Iii Transportation and Communication

The city board of child welfare comprises ten members ap pointed by the mayor, three of whom must be women. The mem bers of this board receive no compensation. The board grants al lowances to needy and worthy widows whose husbands were citi zens of the United States and residents of the State of New York at the time of their death. Allowances are also made to mothers whose husbands are confined in prisons or are otherwise incapaci tated for earning. For these two services the city appropriated $21,785,731.07 in 1936.

The work of the official agencies above described represents only a small part of the charitable services available to dependent or handicapped persons. An important part of the institutional care of dependent sick, etc., is provided by unofficial agencies, many of which are partly reimbursed by the city. Prior to the depression the main burden of outdoor relief was borne by pri vate agencies. There are several hundred private organizations dealing with one phase or another of relief and family welfare, not counting the semi-social fraternal or mutual-benefit associa tions. To bring about a more general co-operation of charitable organizations, the Welfare Council of New York City was estab lished in 1925 by the voluntary association of about 500 public and private social agencies grouped in four divisions : family welfare ; child welfare ; health ; recreation, education and neigh bourhood activities. The extraordinary increase of unemploy ment after 1929 overtaxed all normal agencies and necessitated State and federal interposition. In the city's own appropriations for 1936 was one item of $504,778,839.28 for unemployment relief as compared to $190,529,000 in 1935 when the national government contributed $62,848,867 through the Works Progress Administration, $390,553,000 through the National Youth Ad ministration, and $524,140,000 through a student aid program.

Correction.

The department of correction is under the di rection of a commissioner of corrections appointed by the mayor at a salary of $15,000 a year. It supervises the three city prisons of Manhattan (The Tombs), Brooklyn and Queens, the 11 dis trict prisons, and New York County penitentiary and the Cor rectional hospital; the Municipal Farm and the Reformatory prison; the new House of Detention for Women and Hospital for Women ; and the New York City Reformatory.

The city parole commission consists of the commissioner of corrections and the police commissioner, ex officio, with three members appointed by the mayor, one of whom is chairman of the commission at a salary of $10,000 a year. It supervises persons

released from city correctional institutions prior to the expira tion of their sentences, and while still in the custody of the State. A probation bureau is maintained under the general direction of the chief magistrate of the magistrates' courts of the five boroughs. A chief probation officer directs this bureau. The probation offi cers conduct, at the direction of the magistrates, investigations of defendants prior to sentence and receive on probation and supervise delinquents. The five borough children's courts super vise juveniles on probation. Many charitable associations receive aid from the city to care particularly for delinquent women and children. Other correctional agencies, several of which also re ceive public funds and furnish special services to the city in deal ing with correctional problems, are the Societies for the Preven tion of Cruelty to Children ; the House of Refuge ; New York Society for the Suppression of Vice; Salvation Army; Volunteers of America; Woman's Prison Association ; Prison Association of New York; House of Good Shepherd; New York Catholic Pro tectory; Society for the Prevention of Crime; Jewish Board of Guardians ; Joint Committee on Methods of Preventing Delin quency; Big Brother Movement and Big Sisters.

Public Water Supply.

In the early days, the water-supply of New York was derived from wells and from streams and ponds. In 1799, the Manhattan company was incorporated ostensibly to supply the city with water, but under a clause in its charter, devoted itself primarily to the banking business. In 1834 the legislature authorized the city to begin the necessary works to bring water from the Croton watershed more than 3o m. north, and the first Croton water was delivered to the city in 1842 through the Croton aqueduct. In 1883 the new Croton aqueduct was authorized and thus additional water became available in 1890. In 1905 the board of water-supply was created and work was begun immediately on a new system to bring water from the Catskill mountains, more than 1 oo m. north. This commission developed an additional water-supply from the Esopus and Scho harie watersheds with a total dependable yield of about 600 mil lion gallons daily flowing through the Catskill aqueduct.