One of the most important features of our relief work is under the management of our Agent, Mr. Fred J. Pooley, at the Central Station, City Hall. From the forty-two Police Stations throughout the city, there arrive almost hourly at this Central Station van loads of human freight which in some way or other must be quickly disposed of by the Committing Magistrate. Most of these are petty offenders, but also there are numerous cases of arrest on suspicion or for vagrancy, and such as these need special care in order to prevent injustice, and to be saved from criminal associations. Agent Pooley endeavors to have a brief interview with these derelicts or victims of misfortune before they are taken before the Magistrate. In ten months of last year he thus interviewed 15,933 arrested persons, and on their behalf wrote to their friends 1,937 letters. His experience for many years has taught him to distinguish the ring of the true from the sound of the false, so that when the cases come up before the Court, he is ready to interpose a word on behalf of the accused person. Often the unfortunate man or woman, boy or girl, is placed in the care of the agent, who sends them to their homes or friends, or places them in some detention home until he may verify their story or hear from their parents or relatives. No day passes with a blank record in this work of rescue. In the Agent’s report, an abstract of which is printed in the Annual Journal of which this report forms a part, a number of instances are narrated, illustrating the importance of this service. During the time of the closing of the saloons on account of the epidemic of influenza, the number of arrests for drunkenness and disorderly conduct greatly decreased, thus clearly demonstrating that a prohibitory law would have a decided tendency very greatly to diminish crime and disorder in this city. LEGISLATION. We have delayed the printing of our annual report in order to include in the JOURNAL the Report of the Commission to Investigate Prison Systems, of which the Secretary of the Society is a member. The Legislative Committee of the Society has endorsed the findings of the Commission and has urgently requested the General Assembly to take favorable action on the bills presented by the Commission. A synopsis of these bills presents the following desirable features. 1. The enlargement of the functions of the State Board of Public Charities so as to include the appointment from their number of a Committee on Delinquency with supervisory power over all prisons of the Commonwealth and with authority to condemn unsanitary conditions and provide for betterment, and also to have especial direction over the prison industries. Medical and psychiatric examination of convicts is provided with power to transfer defective criminals to the institution most suitable for their care and restoration. 2. The establishment of State Industrial Farms to which those sentenced to the county jails may be sent.