New Britain herald., 1915-01-25

partmcnt; and third. legal proceed
 ure. No one of these three factors is
 under tho control of the bar and in so
 far as lawyers hold office. they are
 responsible as officials to their consti-
 tucnts. and not to their profess on.
 The responsibility of tho bar is
 not for the action which the people
 take but simply for giving the peo-
 pie their best professional advice in
 regard to the administration Of jus
 tice, whether the people take that
 advice or not. This duty rests upon
 the bar because it is a learned pro- fesson. and the members of any learned profession owe some profcs- Sional duty to the community. With reference to the three fac tors affecting the efficiency in the administration of justice. orGaniza- tion, personnel and procedure. that of procedure has hitherto aroused the
 greatest interest, and it Is here that the greatest reforms have been ac- complished. Procedure in Connecti-
 cut is on a fairly satisfactory basis,
 except the appellate proccndure in the supreme court.
 Connecticut Fortunate. ' With regard to the personnel of 1 the judiciary department. Connecticut i has been exceptionally fortunate. 1 Outside of New England, affairs are 1 in a less satisfactory condition. We
 need moro understanding of and moro sympathy with conditions elsewhere and we must realize that there is a erful popular movement threat ening the practical destruction of our federal judicial system by demanding that federal judges shall bo elected by the people of the districts in which
 they serve, thereby creating divided
 allegiance on the part of the judge
 between the government and his con-
 stituents.
 With reference to tho matter of
 organization the American Judicature
 society has prepared the first draft of
 a statewide tudicature act involving
 the entire reorganization of tho ju-
 dicial departments of the states. The
 first charge proposed is the creation
 of a single court. for the entire state.
 Tn place of special courts. each with
 its own judges, there is to be one
 court with special judges for special
 work holding different ranks and TO- ceiying different salaries A lit;gant is not to be turned out of the temple
 of justice because he has come in at the wrong door or after office hours any moro than a customer is 10 ba turned out of n department store be- cause he goes 10 the wrong counter for a pair of gloves, or a letter to be thrown out of the post office because a mistake nas been made in the ad dress. Many of the technicalitics of f. the scrap heap, and in another cen tury, for reforms move slowly. nnc- l tcnths of the rules about venue juris i diction and process will join the same Y. scrap heap.
 "The proposed single court has . three permanent divisions: the court 2 of appeal, the superior court, and the i, county courts, the county court being : assisted by district magistrates.
 Administration of Court.
 "Thc second feature of the pro- posed plan relates to the administra- tion of the court when organized. Ad- ministrative authority, cooperation and coherence of effort is obtained by nal king the chief justice Of the state the administrative head of the judicial | organization assisted by the presid- ing justices of the different divisions of the court Annual conventions of the different divisions of the court are provided for like the annual meet ing of our superior court judges, and our probate assembly. Under our present system our judicial depart ment has no administrative head, who is responsible for it's efficiency Ad- control by the chief jus tice should result in more economical and effective dispatch of litigation by selection of judges best qualified for the particular work to be done
 Reforms which involve the m ere destruction of an obsolete institution, like slavery, may be brought about by mere popular uprising, but the reforms necessary to inn prove the administration of justice, require the brains of able lawyers. From this association of the bar made famous in the past by the names of | Roger Sherman, Ellsworth and Swift. 1 md in the persent by the names Of