Rochester’s last order for supplies came in May, 1911; the authorities there contended that the city charter nullified the provisions of the Prison law with regard to the obligatory purchase of supplies from the State. In August last the Commission appealed to the Attorney-General, who rendered an opinion that local statutes did not supersede the provisions of the Prison law. When the matter came up once before, with regard to the liability of officers making purchases elsewhere than from the State Commission of Prisons, the Attorney-General held: It is the duty of officers of political divisions of the State to make requisition on the State Commission of Prisons for such articles used in the municipalities as are manufactured in the State prisons. If such articles are bought elsewhere, without the certificate of the State Commission of Prisons showing inability to furnish the goods required, the officers making such purchases or auditing claims therefore are criminally and civilly liable for their acts. The Prison Commission has issued the following: The Constitution makes it the duty of the Legislature to provide employment for the convicts, and declares that the products of prison labor shall be sold only to the State or its political divisions. To compete as little as possible with free labor the prison industries have been diversified under assignments by the State Commission of Prisons. _Probable Abolition of Contract Labor at Chicago Bridewell._--The practise of hiring to private companies at a wage of a few cents a day the prisoners in the Bridewell, the penal institution of Chicago and Cook county, will be abolished in May if the recommendations of Superintendent John Whitman are acted upon favorably by the city council, says the Christian Science Monitor of Boston. Instead of the present system of using the labor of the prisoners, a system is being worked out by which they will be put to work on public improvements, receive a fair remuneration for their labor, a portion to be applied to paying their fines and a cash return assured for the support of their families. By this method the prisoners will not be relieved from paying the penalty for the crimes for which they have been convicted in many instances of a minor character, but neither will their families be deprived of their supporting labor during their imprisonment. The board of inspectors has voted to discontinue the contract system within three months. Mayor Harrison is in accord with the movement. Representatives of the Chicago Federation of Labor and various trade unions have been working for it for a long time.