Mrs. Catherine B. Van Deusen will be the secretary of the state minimum wage board. Thus ends a long and bitter controversy in which the board sought to have one of its own members appointed to the secretaryship, but which was defeated by the decision of Attorney General Farrar to the effect that the position was under civil service. This resulted in an examination in which Mrs. Van Deusen topped the list, which makes her appointment certain. The position pays $1,200 a year.

Mrs. Van Deusen has had a long career in this line of modern reform. She established the first diet kitchen in Buffalo, N. Y., and later was resident visitor of the University Settlement House in Chicago, in which capacity she made investigations regarding wages and living conditions of female employees in factories and stockyards, and conditions pertaining to health and well being of employees. Later she was probation officer of Fremont, having supervision over all convicted juvenile delinquents, at the same time serving as special agent of the county commissioners in the investigation of county institutions. Mrs. Van Deusen has had much other experience in sociological work, including two years' service as secretary of the Denver board of charities.

The state minimum wage board was created for the purpose of investigating wages paid to women and minor employees and their living conditions.