NEW YORK. 



613 



A law was passed providing that, six months after 

 its passage, no officers of the State or of any county 

 in the State shall be permitted to sell upon the mar- 

 ket, or to any agents, goods or articles manufactured 

 in whole or in part by the inmates of any State 

 prison, penitentiary, or reformatory supported in 

 whole or in part by the State ; and that the superin- 

 tendent of State prisons, the officers in charge of 

 State reformatories, the wardens or officers of county 

 penitentiaries and other reformatories where the in- 

 mates are composed of persons sentenced by any 

 criminal court in this State, shall be empowered to em- 

 ploy the inmates under their charge ; but none of the 

 product of such labor shall be sold to any person or 

 persons ; it shall be wholly utilized by the charitable 

 institutions supported wholly or in part by the State. 

 Another law prohibits the manufacture of hats or the 

 doing of any printing in the State prisons except for 

 the prison authorities. A new House of Correction 

 for women, with an appropriation of $350,000, was 

 ordered for the western part of the State. 



Important legislation was enacted concerning elec- 

 tions. The first law, known as the " Corrupt Prac- 

 tices act,' r requires every candidate to give an item- ~ 

 ized account of his election expenses within ten days 

 atter election on pain of imprisonment of not less than 

 three months nor more than one year. In the Albany 

 charter election it was found that candidates evaded 

 the spirit of the law by filing a record of lump sums 

 only, as paid over to political committees, etc. The 

 second great measure that became a law was the Sax- 

 ton Ballot-Reform bill. As originally introduced, 

 providing for a strictly official ballot known as the 

 " blanket," it was vetoed. The second Saxton bill 

 differed from the first merely as to the method of pro- 

 viding for ballot clerks and in permitting the illiter- 

 ate voter to take a friend into the booth with him. 

 As finally passed and signed by the Governor, it dif- 

 fered from the first bill in dispensing with the blank- 

 et ballot altogether and requiring each group of nom- 

 inations to be printed on a separate official ballot. It 

 also permitted the use of a paster ballot that could be 

 placed over the official ballot. Under its provisions 

 each voter receives as many separate tickets as there 

 were formerly separate columns upon the blanket bal- 

 lot. But everything that the voter receives must be 

 officially accounted for by him before he can leave 

 the booth, what he does not use being destroyed. The 

 Linson bill, aiming at the same reform, permitted the 

 use of party unofficial ballots. Another law allowed 

 cities, towns, and counties to raise money enough to 

 pay the additional expense incurred by the new sys- 

 tem of voting by putting it into the tax levy or allow- 

 ing them to make loans to cover the amount neces- 

 sary. The new general registry law declared that in 

 all the cities of the Stiite hereafter, every citizen, in 

 order to votCj must register in person. In cities the 

 boards of registry are to sit on four successive Satur- 

 daysthe fifth, fourth, third, and second before elec- 

 tion to register voters. That ha* been the law in 

 New York city for some vears, and all the cities of 

 the State, including New York and Brooklyn, are now 

 placed under a uniform registration law. In the State 

 outside of the cities every voter is required to be regis- 

 tered, but he is not required to appear in person. In 

 the country the inspectors of election are required 

 first to copy the poll lists of those who voted at the 

 State election the last November. To this list they 

 shall add the names of such other persons as they 

 know to be legal voters in the district or as are proved 

 to be. This work must all be done at the first two 

 meetings of the boards, to be held on the third and 

 second Saturdays before an election. At the third 

 meeting, to be held the Friday before election, no new 

 names shall be added except of voters who appear in 

 person to be registered. At all three meetings the 

 board shall strike from the registry the names of per- 

 sons not entitled to vote. A special law was passed 

 bringing the city of Brooklyn under this law in regard 

 to days of registration. An amendment was made to 

 the Primary Election act of 1887 so as to place prima- 



ries m a village where a daily newspaper is published 

 on the same ground as primaries in cities, by requir- 

 ing the publication in the newspaper of a notice of the 

 primary. Another law amended the act relative to 

 voting on propositions to raise money by tax at town 

 meetings so that such meetings may use ballots in- 

 stead of the viva voce vote. 



A law was passed providing that from Sept. 1, 1891 

 there shall be three separate boards of medical exam- 

 iners in this State one representing the Medical 

 Society of the State, one representing the Homa-o- 

 patbic Medical Society, and one the Ecle.ctic Medical 

 Society. Hereafter no person can practice medicine 

 in the State until he has passed a rigid examination, 

 uniform for all parts of the State and for all subjects 

 except therapeutics, in which each school has its'own 

 examination. 



A law was passed, to take effect Sept. 1, 1890, pro- 

 viding that in cities having a population of 100,000, 

 and not exceeding 500 000, according to the census of 

 the United States to be taken in the year 1890, no 

 corporation, association, or person shall charge for 

 illuminating gas a sum to exceed $2 a thousand cubic 

 feet; in cities having a population of 500,000, and 

 not exceeding 1,250,000, no corporation, association, 

 or person shall charge more than $1.50 a thousand 

 cubic feet. 



Insurance laws were passed as follows: Allowing 

 protective companies to be incorporated the same as 

 nook - and - ladder companies; making it optional 

 with any mutual insurance company organized in 

 this State to receive an all-cash payment instead of a 

 deposit note for premiums ; amending the Anti- 

 Eebate law of 1889, so that every agent or broker 

 must procure a certificate of authority from the Insur- 

 ance "Department before doing business, and also giv- 

 ing the Attorney- General more power to act in cases 

 of violation of the law ; amending the service of pro- 

 cess law upon foreign companies, so that when cities 

 or villages have a fire or salvage corps the 2-per-ctnt. 

 premium maybe paid to such patrol or corps ; chang- 

 ing the name of the Commercial Union Life Insurance 

 Company to the Commercial Union Alliance ; pro- 

 viding that no order, judgment, or decree, enjoining, 

 restraining, "or interfering with the prosecution of the 

 business of any life or casualty insurance company, 

 association, or society of this' State, or appointing a 

 temporary or permanent receiver thereof, shall be 

 made or granted otherwise than upon the application 

 of the Attorney-General, on his own motion or after 

 his approval of a request in writing of the Superin- 

 tendent of the Insurance Department, except in an 

 action by a judgment creditor, or in proceedings sup- 

 plementary to execution ; amending the County and 

 Town Co-operative acts so as to provide for a notifica- 

 tion to the members of a company within thirty days 

 from the adjustment of a loss that an immediate as- 

 sessment is made necessary ; amending the acts relat- 

 ing to premiums of foreign 'companies so that such pre- 

 miums may be paid to the treasurer of the fire depart- 

 ment of unincorporated villages. 



By the action of the .last Legislature, the people 

 will vote on constitutional prohibition in April, 1891. 



The American Home Missionary Society was al- 

 lowed to meet in any part of the United States ; and 

 religious and charitable institutions have been ex- 

 empted from the Collateral-Inheritance Tax law. 



A law was passed giving better facilities for mis- 

 sionary educational work. 



Four measures for the relief of the insane were rec- 

 ommended by the State Commission in Lunacy that 

 was created by a law of 1889. The most important 

 was the bill transferring the insane of all the counties 

 from the county asylums to the State asylums. The 

 number of insane affected by this law is a little less 

 than 2,300, fewer than one half of the whole number 

 now cared for by the State. No asylums are to be 

 built, as the State, before the passage of the law, had 

 entered upon the construction of buildings in which 

 1,600 can be accommodated, leaving only TOO to be 

 provided for by the erection of small, detached build- 



