The San Francisco call., 1899-03-17
SUPREME COURT REFORMS.

is to be hoped that some means OF relieving the
Supreme Court may be found without exposing
the taxpayers OF the State to the expense of main
tanning three Courts OF Appeal and to the danger OF
having additional appellate tribunals established
whenever the Legislature may desire to create places
for judicial aspirants 1t is also desirable that sim
pcity and concsenes in legal records be secured in
conformity with suggestions already made by The
Call.
These reforms, however especially related to
this State There is deeper and transcendenty i'm
portant question bearing upon the practice and upon
the administration OF the law that affects every State
and Territory in the Union and the solution of which
cannot be long postponed, Legal publications, in
Guiding reports, digests, textbooks and unclassfed
compilations, have become numerous and many Of
them are so worthless that even though the pubca-
ton mania should be checked, it is doubtful whether
the efficiency OF the bar and Of the bench has not al
ready been impaired to degree that calls for radical
treatment.
There are forty-fv States in the Union, some Of
which have several Courts of Appeal in addition to
hundreds of courts OF original jurisdiction general,
special and limited that the entire range of law
and equity The Territories are proportionatey sup
piled In addition to the Supreme Court OF the
United States and the Court of Claims, the law bust
ness within the Federal jurisdiction is transacted by
Circuit Courts of Appeal, by Circuit Courts, by Dis
trict Courts and by Commissioners, that the legt
mate Federal contributions to the literature of the law
are alone beyond the digestive assmilating power
OF the greatest mind the greatest memory that the
bar or the judiciary produce.
But owing to the axness with which the matricula-
ton of asprants for professional life is permitted all
over the United States, and excessively in California,
the average quality of the bar and Of the bench has
been lowered, and the reports, except those Of some
OF the higher courts among which our own Supreme
Court is embraced replete with loose, prox and
conflicting opinions There is hardly petty question
Of practice that arise upon either side OF which
mass Of authority so called cannot be arrayed and
in these days arguments and briefs, other than those
proceeding from select few, largely guesscs at
the law fortified by nnumerable and habby citations.
In addition to the reports which in quantity and in
quality are daily invitations to apoplectic repleton
dgests are published in almost every State and pre-
texts for legal pot-boIling daily inventions.
There is perpetual deluge of this stuff There is not
heading in any of the elementary treatses, such as
the Commentaries of Blackstone and Kent the works
OF Story Parsons Greenleaf, Bishop and other law
writers OF equal eminence which is not in these days
made the excuse for separate publications The
Partisan fashions changed four times year and
original artistic skill consumed the point of e-
ba1ston in order to drain the pockets Of rich and
complaisant husbands and fathers throughout the
world Law publishers have long since accepted this
example and with new books and with new editions
Of old books lawyers who endeavor to maintain IL
braries are sucked so dry that they scarcely able
to live and indigestible weak and swashy matter ac-
cumulates on their hands until their minds are as
gorged and congested their purses are empty.
There are those who believe that the period has