Reviews of Books
309
is made to formulate a concise definition
NOTES
of commission government. The forms of charters examined, however, though they have minor differences, are all of one same general type which fairly
The first annual report of the Massachusetts Bar Association has been issued, recording the proceedings of the meeting held in Boston
answers to the description of govem ment by commission.
The principal part of the work con sists of digests of short ballot charters, grouped by states. One hundred and twenty-five or more cities are thus treated. The statement is offered that the work is not and never can be com plete, but that it is desired to make the offioe of the organization a natural clearing house for information and to reflect changes in the movement from year to year in the Digest. To preclude the omission of any cities in view of the definition of commission government adopted, there is a depart
ment containing notes on "quasi-short ballot"
cities.
Another division,
en
titled Chapters on Commission Govern ment, includes articles by Charles W. Eliot, Richard S. Childs, Robert Tyson, John MacVicar, Elliot H. Goodwin and
Delos F. Wilcox, to which other papers related to the general movement will be added from time to time. Other features are Tabulations showing the main features of short ballot charters, Textsof Short Ballot Charters, Texts of
Proposed Charters, and a Bibliography. The three hundred pages of the original edition, with the additions shortly to be made, will ensure the indispensa bleness of the work to all‘ who are con cerned with the theoretical or practical problems of progressive municipal char
ters.
Professor Beard and the Short
Ballot Organization have performed a
public service by establishing a perma nent mechanism for the collection and dissemination of information about a national movement of constantly grow
ing importance.
December 17, 1910.
The report of the member
ship committee showed that at the end of its first year of existence the Association had a membership of 12 per cent of the 4,700 lawyers of the state, but it is expected that the member ship will be increased in consequence of the interest that will be awakened next August when the Association entertains the American Bar Association in Boston. Hon. Richard Olney, Secretary of State in Cleveland's administration,
was the first president of the Association, being succeeded by Alfred Hemenway, Esq. Mr. Olney in his annual address referred to the fact that the various committees had performed their duties "with a zeal which promises well for the future," and laid stress upon the work to be done by this Association “of the most vital char acter, in connection with the administration of justice." The question of the improvement of civil procedure in the state courts was the chief subject discussed at the meeting. The Com mittee on Legislation rendered a report on the _ recommendations of a legislative commission which had proposed a lengthy bill covering this subject. The report was not unanimous, and it precipitated lively discussion, but while it was not entirely adopted, and several matters were recommitted for further consideration, an im portant preliminary step has been taken in the direction of an enlightened solution of the most pressing problems of court administration and procedure by an organized bar. The volume, which is not a large one, is mainly taken up with documents relating to this important subject
which is now engrossing the attention of the Massachusetts bar.
piled "American by Arthur Ballot C. Ludington Laws, 1888-1910," (Legislationcom‘ 40' New York State Library), gives a historical summary of American ballot laws for twenty years in all the states and territories. Part I is a Chronological Survey outline of all laws enacted and every constitutional amendment proposed. Part ll, "Classification and Sum mary," presents in tabular arrangement the principal changes in the form of ballot in the several states. Part III gives a digest for each state of the principal features of the ballot laws as they stood on November 8, 1910, arranged under four headings.
