The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-08-05
THE ALABAMA CONSTITUTION
Judicial Juda
 and Practice and
By nMMnrr o,NnAL. former sov,r nor J Alabama.

, the efficient applicant of such power demands"
 In every field of modern life we have made improvement and progress except in the administration of the law. The organization of our courts remains the same as they were in the days following the American reyolu- tion and we still continue to admin ister justice under rules of practice and procedure adopted and suited to the times of the Tudors and the feu- dal ages. AS our wealth and popula l tion increased, as our manufacturing, industrial and commercial interests were developed and expanded and our villages grew into towns and popu- lous cities and new and intricate legal problems arose, and the dockets of our courts became crowded and con gested with civil and criminal cases, instead of reorganizing our judicial system to meet the new conditions which modern civilization produced our legislature simply spawned out new courts" That the spawn was too prolific we shall later proceed to dem onstrate. These new courts were sep arate and independent administrative units There was no responsible head for our Judicial system, no superin- tendent clothed with power to super wise the operation of the different courts, to suggest and secure reforms or speed the judicial machine to the highest point of efficiency.
 CREATED IN 1919
 Upon the admission of the state to the union and the adoption of the first con stitution in 1819, the judicial system and type of courts which exists today were created. Each circuit was to contain not less than three nor more than six coun- ties and hence when a new court was created it was called by some other name, such as city or law and equity or court of common pleas, though still having the jurisdiction of a circuit court By the constitution of 1901, the provision that no circuit should be composed o1 less than three counties was stricken out Prior to the constitution of 1901, tEere were but few judges and their work was fairly well apportioned. Since that time the number of courts has rapidly in creased.
 At the commencement of this decade we had in Alabama 29 judges, but this number had been increased at the com mencement of the last legislature until it reached 49, not including tEe judges of the supreme and court of appeals and the probate judges. We now have more judges in proportion to population that almost any state in the union. England With pOpulaJlOn or aDOul 5U,UV,UVV HdS OILY about 135 judges, less than can be found in some states of the union At almost every session of the legislature since 1906 new. courts have been created, and the establishment of these additional courts frequently made Without investigation and upon the insistent demands of dele gations and lobbyists, inspired more by a desire to provide an office for some
 mpecunious lawyer than to promote the administration of justice.
 Had the work of the judges already in office been properly apportioned, the necessity for the establishment of addi- tional courts could have been obviated It never occurred to the legislature tc reorganize our entire judicial system, fairly apportfon the work of the courts and save the necessity for the creation of new courts, and the result was that there were some courts doing too much and some doing scarcely anything at all. In 1912, while governor, I had compiled the records of the different courts-a statement in the form of a table, show ing the number of days occupied by the judges of the different circuits in the tial of cases during the years 1910, 1911 and 1912. The table compiled for the last year 1912, makes the following startling dis closures.
 No of Have in 1Q1o-