Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-06-29
PENNSYLVANIA BAR
CONDEMNS LICENSE
SYSTEM OF STATE
Committees Report Sharp
ly Criticises Practice of
Imposing Upon Quarter
Sessions Courts the Duty
of Regulating the Liquor
Traffic.

CAPE MAY, N. j., June 29.-Featuring
the opening session of the Pennsylvania
Bar Associations 21st annual meeting,
which convened at the Hotel Cape May
this afternoon, was q sunRing criticism
Of the practice OF imposing upon the
Quarter Sessions Courts Of Pennsylvania
the duty Of granting liquor licenses. The
donunciation OF the practice was con-
tained in the report of a special commit
| tee appointed last year to consider the
| subject composed Of Thomas Patterson,
! Of Allegheny. formerly president OF the
association; George Wharton Pepper. OF
| philadelphia; John e. Fox of Harrisburg,
and ex-Judge Harold NJ. Mcclure OF
Lewisburg, chairman.
The committees report declared:
THE defeat of the local option measure
in our Legislature makes this question
one Of supreme importance, for now, un-
less relief comes In another way, the
Judges Of these courts throughout the
Commonwealth must continue to exercise
the license granting power with all It's
attendant evils.
your committee denounces in the most
emphatic terms the imposition of this
duty upon the Quarter Sessions Judges.
II has been and will continue to be a
most destructive agency, and the people
of Pennsylvania could have done nothing
to more effectually undermine the lnteg-
rity of their courts.
Your committee most urgently recon-
mends that the duty Of granting licenses
be taken away from the judiciary and
suggests the appointment of a committee
to study the methods In use in other
States in connection with this subject.
such committee to report at the 1915 meet
Ing of the association.
Nearly 200 members of the association
are attending the convention. Judge
Henry ]. Steele. of Easton president of
the association, suggested In the course of
his annual address that the recommended
tion of a centennial revision of the civil
code of the State, to which $1,000 acts
have been added since 1880, might well
command the serious attention of the
Pennsylvania association at the present
time. Judge Steele, reviewing the course
Of law reform in Pennsylvania declared
that the State was a model to others in
this respect He paid a high tribute to
the memory of his predecessors in office
who died since the last meeting of the
association, William U. Hensell, of Ian
caster, and Samuel Dickson, of Philadel-
phia.
Other reports submitted by committees
during the afternoon were:
Special Committee ON Contingent
Fees which recommended the enactment
of law requiring agreements for such
fees to be rendered in writing and filed
with the court; executive. Frederick j.
Shoyer, Philadelphia; chairman; law re-
form. Judge Robert Ralston, of Philadel-
phia, chairman; legal education. Francis !
II. Bohlen, of Philadelphia chairman
legal biography, Louis Richards, of Read
Ing, chairman; admissions George Went
worth Carr, of Philadelphia, chairman;
grievances. Cyrus G.. Derr of Reading,
uniform State laws, Judge VIII
liam NJ. largest, of Harrisburg, chair
man.
cno,toI ,o,,,,,,t..oo 80, ,..,t.I- - la
cation of the statutes, Russell Duane, of
Philadelphia. chairman; reform in town.
ship law, Rodney A. Mercur. of Towanda. |
chairman; revision and amendment of |
penal laws. Edwin NJ. Abbott, of Philadel- |
phia, chairman; return days in Appellate |