The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-12-30
Document Makes Book of Some
thing Like $500 Pages.
Secretary Tyler States There
Has Been No Delay.
Number of the Laws Have Been
Carefully Revised.
From MONDAYS Daily.

From Mondays Daily.
There has been a great many mis-
statements regarding the work of the
statute revision commission" said Judge
NJ. b. Tyler, the st. Paul member of
the commission to The Globe, 'and the
criticisms of the commission because
we will not have our work completed
thirty days before the opening of the
legislature seems to be uncalled for"
There was some talk in legislative cir
cles regarding the work of the statute
revision, and a senator and two men,
beers of the house declared that the fail
ure of the commission to have the re-
viscd statutes ready for submission to
the legislature thirty days before the
session began would result in great in
convenience to the legislature and prac-
tically nullify the first weeks of tile
session.
The law by which the commission was
created provided that the report of the
commission should be completed and in
printed form at least thirty days before
the session of 1905 opened The mem
bers of the commission admit that they
have found it impossible to comply with
this provision, but say that the report
is even now practically all in type and
that the revised statutes and the ac-
companying report will be in the hands
of members almost as soon as the legis
lature is convened.
They deny that the legislature will be
seriously handicapped by the admitted
failure to keep the promise of four
wears ago to have the revised statutes
out month before the session, ard
blame the delay of few weeks in the
printing of the report to the death of
II. F. Stevens, chairman of the COM
mission, some months ago, and the con-
sequent new division of the labors of
the commission among its members.
Members of the commission have
again and again disputed the truth of
the statement that they have legislat-
ed instead of revised, and say that there
are comparatively few changes in the
text of the laws on the statute books
when they began their labors.
Mr.. Tyler made the following state
ment:
''The charges that are being hurled at
the statute revision commission are stuff
ard nonsense" said Judge Tyler in de-
Tending the work of the commission.
Our work is now practically completed.
All the main body of the report is in
type and we have been busy for weeks
reading the proofs of the matter. There
remains only a chapter on repeats. This
which have been repealed, and we are
also going over the session laws very
carefully to make sure that nothing has
been omitted.
''rhe report to accompany the stat
utes, as revised by the commission, is
being written by Judge Daniel Fish of
Minneapolis, now chairman of the com
mission, and it will accompany the vol
ume which will include the revision stat
utes. The big volume will make a book
of something less than 800 pages, and
while it is large book, it is not so
voluminous as either the revised statutes
of Wisconsin or Indiana
1T has been a great task, and the
commission has been handicapped in its
work by the death of Mr.. Stevens. A
portion of the work which had been
assigned to him was only partially COM
pleted when his illness and subsequent
death occurred, and there was naturally
loss OF time in rearranging the work
and assigning it to new hands. The
commission has used all possible ex-
petition in rushing the work to compile
ton, with the usual safeguards against
hasty and unsatisfactory work, and ]
believe the work of the commission will
commend itself when it is given to the
public, to the legal fraternity and the
law making bodies.
There is no doubt that the report viii
be ready for the opening of the legis
lature early in January, or at least a