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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