Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-05-06
All Federal Statutes Being
Put In Book By Congress

and not c~ontradicted by any other
J book so that an attorney advising q
F: client can be sure what the law is.
Judge Webb OF the North Carolina
federal court. who was for years
chairman of the house judiciary COM
mittee says: Titles bill is so plain
and so simple that it Is remarkable
some n didn't think OF this way of
doing 1t before. 1t Is a wonderful
work.
Judge Charles NJ. Hough OF the U.
8. Circuit Court Of Appeals, New York
city who Is said to have more federal
court experience than I'M other nan
in this country appeared before Rep
fesentative Little's committee. He
said: After having been daily accus-
toned to the use of books of at least
three states many years acquaintance.
with the official publications OF a
statuary nature of most of the New
England and all of the middle states
! consider the form of printing, chap
tering. etc, in the Little bill to be
the best I know Of"
] Representative r. Walton Moore, of
Virginia, q democratic member of the
committee who is assisting Repre-
eminent lawyer, said: Every lawyer
recognizes the absolute necessity for a
new code of the federal laws. The old
revised statutes can't be had and most
of b law has been made since their
publication anyhow. 1t Will be made
possible for every lawyer to get a copy
and he can then locate the laws with
out the difficulties now presented"
This is only tho secon time in the
history of the Nation that such q bill
has been introduced in congress.
Prior to the 4Srd congress elected in
1872 the laws of the United States by
authority OF congress We're printed by
the firm of Little and Brown. Boston,
Mass, in seventeen Statutes at Large.
In 1866 the committee on revision
of which Colonel Little Is now chair
man. was established. After seven
years work and an expenditure Of
100000 q commission OF revisors
made a report to the committee of
which Representative Benjamin F.
Butler, Of Mass, was then chairman.
Gen. Butler discovered hat the COM
mission had taken considerable adj
vantage of the authority to amend
and had made many changes in the
nature of improvements"
The aid of the committee was then
as 1t is now simply to reproduce the
law as Congress enacted 1t. eodified
and consolidated. So the committee
employed Thomas Durant. a Wash
ington lawyer, who spent nine months
IN restoring the original language.
In the 43rd congress. when Ex-
Senator Luke Poland of Vermont was
chairman Of the House committee
and Roscoe Conkling was chairman of
the senate committee, the bill was
unanimously passed by both houses.
1t became a law juno 20, 1874. That
book, called the revised statutes, cost
$780, 600 to prepare, and Is evidence
In any court. The second edition
published in 1873, however. is only
prima facie evidence.
The work of preparing such a book
IS so enormous that during the last
forty-six years no chairman has cared
to tackle the Job until Representative
Little of Kansas undertook It. Some
twenty-three years 81 a commission
was appointed which expended about
$200. 900 and prepared a revision
which the committee declined to APP
prove because an attempt had been
made to revise the laws instead of re-
producing them.
Chairman Little has completed one
third of the work at O. cost of only
and expects to finish 1t with
about $4,000 more. besides effecting
a saving of $S5, 900 In printing pre-
.liminarv drafts OF the . law.