The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1914-10-22
ROOT SAYS LET
WITNESS TELL THE
97oRY HIS 0NNVAy
MULTIPLICITY OF LAWS ONE OF
OF THE WORST EVILS OF
THE DAY.
RULES OF EVIDENCE IN
US. SHOULD Be REFORMED
Laws Vague, Uncertain, Doubtful and
ereed Litigation, Says Great AmerL
can Lswysr-Another Thing the Bar
Can % 10 To Simplify Procedure
" courts-Tendeney to Become
More Complicated and Technical.

Washington, Oct. 22.-Elihu Root
told the members of the American Bar
Association here that rules of evidence
in the United States should be reform.
ed so that witness could tell his story
in his own way without confusing OBJ
Jectlons on the part of lawyers. He
lalso described the multiplicity of laws
vas one of the worst evils of the day
Nm part, he said:
NWhat can the Bar do to improve
the administration of justice in the
Unite4 States? First, we can improve
our law making. We make too many
laws. According to count made in
the Library of Congress, our national
and state legislatures passed 62,O14
statutes during the five years from
1909 to 1913 inclusive. During the
same year 65,379 decisions of the
national and state courts of last re
sort were reported in go volumes.
OF these statutes 2,013 were passed
by the national congress, and of these
decisions l.061 were rendered by the
Supreme Court of the United States.
Many of these statutes are drawn in
artifcial,y carelessly, ignorantly
Their terms are so vague, uncertain
doubtful that they breed litigation in
evitably.
Simplify Procedure.
another thing the Bar can do is
to simplify the procedure of oul
courts. There is a very great differ
ence in this respect in the states
Taking the country as a whole judi
'',Sal proceedings tend to become more
complicated and technical In some
parts Of the country, notably III my
own state Of New York, this tendenc!
has already reached point OF seri
Gus abuse. The tendency is one whlcl
has existed in every system OF juris
nrudence from the Egyptians down
The special class to which Is com
mitted the guardianship of the Law
always drifts away in time from TN
standards of the plain people whon
they serve always becomes subtle
technical, oyerrefned and the form
which they originally adopted to La
cilitate Justice come to be themseive
tbe subiect of controversy which OF
structs the way Of justice.
Reform Evidence Rules.
"There is one special field in whic
think we can greatly reform oul
se,ves That is, in the application G
our rules of evidence. Our trial pra'
t,ce in the admission and exclusio
M evidence does not agree WIN Tn
colomon sense, the experience, or tn
Instincts of any intelligent layman
the country And as a consequence
while we are aiming to exclude ma
tors which our rules declare to be II
comnetent or irrevelant or inmate
ia, we are frequently also excluoin
tho truth How common it is to sc
an unsophisticated witness on u
stand trying TO tell true stor! auo'
some event with which he Is iaiiiiiit
and continually stopped and De~ii
ered by objections which do not exi
IN his mind at all, and finally ieaVn
,ho stand with a feeling that ne III
,aer bottled up and not alo~eu
,ou the truth We apply these san
r,,,es with the same rigidity to wo'
ON whose minds work in an ehli'e e
,.,s..ont wav from the mind OF al
,amver who even had anything to
.,,,h devising or developing the ru,
~ evidence 1t is an excedinsiy u
-. thing 10 tell the TRUTH III
n 49, tr,tb and nothing but the tru
the witness stand as any iawy
Who ~ has been witness must realiz
Z and the simplest and best way 10 !
tbat done is to come as near as p'
chile 10 allowing people to tell TN
stories their own way.