Bills for “special” city laws, as opposed to “general,” must be approved (within fifteen days after their passage by both houses of the legislature) by the mayor of the city in first-class cities (in which, however, the state legislature may provide for the concurrence of the municipal legislative body), and in other cities by the mayor and council, before it is laid before the governor: if it is passed by the state legislature over the mayor’s veto it goes direct to the governor. All city elections are held in odd numbered years. The organization of cities and villages is provided by the legislature, which may restrict their powers of taxation and of contracting debts and may fix salaries. Town (or township) government in New York somewhat resembles that of New England; the chief executive officer of the town is a supervisor, who represents his town in the county “board of supervisors.”
National Guard.—The national guard of the state is commanded under the governor by a major-general. It consists of four brigades each commanded by a brigadier-general. The establishments in 1910 consisted of thirteen regiments and fifty separate companies of infantry, two squadrons and two troops of cavalry, four light batteries, one regiment of engineers, a signal corps of two companies and a naval militia, commanded by a captain and consisting of two battalions and two separate divisions.
Laws.—A married woman has full control of her property whether acquired before or after marriage, and she may carry on any business, trade or occupation in her own right. A husband or a wife may convey real property directly to the other. A widow has a dower right in one-third of the real property to which her husband had absolute title, but a wife may convey or devise her real property free from her husband’s right of tenancy by courtesy. The only ground for divorce is adultery. As soon as a divorce has been granted the plaintiff may marry again, but the defendant is not permitted to marry within the state any one except the plaintiff until five years have elapsed, and then only in case the court permits it because of the petitioner’s uniformly good conduct in the meantime. Since the 1st of January 1908 a marriage licence has been required for every lawful marriage.
A homestead consisting of a lot of land with one or more buildings, and properly designated as such in the office of the county clerk, but not exceeding $1000 in value, is exempt from forced sale so long as it is owned and occupied as a residence by a householder having a family or by a married woman, except to recover the purchase money, to satisfy a judgment obtained before it was designated as a homestead, or to collect taxes upon it. Personal property consisting of necessary household furniture, working tools and team of horses, professional instruments and a library, not exceeding $250 in value, besides the necessary food for the team for ninety days, provisions for the family, wearing apparel, wages or other income not exceeding $12 a week, and several other things, when owned by a householder or person providing for a family, are also exempt from seizure for debt, unless the debt be for purchase money or for services performed in the family by a domestic.
Eight hours constitute a legal day’s work for all employees except those engaged in farm labour or domestic service. The employment of children under fourteen years of age in any factory is forbidden. Until sixteen years of age no child is to be so employed without an employment certificate issued by a commissioner of health, and showing that the child has completed an eight years’ course of study in a public school of the state or has had an equivalent schooling elsewhere. For children under sixteen years of age who are so employed the hours of labour are limited to eight a day and the days to six a week, and such children must not begin work before eight o’clock in the morning or continue after five o’clock in the evening. For children between sixteen and eighteen years of age and for women the hours of labour in a factory are limited to ten a day, unless to prepare for a short day or a holiday, and the days to six a week. The employment of children under fourteen years of age in any mercantile establishment, business office, hotel, restaurant or apartment house is also forbidden, except that in villages and in cities of the second or third class children upwards of twelve years of age may be so employed during the summer vacation of the public schools. For both boys and girls sixteen years of age or upward the restrictions are removed for two weeks at Christmas time.[1] The Employers’ Liability Act of 1902 (amended and broadened in 1910) holds an employer liable for damages in any case in which one of his employees sustains a personal injury by reason of the negligence of the employer, of a sub-contractor, of a superintendent, or any other person in the employer’s service whose duty it was to see that “the ways, works or machinery connected with or used in the business,” were in proper condition, or whose duty it was to “direct . . . any employee,” if it is not proved that the employee failed in due care and diligence; by another law of 1910 in certain dangerous employments the employer is liable unless the injured employee was negligent.
Although the constitution of 1894 expressly declares that “any lottery or the sale of lottery tickets, pool-selling, book-making, or any other kind of gambling” shall not “hereafter be authorized or allowed within the state” and directs the legislature to pass appropriate laws prohibiting the same, the legislature passed an act in 1895, which in practice permitted pool-selling and book-making at race-tracks, but in 1908 and 1910 bills were enacted prohibiting gambling at race-tracks. License to sell intoxicating liquors is subject to a graduated tax. The sale of liquor on Sunday or between one o’clock and five o’clock in the morning of any other day is unlawful. Any town (but not any city) may at its option wholly forbid the sale of intoxicating liquors, may allow it to be sold only on condition that it be not drunk on the vendor’s premises, or may allow it to be sold only by hotel-keepers and pharmacists, or by pharmacists alone.
Administrative Commissions.—The regulation and control of such public service corporations as own or operate steam, electric or street railways, gas or electric plants, and express companies were, in 1907, vested in two public service commissions (the first for New York City and the second for all other parts of the state), each of five members appointed by the governor with the approval of the Senate; in 1910 the regulation of telephone and telegraph companies throughout the state was vested in the second commission.
A state civil service commission (1883) consists of three members (not more than two of the same political party) appointed by the governor with the approval of the Senate. For the classified service of the state and of the minor civil divisions, except cities, the commission makes rules (subject to the governor’s approval and to statutory and constitutional provisions) governing the classification of offices, the examination of candidates for office, and the appointment and promotion of employees. In cities the mayor is required to appoint a municipal civil service commission, with similar duties; not more than two-thirds of the members may be of the same political party.
Prisons, Poor Law, Charities, &c.—Penal institutions for sane adults, except reformatories for women, are under the general supervision of a state commission of prisons; hospitals for the insane are under the general supervision of a state commission in lunacy; and all other charitable and penal institutions, maintained wholly or in part by the state, or by any county, city or town within the state, are under the general supervision of a state board of charities. This board of charities consists of one member from each of the nine judicial districts and three additional members from the City of New York, all appointed by the governor with the consent of the Senate for a term of eight years. Its existence dates from 1867, but its authority was very limited, chiefly advisory, until 1895. Since then, however, its powers have been greatly increased. In 1910 the state charitable institutions were as follows: State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, Bath; State School for the Blind, Batavia; the Thomas Indian School, Iroquois; State Woman’s Relief Corps Home, Oxford; State Hospital for the care of Crippled and Deformed Children, West Haverstraw; Syracuse State Institution for Feeble-Minded Children, Syracuse; State Hospital for the treatment of Incipient Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Ray Brook; Craig Colony for Epileptics, Sonyea; State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Women, Newark; Rome State Custodial Asylum for Unteachable Idiots, Rome; State Agricultural and Industrial School, Industry; State Training School for Girls, Hudson; Western House of Refuge, Albion; New York State Reformatory for Women, Bedford; the State Training School for Boys; and Letchworth Village, a custodial asylum for epileptics and feeble-minded. Eight private institutions for the care or the care and instruction of deaf mutes and one for the care of the blind are supported mainly by the state. Many other charitable institutions receive public money, mostly from counties, cities and towns.
The poor law of the state defines the town poor as those who have gained a settlement in some town or city, by residing there for one year prior to their application for public relief and who are unable to maintain themselves; the county poor as the poor who have not resided in any one town or city for one year before their application for public relief, but have been in some one county for sixty days; and the state poor as all other poor persons within the state. Wherever cared for, each town, city, county and the state must pay the cost of maintaining its own poor. In some counties there is no distinction between town and county poor, but in 1910 only one county had not a county superintendent for the general supervision and care of the poor; towns and cities not subject to special provisions intrusted public relief to one or more overseers of the poor or to commissioners of charities. In counties lacking adequate hospital accommodation a poor person requiring medical or surgical treatment may be sent to the nearest hospital approved by the state board of charities. An Act of 1910 provides that indigent soldiers, sailors or marines of the U.S. and their families be cared for in their homes and not in almshouses.
The first state insane asylum, designed chiefly for recent and curable cases, was opened at Utica in 1843. Since 1896 every public institution for the insane has been maintained and administered as a part of the state system. A state commissioner in lunacy was first appointed in 1874; this officer was replaced in 1889 by a commission
in lunacy, which in 1894 was placed at the head of the- ↑ For further regulations relating to the employment of women and children see the Labour Law enacted in 1909 and the subsequent amendments.
