Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1908-08-25
UN|FOR N LEGISLATION
DEMANDED BY BAR
ASSOCIATION
Attorneys Would Have Laws
In The Several States
Conform W Aid
the Courts.
The MOST GOVERNED
PEOPLE IN THE WORlO
President of the Association In
Annual Address Says That
DiSrespeCt for the
Courts Must be
Stopped.

Seattle, Aug. 25.-The principal
event of todays session of the Amer
lean Bar association, which Is holding
its annual meeting here. was the ad-
dress by President ]. Nj. Dickinson, of
Chicago.
President Dickinson, after a few
| Introductory remarks. entered upon a
discussion of the legislative situation,
SO far as it relates to the enactment
of new laws, in the various states of
the union. He said:
"The vices of legislation engaged
the attention and were the principal
| theme of many of my predecessors.
| The trouble is inherent in the nature
OF our Institutions. With the condi-
tions as they exist the evil is incuraDle
| While youth, inexperience ana ignor
ance constitute no legal bar to polite
al preferment, while manhood suffrage
| is the source of all governmental
| power, while 50 many of those most
capable of ruling prefer selfishly
their personal pleasures and private
interests to the general welfare, so
long will We suffer the maximum of
| burdens that come from unwise and
unskilled legislation. The best that
we can hope to accomplish is to bring
about, as we have been doing with
marked success, the enactment Of
uniform legislation in the several
| states. Our work will in the main
be constructive. We can accomplish
practically nothing in the way of re-
Straint.
From the least governed people
in the world we are rapidly becoming
the most governed people in the
world. Our increasing commissions
for almost every department of pub
| lie affairs are making our govern
ment, state and national. the most
comprehensive system of bureaucracy
ever known. The complex conditions
of our times in each of their diyersi-
| fled forms are given special treatment
and administration. This is a pro-
life source of legislation, much of it
in fragrant disregard of the best sane
toned and most venerated doctrines.
The administration of justice
should be by the courts alone. 1t Is
! subversive of every idea of Anglican
civil liberty for the judge to commit
himself in any way to an opinion un-
| il the cause shall have been presented
according TO law. This is the distin-
gushing feature between the accusa-
torial and the inquisitorial trial, in
which the judge inquiries. becomes the
prosecutor, and at the same time IS
theoretically the protector of the ar
raigned.
Much recent legislation of doubt
full conStitutionality, congressional
! and state. has been practically en-
forced by provisions for minatory,
heavy and cumulative fines and i'm
prisonment, devised in some cases ex-
pressly for the purpose of preventing
a resort to the courts for relief. When
| the highest courts of the land, not
| exceptionally, but with a frequency
that almost makes it normal, divide
on constitutional questions, often de-
| termining the result by a bare ma
jority, lawyer Will rarely, especially
| when the question is new, advise
client to pursue a course which. by
| subjecting him to the possibility Of
paying cumulative daily fines, and 10
| Imprisonment, may destroy him.
Though strongly persuaded. If not en-
tirely convinced. that the acts IL con-
tested would be unconstitutional, he
may counsel submission to what ae
regards as a taking Of property with
out due process of law and an impo-
sition of an oppressive and confisca-
! tory burden rather than incur the
hazard OF financial ruin. No govern
ment can with impunity continue to
exercise such oppression. 1t is a
'hold-up' by the government itself, un-
der the forms of law. If pursued 1t
would pervert all sense of justice and
sccustom the minds of the people to
the sanction of wrong as a practice
| of government The vice thus i'm
planted would take on new forms OF
legalized plunder and surely destroy
the integrity of our institutions
"a recent state statute establishing
the compensation to be charged by
railroads for the transportation Of
passengers fixed the penalties at such
an amount for each overcharge that,
Iif the railrad companies contested the
validity of the rates and failed 20
establish their contention, they would
have run the hazard OF forfeiture to
the state within a year Of the entire
railroad property within the state"
After discussing at considerable
length the recent enactment OF pri-