The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-02-16

which would confront any revisionary
board, in any attempt which might be
made to reconcile those differences which,
from location, natural advantages and
character Of population, must exist be-
tween and among the various cities of the
State
II in the multiplication Of statutory
law, the physical volume OF the statutes
were illustrated it would at least create
surprise. 1t is legal maxim of the
highest antiquity that every man is sup
posed to know the law. Yet a lawyer
with a general practice has before him
daily no less than five and thre-quarters
miles of printed pages, this result having
been reached by an accurate measure
ment made by Mr.. Lee of the pages of
the statutes and the pamphlet laws sup
Elementary there. This, of course, rep
resents only the outward visible and final
form Of legislative action. This is all
that actually reaches the public, but from
the standpoint of real legislative action
it is only small propor.-on of the work
attempted to be done each legislative
year. During the last decade the Legis-
lature has passed and the Governors have
approved about three hundred acts per
annum Taking the Senate and House
bills introduced, the three hundred stat
utes passed represent less than fifty per
cent. of all the measures presented.
1t seems almost impossible to check the
current of attempted legislation, particu-
larly in these days when public sentiment
is restless and seeks in legislation
"cure-alP' for the evils affecting society.
This constant attempt to increase rather
than decrease the flow of the legislative
water course has a tendency. to sweep
away every barrier of carefulness and
conservatism.
The constitution provides 'all bills and
joint resolutions shall be read three times
in each house before the final passage
thereof" This has been construed to
mean that bills may be read by title and
that the members shah rely on printed
bills for information concerning the
measure. The evident intention of the
constitution was that with sixty members
in the House Of Assembly and twenty
one Senators in the Senate following the
clerk in the reading of the bill all errors
would be discovered. When the bills
were read in this way years ago there
were fewer mistakes, in fact little or no
mistakes that are known about today, but
the appointment of supervisor Of bills
in both branches of the Legislature to
take from the members the ardious task
of following the bills as read three times,
has apparently resulted in much inaceur-
ate work and may in some instances
prove very costly to htigants.
1t must be remembered that the COM
mission, which is composed of Judge g..
D. w. yroom, of Trenton; james E.
Howell. of Newark, and Charles D.
Thompson, of Jersey City, was not
granted any revisionary powers under
the act by which it was constituted. In
its work Of compilation the commission
can only take the work of the Legisla-
ture as it finds it, elimina ting repealed
and special acts and placing supplements
and amendments in their proper order.
The new volume of the statutes will un-
der these conditions be almost as bulky
as those issued three years ago.
1t is hoped that the commission win re-
port to the Governor and to the Legisla-
ture all the many instances of inaceura-
cies in laws that they have discovered.
For while but few instances of this class
of quick and inaccurate work have been
given in this story, there are many to be
set forth.