—When Elected—Wards
  and Election Districts—Franchise
  Rights—Commission Form of Government—City
  Manager.


  CHAPTER IV. GREATER NEW YORK                                      37

  Mayor, Comptroller, President of the Board of
  Aldermen, Presidents of the Boroughs—The
  Board of Aldermen—The Board of Estimate and
  Apportionment—Corporation Counsel—City
  Chamberlain—Taxes and Assessments—Board
  of Education—Board of Elections—Local Improvement
  Boards—County Government—Courts—Charities—Civil
  Service—The Budget.


  CHAPTER V. STATE GOVERNMENT                                       50

  The Constitution, Constitutional Amendments—The
  Legislature, Senate and Assembly—How to
  Get a Law Passed—The Governor and Other
  Officials—Appointive Offices—Public Service,
  Health, Excise, Conservation, Civil Service, and
  Other Commissions—State Employees.


  CHAPTER VI. NATIONAL GOVERNMENT                                   62

  The National Constitution—Congress, Its Powers—How
  Constituted—Sessions of Congress—Congressional
  Committees—The President, How
  Elected, His Powers—The Cabinet—Centralized
  Government.


  CHAPTER VII. WHO CAN VOTE                                         72

  Citizens—Aliens—How an Alien May Become a
  Citizen—Naturalization Laws—A Married Woman,
  an Unmarried Woman—Qualifications for
  Voting—Who May Not Vote—The 14th and 15th
  Amendments—The Woman Suffrage Amendment.


  CHAPTER VIII. POLITICAL PARTIES                                   80

  Republican, Democratic, Progressive, Prohibition,
  and Socialist Platforms—Party Organization,
  National, State, County, and City Committees,
  Election District Captains—Party
  Funds—The Use and Abuse of Party—The Independent
  Vote.


  CHAPTER IX. HOW CANDIDATES ARE NOMINATED                          91

  President and Vice-President—Enrolment of
  Voters—Direct Primaries—Objections to Direct
  Primaries—Nomination by Party Convention—Objections
  to the Party Convention—Importance
  of the Primary—Nomination by Petition.


  CHAPTER X. ELECTIONS                                              98

  Registration of Voters—Time of Elections—Election
  Officials—How to Mark the Ballot—How
  Ballots Are Counted—The Australian Ballot—The
  Short Ballot—Corrupt Practices Act—Voting-machines—School-houses
  for Polling-places—Cost of Elections.


  CHAPTER XI. TAXATION                                             108

  Direct and Indirect—Village and School Taxes—Town,
  County, City, and State Taxes—Tax
  Districts—How Taxes Are Assessed—County
  Board of Equalization—The Collection of Taxes—State
  Taxes: Corporation Tax, Inheritance
  Tax, Other State Taxes—State Board of Equalization—Federal
  Taxes: Custom Duties, Internal
  Revenue and Excise Taxes, the Income Tax—Public
  Debt, Bonds—Sinking Funds—The
  Budget—The Pork-barrel.


  CHAPTER XII. PUBLIC HIGHWAYS                                     121

  State Roads, Their Cost and Maintenance—Town
  and County Highways—Bond Issues—City
  Streets—Street Cleaning—Parks—City
  Planning—The Value of Beauty.


  CHAPTER XIII. COURTS                                             130

  Criminal and Civil Cases—Justices’ Courts—Police
  and Magistrates’ Courts—County Courts—Surrogates’
  Courts—Court of Claims—Supreme
  Courts, Appellate Divisions—Court of
  Appeals—Courts of Record—Federal Courts:
  United States District Courts, United States
  Court of Claims, United States Circuit Court
  of Appeals, United States Supreme Court—Constitutionality
  of Laws—Injunctions.


  CHAPTER XIV. THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME                             141

  The Grand Jury—Trial by Jury—Jury Service—Women
  Jurors—The Police—Prison Reform:—The
  Indeterminate Sentence, Probation—Jails
  and Prisons—City Farms—The Prevention
  of Crime.


  CHAPTER XV. WOMEN OFFENDERS AND THE LAW                          150

  Drunkenness—Prostitution—Night Courts—Fines—Delinquent
  Girls—Girl Victims—Houses
  of Detention—Women Judges—Policewomen.


  CHAPTER XVI. PUBLIC EDUCATION                                    161

  The School District—The Township Board of
  Education—The Annual School Meeting—The
  School Budget—The Supervisory District—The
  District Superintendent—The Union
  Free School District—Physical Training—School
  Money—Normal Schools—University of
  the State of New York—Board of Regents—National
  Commissioner of Education—Agricultural
  Colleges—Farmers’ Institutes—Vocational
  Training—State Scholarships—Domestic Training—Schools
  as Community Centers—Health—Co-operation.


  CHAPTER XVII. HEALTH AND RECREATION                              174

  Housing—Tenement House Inspection—Dance-halls—Playgrounds—Vacation
  Schools—Recreation
  Centers—Municipal Dance-halls—Municipal
  Bathing Beaches—The Movies—Causes of
  Juvenile Crime—Rural Needs.


  CHAPTER XVIII. THE CARE OF DEPENDENT AND
  DELINQUENT CHILDREN                                              185

  By County, City, and State—Institutional
  versus Family Care—Lack of Definite Authority—Boarding
  Out—Boards of Child Welfare—Widowed
  Mothers’ Pensions—The Delinquent
  Child—Children’s Courts—Feeble-minded Children.


  CHAPTER XIX. CHILD WAGE-EARNERS                                  197

  The Federal Child Labor Law—New York
  State Child Labor Laws—Child Workers and
  Delinquency—Street Trades—Night-messenger
  Service—Rural Child Workers—War and Children.


  CHAPTER XX. PUBLIC CHARITIES                                     209

  State and Private Control of Charitable Institutions—State
  Board of Charities, Duties,
  Powers—Proposed Changes in the Reorganization
  of the Board—County and City Institutions—Department
  of State and Alien Poor—Local
  Boards of Managers—State Department
  of Inspection—Provision for the Feeble-minded—Recommendations
  of the State Board—State
  Commission in Lunacy—State Prison
  Commission.


  CHAPTER XXI. THE PROTECTION OF WORKING-WOMEN                     221

  Conditions Before the War—Number of Women
  Wage-earners—Clothing Manufacturers, Laundries,
  Restaurant Workers, Textile Operators—War
  and Woman’s Work—The Eight-hour Day,
  New Occupations, Messenger Service, Wages—Minimum
  Wage—Protection Needed.


  CHAPTER XXII. AMERICANIZATION                                    232

  The Need of a United Country—The Immigrant
  a National Asset—Housing Conditions—A
  Common Language—Night Schools—Neighborhood
  Classes for Women—Home Teaching
  of Women—Naturalization—Uniform Laws for
  Naturalization—Ignorance of Laws—The Study
  of Citizenship.


  CHAPTER XXIII. PATRIOTISM AND CITIZENSHIP                        243


  APPENDIX                                                         253

  Some Definitions: Habeas Corpus—The Initiative
  and Referendum—The Recall—Injunction
  and Abatement Act—The Tin Plate Ordinance—Prohibition,
  High License, Local Option, the
  Guttenburg Method of Controlling the Liquor
  Traffic—The Single Tax—The House of Governors—Proportional
  Representation—Workmen’s
  Compensation Laws.


  CHART OF OFFICIALS FOR WHOM YOU CAN VOTE                         261

  When Elections Are Held.




FOREWORD


It is one thing for women to win the vote and a totally different one
for them to know how to use that vote so that it will count to the
greatest good of the state. The keynote of woman’s long struggle for
the ballot has been her ardent desire for service. Now that she has
been given the vote, she is eager to learn how she can best render
that service.

Citizenship has been very lightly regarded by our country in the
past. It has been given to the immigrant without any ceremony, in the
midst of the sordid surroundings of a local court-room; it has come
to the boy of twenty-one without any special preparation on his part;
it has often been bought and sold. It remains now for women to treat
it with a new dignity and to give it the importance it deserves.

Civics should be taught in every school in the land. The ballot
should be regarded as a sacred trust. Every man and woman who grows
up under the protection of our flag should feel the obligation to
give of his and her best to make our democracy a better expression of
our ideals.

I hope that this book will help to start some new citizens in the
right way.

  CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT.




PREFACE


There never seems to be just the right book on a topic that one has
very much at heart.

When the vote for New York women was an accomplished fact there came
a sudden and pressing need for a book on government that would give
the busy housewife or the overworked woman in the factory the simple
outline of her government and the officials for whom she was going
to vote, with the duties and requirements of their positions; but
that was not all. There are certain problems of government to-day
and certain departments of politics which have to do with things
which are of special interest to women. The protection and care of
human life has always been woman’s great business in life. So a book
on civics for women must include an outline of what the state is
doing for its children, for its poor, for working-women, for public
health and recreation; in short, for the same things in government
with which she is concerned in her individual capacity as a woman.
These are also the departments of government which seem to need her
attention the most. It is natural that men should have given the
greater care in government to business and material affairs. To
counterbalance this, woman’s work and votes are needed for the human
side.

To be an intelligent voter some knowledge of the structure of
government is needed. Also one must know the duties of an office
in order to judge of the qualifications of would-be candidates, so
Chapters II to VII give an outline of the different divisions of
government, beginning with the local offices, for which women will
cast their first votes, and going through the State to the National
Government. Chapters VII to X, inclusive, deal with the actual
casting of the ballot in the elections, the organization of political
parties, and the management of elections. The major part of the book
is then given to those departments of political affairs in which
women are undoubtedly most deeply concerned.

The substance of some of these chapters has been used as a
correspondence course in citizenship by the New York State Woman
Suffrage Party, and is published by special arrangement with them.
Through four years of continuous intensive educational work in the
State the Woman Suffrage Party has come closely in touch with many
thousands of women; it has learned to know their idealism, their
fervent belief in democracy, and their desire to make democracy more
effective. It knows also that there are many other women who have
never thought about voting, but who are equally conscientious and are
now eager to learn. It knows the problems of women as does probably
no other organization of women.

It also has a deep feeling of responsibility. It feels its obligation
to furnish all the help possible to the new women voters to meet
their new duties wisely. It hopes to bring home to women the human
side of government, to arouse a desire for further study, and
especially to encourage them to regard their vote as a trust to be
used not to advance partisan politics, but to further human welfare.

This is a book for amateur citizens written by an amateur citizen.
It may be found to differ from the others in that it deals with the
subject of civics from the standpoint of the woman voter.

  GERTRUDE FOSTER BROWN.




=YOUR VOTE AND HOW TO USE IT=




YOUR VOTE AND HOW TO USE IT




I

POLITICS AND WOMAN’S INTERESTS


The average woman has never thought of politics as having an intimate
relation to her daily life. She has not realized that government has
a direct effect on the comfort and happiness of the family in the
home, on the successful upbringing of children, and on the health and
safety of men and women workers.

She has known vaguely that government controls the fundamental
question of war or peace; that it has to do with taxation; that it
handles the mail, but that it also plays a large part in domestic and
social life is a fact that she has only recently been learning.

With the rapid extension of the vote to women, especially the recent
granting of suffrage to the women of New York State, there is a new
and wide-spread interest in how government works, and a realization
of the importance of good government and the dire peril of bad
government. Women are conscientious; they are accepting their new
responsibilities with much seriousness. They are eager to learn how
to be good citizens. The war also has made everybody think. It has
made government seem a more personal affair.


WHAT IS GOVERNMENT?

=Government is the management of those common affairs of a people
which can be handled in a more effective and more economical way by a
community acting together than by each individual acting for himself.=

In a sparsely settled community government is less apparent than in
a city. Its functions are simple. Sometimes it does not seem very
important. But as people congregate closer together it becomes more
complicated and comes in closer and closer touch with the individual
and family life.

For example, a man living in the country may rely on himself to
protect his home and property; but in the city life and property are
better protected by a police force than if each individual citizen
had to provide his own protection. A woman in a pioneer country may
bring up her child as she pleases. She may teach him when and how she
chooses. But as population increases and government is established,
a large part of the child’s training is dictated by it. He must go
to school at a certain age; he must stay there so many hours a day;
he must study certain things in a certain way. He cannot be put to
work until he has reached a certain age. If he contracts a contagious
disease the city takes control of the case.

Directly and indirectly the government in a city affects a woman’s
life and interests in innumerable ways.

She is dependent on it for the light and sunshine that comes into her
home. Laws concerning housing and building and tenement departments
of government are very important to the health, comfort, and even
decency of the family. She is dependent on government for the safety
of the milk she has to feed her baby. The health of the family
depends as much on the city department of health as on the mother’s
care. It is of the utmost importance to the city mother that the
streets be kept clean, because they are usually the only place that
her children have in which to play. The street cleaning department,
therefore, touches her closely. It is of vital moment to her that the
streets be kept free of criminal influence, therefore the management
of the police department is of great importance to her. If the town
is run “wide open” it may mean that her husband’s wages may be
dissipated. The way in which the excise law and the laws against
gambling are enforced is a matter which deeply concerns her.

If she lives in the country the relation of government to her life
is not so varied, but she is still dependent on it for the education
of her child, for the socializing influences of the community, and
for much of the business prosperity of the farm. Are telephone
connections cheap, are the roads passable at all seasons, are good
market facilities provided? These are all questions that greatly
affect her welfare, and they depend largely on the government.

=It is the business of government to maintain peace and to provide
for the common defense.=

This is a function of government so fundamental as to need little
comment. It is the first essential to the safe existence of the home.

=It is the business of government to assure justice and equality of
treatment to all citizens.=

This becomes more difficult as population increases and life grows
more complicated. Nearly every human being to-day is dependent on
the work of other people for most of the necessities, as well as the
comforts and conveniences, of life. The food that we eat, the cotton
and wool in the garments we wear, the coal that heats our houses, we
owe to the toil of other people who in return may be dependent on us
for something that they use. It is a matter that concerns every one
of us that in producing these things that we use human life shall be
safeguarded, that living wages shall be paid, and that standards of
civilization shall be maintained and advanced.

As individuals we cannot control conditions even for ourselves,
as individuals we cannot control them for other people; but all
of us working together in government can secure these fundamental
necessities for every one of us.

Since government in a democracy is made by the people themselves, it
is a responsibility that every one should share to help secure these
common needs.

=It is also a function of modern government to raise the standard of
health, education, and living.=

Plato said, “Only that state is healthy and can thrive which
unceasingly endeavors to improve the individuals who constitute it.”

Society must be protected from vicious and destructive influence;
the intelligence and knowledge of all the people are needed for the
common good.

As human beings have become dependent on one another, the well-being
or the degradation of one individual or family does not stop there.
It strongly influences the welfare of other individuals and families.
For their own protection people have not only the right, but the
obligation to make a government that shall foster and advance the
common welfare.

_The basis of good government is the golden rule._ To help secure
for others the protection that you demand for yourself is part of
the obligation of good citizenship. The honesty and efficiency of
government in a republic like the United States depend on the voters;
on their sense of responsibility, and on the intelligence with
which they use their power. The feeling of responsibility of each
individual, for the public welfare, cannot be too highly developed.

Democracy can only be a success in the degree that the people who
make that democracy are determined that it shall deal with justice,
and that it shall offer opportunity to every one within its borders.
They must also be vigilant to see that it shall deal wisely with
their common problems as they develop.

To be a citizen of such a democracy and to have the power to help it
grow along these lines, to be able to serve one’s country loyally in
the full efficiency of citizenship, are great privileges.




II

TOWN AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT


=The United States is both a Democracy and a Republic.=

=A Democracy= means, literally, a government by the people.

=A Republic= is a democracy in which the people elect representatives
to carry on the government for them.

The United States is a federation of forty-eight States. For
convenience of government each State is subdivided into smaller units.

In every political division of the State there are three distinct
departments:

=The Legislative=, the part that makes the law.

=The Administrative=, the part that administers the law.

=The Judicial=, the part that interprets the law.

Even in a sparsely settled community people have certain interests in
common. Roads have to be made, schools established, the poor cared
for, and taxes levied. Who does these things? If a cow breaks into a
neighbor’s cornfield, or if there is an epidemic, whose business is
it to look after it?


THE TOWN GOVERNMENT

With the exception of the school district, which has to do only with
the public schools, the town[1] or township is the smallest division
of the State for purposes of government. The government of the town
is the nearest approach we have to a direct government by the people
themselves.

=The Town Meeting= brings people together to discuss their local
affairs, to elect officers, and to appropriate the money necessary to
carry out their plans. It is held in New York State every other year,
some time between February 1st and May 1st.

The business of the town meeting includes the disposal of town
property, the care of bridges and roads, the care of the poor, the
number of constables, matters concerning public health, and the care
of stray animals.

Any citizen has a right to bring up any suggestion he pleases for
the people to consider and debate in open meeting, and then to take
whatever action they choose. In a matter of taxation or incurring a
town debt, only taxpaying citizens can vote.

Where it exists at its best, the town meeting has an admirable
effect in stimulating interest in local affairs and in developing
public spirit. A special town meeting can be called by a petition of
twenty-five taxpayers, or at the request of certain officials.

The town meeting is a form of government particularly adapted to a
small community. With the increase in population it has been given up
in many counties, and the election of town officers now usually takes
place at the regular fall election.

=Town Officers=: =The Supervisor= is the chief executive officer of
the town, and is elected for two years. He receives and pays out all
money except that raised for public roads and the care of the town
poor. If the town roads are in bad condition or if the poor are not
properly cared for, he is responsible. The honesty and efficiency of
the administration of town affairs are in his hands. He represents
the town on the county board of supervisors.

=The Town Board= consists of the supervisor, town clerk, and at
least two justices of the peace. It meets regularly twice a year.
It is the business of the board to receive the accounts of the town
officers and examine them, to hear and decide claims against the
town. An appeal may be taken from their decision to the county board
of supervisors. They may also frame propositions to be submitted to
the voters, and may borrow money to meet appropriations made at the
town meeting. They may appoint a physician to aid as health officer
for the town.

=The Town Clerk= is the general secretary and bookkeeper for the
town. He records births, marriages, and deaths, chattel mortgages
and property notes. He keeps the records of the town meetings. He
posts election notices. He issues marriage licenses, permissions for
burial, hunting licenses, etc.

=The Superintendent of Roads= has charge of building and maintaining
the town highways, bridges, and culverts outside of the incorporated
villages. He is paid by the day, and may hire machines and horses or
purchase tools and material for road making. The opportunities for
dishonest money in this office have sometimes made it sought after. A
contract may contain a “rake-off,” bills may be padded, and materials
accepted which are different from specifications.

=Three Assessors and a Collector=: The assessors determine the value
of taxable property in the town, and divide the amount of taxes to
be raised among the owners of the property. If a property-owner is
dissatisfied with his assessment he may appear in August before the
assessors and “swear off” what he considers an exorbitant amount.
Assessment rolls are made out, and it is the duty of the collector
to collect the money. Town collectors are paid 1 per cent. on taxes
collected within thirty days after due, with increasing fees for
collecting taxes after that time. This is an encouragement to the
collector to be dilatory in his collections, and is a disadvantage to
the town. It has been suggested that penalties for delinquent taxes
should go to the town and not to the collector.

=The Town Constables= have the duty of keeping the peace and carrying
out the orders of the justice of the peace. They may arrest people
accused or suspected of crime. There may not be more than five in a
town.

=The Overseers of the Poor= are charged with the duty of looking
after persons who are destitute and have no relative to support them.
They may assist such persons in their own homes or send them to the
county poorhouse. This office often conflicts with that of county
superintendent of the poor, and it has been recommended that it be
abolished.

=The Justice of the Peace= is the judicial officer of the town. Each
town has four such officers, each elected for four years. The justice
of the peace may hear civil cases where the sum involved is not over
two hundred dollars. He may try petty offenses of all kinds, breaches
of the peace, drunkenness, and petty larceny. He may issue warrants
and may hold persons suspected of serious crime to await action by
the grand jury.

=Terms of Town Officials=: Each official is elected for two years,
except the justices of the peace and sometimes one or two assessors,
who are elected for four years.

=Pay of Town Officials=: Most of these officers are paid from two
to four dollars for every day of actual service. The town clerk,
justices of the peace, and constables are paid certain fees.


THE COUNTY

The county comprises a number of townships. It is a political
division created by the State to administer certain local affairs, to
act as agent for the State, to collect State taxes, and to enforce
State law. The county owns the court-house and jail; it can sue or be
sued.

In most of New York State the county has become more important
in administering local affairs than the town. New York State has
sixty-two counties, of which five are in Greater New York. They vary
in size from Richmond County (Staten Island), which has only 59
square miles, to St. Lawrence County, which has 2,880 square miles.
They vary also in population from Hamilton County, with 2,000 people,
to New York County with two million.

=Elected Officials=: =The Board of Supervisors= is the legislative
body of the county. This board is composed of the supervisors elected
by each township, and also one member from each ward of a city in the
county. They elect their own chairman.

The board of supervisors have the custody and control of the
court-house, jail, poorhouse, and all county property; they receive
and decide claims against the county; they direct the raising of
money by taxation to meet the expenses of the county and the county’s
share in State taxes; they fix salaries for county officials; borrow
money for county needs; they regulate laws for the protection of
fish and game; they open county highways, erect bridges, and may
provide hospitals for tuberculosis. They also act as a board of
canvassers to canvass the returns after an election.

=The Sheriff=, the executive officer of the county, is elected to
enforce the law. On him rests the security of life and property. He
must preserve the peace, arrest offenders against the law, and hold
them in custody. He must not allow fear or sympathy to interfere
with his enforcement of the law. He summons jurors and witnesses for
county lawsuits and executes the orders of the court. Until recently
the fees which he received made the sheriff’s office one much sought
after. These now go to the treasurer in many counties, and the
sheriff is paid a salary. He cannot serve two consecutive terms. He
may appoint an under-sheriff and deputy sheriffs.

=The District Attorney= is the public prosecutor for the county, and
brings suit “in the name of the people of the State.” He is also
the legal adviser for county affairs. It is his business to protect
the public against crime of all kinds. If corruption exists in any
department, it is his duty to bring it to light. The good order of
the community and the efficiency of government in the county depend
much on him. He determines what cases shall come before the grand
jury.

=The County Clerk= keeps all the important records for the county,
including deeds, mortgages, and maps, and makes out the election
certificates. Public documents must always be open for public
inspection. In some counties there is a recorder of deeds. The clerk
also acts as clerk of the county court. His office has an income
from fees which used to go to the clerk and made this office very
lucrative. In most counties the fees now go to the county treasurer,
and the clerk is paid a salary.

=The County Treasurer= receives and disburses all public moneys for
the county. He receives money from the town supervisor, collected
for county and State taxes, the latter of which he pays to the State
treasurer. He receives from the State money for the public schools,
which he in turn passes on to the towns. He must give a bond for the
safe-keeping of these public funds. He also chooses the bank in which
public funds are kept, and ought to give a careful accounting of the
interest which must go into the county treasury.

=The Superintendent of the Poor= disburses the money raised to
care for the poor of the county. The superintendents of all the
public charities in the county make their reports to him, and he is
responsible for them to the board of supervisors. He also makes an
annual report to the State Board of Charities.

=Coroners=: From one to four coroners may be elected in each county,
except those in Greater New York. Their duty is to investigate sudden
and suspicious deaths, and sometimes the cause of a suspicious fire.
They are often practising physicians or they may employ physicians to
conduct inquests or autopsies.

=The County Superintendent of Highways= is appointed by the board of
supervisors for four years.

=The County Judge= presides over the county court. His salary
varies and is fixed by State law, although paid by the county. This
office should be most carefully filled. The county judge is not
only important because of his decisions, but he is one of the most
powerful men politically in the county. Only a man of strict probity
should be elected to this office.

=The Surrogate= administers estates of persons deceased, controls the
probate of wills, and appoints guardians for the property of minors.
His term is six years. In counties with small populations the county
judge acts as surrogate.

The term of office for county officials is three years, except that
of the supervisors elected by the towns for two years, and the judges
elected for six years.

=Political Honesty=: The question is often asked, are these
local offices honestly managed? Are there possible loopholes for
corruption? The following answer to these questions was given
recently by one in a position to know:

“The impelling motive of most politicians is the enjoyment of a
sense of power and influence. The day laborer who loafs through his
political job and the salaried higher officer who neglects his work
and engages in private business are examples of the most usual and
formidable class of political grafters. The heads of departments and
higher elected officers are apt to do their work as well as they
can, in order to qualify themselves for re-election. The days when a
man could dishonestly make a fortune in one political term are past
in this country, and waste, favoritism, and stupidity are the only
dangerous elements which we must look for.

“The greatest waste in expenditure of moneys by boards of supervisors
is usually on county roads and highways, where in some years
hundreds of thousands of dollars are lost by unscientific building
and upkeep. This also is an easy way for a dishonest supervisor to
reward political supporters by paying them for work on the road which
they do not do. The same things obtain in the matter of purchase of
supplies and the county printing. The cure for this is to have all
expenditures beyond a nominal amount made on public bids.

“Another opportunity of abuse is the payment of supervisors in fees.
Many counties still adhere to the old rule of fees: $4 per day for
attending board meetings; 8 cents per mile for going and returning;
$4 per day while actually engaged in any investigation or any other
lawful duty. For copying the assessment roll and extending taxes on
the tax roll supervisors receive commissions which, in some counties,
run into thousands of dollars. The remedy for the numberless evils
which accompany the fee system is to put the supervisors on a salary
basis.

“The sheriff has charge of the prisoners in the jail. Therein lies
his opportunity for dishonesty and extortion. Sheriffs should
receive salaries and not fees, and every county should have a
well-organized board of women visitors to inspect the jails and
lockups at least every two weeks.

“The district attorney has an opportunity for dishonesty in the
expenditure of the contingent fund, which is always provided for
him, and which he can pay out with little or no check. Fortunately,
however, most men elected to the office of district attorney are of
high enough caliber to make the percentage of dishonesty almost _nil_.

“If the county clerk is paid by fees it is difficult to expect an
absolute, ethical fulfilment of his duty, and probable that he will
be working for himself rather than the county.

“The duties of the county superintendent of the poor are in continual
conflict with those of the overseers of the poor. The opportunity to
waste and misappropriate county funds without detection is not as
great as it used to be, because of the close supervision of the State
Board of Charities; but the county superintendent has wide discretion
in giving alms and caring for the county poor, and the office is,
therefore, usually sought by a minor political leader, who, by virtue
of his office, can provide for his dependent supporters, which he
usually does in the sincere belief that he is properly dispensing
charity. In no case, however, is any great amount wasted, and on the
whole the work is fairly well done.

“Justices of the peace and constables and town clerks usually receive
fees. They should be put on a salary basis.

“Overseers of the poor have opportunities for fees and
misappropriation of small amounts because they are allowed liberal
discretion in selecting objects of the town’s bounty. The office
should be wiped out, the distinction between town and county
poor abolished; all the work should be done through the county
superintendent of the poor, who should be responsible to the State
Board of Charities.”

=The Relation of Country to City, State, and Nation=: While the
problems of government in rural districts are simple and few, the
close relations of city and country have made the wise management
of country affairs of great importance to those who live in cities.
On the other hand, the handling of the more complex and difficult
city problems are of equally grave importance to country dwellers.
Comfortable, prosperous life in a rural community is dependent not
only on local conditions, but also on State and National government.

Good roads are equally important to city and country, and they
depend largely on the State. The kind of education that the village
or country school gives will determine the intelligence and earning
capacity of many of the coming generations of city dwellers, and this
instruction is determined both by the State and by the local school
boards.

Low telephone rates and good interurban car lines will put the woman
on the farm in close touch with her neighbors, and so will stimulate
her interest in outside affairs. Healthy community life and rural
amusements will keep the young people content at home and help
prevent the drift toward the city. The farmer’s produce is handled
by city shops and markets, and the manufactured articles of city
factories go into the homes of every rural district.

Not only are city and country dependent on each other, but also one
part of the country is dependent on some other part, far distant, for
some of the necessities of life. Our cotton comes from the South,
wheat comes from the West, sugar may come from Colorado or Cuba.
The whole country is linked together in trade relationship, and
freight rates and interstate commerce are controlled by the Federal
government.

The good citizen, then, has a vital interest not only in his
supervisor and local affairs, but in both State and National
government. When he realizes that the size of his income, the comfort
of his family life, the welfare of his children, and their getting on
in life, depend to an appreciable degree on government, he and she
will begin to take a livelier interest in politics. The discussion
of these affairs in the home will serve to stimulate the interest of
the entire family in what is, after all, an important part of their
business.

A small community has one problem all its own. If there is some
offense against the public welfare, no one wants to complain. It
may be something merely disagreeable, or it may be a serious menace
to public health; but every one is slow to make a fuss about it
because he cannot hide his identity, and he is afraid he might become
unpopular. This fear is usually groundless because it is likely that
most of his neighbors agree with him in wanting to have the condition
changed. A country community needs fearless, public-spirited
citizens.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] The word town as used in New York does not mean a village or
city, but a political division.




III

THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE AND CITY GOVERNMENT


As population grows government needs increase. When people establish
their homes close together and form a populous community within
a limited area, it becomes necessary to have streets opened up,
sidewalks made, the streets lighted, protection from fire, and other
things that the township does not provide.

A territory of not over one square mile, having a population of
at least two hundred people, may be incorporated as a village.
On a petition of the taxpayers they may vote on the proposition,
whether or not they shall become an incorporated village, and have a
government of their own distinct from that of the town. Even if they
incorporate they still remain a part of the town, and take the same
part in town government as before.

=There Are Four Classes of Villages=: First class, those with a
population of 5,000 or over; second class, with a population between
3,000 and 5,000; third class, with a population of between 1,000 and
3,000; fourth class, with a population of less than 1,000. In many
Western States a village of one or two thousand inhabitants usually
becomes a city. In New York State there are villages of more than
15,000 population.

=The Village President=, who serves one year, is the chief executive,
and serves without pay. He is the head of the village board of
trustees, and in small villages is the head of the police. Local
order, peace, health, and sanitation depend on him.

=The Board of Trustees= consists of from two to four men in villages
of the third and fourth class; from two to six men in villages of
the second class, and from two to eight men in villages of the first
class, elected for two years, half of them elected each year. They
serve without pay. They make ordinances for the government of the
village and administer its affairs. They decide where sidewalks
shall be built, whether streets shall be paved, how garbage shall
be handled; they provide light and a water-supply; they provide for
the raising of money by taxes; if a sewerage system is needed it
must be done under the supervision of the State Board of Health.
Propositions relating to the large expenditure of funds must be
submitted to the taxpayers.

Questions of police, water-supply, fire protection, lights, sewers,
are sometimes handled by the board of trustees, or if the village
is large enough there may be separate boards or commissioners
established for some of these things.

A Fire Department, with fire house, hose and wagon, exists in most
villages, voluntary in small places, and a paid force in the larger
villages. The fire company is a popular department of public service,
because of the social pleasure involved and because firemen are
exempt from jury duty.

=A Treasurer, Assessors, a Collector, and a Village Clerk=,
are usually elected and sometimes =a Street Commissioner=. Not
infrequently the latter office is considered a sinecure, and streets
littered with waste paper and other refuse are common in the average
village. The commissioner should be held up to his duty by all the
voters.

=A Board of Health= of from three to seven members must be appointed
by the trustees to work in connection with the State Board of Health.
This board elects a health officer, who must be a physician. The
business of the board is to watch over drains, cesspools, to prevent
nuisances and contagion from disease. Health officers should be
vigilant and morally courageous, otherwise the community will pay in
illness.

=A Police Justice=, elected for four years, handles cases involving
violations of village ordinances. The board of trustees may appoint a
village attorney to represent them in case of lawsuits.

=The Annual Village Election= usually takes place the third Tuesday
in March. A special village election, similar to a town meeting, may
be called for taxpaying citizens to vote on special questions, such
as the removal of garbage at public expense, or the purchase of water
or lighting plants.

A water-supply is usually furnished by a village of any size. An
abundant supply is necessary, not only for homes, but for fire
protection and for any sewerage system. New York villages and cities
are very well lighted. Whether there should be public or private
ownership of public utilities is a question which is much discussed.
While the water-supply is usually owned by the municipality, the
lighting system more often belongs to a private company.

Sewage disposal is a matter which has to be taken up sooner or later
by a village as it grows in population. For too long our villages
have polluted the convenient stream. They have been slow to study the
question, and to dispose of sewage and garbage in a way that is both
satisfactory and economical. Foreign cities often make a profit out
of the disposal of their refuse, whereas it usually costs us money.
These questions need more intelligent consideration than is usually
given them.

       *       *       *       *       *

As a community grows larger it outgrows the simple form of village
government and needs one more adapted to its complex and growing
needs.

The growth of cities in the past hundred years is phenomenal. In
1820, 83 per cent. of the people of the United States lived on farms;
in 1910 only 32 per cent. The problems that a city government has to
meet are many and difficult, especially in the cities of New York
State, where a large proportion of the people are foreign-born, and
where there is often a large floating population without civic pride
or interest. In smaller communities, where every one is known, the
fear of public opinion acts as a restraining influence which is not
felt in a city where the individual identity is often submerged.

=A CITY GOVERNMENT= works under a charter granted by the State, which
limits its powers. These charters used to be made out separately for
each city, and the legislature interfered with the management of the
local affairs of a city in a way that caused a demand for “Home rule”
for cities. This has been partially granted, and cities in New York
State now have large power to provide public works and to control
public education, health, safety, recreation, and charities, although
they are still occasionally interfered with by the State legislature.

The city is a direct agent of the State, and does not work as the
village does, through the town and county.

=Three Classes of Cities=: First-class cities have a population of
175,000 or over. Second-class cities have a population of 50,000
to 175,000; third-class cities are all those with a population of
less than 50,000. The object of this division is to enable the
State to legislate for the needs of groups of cities instead of
individual ones. The mayor of a city may veto a measure passed by the
legislature, but if approved by the legislature and signed by the
governor, it may become law in spite of his veto.

The needs of government in a city are those of the village multiplied
in size; they include police protection, care of the public health,
a pure water-supply, inspection of food-supplies, supervision of
weights and measures, adequate housing inspection, economic and
satisfactory garbage and sewage disposal, fire protection, gas
and electric lighting, good paving, clean streets, the care of
dependents, maintenance of hospitals and libraries, good educational
facilities, transportation, and many other activities.

The general plan of government for cities is the same in all the
classes. Cities of the first class are New York City, Buffalo, and
Rochester (see Greater New York).

=Cities of the Second Class=: =The Mayor=, who is elected for two
years, is the chief executive officer. He has as important and
responsible a position as any man at the head of a big corporation.
The management of the city is in his hands. The health and welfare
of its dwellers depend on him. While the city council legislates
for the city, it is his business to see that laws and ordinances
are enforced. He may veto an ordinance passed by the city council,
although they may pass it over his veto by a two-thirds vote. The
mayor has the power of appointing the heads of most of the important
departments of the city’s business. Sometimes the city council has
to confirm an appointment, and an official can only be removed for
good cause, and he must be given a hearing and an opportunity to
answer charges. To elect to the position of mayor and to put the
entire responsibility of all the complex problems of city government
on a man of no training or fitness for the position, is to invite
extravagance, incompetence, and corruption.

For purposes of convenience in government a city is divided into
subdivisions called _wards_, and for elections, into certain voting
precincts called _election districts_.

=The Board of Aldermen or The Common Council= consists of one
alderman chosen from each ward and a president of the board. They
are elected for two years, and are to the city about the same
that the board of trustees are to the village. Their powers are
limited by the city charter. In general, they may pass ordinances
relating to streets, sewers, parks, public buildings, amusements,
grant franchises, regulate traffic, levy taxes, and borrow money
under certain restrictions for the use of the city. An alderman has
power over many local interests in his district. It is an important
position which in the main has been disregarded; it should be filled
by a man chosen for fitness as a local representative and not as a
reward for party service. No man should be elected to this board whom
you would not trust as the custodian of your own property or the
guardian of your children, because in a public sense that is what he
is.

=The Board of Estimate and Apportionment= is one of the most
important departments of city government. It has large control over
the city’s finances, and determines its policies in all financial
matters, franchises, privileges and permits, and makes the city
budget. It consists of the mayor, comptroller, corporation counsel,
president of the common council, and the city engineer.

=The Department of Contract and Supply= lets contracts for material
and work required by the city. With the constant growth of city
departments and city business, in which supplies and materials of
many kinds are needed, this is also an important committee.

Other elected officers are comptroller, treasurer, president of the
common council, and assessors.

The department of finance is managed by the comptroller and the
treasurer.

The department of assessment and taxation, which makes the
assessment rolls, consists of four assessors, elected two at a time,
for four years each.

The department of law is presided over by a corporation counsel,
appointed by the mayor. The mayor also appoints the city engineer and
the heads of the following departments:

The department of public works, which controls the water-supply,
streets, sewers, buildings, and public markets; the department of
public safety, which includes the bureaus of gas and electricity;
departments of police, health, charities and correction, and the
board of education.

Cities of the third class are not uniform in their government, but
the general outline is the same as for cities of the second class.

=City Elections= are held in the odd-numbered years. State officials
are elected in the even-numbered years. The purpose of setting
a different time for these elections is to keep city politics
independent of State political machines. Party issues have little to
do with the problems of a city. It is evident that the government of
a large city is a very important and complicated business. There are
several offices which demand as great executive ability as would be
required of a man at the head of a large business corporation. But
city offices are usually given to men not for fitness, but because
of party affiliation. Public sentiment is beginning to ask why high
standards of competence and efficiency should not be as much demanded
in public as in private business.

=The Budget=: The heads of the various departments decide how much
money will be required to run each department for the ensuing year.
The Board of Estimate and Apportionment considers these requests and
fixes the tax-rate necessary to raise the money needed (see Chapters
IV and XI).

=Franchise Rights=: A city has many sources of revenue of its own.
Public utilities which furnish such necessities as transportation,
water, gas, and electric light, earn enormous profits. In some places
some of these things are owned by the city and the revenues go to
the city. In others, the right to build and operate such a public
business is given to a private corporation through a franchise. It is
evident that these franchise rights are extremely valuable and should
not be given away without adequate compensation to the city, as well
as the insuring of good service. The rates that are charged, and
the service rendered, are matters of vast importance to the people
of a city. Municipal ownership of such utilities has never been as
extensive in this country as abroad, but the sentiment in favor of it
is growing. Franchise rights used to be given for long terms, even in
perpetuity, but public sentiment now demands that they be subject to
revision at reasonable intervals. Most cities to-day own their own
water-supply, and some of them have their own lighting plants.

=Commission Form of Government=: So many officials are needed to
manage the complex affairs of a city that even if well qualified
men are put up for office, with so many candidates to be elected,
it is impossible for the voters to know the merit of them all.
City government has been the weakest spot in our political life.
In an effort to meet its defects, a number of cities have adopted
the policy of doing away entirely with the form of government as
outlined, and electing on a non-partisan ticket several commissioners
(sometimes headed by a mayor), each one of whom is put in charge of a
division of the city’s administration, and made responsible for the
work of this department.

The fact is being recognized that skill and expert training are
needed in public officials; that the power should be given to a few
men, and that they should be held responsible for the success of
their work.

Buffalo now has a commission form of government.

=The City Manager Plan= gives the management of a city to one man,
who is engaged by the city, and held responsible for the conduct of
city affairs, in the same way that a large business enterprise would
engage a manager. A city manager should be a man who has made a study
and profession of city government.




IV

GREATER NEW YORK


The city of New York includes five counties: New York, Kings, Queens,
Bronx, and Richmond. In one hundred years, the population of New York
City grew from 50,000 to 4,000,000 people. It now has a population
of nearly 6,000,000, which is about one-half the population of the
State, and it is the second city in size in the world.

The government of the city is strictly prescribed by its charter; for
any improvement that it desires outside of the provisions of that
charter, the city must go for permission to the State Legislature.

For convenience in government the city is divided into five boroughs:
Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond (Staten Island).

=The Mayor= is the chief executive of the city. He is elected for
four years and has a salary of $15,000. He has powers of appointment
and removal over a vast number of important positions, including the
heads of the big city departments. Like the Governor of the State
and the President of the United States, he initiates legislation by
sending once a year a message to the Board of Aldermen containing a
general statement of the government and financial condition of the
city, and recommending such measures as he deems advisable. He may
ask for special legislation at any time.

All ordinances and by-laws passed by the Board of Aldermen go to the
Mayor for approval. If he vetoes a measure, the Board of Aldermen may
pass it over his veto by a two-thirds or three-fourths vote, with
the exception of the granting of franchise rights, where his veto is
absolute.

=The Comptroller= is at the head of the financial affairs of the
city. His term of office is four years, and salary $15,000. He
may appoint three deputies at $7,500 each, an assistant deputy at
$3,000, besides other heads of the various divisions of the finance
department; but the minor positions are under the Civil Service.

=The President of the Board of Aldermen= is elected for the same term
as the Mayor, and receives a salary of $7,500. He takes the Mayor’s
place in case of absence or death.

=The Presidents of Manhattan, Bronx, and Brooklyn Boroughs= receive
$7,500 a year; of Queens and Richmond Boroughs, $5,000. They are
elected for four years, and each president has general oversight
over streets, bridges, sewers, and buildings in his borough. He may
appoint a commissioner of public works, and a superintendent of
buildings for his borough, and local school boards. In Queens and
Richmond the borough presidents have charge of street-cleaning.

=The Board of Aldermen= is the legislative body of the city. It
consists of seventy-three men elected from Aldermanic districts.
They serve for a term of two years, and receive a salary of $2,000
each. This board makes the ordinances for the government of the
city. It makes and enforces police, fire, building, health, and
park regulations; it makes by-laws for the regulation of public
markets, streets, public buildings, docks; for inspection of weights
and measures; regulating places of amusement, height of buildings;
licensing cabs, truckmen, and pawnbrokers, and regulations for the
suppression of vice. A city clerk and a clerk of the board at a
$7,000 salary each, are appointed by the board.

=The Board of Estimate and Apportionment= is the most important of
the city boards. It frames the city budget, which has to be adopted
by the Board of Aldermen. It also passes on bills granting franchise
rights. It represents the whole city, and consists of the Mayor,
Comptroller, President of the Board of Aldermen, each with three
votes; Presidents of Manhattan and Brooklyn Boroughs, with two votes
each; and Presidents of Bronx, Richmond, and Queens Boroughs, with
one vote each.

Among the important appointive positions of the city which are in the
hands of the Mayor are the following:

=The Corporation Counsel=, with a salary of $15,000 a year, is the
head of the law department of the city, and is the city’s legal
adviser. He has over fifty assistant counsels to appoint, with
salaries ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 a year, and a host of deputy
and junior assistants.

=The City Chamberlain= receives and pays out all moneys for the
city—salary $12,000. He may appoint a deputy at $5,000 a year. The
abolishment of the office of Chamberlain as being unnecessary was
recommended by a recent incumbent; but it is too large a plum to be
lightly discarded.

=The President of the Department of Taxes and Assessments= receives
$8,000 a year. Six other tax commissioners are appointed with
salaries of $7,000 each, two of whom must be of the opposing party.

The Commissioners of Accounts, of Correction, of Docks and Ferries,
and of Health, the Fire Commissioner, Police Commissioner,
Commissioner of Licenses, of Plants and Structures, of Public
Charities, the Street-cleaning and Tenement House Commissioners,
Commissioner of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity, and the chairman
of the Parole Commission, all receive $7,500 a year; the Commissioner
of Weights and Measures, $5,000 a year.

There is a new Commissioner of Public Markets, and a Supervisor of
the _City Record_, a city publication which must print all ordinances
which involve the spending of city money, granting a franchise, or
making a specific improvement, before they are passed by the Board of
Aldermen.

There are many other less important offices to be filled, and the
Borough Presidents have still further appointments.

=The Board of Education= has been reduced from forty-six to seven
members, of whom two are now women. In addition there are forty-six
local school boards in the various school districts, each consisting
of five members appointed by the Borough President and the District
Superintendent of the local school district. These have now been
divided among the seven members of the new School Board.

=The Board of Elections= consists of four commissioners, two
Republicans and two Democrats, appointed by the Board of Aldermen for
two years, with a salary of $5,000 each. This board determines the
election-district boundaries, chooses about 2,000 polling-places,
and appoints about 17,000 election officials. Since 1915 the city
has allowed school-houses and other public buildings to be used as
polling-places, and at the last election nearly 1,000 districts were
supplied in this way.

=Local Improvement Boards=: The city is divided into twenty-five
districts, in each of which there is a Local Improvement Board,
consisting of the Borough President and the Aldermen of the
Aldermanic districts included in the local improvement district.

=County Government Within the City=: Each county included in the
city of New York has a separate county government, independent of
the city, with its sheriff, county clerk, district attorney, and
its county court in every county but New York. The office of Sheriff
in New York County has been one of the highest paid offices in the
State, because of its fees. These have amounted to from $80,000 to
$100,000 or more a year, and the county and Sheriff have divided
them. The county now receives all the fees, and the Sheriff a salary
of $12,000 a year; but he cannot be re-elected, and the term of
office has been increased from two to four years.

=Courts=—=Supreme Courts=: The first judicial department, and the
first judicial district of the State are formed by New York and Bronx
Counties. Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond form the second. The Special
and Trial terms of the Supreme Court try both criminal and civil
cases with and without a jury, as in other counties.

=County Courts= are held in Kings, Queens, Bronx, and Richmond
Counties, and each of them except Richmond has a _Surrogate’s Court_.
New York County elects two Surrogates, for a term of fourteen years
each, at a salary of $15,000 a year. In place of the County Court,
New York County has a _City Court_, which tries civil suits and is
a naturalization court, and a _Court of General Sessions_, which
tries criminal cases. The _Court of Special Sessions_, with a chief
justice and fifteen assistant justices appointed by the Mayor,
tries cases of misdemeanors, and offenders sent to them by the City
Magistrates. One division of this court is the Children’s Court, with
one presiding justice and five associate justices, with a court in
each borough. These justices hold office for a term of ten years.

=Magistrates’ Courts= are held by a large number of magistrates,
appointed by the Mayor, and a chief magistrate who has general
supervision of them. _Municipal Courts_ are held in various parts of
the city to try small civil suits. There are forty-five Municipal
Court districts, in each of which there is a judge elected by the
people of the district for a term of ten years.

There are separate Night Courts for both men and women, a Domestic
Relations Court, which deals with cases of non-support of wives and
children, and poor relations, and a Traffic Court, which deals solely
with violations of the traffic laws.

       *       *       *       *       *

To even mention the various institutions in the city of New York
which are engaged in improving the health and social welfare of the
people would take many pages. There is great need among them of
a more clean-cut division of activities, and less overlapping of
authority.

_The Commissioner of Public Charities_, appointed by the Mayor, is
responsible for the care of the city’s dependents. In 1915, 350,362
free lodgings were given to dispossessed families and needy men and
women. There are 329 institutions receiving money from the city
for the care of dependent children, and 22,753 children were in
their charge on January 1, 1916. The care which these children have
received has been severely criticized. The conflicting authority of
the State Board of Charities and the City Board of Inspection of
Charitable Institutions, is said to be responsible for this. In the
future, the city is to conduct its own inspections. Widows’ pensions
are administered for all of Greater New York by one _Child Welfare
Board_ of nine members appointed by the Mayor, of whom two must be
women. They serve for a term of eight years without salary.

_The Tenement House Department_ looks after the 103,882 tenement
buildings of the city, and has a force of 193 inspectors, of whom
eight are women. There are still about 9,000 dark rooms in the old
tenements, built before the law was passed requiring a certain
amount of light and air, which have not been made over to meet the
new requirements.

_The Street-cleaning Department_ employs regularly about 5,400 men at
salaries ranging from $720 to $860 a year.

_The Board of Inebriety_ was organized to take charge of persons who
are chronic addicts to alcohol or drugs, to treat them as victims
of disease, and send them to a farm where treatment looking toward
a cure is combined with farm work, truck gardening, etc. The great
needs of this work cannot be met until further accommodations are
made for patients.

=The Municipal Civil Service Commission=, consisting of three members
appointed by the Mayor, maintains a regular staff of examiners of
applicants for city positions. The regular payroll of the city
includes nearly 85,000 persons, of whom about 30,000 are not under
the jurisdiction of the Civil Service. There are also about 20,000
others who are employed part of the time.

There is a free _public employment bureau_ which is growing
steadily and is placing over two thousand applicants a month, and a
Commissioner of Weights and Measures.

The management of each one of the large departments of city
government requires special and technical training. A corporation
manager would search the country for the best man to be found for
each particular department.

School-teachers and school superintendents are chosen because of
their training and experience. Minor city employees are appointed
from Civil Service lists; but the custom of American cities is to
appoint men at the heads of city departments who have distinguished
themselves for party service.

=The Budget for Greater New York= is made up, beginning in June,
and being adopted November 1st. Estimates of the needs of each
department for the coming year are submitted to the Board of Estimate
and Apportionment, and are studied by sub-committees who conduct
public hearings, when the representatives of each department and
the official examiners report on their estimates and each item
may be examined and discussed. A tentative budget is printed for
public use and the last week in October public hearings are held. By
November 1st the budget must be adopted by the Board of Estimate and
Apportionment and sent to the Board of Aldermen for their approval.

“Pay as you go” was a financial policy adopted in 1914 to relieve the
tremendous piling up of future indebtedness of the city for permanent
improvements of the non-revenue producing class. During the years
1914-1918 an annually increasing proportion of the cost of these
improvements was to be included in the tax budget, and by 1918 the
entire cost was to be met by taxation, and thereafter no bonds were
to be issued for this class of improvement. Every dollar borrowed at
4½ per cent. interest on a fifty-year bond costs $1.69 in interest
charges. While taxes are higher for a time under the pay-as-you-go
plan, the actual cost of improvements to the city is much less.

The Mayor of New York City is the head of a corporation whose
budget of expenditure, in 1916, was $212,000,000. Before the war
the general expenses of the United States Steel Corporation were
about $34,000,000 a year. The salary of the president of the Steel
Corporation, or of any one of the largest business corporations of
the country, would be from $50,000 to $100,000 a year. The Mayor of
New York City receives $15,000 a year. But a business corporation
would insist on having for president a man whose training and
business experience had made him peculiarly fitted for the job,
while our practice in choosing a man for mayor is to give little
consideration to special training and experience in the work of city
administration.




V

STATE GOVERNMENT


The State has such large powers over its people, and over all
political divisions within it, that it is often called the “Sovereign
State.” The State regulates the ownership and transfer of property;
it punishes murder and other crimes; it regulates business relations;
it prescribes the form of marriage and the reasons for divorce; it
authorizes the levying of taxes; it makes its own election laws and
provides for education; until recently it has controlled railroads
operating within its borders.

=The State Constitution=, adopted by a majority of the voters of the
State, is the fundamental law of the State. It can only be changed by
a constitutional convention or by the adoption of a constitutional
amendment, which is done with considerable difficulty.

A constitutional convention is an assemblage of men chosen by the
voters to revise the constitution. The result of their deliberation
is then submitted to the voters, who can accept or reject it. The
last revision took place in 1915 and was overwhelmingly defeated at
the polls. The law now provides for a revision every twenty years if
the voters desire it.

An amendment to the constitution can be proposed in the Legislature.
It has to pass both houses of the Legislature during two different
but successive sessions (a new session of the Legislature comes only
every other year, when a new Senate is elected), and must then be
submitted to the voters of the State for their approval. A majority
vote makes it a law.

=The Legislature= has authority under the State constitution to make
laws for the State. It meets every year on the first Wednesday in
January at the Capitol in Albany, and remains in session until its
business is completed, usually about April 1st. It is composed of two
divisions or “houses,” the Assembly and the Senate.

Every ten years, in a year ending with the figure five, a census is
taken of the people of the State, and on this basis there is a new
apportionment of Senators and Assemblymen.

=The Senate= at present is composed of fifty-two members, elected
from certain divisions of the State known as Senatorial Districts. In
general, each fiftieth of the population of the State is entitled to
one Senator. (This rule is not followed mathematically, for a county
may not be divided except to form two or more districts within it;
no one county may have more than one-third of all the Senators, and
no two counties may have more than one-half of the total number.
This is intended as a check to a congested district having an undue
representation.)

If a county which already has three or more Senators shows a
sufficient increase in population to entitle it to another one,
the additional Senator adds one more to the fifty Senators already
provided for.

=The Assembly= is composed of one hundred and fifty members, and,
roughly speaking, every one hundred and fiftieth part of the
population of the State is entitled to one Assemblyman. In practice
the rural county of small or medium size which does not contain
a large city is one Assembly District. Chautauqua, Dutchess,
Schenectady, Niagara, Orange, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Steuben,
Richmond, Suffolk, and Broome have each two Assembly Districts.
Albany, Oneida, and Onondaga have three each; Queens has six;
Westchester and Monroe, five; Bronx and Erie, eight; Kings and New
York, twenty-three each; Hamilton and Fulton counties have only
one between them. Nassau County has recently been divided into two
Assembly Districts. This division is made by the County Board of
Supervisors.

The presiding officer of the Senate is the _Lieutenant Governor_. The
presiding officer of the Assembly is elected by its members, and is
called the _Speaker_. He appoints the standing committees, and has
much control over legislation. He usually belongs to the political
party which is in the majority in the Assembly. This party also
elects a majority leader to control legislation on the floor. The
choice of the other party is called the _leader of the minority_, and
he is recognized as the leader of this party in the Legislature. The
Senate also has majority and minority leaders.

Assemblymen are elected for one year, and Senators for two years.
Both receive $1,500 salary and an allowance of ten cents a mile
traveling expenses once during the session.

=How to Get a Law Passed by the Legislature=: A bill may be
introduced by any member, beginning, “The People of the State of New
York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact,” etc.

It may be introduced into either the Senate or the Assembly, or it
can be introduced in both houses simultaneously. It has a first
reading and is referred to a committee. The committee may pigeonhole
it and never report, or it may report it too late in the session for
action by the Legislature, or it may report it favorably, or with a
recommendation that it be rejected. If it is reported favorably it
is put on the calendar to await its turn for consideration. It then
comes up for a second reading, when it may be amended and sent back
to the committee; after a third reading a vote is taken. If it is
passed in one house it then goes to the other house, where it goes
through the same procedure. If it is passed by the second house,
it then goes to the Governor for his signature. If it is a bill
concerning the government of a city it goes to the mayor of the city
for his approval.

If either house changes the bill it has to go back to the first house
for action in its amended form. The Governor has the power to veto a
bill, but it can be repassed over his veto by a two-thirds vote.

=The Governor= is the chief executive officer of the State. It is
his business to enforce the laws, through his appointive officers.
He has control of the military forces of the State, which must
consist of not less than twenty thousand men, of whom two thousand
must be a naval militia. He has the power to grant pardons. He is
elected for two years, and receives a salary of $10,000 and the use
of the Executive Mansion. He may also initiate legislation. At every
regular session of the Legislature his duty is to send a “message,”
telling the Legislature about the condition of public affairs and
recommending measures for their consideration. He may also, at any
time, ask for special legislation, and may call the Legislature
together in an extra session. He has the power of many important
appointments to State positions, but subject to the approval of the
Senate.

=The Lieutenant Governor=, with a salary of $5,000 a year, takes the
Governor’s place in case of need. He presides over the Senate.

=The Secretary of State= has charge of all public documents and
records. He grants certificates of incorporation, and has charge of
elections and the taking of the census. His salary is $6,000 a year.

=The Comptroller= must sign every warrant for payment of State
funds. He acts as auditor for the State, reports to the Legislature
concerning State funds, and superintends the collection of State
taxes. He designates the banks in which State money shall be
deposited. His salary is $8,000 a year.

=The State Treasurer= is the custodian of State funds, and pays them
out only on order of the Comptroller. His salary is $6,000 a year.

=The Attorney-General= is the general legal adviser of the State. He
prosecutes and defends all actions in which the State is interested.
His salary is $10,000.

=The State Engineer and Surveyor= must be a practical engineer. He
has charge of the canals, and the surveying and mapping of all the
public lands of the State.

=Appointive Offices=: Among these are two _Public Service
Commissions_, each with five members. The first has jurisdiction
over Greater New York, and the second over the rest of the State.
In general, they have power to regulate railroads and street-cars,
to establish rates, and to compel adequate service. They also
control express companies, gas and electrical companies, telephone
and telegraph lines. No company can raise its rates without their
consent. Their business is to see that the needs of the public are
adequately served, and also to protect the companies from unjust
treatment. These commissions are considered so important that the
salary of each commissioner was made $15,000 a year.

=The State Tax Commissioners= have general supervision of the methods
of raising taxes throughout the State. There are three of them
appointed for three years, and they must visit every county in the
State at least once in two years. Their salary is $6,000 a year each.

=The State Board of Equalization=, which consists of the tax
commissioners and commissioners of the land office, has to equalize
the assessments in each county, and fix the amount on which the State
tax is to be levied.

=The Superintendent of Banks= controls the banks, trust companies,
building and loan associations, which make reports to him quarterly,
from which he in turn makes a report to the Legislature annually. His
salary is $10,000, and his term three years.

=The Superintendent of Insurance= has control over all the insurance
companies and reports annually to the Legislature. His salary is
$10,000, and term three years.

=The Commissioner of Health= must be a physician. He has general
oversight of the health of the State, and supervises the registration
of births, marriages, and deaths in the towns and cities. His salary
is $8,000, and he has a four-year term.

=The Commissioner of Excise= issues tax certificates for the sale of
liquor and collects the excise tax, of which the State gets one-half,
and the city or town in which the liquor is sold gets one-half. His
salary is $7,000, term five years.

=The Commissioner of Agriculture= appoints the directors of farmers’
institutes, watches over the sale of food products that might be
injurious to health, and has general care of the agricultural needs
of the State. His salary is $8,000, term three years.

=The Commissioner of Highways=, who is in charge of State roads and
improvements, serves for two years with a salary of $12,000 a year.

=The Department of Labor=, which is a very important branch of the
State government, works to improve the conditions of labor. There
are five commissioners who serve six years, each with a salary of
$8,000. In this department are several bureaus: _viz._, Inspection,
Employment, Workmen’s Compensation, Mediation and Arbitration,
Statistics and Information, Industries, and Immigration.

=The Conservation Commissioner= controls departments for preserving
and propagating fish and game, for protecting lands and forests, and
the control of inland waters. He appoints a head for each division.
(Forests owned by the State must be kept wild. They may not be
loaned, sold, or exchanged, and no wood may be cut.) He serves six
years, with a salary of $8,000 a year.

=The Civil Service Commission= consists of three commissioners who
have the duty of determining the rules with which to test the fitness
of applicants for employment under the civil service laws. The civil
service is intended to prevent the appointment of men to government
positions through partisan politics or personal “pull.” Positions are
classified, competitive examinations are held, and appointments made
in order of merit. The custom has usually been to have separate lists
made out of men and women, and it has been complained that preference
has been given to the men’s lists.

There is a _Superintendent of Public Works_, with a salary of $8,000;
a _Superintendent of Prisons_, salary of $6,000, and a _State
Commission of Prisons_ of seven members who get $10 a day each for
each day of service; a _State Board of Charities_; a _State Hospital
Commission in Lunacy_ of three members, the president of which is
paid $7,000, and other members $5,000.

There is also a _State Food Commission_ of three members who serve
without pay, appointed only for the period of the war, and a recently
created _Farms and Markets Council_.

While most of the heads of the administrative departments of the
State government are appointed by the Governor, the terms of office
of many of them are longer than the term of the Governor who
appoints them. As a consequence, a Governor may be in office, and
important departments like the Excise Commission, the Public Health
and Public Service, and Industrial Commissions, may be in the hands
of appointees of a preceding Governor. They can be removed from
office only by preferring charges and after a hearing. Also certain
other important State officials, including the Comptroller and
the Secretary of State, are elected by the people, and may differ
radically from the Governor on questions of public policy. They may
even belong to a different political party.

It is by some considered a weakness in the management of the affairs
of the State, that the conduct of some of the most important
departments of an administration may be out of the control of the
Governor who is responsible for them.

The business of the State requires about 17,500 regular employees,
and the payroll is about $22,250,000. It is probable that some of
these public officials in the service of the State might be dispensed
with if they were required to work as many hours a day and as many
days a year as they would be obliged to do in any private business.




VI

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT


The sovereign power of the United States is vested in the National
government, the federal union of all the States, each self-governing,
but all uniting for certain purposes. The Constitution of the United
States is the supreme law of the land.

The National government, like that of the State and municipality,
has three distinct divisions: the legislative, the executive, and
the judicial. The legislative power rests with Congress, which is
composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

=The House of Representatives= is elected every two years by the
voters of the States. After the census, which is taken every ten
years, Congress determines what the total number of Representatives
shall be. These are then apportioned among the States according to
population. After the census of 1910 the House of Representatives
was increased to 435 members, which gave one member for every
211,877 inhabitants. New York has 43 Representatives, the largest
number from any State in the Union. Every State is entitled to at
least one Representative, although it may not have the requisite
population. _The Congressional District_ from which a member is
elected is determined by the State Legislature. Greater New York has
23 Congressmen.

=Qualifications for Representatives to Congress=: A man must be
twenty-five years old and have been a citizen of the United States
for at least seven years, and be a resident of the State from which
he is chosen. The salary is $7,500 a year, with an allowance for a
clerk, for stationery, and for traveling expenses.

=The Senate= is composed of ninety-six members, two members from
every State in the Union, elected for a term of six years. In order
that there shall always be experienced men in the Senate, only
one-third of that body is elected at a time. The Senate is divided
into three classes, and the men belonging to one of the three classes
are elected every two years.

A Senator may be re-elected as many times as a State chooses, and
many Senators have served twenty years or more. This makes the Upper
House of Congress a very conservative, stable body of men. Senators,
as well as Representatives, receive a salary of $7,500 a year. The
_Vice-President_ of the United States is the presiding officer of the
Senate.

The election of Senators was formerly a prerogative of the State
Legislature. The Seventeenth Amendment to the National Constitution,
passed in 1913, provides that they shall be elected by direct voice
of the voters of the States.

=Qualifications of Senators=: A candidate for the Senate must be
thirty years old and have been a citizen for at least nine years.

=Sessions of Congress=: A new Congress comes into existence on the
fourth day of March every odd year, although it does not meet in
regular session until the following winter. The long session begins
the first Monday in December in the odd-numbered year, and usually
lasts until spring or summer. The short session begins the same time
in the even-numbered year and lasts until the following March 4th,
when the new Congress, elected the previous November, comes into
existence, although it does not meet until the following December,
unless the President calls an extraordinary session. A Congressman,
therefore, is elected more than a year before he takes his seat. The
Sixty-fifth Congress will end March 4, 1919. The members of the Lower
House of the Sixty-sixth Congress will be elected in November, 1918.

=Congressional Committees=: The work of Congress is largely done
through committees. The House of Representatives, as constituted
to-day, is an unwieldy body. It is obvious that four hundred and
thirty-five men is too large a number to work effectively as a whole.
Every bill, even a recommendation from the President, is referred to
an appropriate committee. It is only because of these many committees
that it is possible to transact the very large amount of business
that comes before Congress every year.

=How a Bill Is Passed=: The procedure in Congress is similar to that
in the State Legislature. A bill may be introduced by any member in
either house, and must pass through both houses.

=Powers of Congress=: Congress has absolute power to levy and collect
taxes. Revenue bills must originate in the House of Representatives.
Congress has the exclusive power to declare war, to raise and
support an army and navy, and to regulate commerce. It controls
naturalization laws and immigration; it establishes post-offices;
grants patents and copyrights. It has the power to coin and to borrow
money. It also governs the District of Columbia and the Territories.

=An Amendment to the Constitution of the United States= must be
passed by a majority of two-thirds of the votes cast in both houses
of Congress. It is then submitted to the States for ratification by
the State Legislatures. When the Legislatures of three-fourths of the
forty-eight States have ratified such an amendment by a majority vote
of their members it becomes law.

=The Executive=: The President of the United States has greater
powers than have the heads of many other nations. He is the
Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy; he conducts official
business with foreign nations and makes treaties with them, subject
to the approval of the Senate; he appoints, with the consent of the
Senate, ambassadors, ministers, high officials of Army and Navy,
justices of the Supreme Court, and a vast number of other officers.
He may veto measures passed by Congress, but they can be passed over
his veto by a two-thirds vote.

The President has power to initiate legislation by sending a message
to Congress, giving them information about important affairs and
recommending legislative measures for their consideration. The degree
to which he can force legislation through Congress depends both on
the strength of the party in Congress to which he belongs, and on
the personal power and prestige of the President himself. President
Wilson is the first President, for more than a century, to appear in
person before a joint session of Congress and read his message.

=Election of the President=: The President is chosen by presidential
electors, elected by the voters of the various States, the number
of electors for each State being the same as the total number of
Representatives and Senators in Congress from that State. The
electors of a State meet at the State Capitol on the second Monday of
January following the election, to cast their votes for President.
The electors are merely machines to register the vote of the State,
and usually the entire electoral vote of a State goes to one
candidate, although the majority of the popular vote for him may have
been small. This system makes the presidential election virtually
an election by States. A State “goes” Republican or Democratic. The
struggle is concentrated in a few doubtful States. To win or lose
them may mean to win or lose the election. It has happened that
one candidate has actually received a larger popular vote than his
opponent, and yet has not been elected, because the number of votes
in the electoral college from the States that gave him a majority was
smaller than the number of electoral votes from the other States.
There is a movement toward the abolition of the electoral college and
direct nomination and direct election of the President by the voters.

=The Vice-President= must be eligible to the office of President. He
is elected for the same term, and his salary is $12,000 a year. His
only duty is to preside over the Senate and to succeed the President
in case of need.

=The Cabinet= consists of ten officials appointed by the President
with the consent of the Senate to conduct for him certain departments
of public business. The salary of a Cabinet member is $12,000.

Cabinet members have no vote in either House of Congress, and are not
responsible to it in any way. Like the President himself, they may
belong to the party which is in the minority in Congress. The Cabinet
is an advisory body to the President, but its members have no legal
standing in that way, and he may ignore them if he chooses. Each
Cabinet officer is the administrative head of his department.

The Secretary of State heads the Department of State, and is
responsible for all official negotiations and relations with foreign
governments. He is the medium of communication between the President
and the Governors of the States.

The Secretary of the Treasury manages national finances, administers
revenue, currency, and national banking laws.

The Secretary of War has charge of all matters of national defense,
river and harbor improvements, and is responsible for the maintenance
of the Army.

The Attorney-General is the legal adviser of the President and the
National government.

The Postmaster-General conducts the affairs of the United States
Post-Office Department and the transportation of the mail.

The Secretary of the Navy has charge of the Navy and its equipment,
yards, and docks.

The Secretary of the Interior and his department have charge of
public lands and Indian affairs. He has the granting of pensions and
patents.

The Secretary of Agriculture has for his business the improvement of
agriculture in the United States. He also has charge of the Weather
Bureau, animal and plant industry, and the forest service.

The Secretary of Commerce must aid and develop the commercial
interests of the country, including mining and transportation. He
takes the census every ten years.

The Secretary of Labor and the Department of Labor are designed to
protect the welfare of the wage earners. To this department belong
the Bureau of Immigration and the Children’s Bureau.

The tendency of the past few years has been to enlarge the powers
of the National government. With the rapid increase of means of
transportation distant parts of the country have been brought close
together. Sectionalism is diminishing. To “States’ rights” is being
added a national pride. In the administration of the business of the
nation, State boundaries can often no longer be considered without
a distinct loss of economy and efficiency. To give one example: the
State control of railroads resulted in obstructive and entirely
different requirements being made by neighboring States, on the same
railroad passing through several of them. The power of separate
States to control, independent of each other, such things as marriage
and divorce laws, has resulted in the deplorable situation that a
couple may be legally married in one State and the marriage may not
be recognized in another.

It is evident that with the growth in influence and importance of the
United States, the National government is gradually assuming many
functions which formerly were left to the separate States.




VII

WHO CAN VOTE


There is one way in which the government of a republic like the
United States differs from other forms of government—_viz._, in
a republic _the source of all power rests with the people_. They
choose the men to whom they give the right to speak for them and to
represent them.

The right to vote for the man who is to represent you, who is to make
the law for you and to enforce that law, is the most sacred right of
a free country.

The success or failure of government in the United States, and in
every political division of the State, rests with the men and women
who have the power of the vote.

One of the great dangers of a democracy is the carelessness and
indifference of the voter. If a government “by the people” is to
be a success, the people themselves must see to it that honest,
responsible, and efficient officials are chosen.

=Every Person in the State Is Either a Citizen or an Alien.
Citizenship Is Conferred by the National Government and the State Has
No Power to Confer or Withhold It.=

=A Citizen= is defined in the Constitution of the United States: “All
persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the
State in which they reside.” Native-born Indians who have had land
allotted them and have given up their tribal life are citizens. All
persons born out of the country of citizen parents are also citizens,
except where the father has never resided in the United States.

=Naturalization=: Congress makes uniform laws of naturalization for
all the States.

=An Alien= is a person born in a foreign country who lives here but
is still a subject of some other country.

=An Alien May Become a Citizen= of the United States, and thus
of New York State, after he has lived in the country five years
continuously, and in the State one year. He must be able to write his
own language, to read and speak English, and be of moral character.
His first step is to go to a Federal court, or a court of record,
and swear that it is his intention to become a citizen and renounce
his allegiance to any foreign power. He is then given his “first
papers.” Not less than two years, or more than seven years later, he
must appear again with two witnesses to swear to his good character
and loyalty, and file a petition. After ninety days his application
is heard by the court and he is examined by the judge and renews
his oath of allegiance. If the judge is satisfied he is given his
certificate of naturalization which makes him a citizen. Fees
amounting to five dollars are now charged.

=Only White Persons and Negroes May Become Naturalized=: Chinese,
Japanese and East Indians cannot become citizens unless born in the
United States. Polygamists are excluded.

=An Unmarried Woman= can take out papers of naturalization and become
a citizen in the same way as does a man.

=A Married Woman= is only a citizen if her husband is a citizen.
Under the present law, she cannot become naturalized by herself.
Also, under a strict interpretation of the law, she has the residence
of her husband and must vote from the same place.

=A Woman Born= in the =United States= who =marries= an =alien=,
although she may never leave her own country, =ceases to be an
American citizen= and becomes a subject of the country to which
her husband belongs. Therefore, the wife of a man not a citizen of
the United States cannot vote in this country.[2] If a resident of
the United States, she resumes her citizenship at the death of her
husband, or if she is divorced. =A foreign-born woman= who =marries=
a =citizen becomes= a =citizen=. Children under age become citizens
with their parents.

An American-born man may live abroad many years and not lose his
citizenship.

A naturalized citizen is considered as losing his citizenship if he
returns to his native country and resides there two years.

A citizen has the right to withdraw from the United States, renounce
his allegiance, and acquire citizenship in another country.

An alien enjoys the same protection of the law as does the citizen.
The government extends its protection to the native-born and the
naturalized citizen alike. A naturalized citizen is protected while
abroad, even in his native country, by our government in exactly
the same degree as a native-born citizen would be. A naturalized
citizen may fill any office in the land with the exception of that of
President.

=A Citizen Is Not Always a Voter=: Women were citizens of New York
State before they were given the right to vote, if (1) they were
born in the United States, (2) were married to citizens, or (3) if,
unmarried, they had taken out their own naturalization papers.

=The State Confers the Right to Vote and Fixes the Qualifications for
Voters.=

=Who May Vote=: “Every citizen of the age of twenty-one years who
shall have been a citizen for ninety days, an inhabitant of the State
for one year, and a resident of the county for four months, and a
resident of the election district for thirty days, has a right to
vote” (Act II, Sec. I, Constitution of New York State). Foreign-born
women whose husbands are citizens must live in the country five
years before they can vote. In time of war soldiers and sailors may
vote wherever they are, and their ballots are counted in their home
districts.

It is reasonable that a certain length of residence should be
required before a person is permitted to vote, in order that he may
have a chance to become familiar with the interests of a community,
and acquainted with the qualifications of the candidates.

=Who May Not Vote=: A naturalized citizen who has not been
naturalized for at least ninety days before election; a person whose
name and address is not registered with election officials at least
ten days before an election; a person convicted of bribery or an
infamous crime; a deserter from the Army or Navy. A person who bets
on an election is disqualified for voting at that election.

The Governor may restore citizenship to a person who has lost it.

=The State Cannot Interfere with the Rights of Citizens=: While
the State prescribes the qualifications for suffrage for its own
citizens, by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the National
Constitution, the Federal government prohibits any State from
abridging the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United
States, and declares that the State in making the qualifications for
the suffrage cannot discriminate because of _color_ or _race_.

The Fourteenth Amendment further provides that when the right to
vote is denied to any of the male citizens of a State, its basis of
representation shall be reduced in proportion.

Several of the Southern States have restricted the suffrage by
educational and property qualifications, but have excluded from these
qualifications those who were voters in 1867 (before the negroes
were enfranchised) and their descendants. This discrimination of
the so-called “grandfather” clause was held unconstitutional by
the Supreme Court of the United States in 1915, but the reduction
in representation has never been enforced. Massachusetts has an
educational qualification and Pennsylvania a tax qualification, which
also exclude many male citizens; but the Fourteenth Amendment has
never been seriously enforced in either case.

=The National Amendment for Woman Suffrage=: An amendment to the
Federal Constitution is pending which provides that the _right to
vote shall not be denied on account of sex_.

While New York State has given the vote to its women, this permission
does not extend beyond its borders. New York women lose their vote
if they go to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or any adjoining State.
Twelve States have given women full suffrage, and nineteen States
have given them the right to vote for President. The Woman Suffrage
Amendment, when passed by Congress and ratified by three-fourths of
all the States, will secure the right to vote to all the women of the
United States.


FOOTNOTES:

[2] A bill is now before Congress to change this law and make it
possible for a married woman to choose her country for herself, as a
man does, and to require that she be obliged to go through the same
process of naturalization that a man does, including the oath of
allegiance. It is only through a Federal law that this change can be
made.




VIII

POLITICAL PARTIES


A political party is a group of voters organized for the purpose
of putting certain policies into effect, to elect certain men to
office, and to control the machinery of government. Under a popular
government, where public officials are chosen by the people and
political policies are formulated by them, political parties have
seemed the most expedient device as yet discovered to accomplish
these ends.

The political party was not originally a part of the government;
but as the country developed and government needs and opportunities
multiplied, party machinery grew more complex, and its powers
increased to such a dangerous degree that for the sake of its own
integrity, the State was forced to regulate it. Party conventions,
primaries, and much of the party machinery are now controlled by law.

=Two Parties=: The United States has always had two principal
parties. They have had different names, and under the same name they
have advocated different principles. The first parties were the
Federalists, who believed in a strong central government that should
exercise all the powers that the Constitution could be interpreted
to permit, and the Anti-Federalists, who believed in limiting the
functions of the Federal government and reserving as much power as
possible to the States.

=The Republican and Democratic Parties=: It is difficult to define
the difference between the present principal parties. The Republican
party is the successor of the Federalists. It was formed shortly
before the Civil War to prevent the extension of slavery. In
general it has believed in a liberal interpretation of the Federal
Constitution, and has wished to see the powers of the National
government extended. The Democratic party has advocated “States’
rights,” the right of the individual States to settle their own
affairs. It has held to a strict interpretation of the Constitution,
and has believed in limiting the power of the National government.
Besides the doctrine of States’ rights, the principal difference
between the Republican and Democratic parties has been the tariff.
The Republican party has advocated a high tariff, and the Democratic
party a tariff “for revenue only.” While these have been the two
issues most discussed between the two parties, even on these
questions the lines have often been confused. Democratic members
of Congress have advocated measures which distinctly contradicted
the principles of States’ rights, and the Republican party as often
has adopted them for its own purposes. The Democratic party has not
always stood on its low-tariff platform, and Republicans have often
been against protection. Even before the present war old party lines
had begun to fade. With the dangers threatening the country, which
war has brought, these lines have been almost obliterated. What they
will be when the war is over no one can predict with certainty.

The Republican party came into power in 1860, when it elected
Abraham Lincoln President, and until 1913 it controlled the National
government, except for two terms of four years each when Grover
Cleveland was President.

In general the Southern States are Democratic, preserving a “solid
South.” The Northern States are apt to be Republican.

=The Progressive Party= was organized in 1912 as the result of a
split in the Republican ranks, by men who wanted more progressive
measures than those advocated by either the Republican or Democratic
party. It advocated public ownership of mines, forests, and water
power; a larger measure of justice for the working-classes and
suffrage for women. It has disintegrated, but it had a large effect
in liberalizing both the older parties, and many of its policies have
been adopted by them.

=The Prohibition Party= was organized in 1872 to bring about complete
prohibition of alcoholic drinks. It has elected candidates to the
Legislature and has secured an ever larger measure of local option
and even State-wide prohibition.

=The Socialist Party=, organized in 1900, advocates government
ownership of land, railroads, telegraph and telephones, mines,
and all vital industries. It has become largely the party of the
industrial workers.

Minor parties have come and gone, but they have usually left a
lasting effect on the dominant parties.

In New York State, any organization is considered “a party” which
polled at least 10,000 votes for Governor at the last election.

=Party Organization=: The individual voter, or group of voters, is
helpless to change conditions or to elect a man. It is only through
the organization of many men who want the same thing that they become
effective. Political parties are organized for National, State, and
local campaigns.

The great work of the political parties is the nomination and
election of a President every four years. For this purpose there must
be a national party organization.

=The National Committee= of each party is composed of one member from
each State. It organizes the National Convention of the party, which
is held early in the summer before the presidential election, and at
which party policies are formulated, and candidates for President
and Vice-President are nominated. In the spring the chairman of the
National Committee calls a meeting of this committee to decide where
and when the convention shall meet.

Besides nominating candidates for President and Vice-President, the
convention adopts a “platform” in which is set forth the principles
which the party holds and its attitude on important public questions.
A new National Committee is appointed to carry on the campaign and
to act until the next convention.

The platform adopted by the party at its National convention is an
expression of the principles for which the party stands. A “plank”
may be put in simply to catch votes; on some question the plank may
not be explicit, but may “straddle” the issue. While in the main the
National platform sets forth the principles to which the party is
committed and its proposals for future action, the speech or letter
of acceptance of the candidate for the presidency usually contains a
more reliable statement of the policies which he would advocate if
elected.

=The State Committee= is the party organization in control of the
party in the State. It is composed of one man from each of the one
hundred and fifty Assembly Districts in the State, who are elected by
the enrolled members of the party in each district. The chairman is
elected by the committee to serve for two years.

Party members are all those who at the last registration, or last
general election, enrolled in the party.

State platforms count for little. They usually “point with pride” to
things the party has done, and denounce the acts of the opposing
party. Most voters pay little attention to them.

=The County Committee= consists of one man from every election
district in the county; the _City Committee_, one from each ward
or election district in the city. (New York County has its own
organization, different from the others.) The chairman of each of
these committees is elected at the party primaries. He is usually an
experienced politician, and each committee is the party authority
locally.

=The Election District=: The election district captain, or county
committeeman, is the man who comes in direct personal touch with the
voter. His business is to deliver the vote of his election district
to his party. He must know every voter in his district, find out how
each one is going to vote, and keep track of new voters, especially
the first voter who has yet to choose his party. He is an inspector
at elections; he selects poll clerks and watchers, and handles the
money sent by his party to his district. The Assembly District
leader or County Chairman distributes the patronage and the election
district captain may recommend men to him. The more offices that can
be filled, and the greater the number of “the faithful” who can
be provided for, the stronger the party at the next election. The
one quality necessary for the election district captain is complete
loyalty to his chairman and party.

If ordinary party members pay no attention to the organization
locally it is bound to fall into the hands of those who make their
living out of politics.

=Party Funds= are contributed by members of the party, subscriptions
from interested men, from party candidates and interests which expect
to be benefited if a certain party comes into power.

It is a crime to levy on the salary of any public official for
campaign expenses, but such contributions are often still expected.

If a party elects its candidate, he has many officials to appoint,
and these offices are often unfortunately regarded as rewards for
party loyalty and work. The civil service was created to take offices
away from party control and prevent the “spoils system.”

=The Use and Abuse of Party=: The political party has a very
definite place in popular government. In the conduct of a campaign
organization is indispensable. The danger lies in the difficulty
of sufficiently safeguarding the interests of the public from the
spoilsmen of either party. It is through the party that citizens
must work for political measures, but it is also through the party
machine that anti-social forces are able to successfully carry out
their plans.

There is tremendous power for a party in its control of the
government of a city or a State. A multitude of offices have to
be filled, franchises to be granted, valuable contracts let, and
there are a thousand opportunities for public plunder and private
enrichment. The party in power nationally, has untold possibilities
in the control of the fabulous resources of the country. In order
that a party may come into power in the National government, it is
necessary for it to be in control in the State, and to control the
State it tries to hold minor political divisions. To gain control
locally it partitions out the offices where they will do the most
good; it gains support from every quarter through any means; it seeks
to have men in positions of authority who can be so controlled that
they will subordinate everything to the party welfare.

The average voter not infrequently supports his party at all
elections, without regard for the merits of the candidates. He is
often a Republican or a Democrat, without any clear idea of the
different principles of the two parties. Or he may have become a
Republican or a Democrat because he agreed with the party in regard
to some National question. So he follows it blindly in State and city
elections, which have nothing to do with National questions. It is
seldom that important issues of party principles are involved in a
local election; but the tradition of party support is strong and the
temptation to hold party allegiance even at the expense of the public
is almost irresistible.

=The Independent Voter=: Undoubtedly the number of independent voters
is growing. Whenever for any reason a group of non-partisan voters
abstain from party allegiance, are alert to the sincerity of party
promises, and are watchful of the qualifications of candidates, both
parties begin to clean house and put up as candidates the best men
available, in order to bid for the independent vote. Such a body
of non-partisan voters may be the decisive factor in an election,
especially if the two parties are about evenly divided.

The independent voter is not popular with the machine politician. The
larger the number of non-partisan voters the more difficult it is for
him to perform his duties, and to control and deliver the vote.

In city and village elections, party issues have no place, and there
is a growing feeling that qualification for office should be the only
consideration.

It all comes back to the voting citizen. Politics and political
parties are what the people make them.




IX

HOW CANDIDATES ARE NOMINATED


While any man’s name can be put in nomination for any office, he has
little chance of being elected in most elections without being the
candidate of a political party. For a long time parties were allowed
to nominate candidates as they chose, and party bosses dictated
nominations without regard for the wishes of the rest of the party
or for the interests of the public. For some time past the State has
regulated the methods of nominations.

Candidates for all offices are nominated in one of three ways: (1) At
a party convention; (2) by direct primaries; (3) by petition.

=Candidates for President and Vice-President= are nominated at
National conventions, which are the most spectacular events of our
political life. Delegates to the National convention are elected
at special party primaries held the first Tuesday in April of the
presidential year. Every State is allowed double as many delegates
as it has Senators and Representatives in Congress. The four men
corresponding to the representation of the State in the Senate are
delegates-at-large; the others are district delegates. The National
convention is, therefore, composed of about one thousand delegates,
and its meetings draw other thousands of spectators. There are few
auditoriums in the country big enough to house the convention. There
are usually several candidates, each one of whom is the choice of a
group of men in the party. The name of each candidate is presented to
the convention by a carefully selected orator, under circumstances
planned to arouse enthusiasm, and, if possible, to stampede the
convention.

A majority vote is sufficient to nominate the candidate in the
Republican convention, but the Democratic party requires a two-thirds
vote. Sometimes not one of the candidates presented is able to secure
a majority. Days may be consumed in discussion and bargaining, and in
the end an unexpected candidate, a “dark horse,” may be nominated.
The members of the National Committee who are to serve during the
next four years are elected in the convention, one member from each
State.

=How Candidates for Office in New York State Are Nominated=: The
direct primary is the method now used in New York State by which
candidates for all offices except those in towns and villages are
nominated, and the conduct of these “official primaries,” as they
are called to distinguish them from the unofficial primaries of the
party, is carefully prescribed by State law. A primary election is
held thirty days before the general election, and is conducted on the
same plan and in the same general way as the election. Candidates of
each party for all the elected offices are nominated by the enrolled
party members. At the same time leaders for the district of each
political party are elected. The ballots for each party are printed
by the State and differ in color. The candidates whose names are
printed on the primary ballot are designated by party committees, and
other persons may have their names added by petition.

=Who May Vote at the Official Primaries—Enrolment of Voters=:
Only those who have enrolled themselves as members of the party
are permitted to vote at the official primaries. At the time of
the registration of voters in the cities, or at the last general
election in the country, voters are given a party enrolment blank to
fill out. These enrolments are placed in sealed envelopes and opened
a week after the regular election, when enrolment lists of each party
are made out. Such enrolment is not compulsory, but unless a voter
enrolls he is not able to take part in the nomination of candidates.
By enrolling he does not pledge himself to vote the party ticket at
the election (except in the case of the Socialist party); but he is
allowed to vote at the primary for candidates of the party in which
he enrolls.

=Objections to Direct Primaries= are made that few voters take the
trouble to vote at them, and that the choice of candidates is very
limited and is still controlled by party leaders. They are also very
expensive for a candidate, especially if he is not backed by these
leaders. To stand any chance of nomination a candidate has to canvass
the voters and make himself known to them. A poor man cannot afford
to enter a contest in a direct primary unless funds are supplied him
or unless he expects to recoup himself later at the public expense.
Also, as that candidate wins the primary election who receives the
largest number of votes, the successful candidate may be one who
has had the votes of only a small proportion of the party which is
expected to support him later at the polls.

So far in New York State the primaries, even in city elections, are
largely party affairs. The suggestion has been advanced that city
primaries should be strictly non-partisan, and that party emblems
should be eliminated from the primary ballots.

=Nomination by a Convention= is a method still used in some States,
and until it was superseded by the direct primary it used to be
the manner of nominating candidates in New York. An official party
convention is made up of delegates elected by members of the party
from the different parts of the State. Names of possible candidates
are presented to the members in open convention, who express their
choice by ballot.

=Objections to the Convention System= are based on the fact that the
regular party convention is usually controlled by a few leaders who
decide beforehand every detail of the business of the convention and
make up the slate. They may trade with another group and concede part
of the ticket to them in return for certain concessions which they
may obtain for themselves. The delegates are often there simply to
follow orders and to nominate the men agreed upon by the party bosses.

The “slate” is the list of candidates for the various offices to be
filled. Nominations for these positions are usually influenced not
so much by the qualifications of the men proposed for office, as by
the ability of the proposed candidates to get out the vote and to add
strength to the ticket, also by geographical considerations, that
each part of the State or district may be represented on the ticket.

Unofficial State conventions are still held by the leading parties
in New York. Their principal business is to frame a platform. This
convention also appoints the central committee.

=The Primary Is Important to Every Voter= because it is there that
policies are determined and party leaders elected, as well as
candidates nominated for offices. Unless the members of the party
take the trouble to vote at the primary, the choice of candidates is
left to the few leaders who make a business of politics. This leaves
the field clear for “the boss” to put up candidates whom he can
control after election.

The vote at the primary election is always small. The proportion of
voters who vote for the nomination of candidates is often as low as
18 or 20 per cent. of the vote cast at the election. The reason for
this is not difficult to understand. The primary election comes at a
time when little public interest has yet been aroused in the coming
election. By election-time the voters have been circularized and
canvassed and the newspapers have devoted much space to the subject.
Also much more effort is made by the party to get out the vote at
election-time than at the primary. Party leaders can count on the
faithful coming to the primary election without urging, and they are
the ones who often choose the candidates.

=Nomination by Petition=: Most candidates on the ballot are nominated
by a party, but a man may also be nominated by a petition of
independent voters. The petition must contain the title of the office
to be filled, the name and address of the candidate, and be signed by
a certain number of voters.




X

ELECTIONS


Laws concerning the holding of elections have grown much more
stringent in the last few years. Every detail of the casting of a
ballot is now prescribed by law and every precaution taken to insure
honesty of elections. The precautions apply more to cities than to
rural communities, with the result that more corruption may sometimes
be found to-day in country elections than in those in cities.

=Registration of Voters=: In large places or densely populated
districts it is impossible for the election officials to know every
voter, therefore the law requires that in cities and villages of over
five thousand inhabitants every voter shall appear every year before
the board of registration and have his name put on the registration
list. He is required to answer certain questions as to his age, his
exact residence, his business, and where his last vote was cast, and
to sign his own name for purposes of identification and to prevent
fraud.

In smaller places and in rural districts, the signature is not
required, and after a man’s name is once registered it remains on
the book as long as the voter remains in the district. In practice
it remains on the book until some one takes it off; and the names
of men who have died or moved away are frequently found in a rural
registration book.

=Time of Elections=: The general elections take place in the fall,
on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. National
elections for President and Vice-President take place every four
years, in the year that ends with the figure four or its multiple.
Elections for representatives to Congress and State elections are
held the same day every two years, in the even-numbered years. City
elections are held the same day in the odd-numbered years. City
elections are held separate from State elections in order to keep
National and State issues from intruding in the election of municipal
officers. Local elections usually take place the same day, with the
exception of the spring village election and town meeting.

=The Election District=: For convenience every county or city is
divided into election districts, each with one polling-place. The
average number of voters to an election district in New York State is
from two hundred and fifty to four hundred. When a district grows to
five hundred voters it is usually divided. In Chicago, since women
were given the vote, an election district contains from five to six
hundred voters. It has been found that the women vote at the hours
when men are busy, and that the same election officials can handle
many more votes than is customary in New York.

=Election Officers=: Boards of elections, appointed by the county
board of supervisors, are in general charge of the elections in the
county, and there is a State Superintendent of Elections appointed
by the Governor. At each polling-place on Election Day there is an
election board consisting of four election inspectors, two ballot
clerks, and two poll clerks. The law provides that election boards
and boards of registration shall consist of equal representatives
from the two political parties that cast the highest number of
votes at the last election. This does not apply to town and village
elections. Each party also is allowed two watchers. A railing shuts
in the voting-booths and tables, and no one but the election board
and the official watchers is allowed under the law to be inside this
railing.

The polls are open from six o’clock in the morning until five o’clock
in the afternoon. Before voting begins the ballot-boxes are opened
and inspected to see that they are empty. The official watchers
have a right to see everything that is done. Electioneering is
forbidden within one hundred feet of the polls. The voting-booths are
constructed so as to insure privacy while the voter is marking his
ballot, and the ballot is folded so that no one but the voter himself
knows how he has voted.

=The Election=: When the voter appears to cast his ballot, he gives
his name and address, and the registration book is consulted to see
that he is registered, the number of the ballot given to him is
called out by the ballot clerk, and his name and the number of his
ballot are entered in the poll-book.

Official ballots are provided for every polling-place, twice as many
as there are registered voters in the district.

All the candidates for one office are grouped together on the ballot,
each name with a blank square beside it. To vote for a candidate the
voter must make a cross with a lead-pencil (not ink) inside of the
box beside the name of the candidate: [Illustration: X in box]. If
the cross extends beyond the box, or if the word “yes” is written,
if the ballot is erased or in any way defaced, it will be thrown out
at the count as void. If a voter spoils a ballot he should ask for
another one. An illiterate person is allowed assistance in marking
his ballot.

When the voter comes out of the booth, where he has marked his ballot
in secret and folded it so it cannot be read, he gives the ballot
to an election official, who announces the name of the voter and
the number of his ballot, tears off the stub, and drops the ballot
unopened into the box. A person’s vote may be challenged by an
inspector or watcher, or at the written request of any voter. If,
under oath, he is questioned and swears that he is eligible, his vote
is recorded, but is marked challenged.

=The Count=: At five o’clock the polls are closed and the ballots
are counted. They must not be handled by any one but the election
officials, although the watchers may see every ballot and watch the
count. The count for each office to be filled is made separately,
and if there are many candidates it may take many hours to complete
the count and know the result. Official tally sheets are provided.
The result is filed with the County Clerk. The board of supervisors
meet as a board of canvassers to canvass the result, and the returns
are sent to the State board of canvassers.

=The Australian Ballot= is the only one used in New York State
elections. It has on one ballot the names of all candidates of all
parties for all the offices to be voted for. The names are grouped
by offices, and the first name in each group is the candidate of
the party that cast the largest vote at the last election. The only
ballots shown before Election Day are sample ballots printed on pink
paper, while the ballots used at the election are white. They are all
numbered, and every one must be accounted for.

Until recently the ballot was printed with a column for each party,
so that the easiest thing the voter could do was to put a cross
within a circle at the head of the column, and thus vote for every
candidate of that party—what is called a “straight ticket.” The
ballot used at present requires a separate cross for every separate
candidate, and so encourages independence and intelligence on the
part of the voter. There are blank places so the voter may write in
any name he wishes for any office.

=Short Ballot=: It is evident from the brief outline of the structure
of government contained in the earlier chapters, that there are a
great many officers to be elected. It is impossible for even the most
intelligent and most interested voter to know the merits of as many
candidates as often appear on one ballot. In some elections ballots
are used which can be measured only in feet, and sometimes even in
yards. To remedy this evil there is a strong movement toward a _short
ballot_. This would mean cutting down the number of elective offices.

The tendency of government to-day is to concentrate the
responsibility on one man or a few men, to let them make
appointments, and to hold them accountable for results.

=Corrupt Practices Act=: The cost of campaigns and elections to the
political parties and to many candidates is great. While there are
many legitimate expenses connected with an election, the uncontrolled
use of large funds leads to grave corruption and has brought about
careful regulation by the State of money used at election-time.
Contributions from corporations are prohibited.

A public statement of campaign funds must be made by every candidate
and every organization taking part in a campaign, of all money
received for campaign purposes and how it has been expended. This
statement must be filed with the Secretary of State within twenty
days after the election, and be open to public inspection. Even these
precautions, while more severe than those found in most States,
have not succeeded in putting an end to the corrupt use of money in
elections.

It has been proposed recently that an addition to the Corrupt
Practices Act should be made to require all candidates and campaign
managers to file, five days _before_ election, instead of twenty days
_after_, a list of receipts and expenditures, so that voters might
know before the election the sources of political contributions and
the use to which the money is put.

A second proposal has been made in regard to the personnel of
the election officers, that instead of these boards being party
appointees they should be appointed from the civil service lists.
It is argued that with civil service appointees handling the count
of ballots there would be less likelihood of mistakes or deliberate
fraud.

Oregon has adopted the plan of having a pamphlet printed by the State
for both the primaries and the elections, in which is set forth the
claims of candidates of all parties, and both sides of all public
questions to be voted on. This pamphlet is sent at public expense to
every voter in that State.

=Voting-machines= are expensive, but they do away with the necessity
for voting-booths, and require fewer election officials. Perhaps
that is one reason they have not been more popular. They register
the number of votes cast for each candidate, and the result of the
election is known as soon as the polls are closed, and does not have
to await the long, tedious, and often incorrect count by hand.

=The Use of School-houses= and other public buildings for
registration- and polling-places is growing more common. It not only
saves the large rent usually charged for the use of other buildings
for polling-places, but it also gives more room and more convenient
surroundings than are afforded by the kind of place often rented for
use on Election Day. Unless provision is made by a city charter or
some special permission school-houses may be used in this way only by
a vote of the people of the district.

=The Cost of Elections= in proportion to other expenses of
government is small. In the budget for New York City it figures
less than 1 per cent. of the total budget. At the same time it
could undoubtedly be lowered by economy. High rent is paid for
polling-places, double the number of ballots necessary and liberal
supplies are given to each district. It was found in Chicago, when
women became voters, that the cost of elections was increased very
little. The supplies furnished, and the same number of election
officials, were found to be able to care for a large increase in the
number of voters.




XI

TAXATION


It is evident that to carry on the necessary business of a city,
a county, the State, or the nation requires money. Also, since
everybody shares in the benefits of government, every one should help
pay the bill.

One of the most difficult problems of government is to devise a
system of taxation that cannot be evaded, that will raise sufficient
money for expenses, and that will treat every one with equal justice.

Taxation may be divided into two general classes, direct and
indirect. _Direct taxes_ are those imposed directly upon property
or persons; such as taxes imposed upon land, personal property, or
income. The term _indirect tax_ is applied to taxes upon activities
such as carrying on some business or upon buying, selling,
manufacturing, or importing certain articles.

A direct tax, as a rule, cannot be evaded or shifted to some other
person. Indirect taxes can be evaded by abstaining from the activity
that is taxed. They can usually also be shifted to others, and are
generally paid by the consumer, or user of the article that is taxed.
In general, direct taxes are levied by the State and municipal
governments, while the National government derives its revenue (with
the exception of the income tax) mainly from indirect taxes.

Taxes for local purposes are levied largely on houses and land, on
what is called _real property_. _Personal property_, which is movable
property, such as mortgages, live stock, furniture, etc., is also
subject to taxation, but it is assessed only upon the balance of its
value in excess of the indebtedness of the person taxed. It is a more
difficult tax to collect than the tax on real property, and is evaded
to such a large extent that many economists believe that it should be
abolished, and some tax substituted more possible to impose equally
and to collect.

Village and school taxes are usually collected independently by
village and school officials.[A] Town, county, State, and city taxes
are assessed and collected at the same time.

=Tax Districts=: The State is divided into tax districts which have
usually the boundaries of the township or city, and there are three
tax assessors in each tax district elected by the people in the town,
and usually appointed in the city.

=How Taxes Are Assessed=: The State Legislature decides the amount
needed for carrying on the government of the State. The largest
part of these expenses are met by special indirect State taxes.
The remainder of the amount to be raised is apportioned among the
counties according to the value of taxable property in each (see
State Board of Equalization).

The county board of supervisors decides how much is needed for county
affairs. The town meetings, or the town boards and the voters through
voting on propositions submitted by the town boards, decide how much
money is needed for the business of the towns. This sum is added to
the total amount of taxes necessary for the county government, and
to the county’s share of taxes for the State government, and the
combined sum is the amount that must be levied on the property in
that county. The amount needed to carry on the government of a city
in the county is reported to the county board of supervisors and to
this sum is added in the same way the proportion of county and State
taxes which the city must pay.

Assessing the amount each taxpayer shall pay is the duty of the
assessors. They make up an _Assessment roll_ which must contain the
name of every person in the district who owns property, and the
assessed value of his property. The way the assessors do this work
varies largely. The policy governing assessments in rural districts
is to place as low a valuation on property as possible, in order
that the total assessed valuation for the county shall be kept down,
so that the apportionment given to the county for State taxes shall
be low, and the larger burden of taxation shall fall on the cities.
When the assessment roll is completed the assessors notify the public
that it is open for inspection, and a time and place are fixed for
a hearing, when any one who thinks he has been unfairly treated may
complain. If such a person is not satisfied with the decision of the
local assessors he may appear before the County Board of Equalization
with his complaint.

=The County Board of Equalization= is the county board of
supervisors. They have power to equalize the assessed value of the
real property in any tax district in the county. They apportion the
amount of State and county tax due from each town or city, add the
town or city tax, then ascertain the amount each person shall pay
according to the assessed valuation of his property. This sum is
noted on the assessment roll opposite each person’s name and the roll
then becomes the tax roll of the district.

_A practical example_: Suppose X owns a house and lot which the
assessors value at $5,000. The county board of equalization finds
that the city where X lives must raise $100,000 in taxes; $90,000
is required for the city government; $9,000 is the sum the city is
required to contribute to the expenses of the county, and $1,000 is
the share the city has to pay toward the government of the State. The
value of taxable property in the city is $5,000,000. Every dollar of
assessed property in the city must therefore pay two cents in taxes,
and X’s taxes will be $100, of which $90 will go to the city, $9 to
the county, and $1 to the State. A mortgage on the property does not
decrease the amount to be paid.

=Collecting Taxes=:[3] If a person fails to pay his real-estate
taxes the county treasurer is authorized to sell his property for the
unpaid taxes. The property may be redeemed by the former owner on
payment of back taxes with interest due and the cost and expenses of
the tax sale.

Public buildings, religious and charitable institutions, are usually
free from taxation; they are for the benefit of the entire community.

=State Taxes=: The ordinary expenses of the State government are met
by revenues derived from special indirect State taxes, so that for
years there was no direct State tax. State revenues are provided
through taxes on stock transfers, mortgage taxes, inheritance taxes,
excise, franchise, and corporation taxes. One-half the amount derived
from the excise tax goes to the State and one-half to the community
from which it comes.

Every stock company incorporated under any law of the State must pay
a tax upon the amount of its capital stock and upon any subsequent
increase. The earnings of corporations doing business in the State
are also taxed.

=An Inheritance Tax= is a tax imposed on the transfer of property at
death by will, or by operation of law in case of intestacy. The rate
of this tax varies according to the value of the property or share of
the recipient and his kinship to decedent. A higher rate is levied on
a large bequest or share than on a small one, and a larger percentage
is levied when the bequest or share goes to distant kin or to a
stranger than when it goes to a close relative.

The direct property tax is now used to pay off the interest and
gradually the principal of the State debt.

The estimated resources and revenues, not including the direct tax,
for the State for 1918 are:

  Cash balance, July 1st     $11,084,423
  Stenographers’ tax             431,607
  Excise tax                   5,750,000
  Corporation tax             20,000,000
  Incorporation tax            1,400,000
  Inheritance tax             14,000,000
  Stock transfer tax           6,100,000
  Investment tax               2,500,000
  Mortgage tax                 1,180,000
  Motor Vehicle tax            2,375,000
  Canal maintenance receipts     150,000
  Other revenues               4,554,150
                             ———————————
  Total                      $69,525,180

=The Board of Equalization= meets in Albany once a year to examine
the reports from the different counties of the value of their taxable
property, and to equalize the amount of their taxation. The State tax
commissioners, who must personally visit the counties and examine the
local rolls, and the land office commissioners form this board.

=Federal Taxes=: The United States government even before the war
required an enormous amount of money with which to conduct its
business. In the past its chief sources of revenue have been custom
duties and internal-revenue taxes.

=Custom Duties= are taxes levied on the importation of articles
into the United States from foreign countries. The tariff, which
fixes the rates of the impost taxes, has been a constant subject
for dispute between the major political parties. Whether the tariff
should be imposed “for revenue only,” or whether it should be “a
protective tariff” to protect American industries and American labor
from the cheap labor of other countries, has been the chief point of
difference between Republicans and Democrats at National elections.
Impost taxes are indirect taxes which eventually come out of the
pockets of the people in increased prices of the articles imported,
and incidentally they raise the prices of similar articles of
domestic manufacture.

=Internal Revenue= or =Excise Taxes= are taxes imposed on business
or on the manufacture and sale of articles in the United States.
The most important taxes of this character are those on the
manufacture and sale of liquor and tobacco. The manufacture and sale
of cosmetics, perfumes, oleomargarine, and playing-cards are also
subject to internal-revenue taxes. In many cases these taxes are paid
by the sale of stamps to the manufacturer, who has to affix them to
the article before it is sold. As with many other kinds of taxation,
the public, the ultimate consumer, pays this tax.

=The Income Tax= is a tax on the income of a person. Many who do not
own land or other tangible property enjoy an income. As a farmer has
to pay a tax on his farm, so a lawyer who has a lucrative practice,
but does not own land or stocks, and the man who has an income from
investments, are all required to pay their share of government
expenses.

The income-tax law of 1916 taxes all incomes of married couples in
excess of $4,000, and all incomes of unmarried persons in excess of
$3,000. To provide further war revenue, an additional tax was imposed
in 1917 on the income of every unmarried person in excess of $1,000
a year, and of every married couple in excess of $2,000 a year.
The rate of these taxes increases with the size of the income. The
combined income taxes may amount to as much as 67 per cent. in case
of the largest incomes.

=Public Debt; Bonds=: If the government needs more money than it
wishes to raise by taxation, it can borrow it by issuing bonds. A
bond is a promise to pay a certain definite sum of money at a certain
time with a fixed rate of interest. United States government bonds
are the safest investment in the world. The State and municipalities
may also issue bonds, although the amount a city may borrow may be
limited by the value of its assessed property. The interest on bonds
and the payment of the principal must be met by taxation.

Bonds should not be issued to pay for the running expenses of
government, because that is putting on future generations the unjust
burden of paying for something for which they receive no return.
Their legitimate use is to meet the cost of some improvement which
will continue to benefit those who go on paying for it.

When bonds are issued provision should be made for the redemption of
their principal. This is done in New York State by raising annually
by direct taxation a fixed sum to be invested and kept as a separate
fund called a “sinking fund,” to be used only for this purpose. A
sinking fund for the payment of the interest and for the redemption
of the debt of the State is required by the State constitution.

=The Budget=: Before undertaking an enterprise a wise man considers
how much it is going to cost, and where the money is coming from. A
budget is a summary of the estimated expenses for the following year
of the different departments of the government. It is a business-like
method of determining the amount of money which should be raised by a
State or municipality to meet its necessary expenses. The budget for
New York State is made by the Legislature from an estimate furnished
by each of the administrative departments of the State. It includes
in detail the amount of salaries, traveling expenses, and maintenance
of each department.

The making of a budget for a city is of the greatest importance to
the taxpayers. Public hearings are held on it, when taxpayers may
be heard for or against the use of the money in the designated way,
and when they may ask for additional appropriations for some city
activity. Public servants in this, as in every other department of
service, work best under supervision. The taxpayer owes it to himself
to maintain adequate representation at these hearings. It is on the
basis of the budget as finally adopted that taxes are adjusted for
the following year. (See Chapter IV on Greater New York.)

The National government has not yet adopted the budget plan, and the
President has not the power to veto any item of an appropriation bill
unless he vetoes the entire measure.

This is a limitation which is greatly deplored, as it prevents
him from cutting out any provision in the bill which he may
think unwarranted or extravagant, or which has come out of the
“pork-barrel.” This is a term applied to appropriations given by
Congress to certain local communities for some Federal building or
for the development of some local resource which is not of advantage
to the National government, and which is given not because there is
any need for it, but because the representative from that district
in Congress wants to make himself popular with his constituents by
getting for them some public plunder.

=Every Dollar That Is Spent in Any Department of Government Comes
Out of the Pockets of the People=: It is not easy for the public to
realize this. The Congressman who gets an extra appropriation for a
post-office or other public building that is not needed, in order
to please his home people, may get more votes, but he is adding to
the public burden. In return for a vote for his post-office he may
have to give his vote to a fellow-Congressman for an unnecessary
expenditure in another State. The chain so formed is practically
endless, and its inevitable effect is to raise the cost of government
unwarrantably. Every such expenditure, every unnecessary public
salary, every dishonest public official, every tax-dodger, every
incompetent piece of public work, adds to the burden of taxation
which the people have to pay.


FOOTNOTES:

[3] In some counties local arrangements make it difficult for absent
owners of property to know when and where taxes are due. Every
tax-collector should be obliged to follow the usage of any good
business house and mail a bill for taxes.




XII

PUBLIC HIGHWAYS


Road-making has been a function of government since the early ages.
The old Roman roads still exist as evidence of the labor and care
that were put into them.

Ease of communication, which permits people to journey from home and
see what the rest of the world is doing, is a great factor in binding
people together, and tends to promote progress.

Good roads are important to every citizen, not only because of the
increased use of the automobile, but because they are a vital part of
the business life of the country. The farmer needs them to move his
crops to market. Without them he may be unable to sell his produce at
the time it is most needed and when he could get the best prices for
it. The merchant needs them to receive supplies and make deliveries;
the manufacturer needs them for the moving of his raw material; the
city-dweller needs them so that food may come into city markets.
Public highways are the connecting arteries between city and country.

New York State has recognized the need of good roads, and has
spent an immense amount of money to secure them. Some years ago a
bond issue of $50,000,000 was authorized in the belief that such a
large sum of money would put the roads in a condition to meet all
requirements for many years.

In 1907 the Legislature approved contracts for 8,300 miles of county
highways, believing that the money available would be sufficient.
The following year it approved contracts for 3,600 miles of State
highways and another bond issue of $50,000,000 was found necessary.
Not only had the cost of labor and material greatly increased, but in
addition the use of motor-trucks and motor-buses was beginning to put
a strain on roads and road-beds which had not been anticipated.

Old roads began to go to pieces rapidly and needed constant repair
and often replacing. Even the new roads, where the road-beds were
of stone only six inches deep, soon spread and disintegrated under
trucks weighing from one to fifteen tons. This use of motor-trucks
is increasing, and is necessary for the traffic requirements of the
State, but highways are being subject to a strain hitherto unknown,
and this strain will increase in both quantity and severity.

How to meet the requirements and maintain and repair roads built for
light traffic which are giving way under the new demands, and how
to build new roads strong enough to stand up under the strain, are
problems the State finds it difficult to meet. New road-beds are now
required of stone from nine to twelve inches deep.

Some roads are built by the State, some by the county, and some by
the town. In many cases the cost of the work is divided between
county and town, or between county and State. The State may help a
town build a road, but it can only contribute the same amount or less
than the town appropriates.

All material that is used in road-building must be tested in the
laboratories maintained by the State Highway Department, and constant
experiments are being made to test materials and specifications to
find out what will stand the hardest wear.

All roads must be built and repaired under the direction of the State
Highway Commissioner, but whether these instructions are carried
out often depends on local officials. The public believes that there
has been no part of government in New York State more honeycombed
with fraud than the one of road-building and maintaining; that
specifications have been skimped or ignored, different materials have
been substituted from those prescribed, cheaper construction of every
kind passed by inspectors, and that the result has been that many
roads of the State have cost vast sums of money for which the State
is in debt and have not lasted even a few years.

In 1916 the State had a total of 4,027 miles of macadam roads and
5,836 miles of gravel town roads, and more than half of all the
improved roads in the State had been constructed within five years.
There were 728 patrolmen employed looking after repairs.

The entire cost of bridges is met by the towns with occasional aid
from the county. If a State road goes through a village, the same
amount is allowed as for the rest of the construction, and if the
village wants another kind of a paving or a wider road it must
pay the difference in cost. The State Highway Department gives as
averages of cost: for macadam roads $10,000 a mile; first-class
concrete, $15,000 a mile; and brick paving, $25,000 a mile.

The State highway law provides that all construction must be done by
contract. Prison labor is not employed on State and county roads as
in some States, but it has been used on roads built by towns.

In spite of the huge appropriations, the State roads are far from
complete as planned. Nearly $750,000 will be available in 1918 from
the National government as part of New York State’s share in the
Federal appropriation for roads.

“Working out” a road tax was never a method which contributed to good
roads. The earth roads on which the taxpayer puts his unskilled labor
are usually impassable many months of the year.

=City Streets=: The local government decides where a road or street
is needed, and with the consent of a sufficient proportion of the
property-owners may purchase or condemn the necessary property. If
the owner is not satisfied with the payment offered, appraisers must
be appointed to decide the amount that should be paid.

City streets must be maintained by the city government. If a person
is injured by the failure of the government to keep sidewalks
in repair he has a right to sue the government for damages. The
municipal government, on the other hand, may require property-owners
to keep their sidewalks in good condition.

=Street-cleaning=: Since many thousands of children have no
playground but the street, the condition in which city streets are
kept is of great importance to their health and general welfare.
Disease germs are heavy and are most numerous near the ground. If
playgrounds could be arranged on the roofs of high buildings the
children would be the gainers from the pure air. Unfortunately, the
streets in which they play are not usually the ones which are cleaned
most frequently by the street-cleaning department. Old and young are
disorderly—newspapers, cigarette-butts, and fruit-skins are thrown
down anywhere. Streets littered with papers, with dust-laden pieces
blowing back and forth, increase the dangers from disease.

Carelessness on the part of the public in throwing things into the
streets adds many thousands of dollars to the cost of street-cleaning
departments. Every time that a person throws a paper or any object
into the street eventually some one else must be paid to pick it up.

Most municipalities have ordinances against littering the streets,
but they are often dead letters.

The cleanliness and good order of city streets pay in dollars and
cents, in public comfort and convenience, and in a lowered death-rate.

=Parks=: With the congestion of population that is not confined to
New York City or any one part of the State, parks large and small
have become a necessity not only for pleasure and beauty, but for
the health of the community. In the country people can be out of
doors as much as they please, but when families are obliged to live
close together, “breathing-places” are of actual physical benefit,
especially if they can be green with grass and trees. Communities
often awaken to the need of parks too late, after all available
places are occupied, when in order to provide the necessary oasis
property has to be condemned and often enormous sums of money paid
for it.

=City Planning=: Most of our cities have grown up haphazard without
any definite plan of development. As new industries have come in
they have brought in large numbers of employees, who have had to be
provided with living-places, and a new section of the city has been
started. Or a real-estate boom, fostered by some private enterprise,
will develop another quarter without consideration for the welfare
of the incoming population. As land values advance, in order to
squeeze all the profit possible out of this increase, high crowded
buildings spring up, planned to house as many people as possible in a
restricted area. New York City and many other places are continuing
to create new tenement districts in outlying quarters of the city
where land is still plentiful.

It is not easy to change congested areas built up in the past, but it
is a wrong to coming generations to continue to allow considerations
of health and decency to be ignored in the future growth of cities.
Haphazard growth has cost the public dearly in actual money values.
Unrestricted crowded living conditions have cost still more dearly
in the moral and physical vitality of the people who have had to put
up with them. These mistakes of the past cannot be remedied, but
cities and villages are still growing, and the wise community is
now developing a plan in advance for its future growth, which will
safeguard public health and welfare, and the convenience as well as
the beauty of the city.

=The Value of Beauty=: Streets and roads do not need to be bare and
ugly. Some attention paid to appearance costs very little and is a
distinct benefit to the public. Weeds are usually cut down along the
roadside, but so, too often, are the trees. When one thinks of the
many years it takes for a tree to attain a fine growth, one wonders
at the carelessness with which they are sacrificed. A well-shaded
road bordered by trees, or a shaded city street, testifies to the
intelligence and thrift of the people responsible for them. Such care
is apt to be repaid by increased property values.




XIII

COURTS


In the United States there are two classes of courts—State courts
and United States or Federal courts. The State courts of each State
derive their jurisdiction and powers from the constitution and laws
of the State. The United States courts derive their jurisdiction and
powers from the Constitution and laws of the United States.

The functions of the courts are to hear and decide criminal and civil
cases.

=Criminal Cases= are prosecutions or proceedings by the State or
Federal government to enforce the laws made for the preservation
of peace, law, and order in the community, by the imposition of
fines, or imprisonment, or the punishment of death, in case of their
violation.

=Civil Cases= are suits or proceedings brought for the enforcement
or protection of personal or property rights; as, for example, suits
to recover compensation or damages for personal injuries, or the
destruction of property, or for breaches of contract, or to recover
property wrongfully taken, or to restrain by injunction threatened
wrongful acts for which a suit for money damages would not be an
adequate remedy.

At the trial of a criminal or civil case, the judge supervises and
directs the proceedings, and decides any question of law which may
arise. Questions of fact, arising in criminal cases, and in most
civil cases, are decided by a jury of twelve qualified citizens drawn
from a panel or list; but in certain classes of civil cases the judge
decides questions of fact as well as questions of law.

Civil as well as criminal cases must be commenced and carried on in
a manner prescribed by law or by rules of the courts. In New York
the laws of procedure are commonly believed to be unnecessarily
complicated and technical. Innumerable controversies have arisen as
to their meaning and effect. They have been amended and supplemented
by many statutes, and there is a strong movement among lawyers
to secure the adoption of a simpler and more workable system of
procedure.

In New York State the courts are of the following classes: _Justices
of the Peace, or Justices’ Courts_, try petty criminal cases
involving small thefts, drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and breach
of the peace, and certain ordinary civil suits involving sums of not
over $200. A person accused of serious crime before a justice of the
peace may be held to await action of a grand jury.

In New York City, and in various other cities of the State, the
functions of the justices’ courts are performed by courts called
_Municipal Courts_, _City Courts_, _Magistrates_ or _Police Courts_,
the latter having jurisdiction only over petty criminal cases. The
powers and duties, as well as the names of these lower courts, vary
in the different cities.

It is most important that honest, sympathetic men should preside over
these lower courts, for in them are tried the small offenses which
may be due to ignorance of law, and a large number of people come in
contact with government in no other way.

Most arrests are for minor offenses such as drunkenness, disorderly
conduct, etc. They are tried here, and many of them bring first
offenders into court, where the treatment received by the person
accused may determine whether he will become a habitual offender
or whether he will be set straight. Many foreigners come into these
courts, and receive in them their first impression of justice as
administered in this country. Oftentimes the offense is committed
through ignorance or stupidity. A kind word or a helping hand may
make all the difference between a future good citizen or a crook. In
these courts, as in the justices courts of the town or village, there
is great need of a careful choice of magistrates.

=County Courts=: In every county except New York there is a county
court presided over by the elected county judge. In these county
courts may be tried civil suits in which the sum involved is not over
$2,000 and all crimes except those punishable by death. They also
hear appeals from the justices’ courts. The county courts in Queens,
Bronx, Richmond, Kings, Ulster, and Albany counties may try cases
involving the death penalty.

=Surrogates’ Courts=: In each county there is a surrogate court,
held by a judge called “the Surrogate,” who is elected by the voters
of the county for a term of six years (except in the county of New
York). In this court wills are probated, the estates of persons
deceased are settled, and guardians for minors and executors or
administrators for estates of decedents are appointed. It is evident
that a county surrogate should be a man of strictest probity as well
as good business sense.

=Court of Claims=: Any one who has a claim against the State may take
it to the Court of Claims, which consists of three judges appointed
by the governor with the approval of the Senate. Appeals from its
decisions may be taken to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

=The Supreme Court=: Above the county courts are the Supreme Courts,
which, however, are not really supreme, as their decisions are
subject to review, and may be reversed upon appeal by the Appellate
Division or the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Courts may try any
civil or criminal cases, including prosecutions for murder. There are
more than one hundred Supreme Court justices in the State, elected by
the voters of the various districts, and the entire State is divided
into nine judicial districts, in which certain of these Supreme Court
justices sit. In every county, at a certain time, a Supreme Court
justice holds a _trial court_, where both civil and criminal cases
are heard before a trial jury. He also holds a _special term_, where
he hears and decides motions and civil cases in which no jury trial
is required.

=Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court=: As judges are human
and may make mistakes, the law provides a right of appeal from the
court in which a case is tried. The whole State is divided into four
judicial departments, in each of which there is an Appellate Division
of the Supreme Court. From the Supreme Court justices the governor
chooses the justices for the Appellate Divisions. These Appellate
Divisions hear appeals from decisions of the county courts and of
the Supreme Courts, and they may sit wherever the public interest
demands. They do not try cases originally, but only hear appeals.

=The Court of Appeals= is composed of a chief judge and nine
associate judges, but only seven judges sit at one time. This court
is the State court of last resort, and it may reverse a decision of
an Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. In most cases no appeal
lies to the Court of Appeals from a decision of a question of fact
by a lower court, but only questions of law can be reviewed; but in
criminal cases where the sentence is death the entire case may be
reviewed.

=Courts of Record= are those courts that have an official seal and
keep an official record of all proceedings. The Surrogate’s Court,
the County Court, the Supreme Court and its appellate divisions,
and the Court of Appeals are courts of record. Justices’ Courts and
Magistrates’ Courts are not courts of record.

=Federal Courts=: The jurisdiction of the United States or Federal
courts extends to all cases in law and equity arising under the
Constitution and laws of the United States, to all cases affecting
ambassadors and other public ministers and consuls, to admiralty
and maritime cases, and to controversies between States or between
citizens of different States. Federal courts are organized in a
similar way to State courts.

=The United States District Courts= hear, in the first instance,
all classes of cases over which the United States courts have
jurisdiction, except the cases mentioned below. The entire country is
divided into ninety judicial districts, and each State has at least
one district.

=The United States Court of Claims=, which is located in Washington,
has jurisdiction over claims against the United States government.

=The Circuit Court of Appeals= is an appellate court by which
decisions of the United States district courts may be reviewed.

=The United States Supreme Court= is the highest tribunal in the
land. In cases affecting ambassadors and consuls, and those to which
the State is a party, the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction.
Other cases can come before it only upon an appeal, or writ of error,
to review a decision of a lower United States court or a decision of
the highest State court involving a question of Federal law. There is
a chief justice and eight associate justices of the Supreme Court,
who are appointed for life. To be a justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States is considered one of the highest honors in the land.

The judges of all the Federal courts are appointed by the President
with the consent of the Senate.

=Constitutionality of the Law=: One important power which the courts
have is to interpret the meaning of the Constitution and laws,
but they have no power to do so except so far as necessary to the
disposal of cases before them.

The constitution of the State is its fundamental law, as that of
the United States (together with the laws made by Congress under it
and treaties made by the United States) is the supreme law of the
entire United States. A question may arise as to the precise meaning
and scope of a constitutional provision. In this case the court
may interpret its meaning, and may declare void a law because in
violation of the constitution.

=An Injunction= is an order or decree issued by a court, restraining
some person or persons or corporation from performing certain acts,
on the ground that such acts would cause an injury or loss, for which
a suit to recover money damages would not furnish adequate redress.
A temporary injunction, or restraining order, may be issued upon
affidavits, in advance of the final trial of a case, when it may
either be dissolved or be made permanent. An injunction may also
command the performance of some act. In such cases it is called
a mandatory injunction. If an injunction is violated, the person
disobeying can be arrested and sent to jail or fined “for contempt of
court” without trial by jury. Many efforts have been made to limit
this power of the courts. In Oklahoma, the law provides for jury
trial in case of contempt of court for violation of an injunction.

Judges are elected for a longer term of years than are other public
officials. County judges have a six-year term. Supreme Court justices
and judges of the Court of Appeals are elected for a term of fourteen
years. The reason for the longer term of service is that the
increased experience is supposed to make a judge more valuable to the
State; also, on account of the long term, he is supposed to be less
affected by political considerations.

Whether _judges_ should be _appointed or elected_ has been a matter
of considerable controversy. It is argued that if they are appointed,
the appointment may be a reward for political service instead of
because of fitness for the position. On the other hand, if judges
are elected, it is objected that they must take part in political
contests, and are apt to give decisions more with regard to popular
favor than to actual justice. Many persons think that in practice
better judges are obtained by appointment than by popular election.
State judges are usually elected, but the Federal judges are
appointed.

The election of proper men for the position of judge is one of the
most important duties of an electorate. Whether the process of the
law insures justice and increases public security depends often more
on the judge than on the letter of the law. Decisions involving the
happiness, rights, and lives of countless people go through the
courts of the State. These decisions should not be in the hands of
men to whom the office has been given as a reward for party service,
or who have been put in the position by prejudiced interests. A wise,
intelligent, public-spirited judge has enormous opportunity to add to
the sum of public welfare.




XIV

THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME


A crime is an offense against the people of the State. Also every
action that is brought before a court costs the State money and adds
to the burden of taxation borne by the people.

A free government carefully guards the rights of an accused person.
He must be told of the charges against him and be given every chance
to answer them. He is presumed by the law to be innocent until he
is proved guilty, and is not obliged to answer any questions that
may incriminate himself. He may be examined at once by a magistrate,
or, if he prefers, may be committed to jail to await a future
examination. If held for any except the most serious crime he may
be allowed his liberty by some one “giving bail”—that is, giving a
pledge of money or property to insure his appearance in court at a
certain date. If he “jumps his bail” the money is forfeited to the
State, although that does not protect him if he can be found. If the
charge of which he is accused is a serious one, it must come before a
grand jury.

=The Grand Jury= is a body of men chosen from the taxpayers of a
county to inquire into alleged crimes during a particular term of
court. The supervisors or the commissioner of jurors makes out a
list of three hundred names of men of integrity and sound judgment,
from which the names of twenty-four men are drawn by lot.[B] From
sixteen to twenty-three of these men sit in secret session, and hear
the presentment of a case, and decide by a vote of at least twelve
members whether the evidence is sufficient to warrant holding the
accused for trial.

The necessity of a case coming before the grand jury often causes
much delay in a trial, as the jury can only be called when court
is in session, and there are often long periods of time between
courts. On the other hand, the fact that the grand jury is made up
of a man’s neighbors and friends, who would be disposed to give him
fair treatment, is a safeguard to his interests. If “a true bill”
is found, the accused person comes before the court and the charge
against him is read to him. If he pleads guilty the judge imposes a
sentence. If he pleads “not guilty” the trial proceeds.

If the accused has no lawyer, the court must appoint one for him.
While a man so appointed must defend the case, the best lawyers are
not secured in this way. There has been considerable demand for the
creation of the office of public defender for accused persons. The
State employs public prosecutors, and it is argued that it should be
as much interested in proving a man’s innocence as in proving his
guilt.

=Trial by Jury= is a right guaranteed by the constitutions of both
the State and the nation. A trial jury is composed of twelve men
chosen from a list of qualified men in the county where the crime is
committed, or is being tried. After the evidence in the case has been
presented and the judge makes his charge as to the law applicable to
the case, the jury retires to a secret session, where they are kept
in confinement until they reach a unanimous verdict. In England it
requires only a majority of the jury to render a verdict.

=Jury Service= is one of the important duties of a citizen. It is not
required of certain classes of men—_viz._, clergymen, physicians,
druggists, lawyers, and newspaper-men, among others—and judges have
the power to excuse men on whom jury service would entail special
hardship. Jurors are paid a small sum by the day, and to many men
jury service means serious inconvenience and financial loss. But
to leave the settlement of cases which involve the serious welfare
of both individuals and the public, to professional jurors, the
hangers-on of a court-room, is a great wrong to the community.

=Women Jurors=[C] have not yet been permitted in New York State,
although in some Western States they have served with much success.
There are certain cases involving young girls and children where it
would seem that only women should be allowed on the jury. Cases of
murder committed by a woman might be treated with more impartial
justice if women served on such juries. Sentimental considerations
would not influence them as they do some men in such cases.

=The Police=: Much of the public welfare and safety of a city
depends on its police force. A modern police is organized on a
military basis. The men hold their positions for life or during
good behavior. Promotions are based on merit, and pensions are
paid men who have served a certain term of years. This plan has
improved conditions by taking the police out of politics to a large
degree. The policy of the head of the department is of the greatest
importance to the public. The temptations for graft and corruption
in a police department are enormous, but the assurance of a square
deal all up and down the line, strict orders to uphold the law, and
a well-defined policy against graft of every description, will do
wonders to keep a department honest and efficient.

In recent years the plan has been developed of making the police
helpful in many ways in the life of the city. The uniformed officer
has many opportunities to help and direct children, especially the
boys on the streets, to prevent violations of the city’s ordinances,
the littering of the streets, and in many ways to prevent before the
act, rather than to arrest after it has been committed.

This helpful spirit has been adopted by the police of New York City,
to the great good of the city. It is exemplified in the Christmas
trees in the station-houses for the poorer children of a neighborhood
at Christmas-time.

=Prison Reform=: Modern government is learning not to avenge
itself on a criminal, but to impose a sentence which will tend to
reform him. Instead of sentencing a person to a definite term of
imprisonment, an indeterminate sentence may be given him, the length
of which will be determined by his behavior, and by the promise he
may show of leading a better life if set free. If he is released he
may be put on probation. This means that he is required to report
at regular intervals to the court, or to a probation officer, to
show that his conduct is law-abiding. If he goes wrong again, he is
remanded to serve out his sentence.

Men and women, wherever confined, must be given employment. Idleness
is bad for even an educated person. Imposed on one who has no
resources within himself, it becomes a source of demoralization
scarcely to be measured. The old custom was to hire prisoners out to
contractors at low wages. This brought goods manufactured by prison
labor into unfair competition with honest labor.

The modern idea is to teach the prisoner a useful occupation and to
pay the wages to his family. It is not common-sense to support a man
in prison at the expense of the State, and to allow his family to
suffer from having his support taken away from them.

=Probation=: First offenders, or persons committing minor offenses,
are often put at once on probation, with the sentence suspended
during good behavior. This has proved of great value in saving many
from a criminal career. It is far less costly to the State than
keeping them in prison, and often leads to the establishment of an
honest life.[4]

=Jails and Prisons=: Every community has some kind of jail for the
detention of offenders. Those who come in contact with the law are
often the poor and the friendless who cannot get bail. Even innocent
persons may be held some time awaiting trial, or the action of the
grand jury. Young girls are often detained, sometimes as witnesses,
sometimes pending investigation of their own cases, sometimes as
runaways from home. In such a case there is no place of detention but
the local jail. These jails are often filthy and unsanitary, unfit
for human habitation. Their surroundings, and the character of the
sheriff or constable, and jail officials, must inevitably have an
effect on the prisoners, especially on the younger women. It is most
important to the community that a woman shall not be sent out from
jail a more hardened criminal because of her confinement there. It is
a wrong, the responsibility for which every woman in the neighborhood
must share, that there is no better place of detention for young
girls. Women matrons in all prisons where women are held and women
probation officers are now recognized as essential.

It is unintelligent to allow a man to leave jail penniless far
from his home and friends, to become a tramp or to be tempted to a
new offense to get money. The modern ideal of criminology is that
his stay in prison should teach a man an honest way of earning his
living; also that he should be given some supervision after he has
left the prison doors, to help him to lead an honest life.

=City Farms= for the detention of offenders are a great improvement
on indoor prisons, and the open-air occupation both saves the State
money and is beneficial to the prisoner.

=The Prevention of Crime=: If as much money and organized effort
could be put on the prevention of crime as is given to its
punishment, the need of jails and prisons would be greatly lessened.
The chief causes of crime are drunkenness, feeble-mindedness,
overcrowded living conditions, low wages, and insufficient
education and recreation. Drunkenness is now known to be a disease;
feeble-minded persons should not be allowed freedom of action; the
State may prevent congested living, it may establish a living wage,
and it has the power to provide proper vocational training and
sufficient facilities for healthful recreation. It tries to separate
the young offenders from the older ones, and the first offenders
from the hardened ones. It has not succeeded very well in preventing
inequalities before the law. The rich man has the advantage of being
able to employ the most skilful lawyers and to appeal his case to
court after court and drag it out over a number of years. When a fine
is imposed he can pay it and so sometimes escape punishment. The poor
man may have to go to jail because he cannot pay his fine and he is
often unable to fight a suit.

To lessen the hardships and secure equality of treatment for all
alike should be the endeavor of the State.


FOOTNOTES:

[4] The last report of the New York State Probation Commission shows
that on September 30, 1916, there were 13,433 persons on probation,
and that the number of inmates of the penal and reformatory
institutions in the State was decreasing. Probation officers had
themselves collected $139,000 for cases of non-support, and had
caused to be paid another sum of $206,000 for these cases. They had
assisted men to pay, in instalments, fines amounting to $30,000,
which meant that these men were kept out of jail and at work, and had
helped men who had stolen something or had done material damage to
some one to repay those they had injured the sum of $39,000. It is
evident that there is a saving of hard cash to the State in this work
as well as much of social value.




XV

WOMEN OFFENDERS AND THE LAW


The Constitution of the United States guarantees to a person accused
of crime a trial by an impartial jury, or by a jury of one’s peers.
The handling of cases against women offenders has little regard
for that guarantee. Discriminations against women who have come in
contact with the law are the custom.

If any one is inclined to doubt this, let him imagine the case
reversed and applied to himself. Suppose a man accused of an offense
against the law should be accused by a woman, arrested by a woman,
held in jail by a woman, tried in a court-room filled with women,
before a jury composed only of women, and sentenced by a woman judge.
Would such a man feel that he was getting impartial justice given him
by his peers?

Also in the treatment of cases involving sex, the penalty of the
law rests heavily on the woman and the man usually goes free. Sex
immorality is a crime for a woman, but the man, the partner in the
crime, is rarely touched by the law. Until recently in New York
State, even pandering, or living off the earnings of a prostitute,
was classed, as it still is in some other States, as disorderly
conduct, in the same class of offenses as selling a street-car
transfer. In some States adultery is still a misdemeanor. It did
not become a criminal offense in New York until 1907, and it is
still almost impossible to obtain a conviction unless there are
some unusually revolting circumstances. Many cases have come into
the courts of the State where women have been arrested in a raid
on a disorderly house, and where the men found with them have been
released, and the women held.

The large majority of the arrests of women are for the two offenses
of intoxication, and prostitution or street-walking. The usual
sentence for both of these offenses is commitment to the workhouse
for from eleven to sixty days. Nearly half the cases of intoxication
are of old offenders who are sentenced over and over again. Some
years ago the Legislature passed a measure making provision for a
State farm where these women could be sent for care and treatment,
and where they could have useful occupation; but it has not yet been
established.

=Prostitution=: The same sentence to the workhouse for varying
periods of from five to ninety days, or even six months, is the
common one for prostitution. It is doubtful if a sentence of
this kind has ever been of the slightest benefit to any woman so
sentenced. The usual court procedure is a mill through which this
class of unhappy beings goes, without either their reformation being
accomplished, or their danger being lessened to the community. When
it is realized also, that a considerable percentage of these women
are feeble-minded or at least sub-normal, the necessity of facilities
for examination and classification and proper segregation are
apparent.

The entire process of dealing with the problem of public prostitution
in New York City is one that is revolting from a woman’s viewpoint.
To rid the streets of street-walkers and to keep them “clean,” a
force of police in plain clothes patrols the streets. These police
are usually the new men on the force selected for their youth and
good looks. Promotion often rests on the number of arrests that they
make. A smile or a nod, and a girl may respond. If she speaks, an
arrest can and often does follow.

This kind of training for the young men of the police force is
degrading to them. Also, the fact that arrests in nine cases out
of ten are those of women of the street, does not preclude the
possibility of the arrest of a silly, ignorant, but innocent girl.
Brought into court, the presumption is that she is guilty.

There is always a first arrest for any offender against the law.
The records of the magistrates’ courts show that nearly one-third
of the women’s cases brought into court are first offenders. Called
for the first time before a judge in an open court-room, incoherent
with fright, the girl is often unable to say a word for herself. If
she is fined, or sentenced to the workhouse, or held in detention
pending investigation, and is kept in association with other women of
degraded lives, the chances of her being reclaimed are practically
gone.

The law holds an accused person innocent until proved guilty, but a
woman accused of a crime against morality has to prove that she is
innocent. Under the usual court procedure, a prostitute is outside
the protection of the law and her word has no value in the court.

=Night Courts= have been established in order that offenders arrested
at night, after the day courts have closed, may come immediately
before a magistrate, without having to spend the night in jail
awaiting trial. There are separate night courts for women in New York
City, and all arrests for prostitution or loitering are tried in
these courts.

The motive behind the establishment of the Women’s Night Court is
humanitarian, but it is there that one sees the discrimination
against women as the fundamental of the proceedings.

Women are sentenced to terms in prison for offenses far less
serious than those for which men are discharged. The discrimination
against women, and in favor of men, even extends to the cadet, who
pursues the most shameful business in the world, that of exploiting
unfortunate women. Until a few years ago the maximum penalty for such
a man was six months in the workhouse.

The law now permits a sentence of from two to twenty years, but
convictions are rare. Nearly every prostitute is exploited by some
man who takes her earnings, and on whom she relies to protect her
from the police. If these cadets and procurers could be eliminated
it would greatly diminish professional prostitution, but they are
most difficult to reach. The women they exploit will often perjure
themselves to save these men from the vengeance of the law. Also,
the fact that no conviction can be had on the testimony of the woman
unless supported by corroborative evidence, makes her afraid to
testify against one of them.

=The Penalty of Fines=: Imposing a fine as a punishment for
prostitution should be absolutely prohibited. It does not act as a
restraint, and simply means that the woman must go out on the street
to earn her fine, and it makes the State a partner to her crime. It
has been abolished in practice by some judges; but it is still the
custom in some courts in New York State, and is even imposed by some
judges in New York City. A bill to abolish fines throughout the State
was introduced in the Legislature of 1916, but failed to pass.

=Young Girls=: Girls between the ages of sixteen and eighteen are
in the most dangerous period of life. Figures show that the great
majority of girls who become prostitutes are ruined before they reach
seventeen years of age.

A girl of sixteen in New York State is too old for the Children’s
Court. She may therefore be held in jail with the hardened
street-walker and the habitual drinker. If she is without the
protection of home or family, she may be left alone, for the State
makes no provision for a guardian for her unless she has property,
when the State is required to provide one for her.

Delinquency, thefts, and misdemeanors on the part of young girls are
often the results of natural instincts gone wrong. Love of pleasure,
a desire for pretty things, and a wish to be attractive is common to
all girls. A false step, a yielding to temptation, followed by an
arrest and a trial in an open court-room, often mean an ordeal which
leaves an indelible mark on the girl’s soul, and a disgrace which it
is almost impossible for her to live down.

=Girl Victims=: The most pitiful cases are those of very young girls
brought into court as the victims of crime. It is difficult to get
conviction in these cases, as corroborative evidence is necessary.
The shock to the sensibilities of such a girl at having to tell her
story to men and having to answer questions in an open court-room can
scarcely be exaggerated. The need of women in places of authority, to
help in cases of such crimes, is great. Women probation officers are
only the first step in the right direction, but there are too few of
them, and whenever a movement is made toward economy, they are the
first to be dismissed.

=Houses of Detention=: A great need of New York City, and a need
shared by every city in the State, is a proper place of detention for
women. As delinquent children are now separated from older offenders,
so delinquent girls, first offenders and old offenders, and other
classes of women who are held awaiting trial, or for investigation,
or as witnesses, should not be obliged to associate indiscriminately
with one another while awaiting the disposition of their cases.

The need of a building large enough to provide for the separate
detention of the various classes of women who are in the care of the
court has been recognized, but so far little provision has been made
to meet it. In other places in the State, wherever there is a court,
there is need of a place of detention for women where they will be
safe from degrading influences, and where they will be under the care
of other women.

=Women Judges or Judges’ Assistants=: The system which has been
instituted in Chicago since women were given the vote, of a quiet
talk with a woman assistant in the Court of Special Sessions, in
her own private office, instead of an open trial, has resulted in
saving many a girl who otherwise would have become an outcast. In
certain intimate matters it is a woman’s task to question girls.
Contrast the picture of an open court-room: the judge on the bench,
the jury, if there is one, composed of men, the room filled with men
of all descriptions, and the frightened, trembling child, with this
private room with the young offender telling her story alone to an
experienced woman. Which offers the best chance for saving the girl
from a ruined life?

Frequently the girl comes from a family where crowded living
conditions make decent living almost impossible. Instead of her first
offense coming up for inevitable punishment, it is treated with the
sole object of prevention and cure.

Judges in New York State cannot appoint women assistants without
authority from the Legislature, and that authority the Legislature
has always refused to give.

=Policewomen=, or =Women Protective Officers=, are now recognized
as a necessary part of the correctional work of a city. The work
of the woman protective officer is very different from that of the
policeman. The policewoman protects and controls, rather than
arrests. In protecting children, in caring for lost children, in
acting as mother to the motherless, in watching over young girls, in
getting evidence against cadets, she does an invaluable work. The
disorderly saloon, the dance-hall, and the moving-picture theater are
all hunting-grounds for the white-slaver. In getting evidence in this
sort of crime she is more effective than the policeman. There are
policewomen now in fifty cities of the United States.

       *       *       *       *       *

That the whole subject of prostitution and the law is a most
difficult one to deal with, there can be no question. It needs the
combined intelligence of both men and women engaged not only in
theorizing over the problem, but in actual efforts to grapple with
it. Until public opinion supports the single standard of morality,
the courts will continue to discriminate against women.

Unfortunately, women of all ages, even very young girls, are
arrested. Sometimes they are guilty, sometimes innocent, sometimes
sinned against, sometimes only the victims of circumstances, but
always unfortunate. Their misfortune and its results on their lives
are more terrible than they need be, because they are usually
deprived of the help of women in places of authority.

In the Chicago Court of Morals women are welcome, and there are women
court officers, women police, and women probation officers who create
an atmosphere entirely different from the usual court-room. There is
also no division of sex; when it is a question of morality, the man
and woman are both held. A physical examination is made by a woman
physician. When a woman is found to be diseased she is sent to a
hospital to be cured.

Some of the most progressive magistrates and judges are endeavoring
to improve the methods of handling cases of women offenders, but it
would seem that wherever the welfare and disposition of women are
involved other women should be part of the machinery which deals with
them. This is not so much because of sentimental considerations, for
in some cases women would be less influenced by sentiment than men,
but there are certain peculiarities, tendencies, and experiences
common to each sex which only those of that sex can understand. In
all cases of women offenders against the law other women must be
concerned, and should be equally responsible with men for their
handling and disposition.




XVI

PUBLIC EDUCATION


The best foundation for a democracy rests on free educational
facilities for all the people. An ideal school system is one that
reaches out to every child and prepares him for a useful occupation,
that is also available for the further development of every member
of the State, and that will give every individual the knowledge
necessary for him to do his part in government. A self-governing
people cannot afford a class too ignorant to vote.

In New York State, school attendance is compulsory for children
between the ages of seven and sixteen years. An exception is made of
children between fourteen and sixteen, who have completed the first
six years of school, and have been to school 130 days since their
fourteenth birthday. Such children may be employed if they have a
duly signed work certificate. In cities of the first and second
classes, boys between fourteen and sixteen who are employed during
the day, who do not hold certain certificates, must attend night
school sixteen weeks in the year. Truant officers must be appointed
in every city, town, and village to enforce the law. Parents who fail
to send their children to school are guilty of a misdemeanor.

=The School District= is the smallest division of the State, and must
maintain a free common school at least thirty-six weeks in the year.
In 1917, an amendment to the school law was passed which abolished
the old school-district system, that dated from 1795, and which makes
it possible for the children of the rural districts to have some
of the facilities for modern education which have heretofore been
confined to larger communities.

In place of the former school trustees for the separate school
districts, there is now one board of education for each town, and
this board has charge of all the schools in the town. There are 4,000
schools in the State which have less than ten pupils each. The value
of taxable property in many of these school districts is very small.
The school tax has been the only State tax which has been assessed
in such small units. The needs of each school district had to be met
by the taxation of that one district. For all other State expenses
the county is the unit of taxation and taxes are assessed equally all
over the county, and the apportionment made according to the needs of
each district. Under the present law, by treating the town as a unit
for school taxes, all property in the town is assessed equally, and
the money raised is used for the benefit of all the town.

In this way the rich and poor districts share more equally in school
facilities.

The initial expenses of making the change have increased school taxes
in some places for the first year, but the change will undoubtedly
work to the great benefit of the children of the State, and is
along the lines adopted some years ago by most of the other States.
Villages of over 1,500 people are outside the provision of the
new town law. If the people of two or more school districts wish
to combine, they may vote to consolidate and establish a central
school.[D]

=The Town Board of Education= consists of from three to five members
who are elected for a term of three years each and who appoint their
own clerk and treasurer.

They have larger power than was given to the former school trustee.
They have charge of all school property; they determine the kind of
schools that are needed; they may establish high schools, vocational,
industrial, agricultural, and night schools; they determine the
number of teachers to be employed, and their salaries; they may
employ medical inspectors and nurses, and may provide transportation
for children attending school.

=The Annual School Meeting= to elect the Board of Education is held
the first Tuesday in May.

Qualifications for Voters: At this meeting any one living in the
district can vote who is a citizen twenty-one years old, a resident
in the district for thirty days, who owns or rents or has under
contract of purchase taxable property in the district; or has had a
child, either his own or residing with him, in school for at least
eight weeks during the year preceding; or who owns personal property
exceeding $50 which was assessed on the last assessment roll.

Candidates for the board of education may be nominated on petition of
twenty-five voters. Men and women who are duly qualified electors are
eligible to the board.

=Annual School Budget=: The board of education must prepare an
itemized budget of the amount necessary to be raised for school
purposes, and must publish it in July for public consideration.
Additional money may only be raised by a vote of the school district
indorsed by the district superintendent. The building of a school,
or repairs costing over $5,000, must be submitted to a vote of the
school electors.

A board of school directors is elected in each town, consisting of
two men, each with a term of five years, but elected in different
years.

=The Supervisory District=: Each county, except those in Greater
New York, is divided into from one to eight supervisory districts.
(Villages and cities of over 5,000 people are not included, as they
make their own provisions. Each of these has a board of education.)

=The District Superintendent= is the director of a supervisory
district. He is chosen by the board of school directors and is
engaged for a term of five years and paid $1,200 a year by the State,
with an additional allowance of $300 for traveling expenses. The
supervisors of the towns in his district may vote to increase his
salary, the increase to come out of the taxes raised in the towns in
the district.

A man or a woman twenty-one years of age, and a citizen and resident
of the State, is eligible for the office, provided he or she has
a State teacher’s certificate and can pass an examination in the
teaching of agriculture.

The District Superintendent has the general supervision of the
schools in his district. He is responsible for the instruction
given in them and the discipline that is maintained. He examines
candidates for teachers’ positions, under the direction of the State
Commissioner of Education.

=Union Free School Districts= have been permitted under State law
for many years in cities and villages. Some years ago this law
was extended to include rural districts, and during the past few
years about 500 rural school districts have been discontinued and
consolidated with adjoining districts. Many of the discontinued
schools had only a handful of pupils, the buildings and equipment
were primitive and inadequate, and the small amount of money
available made it impossible for the school to offer any advantages.
The union of school districts has given better educational facilities
to the rural districts. The children have been taken to school by
wagons provided for their transportation, and have had the advantages
of a larger school, a higher grade of teachers, and better
facilities of all kinds for modern education. The new educational law
provides still greater development in this direction.

=Physical Training= is compulsory in all schools, public and private,
for children over eight years of age for at least twenty minutes a
day. The State gives financial aid in the training.

Military training is compulsory for boys between the ages of sixteen
and nineteen in public and private secondary schools and colleges.
The name “military” is misleading, for the law provides that the
development of “correct bearing, mental and physical alertness,
disciplined initiative, sense of duty, self-control, and a spirit of
co-operation under leadership” is to be given special attention.

=School Money=: For many years it has been recognized that sufficient
educational facilities could not be provided for every part of the
State through local taxation.

Besides the money raised by the school districts, the State
contributes large sums of money for the support of public schools.
Part of this money is the income from certain educational funds
belonging to the State which cannot be used for any other purpose,
and part is money appropriated by the State Legislature. This money
is distributed by the State Commissioner of Education according to
the needs of the school districts.

City schools are subject to the same general supervision of the State
Commissioner of Education, but are under the direction of local
boards of education, and local superintendents of schools.

=Normal Schools= for training teachers are maintained by the
State out of school funds, and teachers’ meetings are held in the
supervisory districts to help and improve teachers.

=The University of the State of New York=, which is at the head of
the entire educational system of the State, is not a university in
the ordinary sense of the word. It is a combination of all of the
colleges and secondary schools of the State. It is governed by a
Board of Regents, twelve men elected by the State Legislature for
twelve years each, but whose terms begin in different years, who
have large powers of control over all the higher institutions in the
State, universities, colleges, technical and professional schools.
They have the management of the State Library and Museum. They
prepare Regents’ examinations and grant Regents’ certificates, and
supervise the granting of degrees.

The president of the University of the State of New York is elected
by the Regents. He is also the _State Commissioner of Education_,
and as such is the head of the State Department of Education which
supervises the free public schools and normal schools of the State
and apportions the State school funds.

=The National Commissioner of Education= is at the head of the
National Bureau of Education in Washington. The work of this bureau
is largely to collect and publish information about educational
conditions and progress in the United States.

=Agricultural Help=: There are four free agricultural schools besides
the State College of Agriculture in Ithaca. Much assistance is given
by the government to the agricultural needs of the State. Special
courses are provided at many colleges for the various departments of
agricultural work. Short courses are arranged for those who can only
attend a few weeks, and at times in the year when farm work is slack.

=Farmers’ Institutes= are organized, at which experts discuss the
best way of doing the varied work of the farm, especially how to
increase production and to make the farm more profitable.

=Vocational Training=:[5] If the public school is going to prepare
young people for their work in the world, some guidance in the
selection of an occupation, and some practical training in a trade or
profession, must be included in their school work.

The great majority of children leave school at an early age to go
to work. Without specialized training they have little chance for
advancement, but fill the ranks of untrained labor, to the great loss
of the world and their own disadvantage.

=State Scholarships=: Each of the 150 Assembly districts of the State
has five free scholarships valued at $400 each. The scholarships are
awarded by the Commissioner of Education and the holder may attend
any college in the State, and receive $100 for each of the four years
he or she attends.

=Domestic Training=: The majority of girls, even though they are
wage-earners for a time, sooner or later marry, and have children
and a household to take care of. In the olden days, when the home
was a workshop, girls were taught cooking at home; they learned
to care for babies through taking care of the little ones in the
family. Now they often leave school to go to the factory, and only
leave the factory when they marry. They have no knowledge of cooking,
housekeeping, or the care of children. Unless domestic economy of
the most practical kind is taught in the school-room, there is no
way they can be prepared for the important business of housekeeper
and mother. If every girl were taught to cook and were trained in
the proper care of an infant, it would add immeasurably to the sum
total of the comfort and health of family life. It would be an
advantage to every boy, likewise, if he were taught to use his hands
in carpentering or other manual work. Whatever comes in later life,
hands that have been trained to be useful are a great asset to any
man or woman.

=Schools as Community Centers=: Education does not stop at any age.
Public free lectures, mothers’ meetings, and the use of schools for
community recreation are helping to make the school-house 100 per
cent. efficient as an educational center. The school plant that is
closed when school is not in session is an extravagance which no
community can afford.

The demand for the use of the school-house for political meetings,
and as polling-places at election-time, is growing. Outside of New
York City school-buildings may only be so used by special permission
of the voters. Since one of the purposes of education is to train
people in citizenship, the use of the school-house as the center of
everything that pertains to the people’s part in government seems
legitimate.

=Health=: Compulsory education is futile unless at the same time
the health of children is maintained. It is as much the duty of
government to watch over the proper development of the body as of the
mind, yet more attention is often given to decoration of schoolrooms
than to matters of health.

An appallingly large number of children have defective teeth, poor
eyes, or obstructed breathing. Neglected teeth mean an undernourished
body and are a common source of disease.

Periodic medical examinations are required by State law, and
school nurses may be engaged as part of the regular school force.
The value of the law depends on the way it is enforced by local
school authorities, and this is often far from satisfactory. These
provisions are found to repay their cost in the added strength and
productive powers that they give to the community.

=Co-operation=: The greatest of all needs in connection with our
schools is a lively interest in them on the part of women. The woman
who cares about the future of her child must be interested in school
meetings and the election of school-boards, who should be carefully
chosen. Frequent visits to the school in city and country are a help
and inspiration to both teachers and parents.


FOOTNOTES:

[5] Under a provision of a recent Federal law, a certain sum of money
is available for use in any State for the teaching of home economics,
industrial training, or for any vocational work, provided that the
State appropriates an equal amount for the purpose, which New York
State has done.




XVII

HEALTH AND RECREATION


The great majority of men and women, and even many children, have to
work for a living. To keep healthy they need time and opportunity for
wholesome recreation.

Recreation is as much a necessary part of normal life as food or
drink; a fact that has been partially lost sight of in this economic
age, but throughout the world’s history there have been frequent
examples of governments which made careful provision to supply
necessary amusements for their citizens. In Greece great stadiums
were erected for games and contests; in medieval times the knights
held tournaments, even the churches celebrated their saints’ days
with gay street processions.

The need for recreation is particularly great to-day because the
congestion of population of our cities has left few open spaces for
leisure time, and crowded living and small, dark rooms where all the
work of the household must be done, preclude any social life in the
homes of many families. Many young girls who crave companionship and
social intercourse with friends have to go outside their homes to
find it.

Crowded tenements without light or air, dirty streets with no
provision for wholesome recreation, are proofs of poor government and
inefficient democracy, no matter how prosperous and contented a city
may look in its richer quarters.

People who are obliged to live in the crowded districts have a
lowered vitality and a lessened value to the world; and the same
natural impulses which, rightly directed, lead to an orderly,
useful, contented life, may be the causes of delinquency if stunted
or misdirected. The slum is an economic crime, condoned by a public
which pays the penalty in contamination and contagion thrust back
upon itself.

=Housing=: Air and sunshine are the first requisites of healthy life.
The government recognizes a certain responsibility in insuring these
necessities, and prescribes by law regulations for the construction
and inspection of living accommodations. Many families cannot choose
their homes, but are obliged to live in the kind of buildings that
are to be found near their work. Inside rooms without windows, rooms
into which a ray of sunshine has never penetrated, are common in
every city in the State. The law prohibits, in cities of the first
class, the building of new tenements with inside rooms without
windows, but many old ones are in existence, and two-family houses
may still be built with inside rooms. In other cities there are
practically no restrictions, except by occasional ineffectual city
ordinances. Sanitary arrangements, and the water-supply in many
tenement-houses, are insufficient for health or even decency.

Tenement-house inspection is a part of city government in which women
are particularly fitted to serve. In New York City, there are 103,688
tenement-houses and 193 inspectors. Only eight of these are women.

The war has greatly intensified the housing problem. With the
tremendous increase in certain industries which has brought thousands
of people to work in new factories, there is a corresponding demand
for living accommodations near their work. These factories may not
be permanent, and so private capital hesitates to build houses near
them. The result is a terrible crowding of people in unsanitary and
unfit buildings. The consequences of such overcrowding is seen in the
increase of child delinquency, immorality and disease, an increased
death-rate, and the inevitable unrest from such unhappiness which
results in strikes and labor troubles.

=Recreation=: The modern city so far has made little provision for
the natural irresistible desire of youth for play.

This is all the more dangerous because young men and women are being
drawn in great numbers from the protection of the home, for work
in factories and shops. They have a freedom from restraint such as
they have never had before. They have money which they have earned;
they are eager for amusement. When they come to the end of a day of
exhausting work their love of pleasure will not be denied. If they
are not given the right kind of amusement, they will take the wrong
kind.

Instead of recognizing this natural instinct for play, and providing
safe channels for its expression, all provisions for recreation are
usually left to commercial interests, to be used for their own gain,
without supervision or control. Vice is often deliberately disguised
as pleasure, and the most normal and healthy impulses of young men
and women, that, properly directed, lead to happy married life, are
frequently used as a means to their downfall.

Loneliness also plays a part. Many a young man or girl comes to
the city to find work. Where can they find the social intercourse
and companionship necessary to normal life? The homeless boy often
stands around the edge of the dance-hall, vainly hoping to make
the acquaintance of some “nice girl.” The lonely girl, living in
a cheerless hall bedroom, turns to the dance-hall as a place to
find companionship. Proper provision for public recreation, well
supervised, would help to bring this boy and girl together in decent,
wholesome surroundings.

=The Dance=: In young girls, the social instinct, the desire to meet
and know other people, and especially those of the opposite sex,
becomes a dominant factor between the ages of fifteen and twenty.

The most natural expression of youthful spirits is the dance. To
allow it to become a snare to spoil the lives of young people is one
of the great deficiencies of city life. In every city dance-halls,
ranging from the back room of a saloon to the casino or “gin-palace,”
hold out temptations to young people.

In New York City there are over five hundred licensed dance-halls.
This means, at a moderate estimate, one-quarter of a million young
people every night in these public dance-halls, most of which are run
in connection with the liquor trade.

The obligation to regulate places of public amusement, and to provide
good amusement in place of bad, rests with the community.

The minute you begin to regulate the dance-hall you are interfering
with many kinds of business; first and foremost the liquor trade
and all the interests it involves; then, with the business of those
whose livelihood depends upon the vile trade that is stimulated by
the usual dance-hall; and behind these groups, an unknown number of
perfectly respectable businesses whose trade is increased by the
conditions which characterize a “wide open” town. All these manifold
interests are rooted deep in the fabric of the government of most of
our American cities, and, because their connections are in so many
instances seemingly innocent, are all the more difficult to defeat
and dislodge.

=Playgrounds=: The need of organized recreation facilities for
children has become pressing, as congestion of population has left
no place, not even the streets, in which they can play.

There are many blocks in New York City where the population is
greater than in any other place of like area in the world. Where can
the great throng of children go to find innocent amusement? Where
shall they go out of school hours?

In 1915 it was estimated that there were 734,000 children between
five and fourteen years of age who had to play away from home. To
provide for them, the city furnished school and park playgrounds for
from 100,000 to 185,000, leaving at least half a million children
with no provision of any kind for play, except the already crowded
city streets.

=Vacation Schools=: Keeping the schools and playgrounds open during
the summer months takes the children away from the hot, crowded
streets, at least part of the time. Like public playgrounds, the
number of vacation schools is always dependent on appropriations.
The makers of the city budget find a greater pressure exerted from
the multitude of business interests that want consideration, than
they do in support of appropriations for public health and comfort.
It will be necessary for women to be as alive in supporting such
measures, as men are in demanding that their interests shall be
considered. Also facts must be given to prove that the cost of such
appropriations is saved in the increased productive powers of a
healthier people. It has been stated that a healthy laborer increases
the wealth of the country by some $30,000 during a normal lifetime.
If this is true, it should be merely intelligent business on the part
of the commonwealth to expend a reasonable pro rata of this sum, when
necessary, to insure that a child when full grown is healthy.

=Recreation Centers= have been established in some of the Western
cities. Chicago has a series of small parks in various parts of the
city, with outdoor playgrounds, and in each one a large building
where there is a gymnasium, swimming-pool, and assembly-rooms, large
and small. On a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, these places show many
happy pictures of thousands of families, with both the old and young
spending their leisure in a way that increases their own happiness,
and their value to the world.

=Municipal Dance-halls= have also been tried. In the recreation
centers of Chicago there are dance-halls under careful supervision.
But whether the city provides municipal dance-halls or not, public
dance-halls should be divorced from the liquor business, and there
should be careful policing and supervision of private halls, and for
this work women police officials are necessary.

=Municipal Bathing Beaches= are also possible for any community with
a water-front. They are one of the great attractions of Chicago,
where a large part of the lakefront draws hundreds of thousands
of men, women, and children, who may easily reach these public
beaches from any part of the city. The New York State law makes the
construction of free baths obligatory in cities of 50,000 or more
population.

=The “Movies”=: Millions of children attend moving-picture theaters
every day of the year. In New York City alone, the daily attendance
of children is estimated at 200,000. The pictures impress the minds
of children like scenes in real life. For good or for evil, moving
pictures are the great teachers of the youth of to-day.

Many of the lessons taught on the screen are not suitable for
children. They give intimate views of the underworld, of assault and
infidelity, and barroom brawls. They show fair heroines and gallant
heroes committing crimes, and being pardoned and living happily ever
after. They show picture after picture that tends to destroy moral
standards that home and school have tried to teach.

=Causes for Juvenile Crime=: The natural craving for excitement and
love of adventure, with no provision for its legitimate expression,
is responsible for much of the crime of our cities. Some years ago,
it was estimated that of the 15,000 young people under twenty years
of age who were arrested in Chicago during a year, most of them had
broken the law in their blundering efforts to find adventure. It is
said that the machinery of the grand juries and criminal courts is
maintained, in a large measure, for the benefit of youths between
the ages of thirteen and twenty-five. The so-called “gangs” of our
cities are an expression of the recklessness and bravado, common to
boys, which, well-directed, is of great service to the world, and,
misdirected, is responsible for much misery.

=The Use of School-buildings as Social Centers= meets a very real
problem. Halls for dancing and for entertainments, lectures and
debates, rooms for games, even gymnasiums, could easily be brought
within the reach of most of the people. Grown-ups, as well as young
people, would find them of value. This use of the schools, outside of
the regular school hours, has greatly increased in the West, and the
school plant has become an increased factor for good in the life of
the community.

=Rural Needs=: Some of our indifference in regard to proper
provisions for recreation may be due to the fact that we were so
long a rural nation. The boy who lived on a farm or in a village,
who had the swimming-hole in summer, the farm with its hay-loft,
and in winter sledding and skating, was able to satisfy his love of
adventure. To-day, even rural conditions have changed, and there
is as much need of decent and wholesome recreation in the country
and small villages as in cities. Churches are open only on Sunday,
schools are closed two days in the week, the only meeting-place is
the corner store, or the saloons, and the streets. The use of the
school-building and grounds when school is not in session and on
Saturdays and Sundays, would take many boys off the streets.




XVIII

THE CARE OF DEPENDENT AND DELINQUENT CHILDREN


=The State of New York has the largest actual number of dependent
children, and the largest number in proportion to population, of any
State in the Union.=

In the early days it was the women who cared for the neglected
children of a neighborhood, and children left homeless were usually
taken into some one’s home. This care has gradually gone into the
hands of the town, the county, or the State, and has become a
department of government.

There are two ways of caring for homeless children: one is to place
them in institutions, the other is to place them in private families.
In both cases the State usually has to pay for their support. If
the right kind of a home can be found for a child it seems to have
a much better chance for a healthy, happy childhood, and for a
useful future when placed with a family, than when placed in an
institution. The custom in New York State has been to place children
in institutions.

It is the business of each local official, town overseer of the
poor, county superintendent of the poor, and city commissioner of
charities, to provide for destitute children. In the early days he
used to provide for them by giving what was called “outdoor relief”
to the parent, if either parent was living; if the child was homeless
it was sent to the almshouse. For many years past, children between
the ages of three and sixteen have not been allowed in almshouses,
but have been committed to institutions.

Besides this public care, private charitable agencies began to
establish orphan asylums, and homes for friendless children. These
institutions often developed from small beginnings into large
establishments, and began to draw on the public funds for at least
a part of the maintenance of their inmates, and sometimes for their
entire support. It was argued that if the State did not pay for the
support of the children in the orphan asylum it would have to take
care of them elsewhere.

=No Definite Authority=: For many years the authority between State
and local governing boards has been divided. As a consequence,
inspection of children’s institutions has amounted to very little, or
has been, at least, ineffectual.

This inadequate inspection, in addition to divided authority,
encouraged neglect and abuse. The report of conditions in private
institutions in New York City, made in 1916 as the result of an
official investigation, showed that dirt, insufficient food, vermin,
disease, and lack of common sanitary precautions were common.
Education was so much below the standard of the public school, with
little or no vocational training, that children were discharged with
no preparation for earning a living. There was not only an utter
absence of home atmosphere, but methods and restrictions were used
like a prison or reformatory. So little care was given when the
children left the institution, that they often went out entirely
friendless, with no one to call upon for council or advice, and
utterly unprepared for independent life.

These conditions were allowed to exist, partly because of the divided
authority and responsibility, largely because those in authority
were not deeply interested. As the report said, “the committing
authorities have not looked upon the problem as of sufficient moment
to make it any part of their business to formulate and promulgate any
competent standard to govern the service maintained in children’s
institutions.”

New York City has tried the experiment of “boarding out” all
dependent children between two and seven years of age, taking care to
place Catholic children in Catholic homes, Jewish children in Jewish
homes, and so forth. In some respects, this is a better method than
committing children to institutions, but it is only successful if
the child is carefully placed, and its welfare watched by appointed
visitors.

In New York State, 1900-1913, the average infant mortality-rate
of children under two years of age was 86.4 per 1,000, while the
death-rate in eleven large infant asylums was 422.5 per 1,000. That
is, under the care of the mother, even including the ignorant mother,
only one-fifth as many babies died as when the children were cared
for by the State.

Experience shows that children are not only safer and healthier
with their own mothers than in institutions, but that they have a
better chance with foster mothers than in asylums. In 1914, the New
York City Health Department, as an experiment, placed seventy-five
infants to board with foster mothers, with the result that the infant
death-rate dropped forty-eight per cent.

=Boards of Child Welfare=: In 1915, the Legislature authorized
the appointment of boards of child welfare in each county. These
boards were to investigate needy cases and had the power to grant an
allowance to a destitute mother for the care of her children.[6] This
work is dependent on the appropriations granted by the county. County
authorities are slow to act in matters that require appropriations.
At the end of the first year, fifty-seven counties had organized
boards, but only thirty-four had made appropriations; 6,014 children
had been kept from asylums and 1,969 homes had been saved from being
broken up. In New York City, the number of children in institutions
has decreased 3,000 since the Child Welfare Board began its work. In
1917 New York City appropriated $1,250,000 for widowed mothers. The
_average monthly allowance_, the first year of the Welfare Board’s
work, for each child under sixteen, was _$7.99_, which is _$3 less_
than it would have cost to keep the child in an institution.

It is now admitted that everything possible should be done to
prevent a home from being broken up by poverty; that if the mother
is living, and is a fit person to bring up her children, it should
be made possible for her to keep them. That the mother is usually a
fit person to bring up her child, is proved by the experience of the
Board of Child Welfare of New York City, which examined four thousand
cases of mothers who applied for pensions, and found only in fourteen
cases that the mother was not to be so trusted.

In many of the Western States the widowed mothers’ compensation, or
pension laws, have been extended to cover children of delinquent,
injured, or crippled fathers, and sometimes even of fathers
imprisoned in penal institutions.

Some States also have other provisions which reduce the number of
dependent children. In Washington a man who deserts his family is
put to work and his wages are paid to his wife and children. This
seems more sensible than the law which imprisons the man, and lets
the State support him, while his wife has to support herself and
children. In Kansas, the wages of a prisoner are given to his
family. In California and Illinois, the father must help support the
illegitimate child.

The care of dependent children is work for which women are especially
fitted by both training and inclination. In Colorado, the State Home
for Dependent Children must have two women on its board of five
members. In the State Industrial Home for Girls, three of the five
members of the board must be women.

=The Problem of the Delinquent Child= is one that needs the greatest
care and expert attention. If the dependent child is an appealing
figure, the delinquent child is an indictment of a community. He
is usually the product of neglect, of overcrowding, of bad living
conditions, and of defects in the educational system.

To treat the child offender as if he were grown up and responsible,
and to punish him in the same way as an adult, is to make a criminal
of him. The manner in which his first offense against the law is
handled, often determines the future of such a child.

=Children’s Courts=: It used to be common for children of all ages to
be detained with older, hardened criminals indiscriminately, exposed
to contamination and disease, and to try them in an open court-room
with all other cases. The modern policy is to try all cases against
children, with the exception of murder, in special courts.

The entire policy of a children’s court is based on prevention
instead of punishment, to make friends with a delinquent child, to
show him the danger ahead of him, to watch over him like an older,
wiser friend, and to help him to keep straight. The terror and
disgrace of an open court-room are replaced by a quiet, friendly talk
in the judge’s room.

A large number of all children who are arrested are ungovernable
or disorderly, children who have run away from home, or who are
associating with dissolute or vicious persons. Another large class
comes into the courts because of improper guardianship; neglected
children, or those exposed to physical or moral danger. These cases
are not classed technically as delinquents, but are tried by what are
known as special proceedings.

The total number of children arraigned in the children’s courts of
New York City in 1916 for delinquency was: boys, 5,929; girls, 150;
in special proceedings, boys, 3,893; girls, 2,972, a total of 12,944.
The largest percentage of cases for any offense for boys was petty
larceny, and for girls was sex offenses and incorrigibility.

In 1916 the Police Department of New York City made in its report
an analysis of juvenile arrests, showing the nature of the offense,
the age, sex, nativity, occupation, and employment of the child.
The largest number of arrests were for offenses against property.
Practically half of all the delinquents were native-born children of
foreign-born parents.

The attitude of the police force of New York City during the last
few years has been helpful in handling the problem of juvenile
delinquency. The police are now instructed to try to prevent small
infringements of the law by children, and many trivial offenses are
adjusted out of court.

A considerable proportion of the children who come repeatedly into
the children’s courts are feeble-minded. During 1917, the children’s
court of New York City, for the first time, had a clinic attached
to the court, where children suspected of being mentally deficient
could be examined. There is still, however, no place where they can
be committed temporarily for observation, and there is great need of
a graded institution that will provide for the treatment and care of
the different classes of mentally deficient children.

The system of probation for child offenders is of the greatest
possible assistance in reclaiming the child; it also decreases the
number of children who are committed to institutions, thus saving the
State money. To make probation effective, children must be visited
frequently in their homes, and be kept on probation long enough to
make probable a complete reformation. Women, and not men, should be
appointed as probation officers for delinquent girls, but, as the
appointments are often political, men are given the preference, and
are even put in charge of girls.

The present Children’s Court in Greater New York dates from 1915, and
under the presiding justice of the court has been brought to a high
state of intelligent and sympathetic handling. The city of Buffalo
also makes special provision for delinquent children. In most of the
cities of the State, the judges of the court of special sessions set
certain days for children’s cases.

Among the improvements needed in the New York State law is a
provision to give the children’s court jurisdiction over children
of sixteen and seventeen years of age. This is especially needed
in cases of wayward girls. In Colorado the juvenile court handles
cases of offenders under eighteen. Also, it is a criminal offense
in Colorado to contribute to the delinquency of a child, and the
children’s court has jurisdiction over adults contributing to such
delinquency. This is a provision needed in the New York State law.
Colorado also has a law prohibiting the publication of the name or
picture of a girl under eighteen in a case of delinquency. This is
important, as procurers and other men who have been the cause of a
girl’s delinquency often go free, because the girl and her family
wish to avoid publicity.

The children’s courts in New York State should also have the power to
appoint legal guardians for children in case of need.

To be a judge of a juvenile court requires exceptional
qualifications: quick sympathy, and intelligent understanding of the
many causes which contribute to child delinquency.

A large part of the problem comes back to the environment of the
child, to crowded living conditions, deficient education, lack of
vocational training, and absence of opportunities for recreation.
The pitiful striving of children for pleasure and play, and the
inadequate provisions of our cities to meet this need, are often
responsible for the first delinquent step. Many improvements in this
direction, as well as improvements in the law, are needed to bring
the protection that New York State gives its children up to the level
of the best found in other States.


FOOTNOTES:

[6] Unfortunately, the law expressly excludes in its provisions for
relief families with alien fathers.




XIX

CHILD WAGE-EARNERS


=Children are the most important assets of a nation.=

While every one, individually, would admit this statement, it is not
easy to persuade the government that the protection and development
of child life cannot be left safely to private initiative, any more
than can animal or plant life; that, in addition to the protection
of the individual family, children need the fostering care of the
organized government. For many years, the government, both State and
National, has dealt generously with the agricultural interests of the
country. When disease has broken out among either animals or plants,
it has had its experts ready to send out at a moment’s notice to any
part of the country. It has spent vast sums of money to investigate
and eradicate boll-weevil in cotton, and hoof-and-mouth disease among
cattle, and to develop a better strain in many animals and plants,
but it is only very recently that it has been willing to investigate
the needs of the children of the nation.

The appropriations of the Federal government for animal life, in
1915, were over $5,000,000; for child life, $164,000. In 1917, an
additional appropriation of $150,000 was made for the enforcement of
the Federal Child Labor Law.

=Federal Child Labor Law=: For fourteen years, the National Child
Labor Committee has tried to get laws passed which would limit the
hours of work for children, the kind of work they might do, and the
age at which they might be put to work. Discouraged by the State by
State method, the committee inaugurated a campaign for a Federal
child labor law, and after three years of effort succeeded in getting
it passed.

Men have an eight-hour day in many States. Women have an eight-hour
day in a few States. Until the Federal bill was passed, children of
tender years in a number of States could be employed almost unlimited
hours and all night.

At the time the bill was passed three States permitted children
under fourteen to work ten and eleven hours a day, and two States
permitted them to work at night. Nineteen mining States permitted
children under sixteen to work in mines.

Nine States permitted children under sixteen to do night work. In
three Southern States, one-fifth of all the cotton-mill workers, in
1913, were children less than sixteen years of age.

The Federal Child Labor Bill, which went into effect September 1,
1917, was declared unconstitutional by a United States District
Court in North Carolina, and is now before the Supreme Court of the
United States. This law prohibits the interstate commerce of articles
which children have helped to make. It does not control the labor
of children in local occupations. Street trades, messenger service,
agricultural work, and housework are not touched by it. This law is a
great step in advance for the protection of children, but there are
still 1,859,000 children, from ten to sixteen years old, at work in
the United States whom the Federal law does not touch.

=New York State Laws=: For many years New York State has been
building up a code of protection for the children of the State.
Children under sixteen years of age are not permitted to work unless
they have a special permit, and they must have completed the sixth
grade in school. A physical examination of the child is required to
see that he is able to stand the strain of the industry in which he
is about to engage, and proof of age is required. To sell newspapers,
boys from twelve to fourteen must have a permit and a badge. Boys
of fourteen and fifteen are required to have badges if they have a
prescribed route for the delivery of newspapers, but not if they are
selling for themselves. Children under sixteen are not allowed to
work more than eight hours a day. To enforce these laws adequately,
many inspectors are needed and unceasing vigilance on the part of the
public. While the provisions of the law concerning newsboys are very
clear, and are generally obeyed in New York City, they are seldom
enforced elsewhere in the State.

To allow children to enter the industrial world at an early age,
without preparation, and with no guidance as to the sort of work
for which they are best fitted, is unfair to them. The boy or girl
who gets a job at fourteen, without any vocational training, is apt
to remain an unskilled worker all his or her life. The range of
occupations open to such children is small. The largest number of
boys who go to work at an early age become delivery boys, errand
or wagon boys, or newsboys. There is little chance among these
employments for real training or for any future advancement.

A careful study, by the National Child Labor Committee, of certain
cases brought into the Children’s Court, has established the fact
that a large proportion of the boys and girls who come into the
court come from the ranks of child workers. This investigation has
also proved the need of adequate vocational guidance. The present
school course gives little help in this direction to children who
are leaving school at fourteen or fifteen, and parents are often as
ignorant of industrial conditions as the children. After a few years
in an occupation that offers no opportunity for development, the boy
or girl who went to work so young is often left stranded, not only
untrained, but demoralized.

There is need also of making parents understand that better
opportunities are open to children who have had education beyond the
elementary grades.

=Street Trades= of all kinds are regarded by social experts as unsafe
for children. Some authorities recommend the absolute prohibition of
all street trading for boys under seventeen. These trades, including
selling newspapers, appeal to boys because they like the excitement
of street life, and the spending-money which they give them.

A judge of the Detroit Juvenile Court says, “At least fifty per cent.
of the boys brought into the juvenile court are newsboys.” An old
newsboy, when asked what night work on the streets had done for him,
said: “When I was a kid, it wasn’t like it is now. They didn’t have
no midnight edition—I always had to be home by eight o’clock. When I
got to selling at night I started in high school, but when it came
time for the first examination, I said, ‘Oh, I’ll just quit. I’d
rather be out on the streets, anyway.’” In Baltimore it is estimated
that 45 per cent. of all the children in the near-by reform school
have been street workers.

Investigations have proved the theory is false that a child is
usually put to work “to support a widowed mother.” More often the
child in a street trade is found to come from a home where there is
no need of his work, and in these trades the earnings of children are
very small. In a recent investigation, in Seattle, the earnings of
newsboys were found in 46 per cent. of the cases of the elementary
school paper-sellers to be less than $5 a month.

The night messenger service is known to be a demoralizing occupation,
unfit for any small boy, and in New York it is prohibited to all boys
under twenty-one. The same protection of the law is now needed for
girls.

Many parents do not realize the serious results of letting their
children go to work too young, or the bad effects of over-work
on them. The tendency of over-fatigue is to break down the moral
resistance. The release from supervision which is brought about by
their wage-earning, and the danger of their having money of their own
to spend, added to the interruption of their education, cannot help
but have a demoralizing effect on them.

=Rural Child Workers= are quite as common as city workers, but they
are not so often wage-earners. Their labor is usually taken by
parents as a matter of course, and they are not paid. Farming and
housework are two occupations which engage many children, and there
is almost a complete absence of laws regulating them.

A distinction should be made between the farmer lad who does
“chores” night and morning, and the boy who is kept out of school
most of the year to be a farm-hand; and between the girl who helps
her mother out of school hours, and the girl who is kept at work
in a canning-factory, and goes from one to another as fruits and
vegetables ripen; but neither the chores nor the housework should be
allowed to interfere with the regularity of school attendance. The
boy who is kept at farm labor, without education, and the girl who is
kept at work in the canning industry at the expense of her schooling,
are as much in the ranks of child laborers as the cotton-mill
workers, and they suffer in the same way from lack of training for a
useful future.

Experiments have been made in combining the work that the boy does
night and morning on the farm, with the school work. Under proper
guidance, the chores that the boy has to do at home can be made a
means of education. For example: a pupil who assists at home in the
milking might be required to keep a daily record of each cow, with
the fluctuations in the yield of milk, due to weather and food. This
combining of the necessary home work with the instruction of the
school has been made a success in some of the Western States, where
county superintendents supervise the home-school work and make it of
the greatest possible educational value.

Rural school terms are usually shorter than city terms, and irregular
attendance is more frequent. Only 68 per cent. of the pupils enrolled
in rural schools attend daily, while in cities the percentage is 80.
The absences of girls are caused largely by housework.

The results of child labor in the country are seen in the high
percentage of rejections from military service on account of physical
defects in men from rural districts, and the larger percentage of
illiteracy in country communities compared with that in cities.
Better and more adequate education for the thousands of children on
the farms of the State is one of our immediate needs.

It is the right of every child to be given enough education to give
him a good start in life. The child-labor problem is largely a school
problem. Keep the children in school, and there will be no child
labor.

=War and Children=: The war has brought a new demand for the labor
of children, and new evidence of the serious consequences of using
this labor. In England and France, juvenile delinquency due to the
breaking down of educational facilities, and the exploitation of
children in shops and factories, has increased to a point where both
nations are aroused by a new national danger. To meet the sudden
great need for munitions, and the speeding up of all industry,
children of all ages, and women of all classes, went into the
factories. In England, it is estimated that 200,000 children from
eleven to thirteen years of age left school to go to work. Abnormally
high wages were paid them. With fathers at the front and mothers away
from home in munition factories, these children roamed the streets
after their work was done, with pockets filled with money to spend,
and no one to exercise a restraining hand.

Streets are unlighted, the police force has been decreased, churches,
schools, and settlement work are interrupted. Is it any wonder that
since the war began juvenile delinquency has increased 46 per cent.
in Edinburgh, 56 per cent. in Manchester, and thefts 50 per cent.?

The same demand for child labor has begun to be manifest in this
country. The United States is being called on to feed the world, and
to make supplies of all kinds for our allies, besides the tremendous
need of supplies for our own armies. Millions of men are being drawn
from the ranks of producers, and have become consumers. The world is
consuming and destroying on a scale never known before in history.
The demand for more and more labor is becoming ever more insistent.

In spite of the warnings which have come to us from England and
France, of the necessity of guarding against the exploitation of our
children during the war, New York State was one of the first to try
to break down the restrictions built up during many years of the past
with such infinite labor.

The Brown bills, which passed the Legislature last winter, were
a frank attempt to utilize the labor of children. They made it
possible, at the discretion of the State Labor Commission, to
abrogate every law that has been passed in New York State to
safeguard its children. One bill would have made it possible to
utilize the labor of children unlimited hours, seven days in the
week, including night labor. This was vetoed by the Governor.
The other, which makes possible the suspension of the compulsory
education law, in order that children may work on the farms, has
become a law. Other attempts will undoubtedly be made to exploit
children.

It will require unceasing vigilance on the part of the people of
the State to see that measures detrimental to children shall not be
successful. Attempts are being made to remove the limit of hours, and
to abolish the requirement that children between fourteen and sixteen
shall have working papers. Such measures mean that the physical
examination now required would not be made, and that the necessity
of furnishing proof of the age of the applicant would be eliminated.
The first would permit weak, sickly children to go to work in the
factories, and the second would encourage the employment of children
under fourteen.

The need for increased labor is a real one, and as long as the war
lasts it will continue to grow. But the nation that exploits its
children while at war is bleeding at both ends. It is the province of
women to watch over and guard all children. Now that they have the
vote, the responsibility has been put directly on them, and they have
the power to meet it.

Because of the tremendous cost of war in human life itself, it
becomes doubly important to safeguard human life at its source, and
that is our job.

  NOTE.—The material used in this chapter is largely taken from
  publications of the National Child Labor Committee.




XX

PUBLIC CHARITIES


The public institutions of the State are grouped under three heads:
the State Commission in Lunacy, the Prison Commission, and the State
Board of Charities.

=The State Board of Charities=, which has general supervision of the
charitable institutions of the State, consists of twelve members, of
whom nine must be appointed as commissioners from the nine judicial
districts of the State, and three from New York City. The law
prescribes otherwise no qualifications for membership on this board.
(A recent innovation has been made in the appointment of a woman on
the board.) The commissioners serve without salary, but each one is
paid his expenses and $10 for each day’s attendance at meetings, not
to exceed $500 a year.

=Partly State, Partly Private=: Some charitable institutions in the
State are wholly controlled by the State or one of its subdivisions;
others are controlled by private corporations, but are maintained
either wholly, or in part, by State funds. There are over six hundred
and forty charitable institutions which receive money from the State.
There are still other institutions which are entirely supported by
private funds. The State Board of Charities has not the authority
at present to inspect organized charities which do not receive
public money, so there are many institutions which are without the
protection of State inspection, and the total amount of dependency in
the State is not known officially.

=Duties of the Board=: Besides its duties of inspection and general
supervision of charitable institutions, the board has the control of
the incorporation of charitable institutions, and must approve of
an application for a certificate of incorporation before it can be
granted. It also issues licenses for medical dispensaries, and makes
rules and regulations under which they must work.

=The Powers of the Board Are Limited=, as the carrying out of its
recommendations often depends on action by the State Legislature,
and especially on the amount of the appropriations granted for the
work. The powers originally given the board have also been greatly
impaired by the action of the Legislature from time to time in
creating other agencies, which have resulted in a duplication of
work and an overlapping of authority. There is much complaint of
institutions being overrun by official visitors, and inspectors with
conflicting authority, who are said to interfere with the work of the
institutions without accomplishing adequate results.

The powers of the board have been especially curtailed since the
office of _Fiscal Supervisor of State Charities_ was created in 1902.
When decisions are to be made concerning appropriations for State
charities, in making up the legislative budget, the Fiscal Supervisor
is consulted to the exclusion of the State Board. In reality the
Fiscal Supervisor has far greater powers than the State Board of
Charities, as no appropriations can be made unless approved by him.
His effort is to keep down appropriations wherever possible, and he
does not come in direct personal touch with the needs of the work.

The power to fix salaries and establish positions has been given to
the _Salary Classification Commission_, and to locate new buildings
to the _Commission on Sites, Grounds, and Buildings_.

The general dissatisfaction with the confused and conflicting
authority, which had come with different legislative enactments, led
to the appointment in 1916, of a commissioner to investigate State
charities and to report to the Governor, with recommendations of
changes he deemed advisable.

Among the changes recommended were:

(1) That instead of an unpaid board of twelve members, appointed from
the judicial districts, there should be a board of nine, of whom
one should be a woman; three members should be paid and should give
all their time to the work, one of the three to be president of the
board, one the chairman of a bureau for mental deficiency, and the
third, chairman of a bureau for dependent children; the six unpaid
members were to be specialists in the special classes of work which
is supervised by the board.

The present State Board of Charities objects to this change on the
ground that a board so organized would become political. They also
feel that the appointments should continue to be made from the
judicial districts, in order that every part of the State should have
a resident member of the State Board.

The report further recommended: (2) Prompt provision for defective
delinquents; (3) a careful revision of the State charities and
poor law; (4) that power should be given the State Board to
inspect private charitable institutions; (5) the creation of a new
bureau for dependent children; (6) the abolition of the office
of Fiscal Supervisor of Charities, in order that recommendations
for appropriations should come directly from the State Board of
Charities; (7) the abolition of other conflicting authorities, and
restoring the authority of the State Board.

None of these recommendations have been acted upon as yet.

The State institutions that are under the State are the following:
State Agricultural and Industrial School, Industry; Syracuse State
Institution for Feeble-minded Children, Syracuse; New York State
School for the Blind, Batavia; Thomas Indian School, Iroquois; State
Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women, Newark; New York State
Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, Bath; New York State Training School
for Girls, Hudson; Western House of Refuge for Women, Albion; New
York State Reformatory for Women, Bedford Hills; Rome Custodial State
Asylum, Rome; Craig Colony for Epileptics, Sonyea; New York State
Woman’s Relief Corps Home, Oxford; New York State Hospital for the
Care of Crippled and Deformed Children, West Haverstraw; New York
State Hospital for the Treatment of Incipient Pulmonary Tuberculosis,
Raybrook; New York State Training School for Boys, established by
law in 1904, not yet ready to receive inmates; Letchworth Village
for Feeble-minded, Rockland County; and authorized in 1911-12, but
not yet open: The State Industrial Farm Colony, Green Haven; and the
State Reformatory for Misdemeanants.

Private institutions supported mainly by State appropriations are:
New York Institution for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb; New York
Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the City
of New York; New York Institute for the Education of the Blind;
Institutions for Deaf Mutes in New York City, Buffalo, Westchester,
Rome, Rochester; Malone and Albany Home Schools for the Oral
Instruction of the Deaf.

=County and City Institutions=: County and city almshouses are
under the supervision of the State Board of Charities, and also the
recently established county sanatoria for tuberculosis, of which
there are about thirty. The small number of patients in these county
hospitals for tuberculosis makes it impossible for some of them to
give as expert and efficient care as a larger and better equipped
hospital might offer.[7]

=The Department of State and Alien Poor=, of the State Board of
Charities, has the supervision of the State poor, and of alien and
Indian dependents. It also has the power to transfer aliens, or
non-residents, who have become public charges, to their home county
or State, or, in co-operation with the United States Immigration
authorities, to return them to their home countries. This department
has saved the State large sums of money.

In 1916, 810 persons were returned to their homes in other States or
countries, by this department, of whom 250 were alien poor.

=Local Boards of Managers=: Each State charitable and reformatory
institution is administered and controlled by a board of local
managers, appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate.
These boards usually consist of seven persons who serve without pay,
for their expenses only. There are some women on these local boards,
but not nearly as many as there might be, considering the number of
institutions which have women in their charge.

The superintendents of State institutions are all carefully selected
from the civil service lists.

The employees of these institutions form a difficult problem. The old
conception of an attendant for a public institution was exceedingly
low; the standard is still far from good. The salaries paid are
insufficient to attract intelligent service.

=The Department of Inspection=: There are over six hundred
institutions in the State which come under the Department of
Inspection. To handle them there are eight inspectors, and one
superintendent of inspection.

=Almshouses= are inspected and graded in three classes. Of the
counties that were reported in 1917 as first class in both
administration and plant are: Allegany, Chautauqua, Genesee,
Jefferson, Lewis, Monroe, Niagara, Saratoga, Schenectady, and Wayne
counties. Those second class in both administration and plant
were: Dutchess, Herkimer, Madison, Rockland, Schoharie, and Ulster
counties. The only one third class in both plant and administration
was in Sullivan County.

=Provision for the Feeble-minded= is the greatest present need of the
charities of the State. Mental defectives are at large all over the
State, and they are found in all institutions. They are a source of
trouble in the public schools, and are a constant danger to the State.

It is estimated that there are not less than 30,000 of these
unfortunates. The State institutions have room for about 5,700, but
they are actually caring for 6,700. For years efforts have been
made to get the Legislature to make adequate provision for their
segregation. The report of one institution for feeble-minded women
says, “nine of the women admitted were married and had given birth
to thirty-seven children; twenty-six of those admitted had borne
forty-three illegitimate children; making a total of eighty children
born to those unfortunate women.”

Letchworth Village, in Rockland County, a plot of 2,000 acres,
was planned to provide for 2,500 to 3,000 feeble-minded. It was
established in 1907, and in 1916 still had a capacity of only 330.

The failure of the State to complete a project it had undertaken is
shown also in the New York State Training School for Boys at Yorktown
Heights. This was planned to be a reformatory of the modern cottage
type to take the place of the very old one on Randall’s Island, and
was greatly needed for delinquent boys. After twelve years of delay,
and after $800,000 had been appropriated by the State and most of it
expended, this project has been abandoned. The reason given for the
final decision to abandon the site, was the possible contamination
of the Croton water supply by the institution. With modern methods
of sewage disposal it seems as if it would have been possible to
guard against this danger. It would have been easier to insure proper
treatment of the sewage from such an institution than from the towns
and villages which exist in the Croton watershed. The State Board of
Charities recommends now an appropriation of $150,000 for a new site
and plans.

=Recommendations of the State Board=: Intelligent handling of the
problem of dependency must deal with causes. Probably the major part
could be done away with if the State would adopt adequate preventive
measures. The board recommends as an aid to this end: (1) Industrial
insurance; (2) better housing, including the destruction of the worst
congested areas in cities, and the prevention of further congestion;
(3) vocational training for children; (4) improved labor laws,
restricting the hours of labor, and compensation for accidents to
employees; (5) adequate pensions to widowed mothers.

They also recommend: That further provision be made for tuberculosis,
which the records of the State Health Department show is increasing;
that the office of County Superintendent of the Poor should be
appointive and be included in the Civil Service. The frequent
changing of poor-law officials, and their lack of knowledge of the
subject, are drawbacks in the discharge of their duties.

=The State Commission in Lunacy= has charge of the hospitals for the
insane. All the insane come under the direct charge of the State.
This is a salaried commission consisting of three members. There are
local boards of managers for these insane asylums as for the other
charitable institutions, and a majority of the members of these local
boards are required to visit the hospitals at least once a month for
inspection.[8]

=The State Prison Commission=, like the State Board of Charities,
is an unpaid board, but the Superintendent of Prisons is a State
official with a salary.

There has been for years a provision of the State law which gives one
scale of salaries for men employed in these institutions and a lower
one for women.

  Pay of Stenographers (male)    $70-80  a month
    ”          ”       (female)   50-68     ”
  Chief Supervisors (male)        55-68     ”
    ”        ”      (female)      50-62     ”

Since women have been given the vote, it is probable that this law
will be changed and equal pay given for equal work.


FOOTNOTES:

[7] It is hoped that when the Boards of Managers for these county
tuberculosis hospitals are appointed, local women will be placed on
them.

[8] The number of insane in the State is increasing far more rapidly
than the provision which is being made for them. The last report of
the State Hospital Commission shows that in hospitals for the insane,
planned to accommodate 27,890 patients, there were in June, 1916,
33,873 patients, an overcrowding of 21.5 per cent. The State Hospital
Commission urgently requests a bond issue to provide immediately for
the construction of new buildings.




XXI

THE PROTECTION OF WORKING-WOMEN


The war has brought a revolution in woman’s work.

Because of the increased demand for labor, trades and all kinds of
employment that have been considered exclusively the province of
men, have been opened to women. The universal verdict is that they
have everywhere made good. Work that demands the greatest exactness
and care, specialized technical operations that have been supposed
to require a man’s brain, have been done by them quite as well as by
men. But their employment in many of the new industries has brought
new industrial problems, and they have gone into many new occupations
which are not included in the protection extended by existing labor
laws.

Even before the war New York State was the greatest industrial State
in the Union. More women were at work here than in any other State,
and more women were at work in New York City than in any entire State
except Pennsylvania.

There were 248 separate manufacturing industries in this State, and
women worked in all trades in which over 1,000 workers were employed,
except in the manufacture of bricks, tiles, fertilizers, and ice.

They were doing everything, from making cores in foundries, sausages
in packing-houses, pickles and candies, to working in human hair,
chemicals, and rags.

Women have always done their share of the world’s work, but in the
past their labor was in the home. During the early years of our
nation there were very few women who did not work or supervise work,
but they did this in their homes for their homes, and they were not
paid in money.

When the cotton-gin was invented and the use of steam was discovered,
it was the dream of the inventors that their machines should be
really labor-saving, and that people would have leisure for the
development of the wider and deeper things of life. This became true
for some people, and to-day there are many women of comparative
leisure who can do as they please with their time. But on the other
hand, undreamed-of evils and dangers have come to women who toil,
and necessity compels women by the millions to seek work in the
industrial world. In spite of the fact that the wages of women have
been appallingly low, the woman who must earn money in order to live
has had to find work outside of her own home.

=Number of Women Wage-earners=: In 1910, according to the census,
there were in New York State 3,291,714 women over fifteen years of
age; only 1,793,558 were married, and 1,498,156 were unmarried or
widowed; 983,686 of these had to work in order to live, or to support
some members of their families. This number did not include the great
mass of women who work in their homes.

=Clothing Manufacturers=: Before the United States entered the war,
184,691 women were working in New York State making every conceivable
garment for people to wear. The work is subdivided so that one worker
does one thing all day long. There are sixty-five operations in
the making of trousers. Twenty to sixty different operations take
place in the making of men’s shirts. Women tuck or hem materials for
women’s wear hour by hour, driven by the juggernaut electric machine
which knows no fatigue and needs no rest.

=Laundries=: Ten thousand women worked in laundries in this State,
where the washing and ironing are done usually by machines. They
stand and push down a treadle of the ironing-machine with their feet,
making as many as sixty-three to eighty-one foot pressures a minute.
In this action a bad twist of the body is necessary, which may
result in permanent injury. Clouds of steam rise from the mangles,
and when no exhaust hoods are used, the room is filled with steam.
Tuberculosis is a common disease among laundry workers. Unprotected
machinery is a constant danger.

=Restaurant Workers=: There were fifteen thousand restaurant workers,
waitresses, cooks, kitchen girls, and pantry hands. Until 1917,
they were without any protection by law. They worked any number of
hours, and seven days a week. They now come under the fifty-four-hour
law, in first and second class cities, but the law is difficult to
enforce. They often walk five miles a day carrying heavy trays; and
varicose veins, flat feet, and pelvic disorders are common.

=Textile Operators=: In New York State 35,168 women worked in
textile-mills making silks, woolens, cottons, carpets, knit
underwear, etc. The din of machinery is deafening in many of these
factories, and often the machinery is so closely placed that there is
difficulty in passing without danger of skirts catching.

The whole development of machinery in industry has been worked out
for the purpose of extending trade and output, without consideration
of the human factor involved. Machines have been watched so they did
not wear out or break, and they have been carefully repaired. Girls
and women, the human factor, have been discarded if they wore out;
they are of less worth to the employer and can be easily replaced
without cost to him. But the cost to the State has been heavy in
the toll of hospitals, insane asylums, and homes for destitutes and
delinquents.

There is hardly a trade which has not some elements of danger or
unhealthfulness in it. Women working in meat-packing plants in
sausage-making rooms stand all day at their work on water- and
slime-soaked floors. Women work in industries where industrial
poisons are used or where they are generated in the process of
manufacturing. The pressure of piece-work, the monotony of one single
operation, are nerve-racking and nerve-exhausting.

The health of women who spend hours a day in factories depends
largely upon factory laws and sanitary codes. Light, air, sanitation,
overcrowding in factories, mills, and shops, all vitally affect the
health of the workers. No one can measure the cost of industry in
the life of women. The strength and vitality taken from them will
show in the lowered vitality of their children. A low birth-rate, a
high death-rate, and an impaired second generation are the inevitable
results. Infant mortality where the mothers work in factories is
notoriously high.[9]

=War and Woman’s Work=: With the insistent demand for increased
production occasioned by the war, women have been brought into
many new positions formerly held only by men. They have gone
into the steel-mills; they are employed in large numbers in the
munition-factories; they are working on the railroads, in railroad
yards, and inspecting tracks, as well as in the ticket-offices and
baggage-rooms. The Pennsylvania Railroad has 2,300 women employed as
car-cleaners, track-walkers, upholsterers, locomotive despatchers,
and machine-hands. Some are operating trains. They are engaged as
conductors on street-cars and subways, and as elevator operators.

These new industries are not included in the provisions for women of
the State labor laws.

New York State has a nine-hour day for women working in factories
and mercantile occupations, and night work is prohibited in
these industries; but this protection does not extend into other
occupations.

An eight-hour working-day has been given to men in many States and
in many occupations, but in only a few of the Western States has it
been given to women. After three or four years in most industries,
young women begin to wear out, the speeding up and the strain put
on their youth begin to tell, their capacity lessens, and their
output diminishes. Although the effect of long hours and monotonous
occupation is harder on them than it is on men, the protection of
the law has been extended to them to a far less extent. In these
new industries there is none. Women may work in them twelve hours a
day and all night. The demand of some of the street railways is for
a twelve-hour night for women conductors (with two hours off for
supper). Elevator operators work twelve hours a day, in day and
night shifts, and girls employed all night are subject to insult if
not actual danger.

Since boys have been difficult to get, girls, including some under
sixteen, have been delivering letters and packages in messenger
service. The State law prohibits boys under twenty-one being employed
as messengers at night, because of the dangers of contamination from
the night life of a city. Under present conditions a girl employed
as messenger has no protection, and may even be sent to houses of
doubtful character.

The new industries for women also include manual work that has
heretofore been considered too heavy for them. The high wages paid
them, while lower than would have to be paid now to men for the same
work, are still high enough to attract women from other occupations
where wages have not had the same advance.

While there is an increasing demand that women shall be paid the
same wages as a man would be paid for exactly the same work, the
idea still prevails that it is only fair to pay men more than women
because they have families to support, while women support only
themselves. =This is not true.= On the backs of many women rests the
sole support of aged parents, or of younger brothers and sisters. A
large proportion of them give up all their earnings to the family
needs.

It is no longer a question of the ability of women to do many kinds
of work formerly held to be the exclusive province of men; but of the
effect of her so doing on the future health and welfare of the race.

Women, like men, must work in order to live, but society and the
State owe it to themselves, as a vital matter of self-protection, to
safeguard that work, so that future generations shall not suffer from
its effects.

The whir of machinery, the noise, the constant standing or the
close bending over work, the meager wages, have been the conditions
woman has had to meet for years in her struggle for a livelihood;
to them are now added the dangers and excessive hours of these new
occupations, with their further call on her strength and endurance.

These new industries for women should be included in the laws
regulating the hours and condition of women’s work. Public messenger
service is too dangerous for young girls to be employed in it.

If the eight-hour working-day is right for men, it is even more
needed by women. Laws regulating factory conditions are of little
value unless there is sufficient inspection to enforce them, and the
number of inspectors employed is always inadequate. Women inspectors
are needed for factories in which women are employed; but there are
only four women factory inspectors in the entire State.

Several years ago the New York State Factory Investigating Commission
made an exhaustive investigation of women’s wages, and found that
women and girls were so underpaid as to endanger their health
and productiveness. Since then the cost of living has advanced
prodigiously, with no corresponding increase in wages, especially
among young unorganized women.

A minimum wage bill, similar to the one in force in Oregon, which has
been declared constitutional by the United States Supreme Court, is
now before the Legislature, drawn on the recommendation of the State
Factory Investigating Commission.

If the war continues, the demand, not for more protection, but
for the suspension of existing labor laws, will become more
insistent. The needs of the country for increased production will be
irresistible and will not be satisfied for many years.

The test which the government should insist shall be applied to every
occupation in which women engage is this: What effect will it have on
the one business in life which is especially theirs, the production
and conservation of human life? How can it be safeguarded so it shall
not exact too great a toll from their health and vitality?

Every consideration that individuals and the State can give must be
engaged in the study of this question. With the vote in her hands,
the woman in industry will be able to protect herself better than
before, but the responsibility for her welfare rests not on herself
alone, but on other women, especially on those who are free from
the grinding struggle themselves, and can do as they choose with
their time. It is part of their responsibility to see that the most
conscientious and careful consideration be given to this question.


FOOTNOTES:

[9] Thanks are due Miss Mary Dreier, a member of the recent New York
State Factory Investigating Commission, for this picture of the work
which women are doing.




XXII

AMERICANIZATION


The United States is still a medley of foreign nationalities,
representing all the races of the world, with their social
characteristics, customs, prejudices, and even language unchanged.
No one need be disconcerted by this fact, for the people who came
over in the _Mayflower_ were foreign-born, the founders of the city
of New York were of foreign birth, and so were the first families of
Virginia.

In New York State only 35 per cent. of the population is of native
birth and descent. Almost one-third is foreign-born; one-third of the
children born here have one or both parents of foreign birth. Even
with all the resources at our command it would have been a giant task
to have assimilated such huge numbers of such divergent races.

The United States was established as a nation where justice, freedom,
and opportunity were to be assured to all the people. For over a
century it has been a refuge for men and women of foreign lands, who
have been oppressed and have longed for freedom, and who have sought
wider opportunity for themselves and their children.

Native-born Americans have accepted their privileges as a matter of
course, and without feeling the obligations they imply. They have
demanded justice and opportunity for themselves, but they have not
felt the responsibility of seeing that it was extended in equal
measure to those who come to our shores. They have not realized
that it is the obligation of every one enjoying the privileges and
benefits of a democracy to see that these are shared and safeguarded
by all the people.

The war has brought home to the nation the stern necessity of a
united country. For the safety of the nation our ideals of freedom,
justice, and opportunity must be put into practice for all the people
of the nation. The “square deal” that we stand for must be given
at home, the opportunity for better living and the development of
character must not be denied any of our people. Only in this way
shall we have loyal American citizens who value their allegiance and
who feel the obligation to uphold our national ideals.

=The Immigrant Is a Great National Asset=: The country has been
built up largely by his work. The railroads, the mines, the great
buildings, the subways, waterworks, steel-mills, sugar-refining,
clothes, cigars, furniture, most of the products of our factories,
are made by immigrants. The great industries of the country would
stop without the millions of hands that they supply.

The immigrant often comes here with high hopes of improving his
condition, and he finds himself looked down on with contempt by the
native American, exploited at every turn, and every advantage taken
of his ignorance. After an alien is once admitted, there has been
relatively little attempt made to protect him, to see that he is
helped to settle where his skill can best be utilized, or even to aid
him in learning our language and customs.

Many foreigners were skilled farmers before they came to this
country, but although there is great need for such labor on the farms
here, little provision is made to use their skill in that way. The
immigrant often has to pay to get a chance to earn his living. When
he gets a job his labor is exploited; he has to accept lower wages
than an American would take; the living-quarters provided for him may
not be fit for human habitation.

Here is a recent picture of a suburb of New York City, a community of
16,000 foreign-born workers: The married workman pays from fifteen to
twenty dollars a month rent for a three- or four-room flat, the rooms
about ten feet square, with no light but kerosene-lamps. The average
family has four children, and each family takes from two to six
boarders to help pay the rent. The only running water is on the first
floor, and there is one out-of-door toilet. Is it any wonder that the
children, the younger generation, are both sickly and lawless?

The factory buildings are large and well lighted, but in many
communities of foreign-born unskilled workmen the housing provisions
allow for no privacy and are a detriment to family life and morality.
Such conditions are particularly bad for the immigrant woman whose
work confines her indoors.

It is natural that the foreigner should settle with others of his
own nationality, so almost every city and village in the State has
a colony “across the track.” In the native section there will be
police protection, paved streets, running water, sewage and garbage
disposal, but this protection often does not extend “across the
track.” There, disorder and filth abound and the death-rate is much
higher.

=Every injustice to the immigrant reacts on us as a people.= He must
be given a square deal before he can be made into a loyal American.

A common language is the first essential of a united nation. There
are solid blocks in New York and other cities where not a word of
English is spoken or understood. It is hopeless to try to make
Americans of persons who do not understand our language. Speaking
English is the first step in citizenship, and the public schools are
the logical centers in which to make loyal Americans of our alien
population.

=Night Schools= are sometimes provided, but there are many localities
still without them; and, after all, it is difficult for a man who
has been at manual labor all day to study at night. They are most
successful when they are made interesting with stories and games.
Experiments have been made with classes held from five to seven
o’clock in the afternoon in the factory buildings, and employers
often welcome them.

=Neighborhood Classes for Women= are being held in the afternoon in
some localities. In this case the babies must be included. Provision
is made for them in a separate room with a nurse or kindergartner
to take charge of them. The best lessons for the mothers are not
found in books, but are based on the interests connected with their
daily lives and their domestic duties. Paper patterns and a lesson
in how to make garments for her baby will chain her attention, and
the English names of articles used will be learned unconsciously.
“Playing store” with the articles she depends on to feed her family
will fascinate her and teach her more practical English.

The immigrant woman is often keen to learn American ways and customs.
She is eager to know how to take better care of her family. When the
public schools of New York City give away pamphlets about economical
cooking, the call for them from the mothers of the pupils is so great
that the supply is soon exhausted.

The need for some special help for the foreign woman was never
as great as it is to-day. There are about four hundred thousand
of them in New York State who have become citizens because their
husbands are citizens. They are going to vote. Many of them cannot
speak English. In the course of time the law providing that a woman
shall take the citizenship of her husband without qualifying for it
herself, may be changed, but meanwhile these women are voters. They
need help and education, and for the protection of the State the
community must give it to them.

=Home Teaching= of women in the tenements as part of the regular
school system is being tried in California. Teachers are sent into
the homes to show by practical demonstration economical cooking, how
to improve sanitary conditions, and to teach the mother how to care
for her children.

=Naturalization= would do more to arouse a sense of responsibility
in the alien if it were conferred with a ceremony which would appeal
to the imagination. Many of the people who come to our shores come
from countries where beauty and ceremonial are part of the national
life. The process of naturalization, as conducted in many courts, is
usually perfunctory and often sordid. If the courts are crowded, an
applicant may have to come six or eight times with his witnesses,
losing not only time, but being in danger of losing his job. He is
often ignorant of the whole subject of government; he may know
nothing of the questions involved in an election, but there is
rarely an effort made to teach him anything of American ideals. The
political club that wants his vote is the only thing connected with
government that pays any attention to him, or offers him help. Often
he finds that his vote has a market value. So the ballot, the symbol
of freedom and self-government, becomes to him only a bit of graft.
Definite standards of citizenship that apply to all alike, better
tests of their knowledge of English and of our government, would help
to impress on aliens the meaning of the oath of allegiance.

=Uniform Naturalization Laws=: In New York State an alien has to wait
five years to become a citizen with a vote. In Nebraska, a Turk or a
Greek or an Armenian who landed six months before, if he has taken
out his citizenship papers, is permitted to vote, although he may
have no educational qualifications of any kind, and know no English
nor anything about our government. In seven other States a man can
vote simply by declaring his intention of becoming a citizen.

=Ignorance of Laws=: Besides the lack of provision for learning the
duties of citizenship, there is little opportunity for the immigrant
either to become familiar with our laws or to learn respect for
the law. He gets his knowledge of the vote from the ward boss, and
he learns contempt for the law when he sees the curtains of the
saloons pulled down in front, and the back door open. As he sees the
constant disregard for law all around him, liberty becomes license in
his mind. Then as he prospers and grows well-to-do, building laws,
factory inspection, fire protection, and other attempts at government
regulations, often seem to him restrictions which are to be evaded as
much as possible.

Sweatshops and the padrone system are to his mind part of the
American system for getting rich. In taking advantage of them for
his own profit he feels that he is only following the custom of the
country. A contempt for law and opposition to any attempt of the
law to interfere with what he considers his rights are the natural
results.

The study of civics[10] in the public schools should begin not in
the high schools and colleges, but in the lower grades. A majority
of children leave school before they reach the grammar school. A
practical course in government may be made simple and interesting
even for them.

The idea has been seriously advanced that the oath of allegiance,
accompanied by a dignified and beautiful ceremony, might be
administered to groups of boys and girls as they reach twenty-one
years of age, in a manner to impress on the public mind the value of
citizenship. The “citizen receptions” which have been given monthly
in Cleveland and Los Angeles, to the new citizens of that period,
have done this. After a patriotic program, with the judge of the
court presiding, each successful applicant is very proud when he
receives his naturalization papers like a diploma, awarded before
his family and friends. Such a ceremonial cannot fail to carry home
the conviction of the value of the citizenship so conferred, and the
importance of living up to the responsibility imposed by it.


FOOTNOTES:

[10] The study of citizenship in the public schools may be made a
vigorous aid to Americanization. Many foreign parents depend on their
children for their knowledge of the customs of the new country. What
the children learn in the public schools has its influence on the
life of the family at home. If the children are taught orderliness,
consideration for others, and respect for authority, they carry those
qualities home. If they are undisciplined, they take home disregard
for parental authority, and a lack of consideration for the rights of
others, that will stand in the way of their comprehending the first
principles of good citizenship.




XXIII

PATRIOTISM AND CITIZENSHIP


From the beginning of history there have always been individuals who
have chosen death rather than slavery. As intelligence has grown and
has displaced ignorance, their number has increased, but it is only
within the last century and a half that people have demanded liberty
in sufficient numbers to make it the fundamental principle in the
forming of great nations.

We, in the United States, are the inheritors of the most courageous
and forward thinking of the men and women of all nations who cared
enough for human liberty to break all ties of home and country
in order that they might “establish justice, insure domestic
tranquillity, provide for the common defense, and secure the
blessings of liberty” for themselves and for us.

These phrases from the Constitution of the United States have
usually been only words to us. We have been safe, our homes have
been secure, our loved ones have been protected. Most of us have not
personally been conscious of any overwhelming injustices, and those
that we have heard of have been far enough away not to be disturbing.
We have come and gone as we chose; we have thought and spoken as we
pleased; we have worshiped as we would; our property has been safe;
we have damned the government or any man in any public office without
thought of danger to ourselves; we have feared no man. Why should we
have talked about liberty or human freedom—it has been secure enough.
So the call to defend liberty to some has fallen on dull ears,
and the demand for an awakened patriotism in some places has gone
unheeded. As a people, we have forgotten about the long centuries of
fighting for freedom, the tremendous cost that has been paid, and the
blood that has been shed.

Think what those words, “safety, defense, tranquillity, justice,”
must have meant throughout the centuries when no man’s life was safe,
when not only his welfare, but that of his family, was subject to the
whim of the government, when he could be thrown into prison without
knowing the reason why, when the honor of his wife or daughter could
be taken without his being able to protest. Read your history again,
of the middle ages, of England in the seventeenth century, of France
before the Revolution, of Germany in the eighteenth century. Then
read of the early struggles in America. It was nature and the Indians
that man was fighting then. For personal safety he fought to make
war and raiding unprofitable; he had to meet brute force with brute
force, to prove his mastery over nature and savagery, and to gain
peace and safety for himself and his home.

It is the untold sacrifices of countless men and women that have made
liberty possible. That it shall be maintained, and that the world
shall not be allowed to slip back, is a debt that every man and woman
owes to the past.

Those who inherit the fruits of this age-long struggle must be ready
to pay their part, for themselves and for the sake of those they
love, for the sake of those who won it for them, and for those who
shall come after them. The duty which rests on them is as great as
the duty that was on the men of the Revolution, and on those who won
the Magna Charta. If they do not, they are weakening the forces of
civilization.

For liberty is not yet complete. There may be as great a struggle
ahead of the world as lies in the past. Before the tremendous
upheaval of the war, we took it for granted that the liberties we
possess were common, more or less, in most of the civilized world.
Since then the horrors, the unbelievable human suffering, the
suspension of all human rights, in the region of the great struggle,
we have laid to the war, and have not realized that in many parts of
civilized Europe, before the war, human freedom as we know it did
not exist, and that the denial of certain rights which we claim as
fundamental, was common.

At the foundation of our national existence has been that belief
in the principles of liberty, justice, and opportunity which the
Constitution expresses. The rights given us by the founders of our
nation have been the ideals which other democratic governments have
sought to follow. They have been sufficiently elastic to meet the
growth of the world’s belief in democracy, and to provide for all
new developments in the ideals of human liberty. If these ideals
have been denied to any of our people, it has been the fault of us
as citizens. The degree in which they are maintained depends on us.
Instead of denying the liberties that we actually enjoy, would we
not do better to advance them and add to them? In place of tearing
down the great structure already erected, is it not wiser to help to
correct its imperfections and to continue to build on it?

There is an intelligent part of the public that desires good
government and will help to maintain our ideals of justice, but they
are in the minority. There is also a part that sees in government
only their own selfish profit, but they are also a minority. The
great mass of people are indifferent until something arouses them.
They would rather be left alone by bad government than be bothered
by good government. That is the great problem of democracy—to arouse
all the people to a realization of the necessity of their active
interest in and support of that democracy, to increase their sense
of individual responsibility; and that is the reason for universal
suffrage—to put yeast into a people and to ferment their dormant
interest. Democracy is not static. It exists only as it is upheld.

We hear about the denials of justice and the failures of democracy
more than we do about its blessings. Our sense of perspective is
often wrong. We talk about an act of lawlessness in the United
States, even if it is being prosecuted with energy by the government,
and class it with a deliberate attempt by a government to crush a
people. We make no distinction between a State with deficient labor
laws and a country where the laboring classes have no right to make
themselves heard. We see no difference between a suppression of
disloyal utterances in time of war and a people that is never allowed
to speak freely, or a censoring of papers in war-time and a press
that never prints anything but what it is told to print.

We are apt to magnify the evils of democracy at home, and to forget
the magnificent heritage of liberty that belongs to us.

What are the special privileges which we enjoy?

_First._—_Personal Security_, the right to live our daily lives
without fear of personal danger, the right of being secure from
unwarrantable seizure of person. This right has been ours so long
that we do not know how precious a right it is. It is difficult even
to conjure up in imagination an idea of what it would mean to be in
daily fear of one’s safety.

_Second._—_Personal Liberty: Freedom of Thought and Speech._ Life
would be unthinkable to us without this liberty. To stifle one’s
thought, to be afraid to let a suspicion of it leak out would mean to
make life unbearable. _Freedom of the Press_ is a right that we enjoy
more than any other nation. _Freedom of Worship_ has so long been
unquestioned that we forget that it has been little more than a short
century since it was established. _Freedom of Assembly_ is a right
which we accept without question.

_The Right of Petition_ was won by a bitter struggle. We can scarcely
imagine that there was ever a time when it was denied.

_Third._—_Equality before the Law_ is a right that is guaranteed by
the Constitution of the United States, the right to a fair trial by
jury, of habeas corpus, and due process of the law.

_Fourth._—_Security of Property_ is guaranteed by our Constitution.
Private property may not be taken even by the government without a
fair price being paid for it.

_Fifth._—_Political Rights_ are guaranteed to our people, universal
suffrage, complete political liberty. This is the most valuable
of all rights, because it is the right that secures all other
rights.[11]

These rights are not absolute; they are dependent on public opinion
as well as on the law. They are imperfectly administered. To the
extent that they are denied, we must each one of us accept part
of the blame, because liberty of action is ours. In time of war
public safety may demand their suspension, and the people may give
permission that this may be done temporarily.

The privilege of citizenship brings with it the obligation to defend
the government of which that citizenship is a part. The right to
vote is a right which might well be dependent on the loyalty of the
citizen, and on his willingness to defend and maintain his country.

Men say even to-day that the vote has no value, that they do not care
about it. Let them live for a time in a country where they would not
be allowed to vote, where the people are governed by an autocratic
power, and how long before they would be willing to sacrifice
anything, even life itself, for political liberty?

The citizen of a democracy has not only the duty to defend his
country, but is bound to transmit to future generations something
better than he inherited from the past. As it is his part in time of
war to defend the liberties that he enjoys, so it is his duty in time
of peace to do his best to develop and strengthen liberty and justice.

That is a task even more difficult than to fight in time of war. The
discouragements, the disappointments, are many.

Women are bound to meet these disappointments. The vote for which
they have worked so hard and so long will not accomplish what they
wish. Often it will seem to accomplish very little. The machinery of
democracy is cumbersome and very imperfect. It is often heartbreaking
to try to move it. It does not easily register the popular will.
But in spite of the imperfections, and the discouragements, and
the downright corruption, the foundation on which it is built is
the best that the world has yet found. There are many labor-saving
devices still to be invented for the bettering of the machinery
of government—protective measures to be found against political
corruption and to safeguard the interests of the people.

Side by side with the improvement in the mechanism of government must
come a quickening of the public conscience. The yeast of universal
suffrage is already working toward that end. The golden rule as the
standard of action in government will make few mistakes. The prospect
for an improved democracy in New York State is bright. The war has
swept away many prejudices and has clarified many problems. Men and
women are working together as never before, whole-heartedly, for
the benefit of the State. To adapt the words of President Wilson,
“the climax of the culminating and final war for human liberty has
come, and we must be ready to put our own strength, our own highest
purpose, our own integrity and devotion to the test,” and we must do
this not only now in time of war, but also after peace has come, in
the dedication of ourselves to the service of justice, freedom, and
opportunity for all in our nation.


FOOTNOTES:

[11] Universal suffrage has meant in the past only manhood suffrage.
With the ratification of the woman suffrage amendment to the National
Constitution, universal suffrage will become for the first time a
fact.




APPENDIX

SOME DEFINITIONS


=Habeas Corpus=: Both the Federal and State constitutions guarantee
to the people the right to the writ of habeas corpus, “unless where
in cases of rebellion or invasion, public safety may require its
suspension.” This is an order that may be obtained from a certain
judge commanding that a prisoner shall be brought into court without
delay. This writ secures to any person imprisoned for any cause the
right to be heard immediately, in order that the purpose of his
detention may be made known, the facts be examined, and the prisoner
either released or remanded for trial. This is one of our most highly
prized rights, and is based on a promise contained in the Magna
Charta.

=The Initiative and Referendum= give to the voters the power to
initiate legislation, and the right to compel a referendum on any
legislative act.

=The Initiative= enables the people to enact some measure that they
may desire, when it has been ignored, or defeated, or amended out
of shape by the Legislature. The initiative may be used to pass a
new law, or to amend or repeal existing laws. If a group of citizens
can get a certain percentage of the voters to sign the requisite
petition to a measure, it then goes to the Legislature, and if it is
not adopted by that body, the measure must be given to the people for
their decision by popular vote. If a majority of the voters indorse
the measure it becomes a law without waiting for action by the
Legislature. In Oregon, initiative measures go directly to the people
without being submitted to the Legislature.

=The Referendum= provides that a certain percentage of voters may
demand that any statute passed by the Legislature must be submitted
to the voters, and approved by them before it becomes a law.

The existence of a provision for the initiative and referendum
is said to reduce the need of interference with the work of the
Legislature, and the actual number of measures coming to a popular
vote is very small.

=The Recall= provides that the voters who put an official into office
may vote to remove him before his term of office is over. If people
are dissatisfied with the conduct of a public official, on petition
of a certain number of voters, he may be compelled to submit to a new
election so that the voters may pass judgment on his conduct of his
office.

=The Red-light Injunction and Abatement Act= is recognized as the
most effective way yet found of minimizing the social evil. The
usual method of handling such offenses is to arrest the woman and
fine her. The injunction and abatement act puts the responsibility on
the owner of the property used for this business. If it can be proved
that it is used for immoral purposes, the house is closed, and the
owner fined and put under heavy bond to insure its not being used
again in this way. Property used for this purpose brings much higher
rent than when used for legitimate business, so that this procedure
strikes at one root of the evil. New York State has an abatement act,
but it is not well enforced. It is not easy in many cases to find the
owner of a piece of property.

=The Tin Plate Ordinance= puts the name of the owner of a building
on a plate outside the building, and thus prevents the concealment
of his or her identity. It was first put into operation in Portland,
Oregon.

=Prohibition=, =High License=, =Local Option=, and the =Guttenburg
System= are all ways of dealing with the liquor traffic.

=Prohibition= has been of many different degrees in various places in
the United States. A complete National prohibition measure has now
been passed by Congress, and is before the States for ratification.

=High License= is intended to decrease the number of places where
liquor is sold by placing a tax on them so large that it will be
impossible for many of them to pay it.

=Local Option=, which allows communities of various sizes to decide
for themselves whether the sale of liquor shall be licensed or not,
has been fought step by step by the liquor trade.

=The Scandinavian or Guttenburg System= of controlling the liquor
business, in general, provides for eliminating all private profit
from the business, but there are many variations of details in
different places in carrying out the system. The Scandinavian idea
is that if the money profit is done away with the business will
take care of itself. A few licenses are given for short periods to
companies formed for manufacturing wines and liquors, and 5 per
cent. interest is allowed on the capital invested. All remaining
profits go to the State. The government has the right to withdraw the
license without compensation. Retail shops are open only from eight
in the morning until seven-thirty in the evening; they are closed
on holidays, and from one on Saturday until eight A.M. on Monday.
Bartenders are under the civil service and are given bonuses for
selling soft drinks.

=The Single Tax= is a proposal to place the entire burden of taxation
on land alone, without regard for the value of its improvements.
Land which is not improved, and is entirely non-productive, often
increases in value with the growth of population and the improvements
made on neighboring property, without any effort on the part of the
owner, or any service rendered by him in return. Improvements on
property increase the taxes on that property, while the owner of
the unimproved property escapes the same increase as long as his
land remains unimproved. In other words, the improvements which add
to public prosperity are made to pay an increase which the stagnant
property escapes. The proposal of the single-taxers is that the
“unearned increment” on such land should go into the public treasury.

=The House of Governors= originated when President Roosevelt, in
1908, invited the Governors of all the States to meet in Washington
to confer over important matters. Several times since then this
“House of Governors” has met together to discuss questions of mutual
interest which are important to the welfare of the several States.

=Proportional Representation= would give representation in Congress
to each party, in proportion to its membership in the State. At
present the representation of each party is based on its comparative
strength in each congressional district. The division of the State
into congressional districts is made by the State Legislature. The
political party in control of the Legislature may divide the State
in such a way that it may be able to elect an unfair number of
representatives. It may put counties, or assembly districts which
have a large majority of voters belonging to the opposite party, in
one congressional district, and economize its own voting strength
by spreading it over as many congressional districts as possible,
where it can be sure of electing its candidates by small majorities.
This is known as “gerrymandering.” In New York State, instead of the
division of the State into congressional districts being based fairly
on population, districts have been created by the party in control
of the Legislature which contain more than twice as many voters as
some other districts.[12] It is said that proportional representation
would also tend to make Congressmen so elected work for the service
of the State as a whole instead of for one local district.

=Workmen’s Compensation Laws= are designed to provide for the
compensation of employees when they are injured at their work. More
working-men are injured in the industries of the United States, in
proportion to the number employed, than in any other country in the
world. To let the working-man and his family alone bear the burden of
injury or death is recognized as an injustice. For such an injured
person, or his family, to be obliged to sue through the courts is
usually a long and expensive process. Years may be consumed in such
litigation, and meanwhile the family may be without the support of
the breadwinner. Compensation laws require employers, regardless of
fault, to pay injured workmen certain amounts for injuries resulting
from accidents, without the workmen being obliged to go to court and
sue for damages.

The State Federation of Labor is working to have all compensation
insurance placed in the State fund, to eliminate direct settlement
of damages between the workers and the employer, and to have all
occupational diseases included in the provision of the law.


ADDITIONAL NOTES

  Page 109: School taxes under the new Township law are collected by
  Town authorities.

  Page 142: In New York County the Grand Jury is composed of
  thirty-six men.

  Page 144: A bill to make women eligible for jury service is before
  the Legislature of New York State.

  Page 163: Efforts are being made to repeal the Township school law
  and to go back to the School District system of 1795.


FOOTNOTES:

[12] Also under our present system a large minority of voters may
be without representation. A third party in the State may have a
considerable membership, but its numbers may not be large enough in
any one district to elect a representative over either of the other
parties.




CHART OF OFFICIALS FOR WHOM YOU CAN VOTE


        ELECTIONS               WHEN HELD            TERM      SALARY

  =School Elections.=      School-meeting annually
                         first Tuesday in May.
  Board of Education,           ”         ”        3 years.
    3-5 in each town.
  School directors,             ”         ”        5   ”
    2 in each town.

  =Village Elections.=     Annually, usually in the
                           spring, the third
                           Tuesday in March.
  President.                    ”         ”        1   ”
  Trustees (2 to 8).            ”         ”        2   ”
  Clerk (sometimes                                 1 year.   varies.
    appointed).
  Treasurer.                    ”         ”        1   ”        ”
  Assessors.                    ”         ”        1   ”        ”
  Collector.                    ”         ”        1   ”     percentage.
  Police justice.               ”         ”        4 years.  varies.
  Special elections may be called to decide special questions.

  =Town Elections.=        Biennially, either in the
                           spring or at the
                           general election in
                           November.
  Supervisor.                   ”         ”        2 years.  by the day
                                                              or salary.
  Town clerk.                   ”         ”        2   ”     fees.
  Assessors.                    ”         ”        2   ”     by the day.
  Collector.                    ”         ”        2   ”     percentage.
  Overseer of the Poor.         ”         ”        2   ”     by the day.
  Supt. of Highways.            ”         ”        2   ”       ”    ”
  Constables.                   ”         ”        2   ”     fees.
  Just. of the Peace.           ”         ”        4   ”       ”

  =County Elections.=      At the general election
                           in November.
  Sheriff.                      ”         ”        3   ”   fees or sal’y.
  County clerk.                 ”         ”        3   ”     ”    ”
  Treasurer.                    ”         ”        3   ”   fixed by b’rd
                                                          of supervisors.

  District attorney.     At the general election   3 years. sal’y varies.
                             in November.
  Supt. of the poor.          ”          ”         3   ”     by the day
                                                               or salary.
  County judge.               ”          ”         6   ”    sal’y varies.
  Surrogate.                  ”          ”         6   ”         ”     ”
  Coroners.                   ”          ”         3   ”   fees or sal’y.

  =City Elections.=

  Cities of the first and second class and usually those of the third
  class hold elections biennially, in the odd-numbered years.

  =New York City.=
  Mayor.          Elected every four years           4 years.  $15,000
                    at the general election
                    in November. Next
                    mayor elected in 1921.
  Comptroller.           ”         ”                 4   ”      15,000
  Borough presidents.      Elected by the people of  4   ”       7,500
                             each borough.                    to 5,000
  Aldermen.                In odd-numbered years.    2   ”       2,000
  Judges, City Courts.     At any general election. 10   ”      12,000
  Judges, Muni. Courts.          ”          ”       10   ”       7,000
                                                              to 8,000

  =New York County.=  At the general election.
  Sheriff.                                          4   ”       12,000
  District attorney.                                4   ”       15,000
  County clerk.                                     4   ”       15,000
  Register.                                         2   ”       12,000
  Judges of the Court of General Sessions.         14   ”       17,500
  Surrogates (2).                                  14   ”       15,000

  =Bronx County.=   At the general election.
  Sheriff.                                          4  ”        10,000
  District attorney.                                4  ”        10,000
  County clerk.                                     4  ”        10,000
  Register.                                         4  ”        10,000
  County judge.                                     6  ”        10,000
  Surrogate.                                        6  ”        10,000

  =Kings County.=   At the general election.
  Sheriff.                                          2  ”        15,000
  District attorney.                                3  ”        10,000
  County clerk.                                     4  ”        12,000
  Register.                                         2  ”        12,000
  County judges (5).                                6  ”        12,500
  Surrogate.                                        6  ”        15,000

  =Queens County.=   At the general election.
  Sheriff.                                          3  ”        10,000
  District attorney.                                3  ”         8,000
  County clerk.                                     3  ”         8,000
  County judge.                                     6  ”        12,500
  Surrogate.                                        6  ”        10,000

  =Richmond County.=   At the general election.
  Sheriff.                                         3 years.      6,000
  District attorney.                               3  ”          5,000
  County clerk.                                    3  ”          5,000
  County judge and surrogate.                      6  ”         10,000

  =State Elections.=      Biennially, at the general
                       election in even-numbered
                         years.
  Governor.                                        2 ”          10,000
  Lieutenant-Governor.                             2 ”           5,000
  Secretary of State.                              2 ”           6,000
  Comptroller.                                     2 ”           8,000
  Treasurer.                                       2 ”           6,000
  Attorney-General.                                2 ”          10,000
  State Engineer.                                  2 ”           8,000
  State Senators.                                  2 ”           1,500
  Assemblymen.                                     1 year.       1,500
  Judges of the Court of Appeals.                 14 years.     13,700
                                                             to 14,200
  Judges of the Supreme Court.                    14 ”          10,000
                                                             to 17,500

  =National Elections.=     At the general election.
  President.        Elected by presidential             4 ”     75,000
                      electors who are elected
                      by the people every
                      four years.
  Vice-President.      ”         ”                      4 ”     12,000
  U. S. Senators.        At different general elec.     6 ”      7,500
  Representatives in     Biennially, in even-numbered   2 ”      7,500
    Congress.              years.


THE END




  Transcriber’s Notes

  pg 204 Added space between: acanning-factory in: who is kept at work
           in acanning-factory,
  pg 259 Removed repeated word to from: workmen being obliged to to go
           to court
  pg 259 Changed A bill to make women elegible to: eligible
  pg 262 Added period after: fees or sal’y  - for Coroners line
  pg 262 Added period after: City Elections
  pg 262 Added period after: in the odd-numbered years
  pg 262 Added period after: At any general election (2 locations)
  Many hyphenated and non-hyphenated word combinations left as written.