The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-11-12

This week all our judges have been
at work and | think they are we'll
disposed to try to make up for lost
time We have now in the vault of
thcfclerk some. eighty appeals which
have not been argued and forty ap.
re1l,'argued and submitted and ready
for conferenees.s III we clean up all
the forty cases this month we may
dispose of most Of the nrest during
December, but it seems there is little
chance of cleaning the slate during
the present year. Since July our
Court progress has been very slow.
We have, not shown 100 per cent eff.
1iciency,. and yet no Judge will adj
nit that he is not 100 per cent ef-
flcient. Cur time record is not good.
We spend too much time in hearing
mere talk and in conferences on small
matters-in deciding cases and recon.
sidering them to please offended coun-
sci and in doing the same work over
and over. Indeed, we deliberately
pursue method which doubles our
work. 1t is a case of too many cooks
spoiling the broth. Were l the sole
Judge of the supreme court I would
dispose of every case within ten days
after the argument. Were the Chief
Justice | would be at my post of duty
in the Capitol during the business
hours of every day from 9 a. m, till
5 p. m, and If any Judge failed to DO
the same and to keep up with his
work would know the reason why.
To write an oninion l should assign
to each Judge only one case at time
and as he finished one task | should
assign to him another. Under our
system one Judge may have a dozen
cases to write up while another has
nothing to do A Judge may play dog
in the manager" and hold up the de-
cision OF several cases for months,
neither writing decisions himself nor
permitting others to do 1t.
One cause of delay is the hearing OF
long arguments on kinderSar.e2 mat
tiers. Our chief justice in his KIND
ness is never disposed to shut of
needless talk. He does not want to
offend the lawyers. He says: Let
them talk l'ney have constitutional
right to talk"
Another cause of delay is the W.T.
Ing of cumbersome what, decisions
after the manner VI * judge CoSs
That is & waste Of time '.no it lm"os-
es a grevious burden GA those who
,ay for transcribing an | twice book
ing the decisions. Sure y there snouH
be some rule of law IN limit :he
length of any decision u 20 chars"
part of the cost ags'rst me Judge
who writes it. If Judge wants to
spread himself end tn write Il book
or a cumbersome whale decision, he
should do it at his own expense and
not at the expense of suitOrs and tax
payers Then he wOnl1 learn to count
the cost The writing and booking ot
immense, numbering d .Cisiuns has BE-
come a curse to the law aid ours"
to this generation. 1t is { great pub
lie nuisance and it IS lDadiIE the
people with burdens which are sriav-
Gus to be borne. We must aba.e the
nuisance not only in this state bat in
every other state between the two
great oceans. However, it is hard to
break away from the evil custom We
write and write against 1t and :;ie
American Bar associations protest
it with no avail. Even now our Mr.
Justice Grace has written a church
decision covering eighteen pages.
Here you may see it written on ono
page and any child who reads it mus:
wonder why there ever was lawsuit
on so simple a matter.
My last letter contains some hin,s
on grammar and composition. The
subject is a pleasing one and in time
we may write book on Grammar
Made Easy" A thought is we'll ey-
pressed when it cannot be expressed
in better manner. A sentence is
we'll composed only when you can
not better it by replacing or changing
any word or phrase. When a Judge
writes decision it should run from
the beginning to the end like a clear
lucid stream with a pebbly bottom so