The San Francisco call., 1895-07-20
FALKENBURa
b a artist.

were codified in 1872 there has been a
great mass of legislation enacted and the
laws bearing upon given thing are often
found to be now iumbled UP among the
different codes and to be amended, re-
amended and often conflicting. Then a
great number of laws have been modified
in effect or declared unconstitutional in
whole or in part by the decisions of the
Supreme Court running through twenty
three years.
Then many acts, framed principally by
legislators whose forte was neither the
clear and exact use of the English Ian
guage nor the legal phrasing of law, are so
obscure and mixed up that nobody is
sure what they mean unless the Supreme
Court has declared it. In these and
other ways the statutes of the State have
been sadly in need of revision for years.
The Commissioners have first taken up
the Penal Code and are at work on that,
dividing the labor among them. Each law
is read in connection with all decisions
and all other laws bearing upon it and
compared with spending statutes of
other States and countries.
''There are sections of the Penal Code
that Rave been declared unconstitutional
and should be expunged," said Commits
sioner Ryland T. Wallace yesterday.
"Others have been found not to COM
pletely cover the crimes they concern. As
an illustration, when Mayor Kalloch was
indicted in 1881 for demanding and re-
ceiving $50 month which was added to
the salary of man he as Election Com
missioner had appointed to position in
the Registrars office demurrer was sus-
tanned on the ground that no promise
beforehand being shown there was no
offense under the law. 1t was found to be
not a public offense for public officer to
receive part of the salary of another officer
whose appointment he had procured. The
statute was lame.
"Not long ago in this State man burned
his own house, as he had right to do at
common law, and burned other peoples
houses with it. The court held that the
section defining arson did not meet the
case. The present English statute dein-
ing arson would have made the act
crime. Our description of arson is not
complete.
"These are illustrations taken at ran
dom. AS we do not apply the common
law to crimes our criminal laws need to be
especially clear specific and comprehen-
sive, without loopholes through which
criminals may escape, and there is much
in the Penal Code that needs revision and
amplitication. There are things in other
codes that belong in the Penal Code, be-
cause they are penal in effect.
$50, all through the codes there are
found laws passed with no comprehension
of their effect on other laws. 1t has even
happened that two similar laws on the
same subject have been passed and been
approved on the same day. There are
strange inconsistencies, such as the repeal
ing of portions of law and improperly
leaving other portions standing"
The Supreme Court has had many a
hard tussle with California statutes, and
has frequently made, in decisions, observa-
tions on the kind of laws that come from
Sacramento and acts have been character
lied as strange legislation"
The Commissioners are now piling up
notes themselves, and have already re-
ceived, unsolicited, many written sugges-
tions, all of which are filed in the
Commissioners office at Sacramento. A
number of attorneys and Judges have
promised to submit expositions of peculiar
laws that they have especially studied.
1t is likely that when the Commissioners
officially open the foodgates Of suggestions
by inviting ideas from anybody, there will
be an avalanche from distinguished jurists
strange ideas and hobbies about law as it
should be.
At the open sessions for the official re-
ception of ideas particular branches of the
law will be considered at particular ses-
sions. The first session will probably be
held in the Supreme Court building in q
few weeks.
The report of the Commissioners to the
Legislature will be very voluminous one,
and if it's recommendations are adopted
the reading of the statutes will be extern
sively changed throughout. When the
four codes with their legion of amend
ments are thus rewritten, reconstructed
and pulled together it may be possible, as
it is not now, for any intelligent citizen to
find out for himself what the law is on any
matter.
The Commissioners are charged with
recommending also new legislation which
in their Judgment is needed. They will
recommend good deal of legislation going
to the nature and effect of civil and crimi-
nal statutes as well as to their form, ex-
preston and arrangement. and that