The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-02-15
SUPREME COURT UpHo1Ds IT.

Il
The decision of the supreme court in
dorsing the constitutionality of the new
system of land registration will be well
coined by every intelligent citizen 1t will
operate to bring to an end sooner or later
in this state, as it has been brought to an
end in every truly progressive state in
the world, a system of land conveyance
which is at once insecure, expensive and
so ill-adapted to all modern requirements
as to be little better than a survival Of
mediaevalism.
1t had become unavoidable that sooner
or later the prevailing cumbersome sys-
tenn of land transfer should fall to pieces
Of it's own excessive bulk and unwieldi-
ness. 1t assured nothing. The title Of
fered today under it to a given piece Of
realty was no more and might be much
less secure than that offered a hundred
years before; and with each succeeding
year and each succeeding transfer of the
property involved the same senseless pro-
ceeding of going back to the beginning
and examining each transfer and all con-
current records affecting the realty con-
tinued necessary.
The wonder is that such barbarism
should have so long survived. In every
state in the Union, excepting Massa-
chusetts, Illinois and Minnesota, it is
strange to say, still operative. With us.
as with the other two states, it still con-
tinues optional with the transferee of real
estate whether he shall have his title to
the property registered, or only what the
law is pleased to refer to as the evil
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES and voluminous-of
such title.
In England, as elsewhere in Europe
and in the Australian colonies, the regis
tration of the title under the Torrens sys-
tenn is made obligatory, as it should be.
It will become necessary, doubtless, to
make it obligatory here, too, after
while. The sooner that is done the better
it will be for the masses of the people,
who owe it in great measure to the pres
ent expensive and stupid system that
they do not own their own homesteads
in greater numbers. In Manitoba where
it is also nominally optional to adoptathe-
new plan, not a single transfer en- the
old plan of examination of title has been
made since the new system went into
operation.
7 he G 1 o b e will not now engage to
explain again the essential difference be-
tween the old and the new systems. The
supreme court defines the difference
clearly and succinctly in the following ex-
tract taken from it's opinion Says the
court:
The basic principle of this system is
the registration of THE TITLE of land,
instead of registering, as the old system
requires, THE EVIDENCE of such title
In the one case only the ultimate fact or
conclusion that a certain named party
has title to a particular tract of land is
registered and certificate thereof de-
livered to him. In the other the entire
evidence, from which proposed purchasers
must, at their peril, draw such concIu-
sion, is registered. Necessarily, the initial
registration of the title, that is, the con-
elusive establishment of a starting point
binding upon all the world must rest
upon judicial proceedings. The act in
question provides for such proceedings.
The law, which has been declared con-
stitutional by the supreme court, is in
operation only in the counties of Ram
sey, Hennepin and st. Louis. On its
general adoption in those counties must
its future depend It came into existence
largely through the good sense of the
real estate exchanges of Duluth, Mime
apolis and st. Paul 1t is on the good
sense of the members of those bodies that
its speedy general adoption must depend