incentives are provided, the earnings should increase rapidly to the benefit of the State and the inmates.

In order to solve these problems, we must set up an industrial organization which as nearly as present conditions permit, will parallel industrial organization in private life. I believe that such a system has been worked out and that it can be placed in successful operation.

The detailed recommendations on reorganization of the prison industries are incorporated in the report which follows. Where such recommendations require legislation, the necessary bills have been drafted, and will be submitted to you shortly.

I wish to emphasize particularly the following important changes:

1. The creation of a position of superintendent of industries at a salary of $7,500 per annum; the incumbent to be in direct charge of all prison production. Appointment is to be made by the Superintendent of Prisons with the advice and consent of the Governor; the tenure of office to expire with that of the superintendent.

2. The abolition of the Parole Board. The parole functions are to be transferred to the Prison Department to a Prison Industries and Parole Board. The new board is to be composed of the Superintendent of Prisons, the Superintendent of Industries and a deputy comptroller assigned by the comptroller. The functions of the new board are to act in the capacity of a wage board and board of directors with relation to the prison industries and to consider each convict's conduct and industrial performance in making decisions as to parole.

I have already recommended to you the consolidation of the functions of parole, industrial management, prison inspection, probation and other similar functions with the administration of the prisons and adult reformatories. Such a consolidation is contemplated by the constitutional amendment re-organizing the State government which has already passed at one session of the Legislature. This contemplates the setting up of a department of correction and an inspectional commission on correction on which the head of the department will be represented.

As this amendment limits the number of departments the consolidation above referred to must be carried out when the amendment is adopted by the people. In the meantime the expansion of the Parole Board and its consolidation with the Prison Department is a step in the right direction. It is also recommended that the Board of Classification be abolished and the prices for prison made goods be fixed by the Prison Industries and Parole Board with the approval of the State Superintendent of Purchase. This will bring about a further consolidation of prison agencies and advance us another step closer to the ultimate consolidation under the constitutional amendment.

3. Assignment to the Deputy Superintendent of Purchase of the function of maintaining and enlarging the market for prison made goods. Ultimately a position of Market Manager should be pro

vided in the office of the Superintendent of Purchase. For the present the creation of this additional position is deemed unnecessary.

4. The development of a comprehensive plan of prison building development looking toward the elimination of obsolete structures. and the proper utilization of existing facilities.

5. Provision should be made for the payment of a reasonable wage to prisoners based on a profit-sharing arrangement with the State and on the actual earnings of the industries, a proper deduction being made for maintenance. This will involve a change in the present Compensation Law so that prisoners will be charged with a direct maintenance cost of thirty cents per day out of earnings, the earnings above that amount to be apportioned at the rate of thirty per cent to the State and seventy per cent to the convict.

6. The use of prison labor on outside construction and maintenance work should be extended, compensation to be provided for all such work, the compensation to be credited to the industries and not to maintenance.

7. When the State Department of Purchase is in full working operation, no further releases for outside purchase of goods obtainable from the prisons should be granted without the approval of this department as well as the Bureau of Standards.

8. The Women's Prison at Auburn should be included in the pay plan and its industrial activities extended in order to make this possible. Ultimately when the consolidation amendment passes, the system should be extended to the adult reformatories.

9. Current inspection of the prison shops by the Labor Department should be required on the same basis as inspections of private industries are now made.

10. A schedule of salary adjustments upward for civilian employees engaged in the industrial shops should be adopted.

On the passage of the necessary legislation to make this program effective, I recommend that the Board of Estimate and Control provide expert services and supervision in the installation of the new prison industries system.

(Signed) ALFRED E. SMITH. Ordered, That said message be printed and laid upon the table. A message from the Governor, at the hands of his secretary, was received and read in the words following:

STATE OF NEW YORK EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,

To the Senate:

January 21, 1924.

I hereby nominate as a Commissioner of the Watkins Glen reservation Daniel Sheehan of Elmira, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Otis A. Leonard.

Said nomination was referred to the committee on finance.

A message from the Governor, at the hands of his secretary, was received and read in the words following:

STATE OF NEW YORK EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,

To the Senate:

January 21, 1924.

I hereby nominate as Members of the State Commission of Prisons Sarah L. Davenport of Bath and Cecilia D. Patten of Saratoga Springs, whose terms of office as such members will expire with the current year.

(Signed)

ALFRED E. SMITH.

Mr. Walker moved that the said nomination be confirmed. The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to the said motion, and it was decided in the affirmative. A message from the Governor, at the hands of his secretary, was received and read in the words following:

STATE OF NEW YORK-EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,

To the Senate:

January 21, 1924.

I hereby nominate as a Member of the Syracuse State School for Mental Defectives for a term to expire the first Tuesday in February, nineteen hundred and thirty-one Melvin Z. Haven of Syracuse, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Alta F. Crouse.

(Signed) ALFRED E. SMITH.

Said nomination was referred to the committee on finance. Mr. Downing, from the committee on finance, to which was referred the nomination of Thomas W. Churchill of New York City as a Justice of the Supreme Court of and for the First Judicial District, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Daniel F. Cohalan, reported the same to the Senate for confirmation. Mr. Downing moved that the said nomination be confirmed. The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to the said motion, and it was decided in the affirmative.

IN SENATE, January 22, 1924.

A message from the Governor, at the hands of his secretary, was received and read in the words following:

STATE OF NEW YORK-EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,

To the Legislature:

ALBANY, January 22, 1924.

In my annual message I stated that I would communicate with your honorable bodies and inform you about the details of the expenditure of money appropriated last year for park purposes and make recommendations for the further development of the State park policy entered upon at that time.

Last year I pointed out that the State was fortunate in having available a plan for the extension and unification of its State park facilities covering a period of approximately ten years. This

plan was drafted by a committee which included commissioners from practically every one of our scattered State park agencies, and from the principal organizations interested in recreation and outdoor life. This program called for a bond issue. Owing to the necessity of providing first for a bond issue for State hospitals I recommended to you that the bond issue for parks be postponed, and that in the meantime provision be made for starting the park program with a substantial appropriation out of current revenues. In accordance with this recommendation you appropriated substantial sums for the first year's work on the new park program. I am glad to say that real progress has been made with these funds. The tremendous demands upon Palisades park for immediate additional facilities have been met. Some eighteen thousand additional acres of land in the Allegany park area have been bought or contracted for, at reasonable prices. Some of the finest sites on the Niagara river, north of the Niagara State reservation have been acquired as part of the plan to extend this reservation to Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Additional facilities have been provided at Letchworth park, including camping facilities for people who cannot afford to stay at the inn. Three of the finest scenic areas of the Finger Lakes region are being acquired, one of them through the generous gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Tre

man.

The special appropriation for the Watkins Glen reservation has made it possible to complete this reservation so that no additional funds other than for maintenance will be required. Substantial improvements have been made at the Enfield Falls reservation. In Westchester, the county park commission acting as the agent for the State has made splendid progress in acquiring rights of way and park, picnic and parking facilities for the extension of the Bronx parkway reservation from the Kensico dam to the bridge which is being built from Peekskill to Bear mountain. In many cases these rights of way and lands have been acquired by gift. At Saratoga the State reservation has been extended by the purchase or substantial acres of adjoining land and the State nursery has also been extended. Through the generous gift of a parcel of land at Copake Falls by Mr. Francis R. Masters a beginning has been made of the proposed tri-state park in the Taconic mountain region and arrangements are being made for the purchase of land adjoining the parcel given to the State by Mr. Masters. Bills are being introduced in the legislature of Massachusetts so that this state can also co-operate with us toward the purchase of the entire Taconic region.

At Lake George the State has received a generous gift of a substantial part of Prospect mountain from Mr. George Foster Peabody and a gift of land on the Tongue mountain peninsula from Mrs. Stephen Loines. Several acres of land have been purchased adjoining the Lake George battlefield and other purchases are about to be made by the State on the Tongue mountain peninsula. Substantial improvements were made in the John Boyd

Thacher park. In addition to these extensions and improvements, gifts of land or money for park purposes in different sections of the State are awaiting further action from the State, and negotiations have been entered into with the federal government for the transfer of certain abandoned lighthouse sites and for the transfer of federal land on Fire Island for State park purposes.

Arrangements have also been made under separate statutes recommended to you for the transfer of idle and unappropriated State lands to municipalities for park purposes. Under these provisions a number of desirable playgrounds and parks have been created in New York City and elsewhere.

In order to carry on this program in the course of the next year and to insure its completion, I recommend:

First. The passage of the bill creating a State park council composed of the heads of the larger parks and park organizations to act as a co-ordinating, planning and estimate making agency for all of the present and proposed parks and to carry on officially the work which has been unofficially done by the park committee of the New York State association.

The bill creating a State park council has been endorsed by practically all the park commissions of the State and has been widely approved by the press and by recreational organizations. The benefits of a unified State park program can not be realized without an official central planning agency in the State government.

Second. The passage of a bill creating a regional Long Island State park commission in place of the present Fire Island State park commission.

It is essential that there be a regional commission for Long Island to carry out the comprehensive program which has been developed. This program is of vital interest not only to people in Nassau and Suffolk counties, but also to people of New York city, who are pressing out into Long Island for recreational facilities. If the residents of Nassau and Suffolk counties are not to be overrun and the people of New York city and Long Island are to be afforded recreational facilities, the park and parkway plans which have been developed must be put under way immediately. The head of this new commission will be a member of the State park council, so that the program on Long Island may be co-ordinated with the general park program and with other functions of State government at Albany.

Third. The adoption of a bill abolishing the Bronx parkway commission to take effect when the Bronx parkway is completed which ought to be on January 1, 1925.

The part of the Bronx parkway in New York city would be transferred under this bill to the ownership and management of New York City and the part of the Bronx parkway in Westchester county would be transferred to the ownership