PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS fully considered by the body as a whole. Such consideration as the average bill has is in committee, and too often the majority of that committee is influenced by party organization, or by the Governor, or by some other leader who sees in it a party or factional advantage. And its final enact ment is secured by the same influence that moved the majority to report it. In other words, supposed advantage, either for the party or individual members of it, is often made the occasion for statutes which other wise would never appear on the statute books. Thus it happens that every year many statutes are passed which ought never to have been heard of. Even,- unnecessary and unwise statute is a blot upon the state escutcheon and a burden upon the public. This fact is so well appreciated in some states that the legislature is not permitted to meet every year. An illustration of the opinion of a lawyer, upon whom as Governor rested the responsibility of the exercise of the veto power as to many bills passed only this year by the legislature of the state of New York, is found in the fact that he vetoed thirty-seven, caused one hundred ninetyseven to be withdrawn, and permitted two hundred fifty to die for lack of his signature, making a total of four hundred eightyfour bills which, after passage through com mittees and both houses, failed nevertheless to become laws because of the Governor's action. While it is true that some whole some and necessary statutes come out of such conditions like those I have outlined, in more instances unnecessary or positively bad ones spring from them. One of the ideals of this Association is to elevate the standard of statute making, and to stimulate harmony in legislation on the part of the several states, for it is so provided by the First and Eighth Articles of the Constitution. The First Article declares the object of our Association to be "to advance the science of jurisprudence, promote the admin
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istration of justice and uniformity of legis lation throughout the union, uphold the honor of the profession of the law, and encourage cordial intercourse among the members of tha American Bar." Of this statement of the purposes of the Association, Mr. James C. Carter in his President's Address happily said: "It recognizes the fact that though we are citizens of different states in some degree sovereign, we are yet one people, one immense human society with common interests, common hopes and a common destiny; that among the several concerns of that, as of every society, are its jurisprudence and legislation; that that great interest is, in large degree, under the care and control of the members of the legal profession; that it is their duty to reduce it to a science, to develop its useful ness, to simplify it into unifonnity, to correct any evil tendencies which may beset it, and to these ends to uphold the honor of the profession and inspire its members with a just conception of their high office." The Eighth Article devolves upon the President the duty to communicate in the address, with which he is charged to open each annual meeting, "the most note worthy changes in statute law and points of general interest made in the several states and by Congress during the preced ing year." The length of the sessions of several state legislatures, and the delay in printing the laws, has rendered it simply impossible to perform the task as thoroughly as it otherwise would have been done. In some instances it became necessary at a late hour to ask for copies of acts deemed the most notable in order to make as full a presentation as the conditions would admit. The result shows a degree of legislative activity hitherto unsurpassed. Nor is it surprising that it is so. For a goodly number of years our people enjoyed great prosperity. Nearly every individual and certainly every calling has participated in it in some degree. Oppor
