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The Green Bag
to a discrimination against the East in favor of the West. Commissioner Prouty stated that the Commission, in all probability, would not issue an order in less than five months, because of the similar cases of Salt Lake, Reno and Phoenix, which have a direct bearing on this case. Important Legislation The executive committee of the Illinois Bar Association has approached Governor Deneen with the request that in his call for the proposed extra session of the legislature he include a recommendation for the creation of a commission to outline amendments to the existing laws, which will result in a simpli fication of legal procedure and lessen delays and expenses of litigation.
have been received from state legislatures, although this number may be increased by further research. Of the twenty-four, several states apparently have adopted resolutions which upon their face fail to meet the con stitutional requirement that application shall be made (to Congress) for the call of a con stitutional convention. Consequently, several legislatures must do their work over again before the fist of thirty-one states, or the constitutional two-thirds, can be regarded as complete. Personal— The Bench Colonel Joseph T. Lawless of Norfolk City, Va., will become Judge of the Circuit Court of Norfolk County to succeed Judge William N. Portlock, resigned.
The King has appointed a royal commis sion to inquire into the condition of the divorce laws, especially as they affect the poorer classes. In July Lord Gorell, formerly President of the Divorce Court, moved in the House of Lords that county courts should have the power to grant divorces. The Archbishop of Canterbury and others opposed the motion, and the House decided to insti tute an inquiry into the whole question.
On account of ill health, Judge J. H. Gilpatrick of the District Court, Leavenworth, Kans., has tendered his resignation, which took effect October 9. He has been on the bench ten years.
President Taft was the guest at dinner on board the St. Paul, on October 27, of the Governors of more than one half of the states of the Union. In his speech he referred to the advantages of the states co-operating still more closely with the national govern ment. "The lack of uniformity," he said, "in some of our laws is distressing, and yet we cannot amend the legislation of the United States in order to correct the evil that grows out of it. We must by team play, by team action, through the legislatures of the states, accomplish that reform and while we, by inviting governors, do not invite the legislative power of the state, we do invite those men who have much to do with directing what the legislation shall be and whose constitutional function generally is to recommend legislation to the legislature with very considerable influence in that regard."
Captain E. H. Campbell, Judge-AdvocateGeneral of the Navy department, was de tached from duty October 28, and it is believed that Commodore R. L. Russell will be designated as his successor. Secretary Meyer explained the change by stating that he was anxious to have the position filled by a graduate in law.
In the opinion of the office of the secretary of the United States Senate, it is not true, as was recently stated by Governor Haskell of Oklahoma, that thirty-one states, the two thirds required by law, have memorialized Congress to call a constitutional convention to provide for the popular election of United States Senators. Such resolutions must be in proper form and specifically request that a constitutional convention be called. They must also, in the opinion of eminent lawyers in Washington, provide in terms that both branches of Congress shall be notified of the fact of their passage. As far as investigation has gone, the records of the Senate disclose that only twenty-four such communications
Krishnaswami Aiyar, the noted Moderate Congress leader, who used his influence and authority on the side of law and order during the recent unrest, has been appointed a puisne judge of the high court of Madras.
The Allegheny County Bar Associa tion tendered a farewell banquet October 28 to the retiring Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Hon. James Tindale Mitchell, who, next January 1, will have served Pennsylvania on the Supreme bench for twenty-one years. The members of the Supreme and Superior Courts were specially invited guests. Judge Joseph E. Jones has been re-elected judge of the fourteenth judicial circuit of Tennessee by an overwhelming majority. Immediately after Captain Rankin's death, he called a special term of circuit court, impaneled the grand jury, which brought in indictments against many alleged nightriders, and finally carried the trials through in spite of repeated threats against his life. Judge Peter S. Grosscup told a women's club at Chicago, October 29, that women were not fitted to become lawyers, because they were devoid of the reasoning faculty. "The only woman lawyer I know who is a success in her profession," he said, "began her career by being put in jail for contemp
