296
The Green Bag
For these reasons we would like to see the Conference shrink from no under taking, however formidable, 'which is closely allied to the movement for uni
formity of legislation, and there is really no reason why it should not distribute
its labors over a broader field, and exer cise a greater influence in shaping state legislation, than it has thus far. A history of the useful work of the Conference is given in Col. MacChes ney's interesting paper, the material of which we will endeavor to condense for our readers. The methods of the Con ference have rendered it, as he says, an
ideal legislative body: — "The Annual Conference of Commis sioners has from almost the beginning pursued a uniform plan of work. A resolution has been introduced in the conference providing for the appoint
unanimous vote of all the states repre sented. This requires painstaking work of the most exhaustive kind, and it has
never been my pleasure to be associated with a body of men who have given such careful and conscientious attention to the subjects before them as the Annual
Conference of Commissioners on Uni form State Laws. .It is an ideal legis lative body, the equal of which it would be hard to find in this country, and its
work more nearly approaches the work of the Public Commissions abroad than anything that we have so far developed in this country." The Negotiable Instruments Act, drafted by John J. Crawford, Esq., of the New York bar in 1895, is now the law in thirty-eight states.
The Warehouse Receipts Act, drafted by Professor Samuel Williston and Barry
ment of a committee to report upon the
Mohum,
advisability of taking up some specific
eighteen states.
topic. Such committee has then made a report to the conference, sometimes with a preliminary draft of a bill at
act in the various states is already bring ing about such a condition that the warehouse receipts are received prac
tached. An expert draughtsman is then
tically as negotiable paper with very
usually retained, one who has a wide
beneficial results, enabling the manu
knowledge of the existing law on the
knowledge of the history of the prin
facturers and producers in slack times to continue to operate their plants, thus maintaining at the proper degree of effi ciency machinery and equipment which
ciples and doctrines involved.
otherwise would have to stand idle, with
subject, and the decisions thereon in this country and abroad, together with a After a
draft has been prepared by someone so equipped, in conjunction with a com mittee, it is usually sent out to the com missioners as the first tentative draft, and discussed at the next annual meet ing, section by section. It has then been universally re-committed, and there have usually been three or four tentative drafts before final adoption. The final vote on an act is always taken by states,
and though the meeting at Chattanooga in August was the twentieth Annual Conference, no act has been finally approved which has not received the
Esq.,
has been
enacted
in
“The passage of this
great resultant benefit to the commun ity in which the factories are located and
to the labor which is employ
."
The Uniform Sales Act, drafted by Professor Williston, has been passed in
eight states. The Uniform Partnership Act, drafted by the late James Barr Ames, was re committed in 1909, at his request, for further consideration. Since his death
Dean William Draper Lewis and James B. Lichtenberger have been at work on the draft. They "have now proposed two tentative drafts, one based on the
