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Now, I wish to say that although I am not of the same political faith of Mr. Fanning, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections, I believe he has brought to the prison management of New York more business capacity, more courteous behavior and more willingness to remedy abuses, than anybody that has ever filled his position, and I am glad frankly to say this of him, and I would put him on a level with our friend, Mr. Keller.

Everybody here knows that only a little while ago a strenuous Governor removed one of the best wardens the State had ever had. I refer to Warden Sage of Sing Sing. I don't know the reason, except that there was politics in it, but I remember at the time, that the Prison Association of this city protested against his removal with all the power it had, but could not prevent it. Mr. Sage was a Democrat. I don't know why it should have been, but such is the case. I believe the most of our civil service laws are like a rubber tire; they look very nice, and read nice in a platform, but somebody comes along and begins puncturing them to suit himself and then all the wind goes out. These laws can be handled by anybody or any political party just to suit itself, in New York city and up the State just the same.

Mrs. LowELL. I want to say one word about civil service reform in support of what Mr. Almy has said; that these reforms can be obtained by the efforts of even two or three people in each county, who will try to have the civil service laws applied and enforced. And I would like to say to Mr. Munro that naturally the civil service law, like every other law, will not accomplish its objects unless it is enforced, and that we never have had yet, in this State or in this city or anywhere else, genuine civil service reform in this country, but that is not the fault of the principles. We have improved amazingly already and we are gradually climbing higher and women can help on the reform just as well as men. We have a Woman's Auxiliary to the Civil Service Reform Asso

ciation in this State. It is a moral question and therefore we hope for a great deal from the interest of women in civil service reform.

FIFTH SESSION.

Thursday Afternoon, November 21, 1901, Assembly Hall.

Mr. de Forest called the session to order at 2:55 and addressed the Conference as follows:

If there be no other general business I am reminded to call the attention of the Conference to one particular subject which is an important one, and is called to my attention by a decision of the Court of Appeals which was rendered a few days ago. As some of you may happen to know, the question of the taxation of legacies to charitable institutions has been before our courts for the last two years. The property of charitable institutions, according to the fixed policy of the State, has long been exempt from taxation, most of it under general laws, some of it under special laws, and when our New York legacy tax law was first enacted, that exemption applied to legacies to institutions of the same class. Some two or three years ago, precision is not important as to date, there was a revision of our tax laws, and a provision was inserted, obscure upon its face, but it seemed to take away the exempt tax upon legacies to all charitable and other like public institutions, which under the tax policy of the State had been hitherto uniformly exempted because serving public

purposes.

By this comparatively obscure amendment or change, a question was raised, not as to whether the policy of the State should be continued as to their general exemption, but as to whether it should apply to bequests, and it is on that point the decision of the Court of Appeals has just been rendered. I have in my hand the opinion, which I received a day or so ago.

It seems to the minds of many of us to be a matter which calls for correction by the Legislature of a mistake that has been made

in the law, and the language of the Court of Appeals in the opinion which I have in my hand is so directly to the point and seems to call so directly and clearly for legislative action that I venture to read it and call attention to it in the few minutes that must elapse before we can take up our regular business.

The Court of Appeals, after reciting the general class of public corporations that are, under our policy, exempt, which in New York State corresponds to the class exempted in other States, goes on to say as to the matter of principle:

"The organized charities and benevolent agencies which actually relieve human misery, and labor in unselfish devotion to improve the moral and physical condition of mankind, are alike the fruits and aids of good government, and to exempt their property usually the gifts of the benevolent from the burdens of taxation is scarcely less the duty than the privilege of the enlightened legislator. Clearly this exemption should be placed upon broad, equitable grounds, quite above the injurious imputations sometimes resulting from individual or special exemptions. We suppose this spirit prevailed in framing the exemptions relating to these charities and benevolent agencies."

The exemptions which have been framed in general terms without regard to special exemptions are these I am reading from the general tax act-"The real property of a corporation or association organized exclusively for the moral or mental improvement of men or women, or for religious, bible, tract, charitable, benevolent, missionary, hospital, infirmary, educational, scientific, literary, library, patriotic, historical or cemetery purposes, or for the enforcement of laws relating to children or animals, or for two or more of such purposes, and used exclusively for carrying out these purposes, and the personal property of any such corporation or association shall be exempt from taxation.”

With regard to this particular change in the legacy tax law, which is contrary to this policy, the Court of Appeals uses this

significant language. It holds them liable because it declares that to be the interpretation of the law, but the prevailing opinion inIcludes this sentence: "Whatever we may think of such an assault upon charitable transfers, we must recognize it." That is, the court must and does properly recognize the law as it stands, but suggests in the plainest way that the law in this respect should be amended.

On motion, it was

Resolved, That it be referred to the Committee on Resolutions to prepare and present an appropriate resolution of this Conference in the line of Mr. de Forest's remarks.

Mr. DE FOREST.- The hour has now arrived when the Committee on the Relief of the Sick Poor, of which Dr. Smith is chairman, takes the Conference. I take great pleasure in introducing Dr. Stephen Smith of New York, a gentleman long associated with our local charities, both under the State government and otherwise, and a familiar face to all who have attended our National Conferences.

Mr. Walter S. Ufford, of Albany, read the report of the Committee on Hospitals, Dispensaries and Nursing (Division A).

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HOSPITALS, DISPENSARIES AND NURSING.

The hospital, wherever found, represents Christian civilization. Its sole function is humanitarian. It ministers only to the suffering. In the performance of duty it is no respecter of persons, but confers its blessings alike upon the good and the evil, upon the rich and the poor, the old and the young. It stands everywhere as a true criterion of the stage of advancement of the community in the science and art of that most Christ-like service the relief of human suffering by healing all manner of diseases.

From the Colonial period of its history to the present time, the State of New York has taken the most advanced position in regard to the number and excellence of its hospitals. Even in the establishment of the New York Hospital in 1771, the first in this State and the second in this country, the true character of a hospital was recognized. In one of their reports the Governors remark: "Founded and supported on the principles of the Christian religion and general benevolence, without respect to any sects or distinctions, political, civil or religious, all persons whose maladies render them fit objects for such a charity, are considered as equally entitled to the benefits of this hospital."

This is the sentiment which should govern both those who organize and those who manage a hospital.

It is proposed in this paper to outline a modern general hospital for the purpose of establishing a proper basis for the discussion of the several topics assigned to the committee, viz., "Hospitals, Dispensaries and Nursing."

THE HOSPITAL.

The location of the proposed hospital is the first question to be determined. Miss Nightingale announced an axiom when she said, "The hospital should not itself endanger the health and life of the patient." This suggestion is by no means destitute of practical truth. Many hospitals tend rather to aggravate the diseases of the inmates than to facilitate their cure. Perhaps in no one particular can the hospital be rendered more insalubrious than in its location. No skill of architecture and no perfection of management can compensate for the sanitary defects of the location. Every other consideration should, therefore, yield to the one supreme necessity of securing a pure and dry atmosphere within and around the hospital wards. To this end a location beyond the built-up limits of the town must, with rare exceptions, be sought. The area of land secured should be such as to protect the hos

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