NEW YORK 871 



was declared unconstitutional in October 1912; the law contained a provision for direct 

 primaries except for officers chosen by the state at large. In presidential years there must 

 be separate ballots for presidential electors and state officers. The law was revised as regards 

 party committees and delegates in 1912. An act of 1911 declares that no ballot is void be- 

 cause the cross made in voting is irregular in shape. 



In 1912 a board was appointed to simplify civil practice. It has the same personnel as 

 the board of statutory consolidation. Several important amendments to the law of pro- 

 cedure were passed in 1911. A Conservation Department was created, in charge of a commis- 

 sion with powers and duties previously belonging to the forest purchasing board, the forest, 

 fish and game commission, the commissioners of water power on Black river, and the state 

 water supply commission; and in 1912 the law of lands, forests and public parks was revised 

 and a new article on fish and game was added to the conservation law. In 1911 a state 

 athletic commission was created by a law which regulates boxing and sparring. A new 

 personal property law was passed (1911) in relation to the sale of goods, in nearly the form 

 desired by the commissioners for the promotion of uniformity of legislation in the United 

 States. The office of supervisor of records was created, and that office and the office of state 

 historian were put under the department of education. The legislature appropriated $40,- 

 ooo to bay the house (built 1761-62) in Albany in which General Philip Schuyler had lived 

 and which in 191-1 was the Saint Francis de Sales Asylum; it was bought on February 10, 

 1912. After the capitol fire, $100,000 was appropriated for the safety of the capitol and 

 $2,000,000 for the reconstruction and decoration of the building in 1911 and $1,000,000 for 

 the same purpose in 1912, when $550,000 was appropriated for continuing the construction 

 and $200,000 for the equipment of the State Education Building (opened October 1912) 

 and $500,000 for the re-establishment of the State Library. The inferior courts of New 

 York City were re-arranged in accordance with the report (1910) of the Page Commission. 

 The mayor was empowered to create a public recreation commission. A relief and pension 

 fund was created for street cleaners. The legislature passed a law making the Borough of 

 the Bronx a separate county; and this was approved by the voters of the borough (about 

 39'35 votes to 27,870) in November 1912, but the appellate division of the supreme court 

 declared the referendum invalid (January 17, 1913). 



In 1911 the department of labour was reorganised, and a commission was appointed to 

 investigate manufacturing conditions in first and second class cities. This report was to go in 

 before January 15, 1913. On March 24, 1911 the state court of appeals decided that the 

 workmen's compensation .law of 1910 (applying to certain dangerous employments) was 

 unconstitutional as taking property of employers "without due process of law." This ruling 

 was harshly criticised see for instance the statement signed by fourteen professors of law 

 in the New York Outlook, July 29, 1911, and opinions of prominent lawyers in The Survey, 

 April 29, 1911. The commission on. employers' liability made a va'uable report in four 

 volumes but the legislature took no action on this except to propose the additional constitu- 

 tional amendment already mentioned. Women may not work in factories or mills within 

 four weeks after childbirth. The medical officer of the department of health must make a 

 thorough physical examination before issuing employment certificates for children in first 

 class cities. Working hours a day were reduced (beginning October I, 1912) from 10 to 9 

 and a week from 60 to 54, for males under 18 and all females in all factories except where 

 there is overtime so that there may be a short sixth day in a week or overtime not more than 

 three times a week. The maximum hours for this exception are 10 (formerly 12) a day and 

 54 (formerly 60) a week. The law does not apply to fruit canneries ' between June 15 and 

 October 15. Its constitutionality was being tested in the courts at the close of 1912. A 

 law of 1911 added to places in which children could not be employed more than 54 hours or 

 six days a week, theatres, places of amusement, barber (and shoe polishing) shops, and for- 

 bids the employment of children between 12 and 14 during summer school vacation in 

 villages and cities of the second and third classes. Misrepresentation in regard to employ- 

 ment was made a misdemeanour. Much stricter requirements for sanitation and inspection 

 were adopted for bakeries and confectioneries. Doctors Were ordered to report to the tmreau 

 of labour statistics all cases of industrial poisoning or other occupational disease. The use: of 

 compressed air in caissons was regulated in 1912 by a law which includes a schedule of work- 

 ing hours per day under different pressures. 



In 1911 the State Institute for the Study of Malignant Disease (succeeding the Patholog- 

 ical Laboratory of the University of Buffalo, and the Gratwick Laboratory) was established 

 at Buffalo. The leg ; s'ature appropriated $65,000 for a cancer hospital adjacent to the Grat- 

 wick Laboratory and $35,000 for maintenance in IQII (and $60,000 for equipment and 

 maintenance in 1912). The office of state fire marshal was created, and in 1912 a much 

 stricter fire prevention law was adopted for factories. There must be fire drills in all factories 

 and automatic fire sprinklers must be installed in factories, and in buildings more than seven 

 stories or ninety feet high, which have wooden flooring or wooden trim. A general fire 

 prevention law was passed applying to New York City only, supplementing an amendment 



1 Evidence brought before a legislative commission in 1912 showed that there were grave 

 abuses in these canneries, especially in regard to child labour..!' 



