The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-20
WICKERSHAM WARNS
 AGAINST D|STRUST
New York State Bar Associa.
 tion Meets
PUBLIC MORALS IMPROVE
Senator Elihu Root Presides Over the Meeting of Many Prominent Law yers and Jurists--Root De-
 plOres Red Tape Methods

General George w. Wckersham sounded
 warning tonight against the popular
 tendency to distrust various branches of spoke before an audience of more than
 400 jurists and lawyers, who have gath
 cred in Syracuse for the annual meeting
 of the New York State Bar association
 Senator Elihu Root presided
 In opening his address the Attorney
 General said that abuse of the power of political organizations in the past has resulted in @ popular dstrust of them
 and those in authority in them" and these tendencies give rise to the inquiry whether there is no danger that the movement toward better government
 may not ignore the constitutional chan
 mel into which it should be directed and
 through which it may accomplish it's
 laudable aims and legitimate purposes, without damage to the structure of our
 government
 Every man must admit that a higher standard of morality prevails today in
 both public and private life than eyer
 before in our history, declared Attorney General Wickersham in addressing the
 association on the subject "Concerning Certain Essentials in Republican Govern ment.''
 The Attorney General declared abuse of the power of political organization in the past had resulted in popular distrust of them and this, he continued, has pro- Gnced fo, ticipation by all the people, not only in party management, but in legislation and
 more immediate control over the admin istrative acts of executive officers and even of conduct of judges.
 The speaker made use of many quota tions from legal opinions to defend his argument. He declared that one notice. able tendency today is "a distrust of the legislative branch of the government which had led to increased centralization of power and authority in the executive | and decided complacency in the fact of new and unprecedented assumptions of
 power by the executive. This tendency is not at the present moment so strong as it has been during the last few years Another Is disposition to distrust the delegation of any power or selection of officers of the government and the sub stitution of popular selection not only of officers themselves, but of the candidates from among whom such officials must be selected"
 Senator Root was the principal speaker at the afternoon session. Re-stating set tied Jaw in new forms and the bulkiness of legal operations were decried by Sena- tor Elihu Root today in his address as nv nnf >f thn ct- rl- sociation, at it's annual meeting here. | Senator Root pleaded for simplicity ir | the administration of law as we'll as ir | the accumulations of legislative practice | "I wish he said, that our judges could read so officially what many of them agree to personally. that re-stating settled law in new forms, however we'll 1t is
 done complicates rather than simplifes | the administration of the law; that the briefest of opinions usually answers the purpose of the particular case and the general interests of jurisprudence justify reasoned opinions only when some ques- ton of law is determined which has not been determined before by equal author | ity.
 "The fewer statutory rules there are tc create statutory rights intervening be- tween a citizens demand for relief and the courts judgment upon his demand the better. The more direct and unham- pered by technical requirements the path way of the suitor from his complaint to his judgment, the better. It seems to me that we have reached a point in our prac- tice where the application of this principle requires very thorough and radical ac- l tion: that mere improvement of the code of procedure in it's details will not an
 swer the purpose.
 "The mass of judicial reports has grown so great that it begins to seem that
 before long we shall have to burn oul books like the Romans and begin anew | And, indeed, ,where decisions can be found in support of every side of every propo- sition, authority is in great measure destroyed and we do begin anew in de | terminng by the light of reason whicf authority should be followed
 "On every side the increasing compli | cations of life call for vigorous and de | termined effort to make the working o1 | our governmental system more simple