The San Francisco call., 1905-01-04
COURTS SUSTAIN
THE ACTS OF THE
LAST LEGISLATURE

l am happy to state that the legisla-
tion of the last session appears to have
been, in the main, sound in purpose
and reasonably correct. With one or
two exceptions no acts have been de-
ciared by the courts to be unconStitu-
tional and on the other hand many
acknowledged evils were corrected.
| This was done, for example, in the
amendment of the ballot law which
previously had been so framed that
many citizens had, through ignorance
or carelessness, lost their votes. Under
the act authorizing the use of ballot
! machines several counties introduced
the machines and their operation ap-
pears to have been successful.
The law in relation to insanity and
the hospitals for the insane, which
heretofore had been very defective,
was revised and in its new form has
obviated most of the former difficulties.
| l think l may also enumerate among
the clearly beneficial acts of the late
session the one altering the law of
divorce, requiring the entering of an
interlocutory decree and postponing for
a year the time when a divorced person
may remarry.
At the same session several acts
were passed in the interest of labor,
including one which regulated en-
ployment agencies. The probation and
Juvenile court laws enacted were in
tended to save from the prisons and
from lives of crime many young men
and boys who, although they have
taken first steps in vice, are not ire
claimable. The act providing a way
to improve the common school text
books by buying the right to use
copyrighted texts promises to be pro-
ductive of much good.
/ especially advise the utmost care
in the framing of statutes to avoid
technical defects, which will defeat
their purpose. Two years ago 1 felt
obliged to refuse to sign number of
bills otherwise meritorious which were
so faulty framed that it would not
have been safe to let them become
laws.
A subject closely connected with the
above Is the California codes, to which
at every session of the Legislature
many amendments are proposed. It
is now more than thirty years since
the codes were adopted, the principal
object at the time being to rescue the
law from the uncertainty of many
conflicting statutes and decisions. 1t
was recognized that there were OBJ
jections to the code system, and In
practical operation it does not realize
all that was claimed for it by it's adj
vocates; but it has been a great i'm
provement upon what existed before
and no one proposes it's abandonment.
But 1t is well known that the codes.
have not been improved and perfected
to the extent they should be, and at
each session many general statutes are
passed embodying matter which ought
to be incorporated in the codes. The
INTEGRITY of the codes should be re-
spected and the system kept as SYM
metrical as possible.
| desire to call the attention of the
Legislature to the improved financial
condition of the State treasury. Two
years ago 1t was clearly foreseen that
the general fund would run short be-
fore the next succeeding collection of
taxes. In order to prevent this condi-
tion becoming chronic and to make 1t
possible to replenish the treasury 1t
became necessary for the Legislature
to provide for a tax levy in excess of
that which would have been required
had the one fixed in the year 1902 not
preparations called for. This excess
for the year 10000 amounted to
cents on the 500, and for 1904-05 to
nearly as much.
But before the taxes for 1903-04
were collected the expected had hap
pened, for the general fund ran short
and borrowing from other funds was
unavoidable. On June 80, 1903, the
balance In the general fund was only
$432.415 "a, with five months ex-
penses to be met before taxes would
again flow into the treasury. This
small balance was soon exhausted and
1t became necessary on July 81, 1903,
to borrow from other funds the sum
OF 1921, 900, and again on November
5 to borrow the further sum of sat-
900. This, as the State Controller