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separate farms, has much to commend it. The patients are permitted larger freedom, and consequently do not feel the restraints of close confinement. Great effort has been made

to provide amusements and a free home life, which has given splendid results.

The system is also exceedingly elastic. The Board of Control selects those counties for the care of the chronic insane with reference to the standard maintained by the county authorities. It has full and final power to prevent the construction of new county asylums in advance of the need of such institutions. The policy of the board is to select those counties which have the largest number of insane in other county hospitals. The annual increase of the insane population of the state is about 21⁄2 per cent, and by this expansive system all future needs can be provided for as they arise. It will obviously be long before all of the seventy counties of the state are permitted to construct their hospitals; but as a result of the working of this system there are in the state no insane who are necessarily retained in a prison, poorhouse, private asylum, or family. For the care of each chronic patient the state fixes a rate of three dollars per week, one-half of which it pays, and leaves to the county from which the patient comes the additional cost, with a small remittance for clothing. All financial matters are adjusted between the counties through the Board of Control. No moneys pass directly between the board and the county authorities, but all adjustments are made upon the tax books of the state treasury, by adding or deducting the amounts upon the accounts of the counties concerned.

The final and most important advantage of the Wisconsin system is the strong control exercised by the board over the county asylums and poorhouses without destroying the responsibility of the county authorities in the management of their institutions. It establishes this control by a very simple but effective arrangement. By advancing to each county institution one-half of the support of the chronic

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patients the Board of Control is enabled to fix a certain standard of efficiency before the county hospital will be selected for such purposes. This also incites a wholesome rivalry among the local authorities. The county asylums are, properly speaking, local institutions, but the Board of Control is in a position to encourage, in a direct manner, uniform and better methods of administration by reason of its power to select those county hospitals which shall care for the chronic insane of other counties, and to withdraw state aid in case the standard of efficiency shall fall below a point which the board feels to be dangerous to the welfare of the patient. Recently the board has taken steps to introduce certain uniform requirements applying to the government of the semistate institutions, on the ground that the state has a direct interest in each patient by reason of the fact that it provides one-half of his support. The local authorities have received this suggestion in the spirit in which it was intended. In order to carry out this policy there have been issued from time to time circular letters prescribing uniform methods of administration for the county institutions. These do not take the form of mere requests, but have back of them the authority of law. By way of illustration, there was issued on April 5, 1900, a circular to all of the local institutions requiring the selection of medical attendants on the basis of fitness rather than on that of cheapness.

The board is at present engaged in the solution of the prison contract labor question which is so unsatisfactorily solved in most of the states. Before it can enter upon an independent solution of this problem specific legislation will be required. The usual objections to the present contract system are urged by the business interests of the state, and in addition there is a strong feeling on the part of many that the present methods bring the inmates of the prison into too close a contact with the outside world. Specific recommendations will be made to the coming legislature, which will enable the board to solve the problem in the same comprehensive manner in which it has met similar questions.

A review of the administration of the charitable, correctional and penal institutions of Wisconsin under the direct management of one central authority must tend to strengthen the confidence of those states which are leading in the movement towards centralization, and inspire the hope that the system will in time supersede in all of the states the loose and irresponsible supervisory boards. It must be generally admitted that one central authority is capable of developing better and more economical business methods, and of securing a uniformity in the administration of all state institutions, which seems highly desirable. Wisconsin and Iowa have set an example of the direct management of state institutions by a central board and it seems probable that this method will prove as beneficial and effective in the department of public business as it has in the conduct of large private enterprises.

University of Wisconsin.

SAMUEL E. SPARLING.

EDITORIAL.

At a meeting of the board of directors of the Academy, held October 3, 1900, Professor Roland P. Falkner presented his resignation as editor of the ANNALS, assigning as an imperative reason for the step, his acceptance of the position of chief of the bureau of public documents in the Congressional Library at Washington. As already announced in the Bulletin of the Academy, issued November 13, the board of directors chose Professor Henry R. Seager, editor of the ANNALS, to assume control January 1, 1901, and Professor Samuel McCune Lindsay, associate editor, to fill the vacancy created by Professor Seager's promotion.

In accepting Professor Falkner's resignation, the directors were keenly conscious of the loss which the Academy thereby sustained. Next to Professor James, Professor Falkner deserves the credit for whatever success the work of the Academy has attained during the eleven years since its foundation. An associate editor of the ANNALS from the date of the appearance of the first number in July, 1890, until Professor James resigned the editorship in October, 1895, he has since been editor-in-chief. During this long period of active editorial service he has had charge, successively, of each important department of the periodical, and each reflects to-day his talent for correlation and systematization. In addition to executive ability of a high order, Professor Falkner brought to his task an appreciation of literary values rare in a teacher of Economics. His discriminating criticism has had much to do with improving the literary form of the ANNALS. On assuming control in January, 1896, Professor Falkner announced that, while it was not the purpose of the new board to introduce radi. cal changes of policy, it would be its aim "to make the ANNALS not only a picture of the activities of the Academy and a repository for scientific papers, but so far as possible a complete record of current fact and discussion, which is of interest to the students of political and social science." How fully this aim has been realized is shown from a review of the volumes of the ANNALS issued under Professor Falkner's direction. In the departments entitled Miscellany" and "Briefer Communications " have appeared interesting accounts of political and economic reform movements all over the world and fruitful discussions of theoretical and practical problems; under the head of 'Personal Notes" a unique collection of biographical notices of the men who are recasting political and social science, either as teachers

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or authors, in this country and abroad has been issued; the "Book Notes and Reviews" have embraced an ever-increasing number of titles; and the scope of the "Notes on Municipal Government" and the "Sociological Notes" has been considerably extended. Taking all these departments together, it is but just to Professor Falkner to say that under his direction during the last five years the ANNALS has contained a more complete "record of current fact and discussion of interest to students of political and social science" than is to be found in any other periodical. Such an achievement on the part of a salaried editor, with unlimited funds at his disposal to pay for contributions, would be a matter for congratulation. In view of the fact that the editor of the ANNALS receives no compensation and that contributions are unpaid, Professor Falkner's success appears all the more deserving of praise.

Besides securing many valuable papers for the ANNALS during his editorship, Professor Falkner made notable contributions himself, as is shown in the "Personal Note," which appears on another page. Especially deserving of mention are his articles on "Crime and the Census" (Vol. IX) and “The Development of the Census" (Vol. XII), which, it is believed, may have a salutary influence on the work of the present Census Bureau, and his article on "The Currency Law of 1900 (Vol. XVI), which contains a masterly exposition of the weak points in that statute.

This sketch of Professor Falkner's services to the Academy and to political and social science, would be incomplete if no word was said of the motives which induced him to accept a position in the Congressional Library. In entering upon his new work he has felt that he does not sever his connection with the academic world, for he hopes to contribute toward making the National Library, already strong in all that concerns economics and history, more directly serviceable to scholars and investigators. He also anticipates that increased opportunities for research will enable him to devote his pen to economic discussions as frequently as in times past. Especially, did he desire it to be understood on withdrawing from direct participation in control over the ANNALS that his interest in the Academy would remain as strong in Washington as it had been in Philadelphia.

Professor Lindsay, the new member of the board of editors, needs no introduction to readers of the ANNALS. That he was willing to assume the duties of an associate editor in addition to the responsibilities of the first vice-president of the Academy and chairman of the important committees on meetings and on members, attests his devotion to the Academy, at the same time that it greatly strengthens the editorial force. With his appointment the separation between the

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