The Cordova daily times., 1921-03-23
COMPILATION OF |. s. LAWS
 WASBIC TASK
BY COL. WINFIELD JONES

WASHINGTON, Mar 23.-(Special Correspondence). - Col Edward C. Little, of Kansas, chairman of the house committee on revision of the laws, has recently completed one of the greatest compilation works ever undertaken. There are thirty-six books of U. S. statutes-at-large, of which the revised U. s. statutes of 1874 constitutes but the first volume The cost of preparing the revised statutes of 1874 was approximately $1O0,000, and a special commission | of able lawyers working from 1897 to 1906 spent $200,OO0 on pro- posed qualification of all the fed eral laws which the house committee on revision of the laws refused to present to the house. From these facts it will be seen that Col. Little's compilation of all the federal laws was no small undertaking.
 Col. Little went to work on his stupendous task by trying to find a competent reviser at a salary of $4,OOO annually, all the appropriation for expert legal assistance that had been allowed him for the work | by congress. It appeared that com petent revisers of law books were not obtainable for $4,0OO per year and 1 in fact were hard to secure at any price. In no wise daunted by this discovery Col. Little drafted" the services of ten eminent lawyers of the country, some of them professors in law schools, and by dividing out of the work and appealing to the patriotism of these men he finally got the work of compilation and re. vision started. Col. Little himself worked on the revision and even en. listed the aid of his wife who has al. ways assisted him greatly in his pub i lie work. The huge task proceeded quietly for several months and in September, 1919, Col Little intro. duced a bill to "Consolidate codify, | permanent laws of the United States ill force March 4, 1919."
 Then for a year and a half the ten volunteer revisers, under supervision of the Colonel and Mrs Little, worked steadily on the qualification. Members of the house committee gave what aid they could at odd in teryals. The aid of the legislative reference department of the con gressional library was enlisted and this bureau rendered valuable assist ance. The work began to pile up and the committee rooms at the house office building were turned into of ftces where practically the only com mittee business transacted for many months concerned the big task.
 During all the time that Col. Lit tie had this monumental work on his hands he had to also attend to the multitudinous duties of a member of congress from the Second Kansas dis tric which he represents in the house, and which are not light by any means.
 At last, in December, 1920. the great work was practically completed The new code had been finished and set in type. A large amount of cleri- cal work and further revision re. mained to be done. By a simple de- vice in arranging the work $15,0O0 was saved in the cost of printing:
 The marvellous thing about this compilation is the fact that in one great volume are now contained all the general and permanent laws of the United States. The book con- tains 1251 pages and covers 1O,747 sections grouped under 60 titles. No such other volume, covering such a tremendous scope, exists in the world today,
 There will soon be available, there l fore, to the bar and the public the first real code iu one publication of all our federal laws, revised and codified. The revised statutes of 1874 constitute revision rather than a qualification.
 Members of congress are loud in their praise of Col. Little's\ great work, and the opinion in house and senate is unanimous that the public owes Col, Little debt of gratitude for his tremendous labors in prepar- ing the great book, which was done also at comparatively small expense.
 Many members of congress would have refused to undertake such a task, but not so Col Little. People who know the genial Kansan, how ever, are not surprised at his deter imitation to undertake and finish the work. Col. Little merely showed