Evening star., 1927-03-13
VOLUME HAS LIST
!! OF FEDERAL LAWS
All U. S. Statutes Compiled in
= Single Book New Ready
L for Sale.
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

The biggest and most important
law book ever printed is just being
distributed by members OF Congress
and has been put on sale. at cost OF
production, by the biggest mail order
book store in the world-the ONCE
OF superintendent of documents. con-
Ilected with the Government Printing
ONCE.
& All of the Federal laws, previously
scattered through many volumes
without any way of determining
which, If any, had been repealed or
modified by subsequent legislation
except by laborious search. have now
been codifed into a single volume or
more than 1000 pages, with an eX-
haustive index.
All Of the statutes in force Decem-
Der z. 1925. are shown, and there is
an appendix which includes the laws
enacted between that date and De-
cember G, 1876. This iS the drst
official codification Of the general ana
permanent laws of the United States
since 1878. Experts from two or the
most important law publishing houses
In the world have co-operated in the
effort to make this code as exact
and thorough as possible.
In the decade from 1897 to l9OI
there was an effort at codifcation
than 5000 900. but the work was never
completed. The work which has re-
suited in the new codification has
been comparatively inexpensive. 1t
is practically Indispensable to the
legal profession.
Little Was Pioneer.
The evolution which led to the code
which we now have, and which VIII
be of incalculable advantage to the
courts, officials of the Government,
the lawyers and the public at large
ii very interesting. The pioneer was
: the late Representative Edward {.
Little of Kansas, who was next in
rank to Gen. Funston in his famous
campaign, served in Egypt In the
diplomatic corps and later became
chairman of the House committee
on revision OF the laws in the Sixty
sixth Congress.
Representative Little devoted him.
self wholeheartedly to the task OF
compiling the live statutes. with a
view to having them printed in
single volume, and upon this task he
labored without cessation until his
death, on June 81, 1924. The tragedy
OF this enterprise was that Mr.. Little
simply wore himself out in the effort
to accomplish something which, ex-
cept for his ability and earnestness
might still be postponed for many
years. To him the credit is primarily
due. and to him fitting reference is
made in the preface of the code.
s The code. as compiled by Represent
ative Little and his co-workers, was
taken up for considera tion by the
House during the SiXty-sixth Con
gress in the form of a bill containing
all the statutes in force on March a.
1919. and this bill was passed without
dissent after being explained by Rep
resentative Little and Representative
R. Walton Moore of Virginia, who on
entering Congress on the previous
year, had been assigned to the COM
nittee on revision of the laws, and
actively co-operated with Chairman
little. These two members of Con-
gress called attention in detail to the
need for an official code, and fathered
the measure through the House. 1t
vent to the Senate, where no action
vas taken.
Senate Again Delayed.
The bill was again unanimously
PASSED by the House i'm the Sixty
seventh Congress, on May 16. 1921,
after further explanation by Repre-
sAntatives Little and Moore, and again
there was no action by the Senate.
< A third time, on January Z. 1924, IN
the Sixty-eighth Congress, the House
took favorable action on the bill, which
had been extended so as to bring the
laws down to December 2. 1923, but
there was still no action by the Sen
ate. In the course of the discussion
Mr.. Moore, who had ceased to be
member of the committee. but was
still closely associated with Represent
ative Little in the work, the major
uortion of which had been done by the
latter, referred to the high cost of the
linofficial publication and the impor-
tance of furnishing the public an OFF,
cial code at a low cost.