When Joseph H. Scott, former superintendent of the state prison department, was recently removed under charges by Governor Sulzer, he asserted that his dismissal was in reality a piece of vengeance because he would not change the Auburn wardenship at the governor’s dictation. So frequent have been the charges and counter-charges in the administration of New York prisons recently, and so often is it asserted that politics lies at their bottom that social workers are more and more becoming loathe to pass judgment on the basis of one-man investigations. PROBATION IN NEW YORK STATE An increase of 48 per cent in the number of delinquents placed on probation in New York state during the year ending September 30, 1912, is shown in the preliminary edition of the sixth annual report of the State Probation Commission recently transmitted to the legislature. Over 20,000 persons were under the oversight of probation officers during the year, and of this number 14,687 were new cases. A review of the five years’ growth of the system since the state commission began in 1907 is contained in the report. During this period the number of publicly salaried probation officers has risen from thirty-five to 159 at the beginning of the present year. The number of cities employing the system has grown from sixteen to thirty-eight; the number of counties using it in felony cases from eleven to thirty-nine; and the number of counties using it in town and village courts from two to twenty-two. In spite of the marked extension of the system, however, a map published in the report indicates that in thirteen of the sixty-one counties in the state not a single person was placed on probation during the past year. This is because the adoption of the system and the appointment of probation officers is optional with the local authorities. The report makes special mention of the use of probation as a means of collecting family support, restitution and instalment fines. While practically nothing was collected by probation officers for these purposes when the commission started its work five years ago, the aggregate amount paid for these purposes by probationers in compliance with court orders during the past year is estimated as in the neighborhood of $300,000. According to the report, the domestic relations courts of Buffalo, Manhattan and Brooklyn, the first courts of this character to be established, were largely an outgrowth of the probation system and depend to a great extent upon it for their efficiency. The volume contains a number of carefully prepared tables and charts. CHILDREN’S COURT FOR ONTARIO COUNTY