The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-03-08
JUDGE TOWNSEND ON DEBATING.


Plea for Accuracy and Clearness of
xpresson-Justice Brewers Sugges-
ton Commended.
In connection with the article on
Yale debating interests by Justice
Brewer, published in last Saturdays
Yale News Judge William X Town
send, II, has contributed the following
additional article to the News:
Mr.. Justice Brewers forcible SUCCESS
tons emphasize a glazing defect in
modern argument and debate and point
to the effective remedy.
The lawyer or legislator of to-day
needs above all things to be accurate
and exact. He must know what he
means to say and how to say it in the
best way. He must begin this process
by clear definite statements in his
brief or proposed bill. 1t must compre-
! bend and grasp the full scope of the
subject matter The lawyer who either
fails to file brief or present an accu-
rate statement of his legal conception
therein or who is unable to pursue
discussion of his theories and the I'M
derlying principles, makes bad i'm
preston on the judge.
The constant experience of courts in
cases involving the Interpretation of
acts of congress show that frequently
because of imperfect preparation, laws
have been so loosely drawn that their
construction is a matter of speculation
or have been so carelessly compiled as
to contain directly contrary provisions
in different sections of the same act.
Thus, l recently heard customs APP
peal in New York where the provisions
of the tariff on diamonds were so un-
certain that the case had to be carried
to the supreme court Of the United
States to determine whether congress
intended to admit diamonds free or not.
Among the acts of the state of Con-
necticut may be found one authorizing
a town clerk to restore such portions of
the town records as had become partly
or wholly illegible. I drew the bill; the
clerk of bills, the legislative committee,
the senate, house and governor ap-
proved it, 1t was not until the town
clerk attempted to collect his fees that
it occurred to any one that the PROPOSE
tion to restore what was wholly illegible
was an absurdity.
Last week I was called on to sentence
man for a crime. The law provided
that he should be punished by i'm
prisonment and fine or both" In each
of these cases the intent is clear
I. 49, To-, ~,
sion.
These suggestions are emphasized by
an article in the Army and Navy Regis
ter. of Washington, which, criticising
the law recently passed for the increase
of the army, says:
ut is barbaric in Its inconsistencies
and inadequacies. There has been
nothing worse as literary composition /,
to the dignity of a United
States statute. The bill will be con-
strued, of course, in the best interests |
of the army, and it will not be allowed |
to block the legitimate purposes Of the |
legislators by any narrow process of in
which is possible as the re-
suit of the carelessness of those who
are responsible for the law. 1t will be
due entirely to the liberality of the in
terpreters of the act, therefore, that the
aw is not an absolute failure and does
1ot defeat its own objects by it's defects
n phra seology."
The man of affairs to-day, the man
Who proposes to pursue public career,
must begin at the bottom by cultiva-
ing the faculty of exact expression,
Ind ! know of no better way than that
suggested by Mr.. Justice Brewer, in the
lraftng of proposed bills. The same
process, of course, could be applies In
,ther departments of public speaking.