Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-02-14
TO COMPILE LAWS
BILLS INTRODUCED IN BOTH
LEGISLATIVE BRANCHES.
THE WORK TO BE DONE BY
SANBORN AND BERGMAN.
Substantially the Same Bill as
Passed in 1889 With Important
Further ProviSions-It Does AWAY
With the Necessity of a Revision
Not to Be Undertaken Until 1897.
MadESon. Feb. L.

Madison, Feb. L..
A bill has been introduced in both
houses of the legislature to authorize
ID new complication of the statues.
under the name # the New Annotat-
ed Statutes. 1t is substantially the
same as the bill which passed the leg
nslature of 1889, authorizing the ammo
tated statutes, and which is known as
section 4135 a of the annotated stat
utes, but containing important further
provisions.
Section 1 provides that Arthur l..
Sanborn and John R. Berryman are
authorized to prepare and publish. in
two volumes, of about four thousand
pages, as o as may be after the
adjournment of the legislature of 1897.
the general laws of the state. with
notes OF cases decided b. the Supreme
court of this state and other states
and such other matters as they NAV
deem proper. These statutes are to be
compiled In the general form and style
OF the annotated statutes, preserving
the arrangement by sections. and in
Producing new laws by 1ettered sec
tons. When published they are to be
prlma facie evidence of the true state
OF the law, but they are not to pre-
clIde reference to. nor control. the or
iginal act, in case of any discrepancy.
Section 2 is designed to do away
with the necessity OF a revision of the
statutes, and this is to be accom-
pllShed as follows: The compilers are
appointed as a committee to report to
the Legislature of 1897 bills to correct
errors and harmonic discrepancies
in the statutes, with such additional
sections as they think proper in order
to carry out the general design and
spirit of the statutory system as a
whole. A report showing clearly all
changes proposed, so that it may be
readily seen just what part of the stat
utes are affected by such changes. is
to accompany the proposed bills. In
this way the Legislature of 1897 will be
able in a small compass to do such
work, by way of revision, as to har-
mOnize the statutes and make them a
" III tht htCt>SllN
of a complete revision. and, at the
same time, preserving all the essential
features of the revised statutes of
1873, and the beneficial features of the
annotated statutes. For this work of
drawing the bills and preparing their
report the cOmpilers are to be paid
such compensation as the commits
sioners of the public printing shall
deem reasonable. not to exceed a GER
tain sum, to be fixed in this act.
Section 8 provides that if the compli-
cation so prepared shall be approved
by three OF more justices Of the ST.
preme court, then the Superintend-
ent of public property is to be fur
nished with a sufficient number Of
copies to supply judges of the courts
county officers. town officers, chart
tabl. penal and educational i%nstitu-
tions etc, at three dollars per volume.
There has been a compilation of the
statutes in some form about once in
eight years since the organization of
the state. There We're the revised
statutes of 1910, the revised statutes
of 1888, TaylOr's statutes of 1871, the
revised statutes of 1878, and the
annotated statutes of 1889. In add
ton to this there was the supplement
to the revised statutes of 1878, pub
lished in 1888. If the proposed COM
pilation shall be authorized it will in
clude four sessions or eight years of
legislation. The annotated statutes,
published by Sanborn and Bergman
in 1889, was in many RESPECTS a pio-
neer work, and other states have been
quick to adopt like compilations. The
proposed compilation will contain all
of the valuable features of the ammo
tated statutes, but will contain about
! one-third more matter, and, while GOV
ering the same general ground, will
contain many improvements suggested
by experience.
The legislature of 1887 can easily
harmonic conflicting provisions, hav-
ing before it a carefully drawn re-
port made by the compilers. which
will be the result of several years Ia
Dor on their part, and it will be easily
| seen that the work will be a cOnSid-
cradle improvement upon the ammo
tated statutes, convenient and valu-
able as they are.
A careful estimate Of the expense Of
furnishing the statutes provided for
in section 3 shows that the state Will
get about three times as much printed
matter, 1t a very much less expense
for printing, binding etc, than it did
in the revised statutes of 1873, at about
the same sum as was paid for those
statutes. Comparing the estimated
cost of these new statutes TO be fur
nished with the cost Of the revised
statutes Of 1873, it is found that the
state will obtain for about the same
amount of money as vas paid for the
revised statutes twice as many vol
umes and more than three times as
much printed matter, and in a form
so much better and more convenient
that there is really no comparison 10
be made between them.