opinion compelled the abandonment of that system some years before the Civil War. The prisoners of the reformatory work under a law providing for trade schools; the product of the work is sold to the state institutions and to the civil and political divisions of the state, the surplus being disposed of on the market. At the State Prison practically one half the prisoners are employed on contracts. Not more than 100 may be employed on any one contract, and the day's work is limited to eight hours. The remainder of the population of the prison is employed on state account. The policy of indeterminate sentence and paroles was adopted in 1897 in the two prisons and the reformatory. Prisoners released upon parole are carefully supervised by state agents. Indiana has an habitual-criminal law, and a law providing for the sterilization of mental degenerates, confirmed criminals, and rapists. There are also an adult probation law and a juvenile court law, the latter applying to every county in the state. Each of the state institutions mentioned above is under the control of a separate bi-partisan board of four members. The whole system of public charities is under the supervision of a bi-partisan Board of State Charities (1889), which is appointed by the governor, and to which the excellent condition of state institutions is largely due. In the counties there are unsalaried boards of county charities and correction and county boards of children's guardians, appointed by the circuit judges. The township trustees, 1016 in number, are ex-officio overseers of the poor. They dispense official outdoor relief. Nowhere else have the principles of organized charities in the administration of public outdoor relief been applied to an entire state. Each county provides for the indoor care of the poor in poor asylums and children's homes, and for local prisoners in county jails. Provision is made for truant, dependent, neglected and delinquent children. No child can be made a public ward except upon order of the juvenile court, and all such children may be placed in family homes by agents of the Board of State Charities. _Finance._--The total true value of taxable property in the state was, according to the tax levy of 1907, $1,767,815,487, and the total taxes, including delinquencies, in the same year amounted to $38,880,257. The total net receipts for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1908, were $4,771,628, and the total net expenditure $5,259,002, the cash balance in the treasury for the year ending September 30, 1907, amounted to $1,096,459, leaving a cash balance on September 30, 1908, of $609,085. The total state debt on September 30, 1908, was $1,389,615.