Iditarod pioneer., 1914-10-31
SIMPLIFIED COURT TACTICS
 lSPLEA OF SENATOR THOMAS

w arlington Special to seattle POst-In-
 lclIigonccrD
 If Senator Thomas of Colorado could have his way it would be unlawful to pub Ish the text of the decision of any court He would abolish all such books as supreme court reports, the Federal Reporter and the like and comrd judges to decide cases right off the bat, as 1t were without consulting what any judge in a similar case in the past had decided Also he would make it a hanging otianse to print any more vo'7n"s of law reports
 Senator Thomas is not a wild-eyed lay man just out of the sagebrush, and knowing nothing about law He is one of the most distinguished lawyers in the country. In mining law he stands at the top of the profession No great mining case in mum Der of years has been tried in which Senator Thomas has not ap} cared.
 The other day in the senate when the trade commission bill was under discussion, Senator Thomas astoni>hed his fellow sen atcrs hy making the proposal He wanted to strike out of the bill the provision re curing the decisions of the commission to be published
 "Mr President" said he, q should like to see, II we are 10 lt4tI l) lIit SutJltCt d. all, paragraph prohibiting the publication of the reports cf this commission. The people of the United States are buried un- der an avalanche of reported cases, ground out with constant and monotonous reruIar- ity by fifty or sixty tribunals, to which are added those of the interstate commerce com mission and those of some nisI prus trl- bunals The result of this grist of decided cases upon American law Is to reduce it to a state of chaos and confusion,
 There is not d lawyer i'll the sound cf my voice who Is not able to advise his eli ents what the law is. But not single one of them is able to advise his clients what the courts will datcrIuine the law to be-
 n appellate cases attorneys were accus- toned at one time 10 prepare what Was called brief, which Was submitted to the court fer its guidance and instruction. The attorneys brief of today consists always of one and occasionally Of two volumes made necessary because of the mulntudirous ra- ported decisions upon every conceivable question which can vex the brain Of the average attorney.
 Now. every added decision serves to in crease the confusion. an. the ruo has cone @hcn authorities eau be gathered. an able ones, tro, in unqualified support of both -,.es of every conceivable human pronosI- ton. Tracticing law nowadays entails a de gree of labor and investigation upon the part of the practitioner and the court, that is appalling. Ii we are going to have 8 fresh batch of them coming from another source. iet US rather suppress them and see to it that they are not published in off ciaI form.
 One of the greatest men Of this genera tioH Mr President, is the former president of the Mexican republic, Porhrio Diaz, and to my m-nI one of the chief evidences of his wisdom and state,manshp was his in terGict upon the publication of all the de cisions of his courts. The judges were re quired to pass upon and determine the con troversv according to the written law and their understanding of it, without regard to precedents found in former opinions. While Mexico IS not In any particular model government, and never has been, yet I venture to say that in the admlnIstra ton of justice the courts were able to pro ceed quite as inteIIgently without as our courts are able to proceed with so many reported cascs.'
 Senator W aISh of Montana a noted min ing lawyer. expressed his amazement at this outbreak by asking Are we to under stand that the senator from Colorado Is seriously urging that the publication of the reports of the supreme court of his state should cease?'
 indeed" said Senator Thomas T am. I wish we could pass an amendment to our constitution making it capital otIcnSe