Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-08-29
President of the American Bar
Association Delivers a
Notable Address
CONVENTION OPENS AT ST. PAUL
Delightfully."- Cool and Pleasant Wealth
err Greets the Delegates to National
Meeting of the Lawyers = Presi-
dent Peck Tells of Now Laws En-
acted.

ST. Paul, Aug. 29.-Prominent law
yers from nearly every state in the un-
ion, gathered in ST. Paul today to at
tend the twenty-ninth annual meet
ing of the American Bar Associa tioe
The first session was called to order
by George r. Peck, of Chicago, presi-
dent of the association The weather
was delightfully."- cool and bright, with
prospects of continuing so during the
week, which will insure pleasant
time. This meeting of the association
is significant, because of several mat
considered.
A warm debate is expected when the
committee on insurance law presents
it's report. Federal supervision over
insurance is favored by the majority
of the committee, who in their report
hold that insurance Is interstate COM
merce. A vigorous minority report
will be sent to the association attack
ing the theory that insurance can be
regulated by the federal government.
The attorneys are especially interested
in securing the passage of bill by
congress, to create IA court of patent
appeals. The report of the committee
on this matter recommends bill
creating such court.
Rome G. Brown, president of the
Minnesota State Bar Association, well
coined the visitors. He introduced
President Peck, who at once began
reading his annual address, in which
he communicated the most noteworthy
changes in the statute law in points of
general interest, made in several states
and by congress during the preceding
year. Peck said, in part:
James G. Carter declared that the
American people are afflicted with a
passion for legislation amounting al
most to a disease. 1t is undeniably
true that the average mind believes N
the possibility of remedying every ev-
IL by tatutory enactment. That this
idea is false and dangerous one, all
human experience attests. 1t is sig
nificant, perhaps ominous, evidence Of
the changes in the popular idea of the
leSl luHSllOA, " 1AoIO lAiS vastly
increased range Of subjects with which
our statutes now deal. They are becom-
ing largely-too largely I think-merely
administrative and regulative; estab-
fishing rules for the direction and con-
troll of business activities, drawing
lines of separation between that which
is, and always is permissible, and that
which shall no longer be so; estab-
fishing boards and commissions; and
providing for a scrutiny which, more
and more, prizes into affairs that once
were supposed to pertain exclusively
to the individual primarily Interested.
All this is more or less irritating, for
the shrinkage in individual liberty in
yolyed in it hurts. But it is folly to
suppose that modern life can go on
with it's ever increasing complexity.
and legislators be dumb and silent.
When legislators are considering a
subject with which they may rightful-
ly deal, the temptation is strong upon
them to go further than is necessary,
or proper, but this is an inf1rmity of
human nature. In the summary OF
legislation which is communicated to
you from year to year, there are many
omitted from consideration by the leg
islatures that passed them. OF all the
bills introduced in any legislative body
a comparatively small percentage be-
come living enactments, and of these,
but few ever really enter into the life
of the community. A mere glance at
this report confirms Mr.. Carter's as
sertion as to the passion OF the Am
erican people for legislation. l do not
believe in Laissoz faire, and yet as we
we'll know a very large number OF
statutes are enacted for no reason
whatever except to gratify the am
bitfon of some legislator to have his
name attached to a law. Every act
passed, adds more or less to the indi-
yidual "shrinkage" of which Maetor-
linck speaks but often without any
corresponding advantage to organized
society, and undoubtedly the citizen
gets the worst of the bargain when
ever this happens.
"I shall not believe that the great
volume of legislation enacted by the
last congress was inspired by mere
wanton lust Of power. 1t had back of
it something higher and better than
that: an earnest desire to deal with
conditions not very we'll understood,
and conviction that the time had
come for doing something. I do not
close my eyes to the fact that we cam
not have q bewildering perplexity in
all our affairs and at the same time
have perfect simplicity in government.
But in all this turmoil the whirl of
governmental and mechan-
ical, the organization of labor and of
capital, the throbbing of every pulse,
and the strain of it all, to brain and to
has become of the indi-
vidual man? The development of the
state and of the institutions that coll
lectively compose it, is steadily pro-
ceeding, but how about the units? I
have pointed out what seemedeto me to
be the causes for the increased legisla-
ton which marks thSreresent age.
This legislation has not been the cause