The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-11-05
TOO MANY LAWS CAUSE
DEFEAT COURT JUSTICE
ELIHu ROOT POINTS CHANGES
IN COURT PROCEDURE IN
LITlGANTs' INTEREST.

uSlNGiEu d chONiNoS oDPAi ~
Idesirability of having fewer laws ard
a more careful attention to the enact
ment of those that may be necessary.
He mentioned various complaints laid
at the door Of the law and the lawyer,
Some were unfounded, some had a ba-
sis Of truth but were overdrawn, and
behind the surface of fault finding
there was real attitude of respect
and confidence, but Il think we must
Iconcede," he said. that there is room
for improvement in the administration
of the law in this country"
1T is worth while for all Of u.s." he
continued, from whatever states, to
give serious consideration to these
complaints about the administration
of justice from whatever quarter they
tendencies to be guarded against else
where. Wherever people are wrong in
their criticisms, that ought TO be
shown, and wherever they are right
lIt COHdlllOhS ob6lt W NC ACHlNhlSNA'
| Answering his own question as to
what the bar might do to improve the
administration of justice in the United
States, he said
lll-Advised Legislation.
] First, we can improve our law
making. We make too many laws.
20 do In, ~,
rary of congress our national and state
legislatures passed 62114 statutes dur
ing the five years from 1909 to 1913, in
jclusive. During the same five years
state courts Of last resort were report
ed in $50 volumes.
MANY of these statutes are drawn
artifcially, carelessly ignorantly. Their
full that they breed litigation newt
ably They are thrust into the body of
existing laws without anybody taking
the pains to ascertain what the exist
ing laws are what decisions the courts
have made in applying and interpret
ing them, or what the resultant forces
will be when the old laws and the new
are brought together
"All this mass of ill-considered,
badly drawn, experimental, first i'm
lpression legislation with which the
country is flooded from year to year
causes innumerable litigatlons which
clog the calendars of the courts, oc-
cupy the time Of the judges and delay
the disposition of other litigation, 1t
creates new questions faster than the
courts can decide the old ones.
Lawyers and Public Opinion.
"Of course all this is not a matter
to be dealt with by lawyers at the bar.
Courts can not apply the remedy nor
can lawyers as officers of the courts.
But lawyers probably make up the ma
jority of every legislative body in the
United States, and moreover the opin-
ions of lawyers in their own communi-
ties on such a subject as this will
have a great effect in forming the
public opinion which controls legisla-
lures.
Another thing the bar can do" he
continued SIS to simplify the proceed
ure of our courts. The Ameri-
can man is intensely practical and d.
rect in his methods. American pro-
cedure ought to follow as closely as
possible the methods of thought and
lon sc 20 httc
ness men, A multitude of controver-
sizes about statutory rights intervenes
between the suitor's demand for re-
dress and his final judgment. There is
a premium on shrewd ingenius, shifty
attorneys. There is no premium for all
this bedevilment Of our practice by
law A short and simple practice act
in each jurisdiction-such as some
Estates have already--is all that is me-
cessary The courts want to do JUS
tice, and they will If they are permit
ted to-
"There is no country of the world
in which rules for the exclusion of ev-
idence are applied with the rigidty
and technicality obtaining in the Unit
ed States Our trial practice in the
admission and exclusion of evidence
does not agree with the common sense.
the experience, or the instincts Of any
intelligent layman in the country. As
consequence, while we are aiming 10
exclude matters which our rules do.
clare to be incompetent or Irrelevant
or immaterial, we are frequently also
excluding the truth.
Rules of Evidence.
I'VE apply these rules with the same
rlgidity to women, whose minds work
in an entirely different way from the
mind of any lawyer who ever had n.y.
thing to do with devising or develop
/ ing the rules of evidence 1t is IN ex-
ceedngly difficult thing to tell me
truth. the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth on the witness stand rs
any lawyer who has been 4 witness
must realize; and the simplest way 10
I get that done is to come rs near as
possible to allowing people to toll their
stories their own way.
| Il think there is a broader defect in
our trial Of cases in this. that we are
apt to play a game instead Of trying