The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-08
REVISION OF FEDERAL LAWS.
The Work Declared to Be tnsatisfac

tory.
 The commission appointed in 1897 to revise and codify" the laws of the United States did not prove an entire success. After nearly Ia years contin- uous work they succeeded in covering the entire field of the permanent and general laws and made their report to Congress The commission went out of existence December IS, 1906. Tho work was performed with great care and labor. but unfortunately the result was not wholly satisfactory Not hay ing legislative power the proper func- tions of the commissioners were to re- port the existing laws with sugges- tions for such amendments and addi- tional legislation as in their iudg- ment might be required, but instead of taking this course in accordance with the act pursuant to which they were appointed. their qualification was composed in n large part of substitu- tionary provisions without showing the existing enaCtments Hence. much Of the proper work of revision has ! intelligently pass on any of such new provisions withoutia view cf the pres. cit statutes. and since the commis- sionaTs did moi supply that information i the burden falls on congress or or ono of its committees of performing the principal duty of the commission. CTS. This has been partly accomplished
 Inc committee on revision of tn, laws, and new penal code may soor be promulgated; but tho penal code though important. is a very small par of the whole. being less than 100 sec tions out of a total of about 5000 and the completion of the work doc not seem to be alluringlv near at hand
 Ii is greatly to be regretted that tn results of the expenditure of SO mHel time and money are so meagcr hu .-iis IS not surprising when the charae
 ot the work is considered. Lega
 Nr'pilation is work of q special char aete~. Ability and learning as a law yer are not the only requisites. I ~quiles botn special aptitude and spe cial training, and this has been dem onstrated many times. The eflieienc, of specialists in this line of work i strikingiy Illustrated by the fact tha the whole ground covered by the com aissicners appointed to codify thes
 @ws and which occupied them fo learly l9 yesis Nas covered by pri
 ate enterprise in a very small frac
 T ot that tihc One publisher il three years compiled and codifed al the general laws of the United states with exhaustive notes showing hoy each section had been interpreted am applied by the courts. Another pub isAer in still shorter time compile tHs same laNa. omi,'ing. however ih feature of complete ann3tations Thor IS Iood Tor thought in this Nhel the enormous expenditure and the un reasonable delay in this work are con sidered it would seem that n much het ter plan could be devised than in, appointment of a commission. which Ill the nature of things must be gl experiment, and perhaps a very costt experiment. There are many person ln the country who are specially aual lied for such work, and if the com niissioners had been selected iron those known to have such auallflca tions. or if tho work had been let b, contract tho entire revision woul, nave been cemple ted and Congre, would haNe acted on ii years ago Inc statutes of the States are parnap- without exception, compiled and re Nlsed by private enterprise. and thei reVlsions are both thorough an, prompt The result is that the Stat statutes are nearly always complet and up to date. The experiment in on State of legislative committee or qualification has proved failure. an, congress has not fared much better The federal statutes are yearly hecom ing more Noluminous. and of nor general interest and more cxteneiv application, and the good of the pub llc requires that they should he re, is ed more frequently, but there can b no hope of this if the plan of tn I