LEWIS 1VL FARRINGTON

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were qualified voters at last general election; prohibiting discrimination on account of race or color in employment on public work; preference to residents of county-registered voters--voters at last election--and registered at last two general elections. Several bills included under this heading affect State employees; none of these passed although some made progress. One provided a five-day week for all employees; another for eight-hour day for all State employees; still another that employees of State institutions must be citizens and residents of the State. Included here is the bill which appears annually requiring that State employees be given one day of rest in seven with no Sunday work permitted, except as a schedule is filed with the labor department. This last feature is especially objectionable to institutions having to operate seven days a week. Other bills which failed of passage provide a five-day week in industry ; a five-day week and an eight-hour day; a five-day week and a six-hour d.ay, reducing daily hours of labor by two in a wide range of employment and requiring that public contracts for this year shall provide for .a thirty-hour work week at an hourly rate to be fixed by the superintendent of public works, preference to be given to citizens of the State. A companion bill provides that the prevailing rate of wages, once fixed shall be deemed to be established for all public work in that locality. Two bills providing that contractors on public work may not run a company store or commissary in connection therewith without a license from the Labor Department, and that charges for food, board, lodging, or clothing 9 shall not be a valid set off against a claim for wages, failed of passage. The industrial commissioner is required to register industrial machinery and issue a license permitting its use for five years only. This bill failed. EXAMINATIONS, COMMITMENTS~ ETC.

Several proposed amendments of Section 836 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were offered, only one of which passed. There was also a renewed effort to establish a list of quMified psychiatrists. Section 836 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is amended in important particulars. It includes mental defectives; makes a distinction between those held on a felony charge and those held under lesser charges; provides for commitment in New York City to a city hospital for observation and requires that one of the medical examiners shall be a qualified psychiatrist. The changes made are numerous and important. (Chapter 564.) The effort to establish a list of qualified psychiatrists was renewed this year. The bill sets up an examining board in the Department of Mental

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SUMMARY OF LEGISLATION OF

1933 OF

INTEREST TO DEPARTMENT

Hygiene consisting of the Commissioner of the Department, the head of the department of psychiatry of a medical college in the State of New York to be appointed by the State Commissioner of Education, and the Commissioner of Correction. The board is authorized to compile a list of qualified psychiatrists having the qualifications set forth in the bill. This bill passed the Assembly but failed in the Senate. Another bill proposed to amend Section 658 of the Code of Criminal Procedure regarding inquiry into the mental condition of a defendant before or during a trial or before sentence. The commission of three is retained, one to be an attorney and one a qualified psychiatrist. The judge may send the defendant to a public hospital for observation as to mental condition. The bill fixes the commissioners' fee at not to exceed $300 each. Another bill proposed to add a new section, No. 837, to the Code of Criminal Procedure. This prescribes the proceedings when the person arrested for certain crimes appears insane or to be a sex deviate. It applies to males only. Outside of New York City, examination is to be made by an alienist and one psychiatrist and commitment to a State hospital until sane and sexually and mentally normal. In New York City commitment may be to a city hospital; on discharge the defendant is to be tried on the original charge. A bill seeking to amend the Civil Practice Act relative to writs of habeas corpus failed of passage. The bill strikes out the limitation that such proceedings must be had in a county in which the institution is located. It also provides that hearings may be had in the county in which the case originated; and provides on demand for a jury trial as to the question of sanity. CONTRACTS, BONDS AND LmN LAws A considerable number of bills is included under this heading, the intent of most of them being to give preference to domestic companies or contractors, or New York State citizens on public contracts, or to give preference to domestic materials. The only bills discussed under this heading which reached the Governor were several amending the Lien Laws. One bill amends Subdivision 5 of Section 13 of the Lien Law; provides that no instrument of conveyance recorded subsequent to the completion of the improvement shall be valid as against items filed within four months from the recording of such conveyance. (Chapter 164.) Another bill amends Section 5 of the Lien Law by providing that in case of default or abandonment by the contractor, all liens for labor and material which have been incorporated in the improvement, shall attach to all moneys