milled by it. Any such payment would go far in curbing the officers and members of the union from future transgression of the law, and it would, above all, establish the position of the union as a responsible agent in the community, ready to abide by the law. This would be of immense advantage to the union in all its operations. Again, it has been urged that the incor poration of the union would lead to a multi plication of law suits, which would involve the union in great expense; but the expense of conducting such litigation would be insig nificant as compared with the benefits which would result to the union from holding a recognized and responsible position in the community. Again, it has been urged that the unions would not fear litigation if justice were promptly administered; but that it was the dragging out of litigation which was to be apprehended. I take it that so far as the' unions have suffered from the administration
of the law, it has not been from delays but from precipitancy. They have suffered at times in the granting of preliminary injunc tions, injunctions which have been more readily granted because of the irresponsible position of the defendants. Again, it has been urged that the unions might be willing to submit themselves readily to suit if the rules of law, as now adminis tered by the courts, were not unjust to labor. I am inclined to think that there have been rendered in this country many decisions which do unduly restrict the activity of the unions. But the way to correct the evil of an unjust decision is not to evade the law but to amend it. The unions should take the position squarely that they are amenable to law, prepared to take the consequences if they transgress, and thus show that they are in full sympathy with the spirit of our people, whose political system rests upon the propo sition that this is a government of law, and not of men.
SOME ABSURDITIES OF THE LAW. BY WILLIS B. DOWD. THERE are so many absurdities in the law that the question of selection is one of difficulty only in signalizing those which are most conspicuous. Law:ycrs are supposed to be men of prac; tical sense. The law is said to be a science. Since the days of Lqrd Coke we have been in the habit of thinking that reason and the law go hand in hand. That all these things are myths is perfectly apparent in the following instances of the absurdities to be found in the law and lawyers of to-day. Take for the first illustration a question in practice. Nobody will deny that direct means should be employed in the accomplishment of a desired purpose. A surgeon intent upon
] cutting off a leg does not go about the work I by first amputating an arm. If a lawyer in the city of Xew York, however, wants to appeal from a judgment rendered against his client, he has to pursue a course that is abso lutely fatuous and ridiculous. He makes a motion for a new trial on the ground that the verdict is against the law and the evidence, and the motion is denied. He must enter an order denying this motion, and he must ap peal from it as well as from the judgment, in | order to have the judgment reviewed on the question of the weight of evidence. Hun dreds of thousands of pieces of paper have been used in the preparation of such orders. ! Vast sums of money have been expended in
