352 A HISTORY OF NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION 



the securing of a constitutional amendment reorganizing the 

 State Board of Charities and giving it power to control the 

 granting of public aid to private charities, the division of the 

 Department of Charities and Correction of New York city 

 into two separate departments, the establishment of a State 

 Hospital for consumptives, the revision of the Charities Chapter 

 of the Greater New York Charter in 1897, the creation of a 

 Children's Court in New York city in 1901, and the reorganiza- 

 tion of the State Department of Health in 1914. 



He was elected in 1897 a member of the first Municipal Assem- 

 bly of Greater New York from the twenty-ninth assembly district, 

 on the Citizen's Union ticket, for a term of two years. In the 

 winter of 1899-1900 he was a special agent of the United States 

 Commission to the Paris Exposition, and assisted in securing 

 a comprehensive exhibit on the subject of American Charities. 



In April, 1900, at the request of General Leonard Wood, Mili- 

 tary Governor of Cuba, Mr. Folks spent six weeks in Cuba 

 studying the public relief of that island. He prepared a Chari- 

 ties Law which was enacted in July, 1900, creating a Cuban 

 Department of Charities, establishing State institutions for 

 destitute and delinquent children and the insane, and a Bureau 

 for Placing Children in Families. 



As Commissioner of Public Charities in New York city during 

 the years 1902-1903, in the administration of Major Low, Mr. 

 Folks was in control of hospitals, almshouses, and other institu- 

 tions containing an average of over 9,000 inmates, having more 

 than 2,000 employees and with an annual expenditure of $2,000,- 

 ooo. Early in 1902 he organized the first municipal hospital for 

 consumptives in the United States, which developed within two 

 years to a hospital with nearly 500 patients. During these 

 two years the Department was practically reorganized, and was 

 carried on in such a manner as to receive the unanimous com- 

 mendation of the press and of the public generally. 



The State Charities Aid Association, through a special com- 

 mittee, in 1907 began a systematic movement for the prevention 

 of tuberculosis in the state of New York outside of New York 

 city. As Secretary of the Association, Mr. Folks had direct 

 charge and control of what rapidly became the most compre- 



