The Green Bag
332
Detroit Lawyers’ Club. "It isn't the long briefs that are always the winners
before the Supreme bench," he sug gested. “My experience has shown that a concrete, short statement is the most
helpful one for the court. Sometimes the lawyer thinks he should cite a host of authorities to sustain his case. It isn’t necessary to cite a dozen cases to
prove one point. The better way to do, is to cite the one that establishes a prec edent and then simply to refer to the fact that there are other authorities." Governor Woodrow Wilson, speaking
before the Knife and Fork Club of Kan sas City May 5, expressed himself as
thoroughly competent permanent experts. In many branches of the public service, central and municipal, we have no expert officials performing duties that involve the exercise of discretion; and even in the branches of our admin istration, like the law, mediml or engineering departments, where experts are regularly em— ployed, we rarely allow men to remain in oflice long enough to acquire the familiarity with their peculiar problems that confers efficiency and authority. “Our people complain loudly, pass and amend Sherman acts that prove ineffectual and adopt with ardor ingenious primary laws and muni cipal charters. only to find the old evils recur in new forms, for they still believe that liberty can be bought by formulas and popular enthusi asm, when its only price is constant vigilance. We must learn not only to use permanent ofi cials, but also to control them."
follows regarding the recall of judges; "The recall is a means of administra
New Legislation
tive control. If properly regulated and devised it is a means of restoring to administrative officials what the initia
ture to the so-called sterilization bill
tive and referendum restore to legislators
— namely, a sense of direct responsibility to the people who choose them. l‘The recall of judges is another matter.
Judges are not lawmakers.
Governor Wilson has affixed his signa passed by the New Jersey legislature, and with its adoption New Jersey joins with Indiana, Connecticut and Califor nia in legislation providing for the sterili
zation of criminals and the hopelessly defective. (See p. 316 supra.)
They are not administrators. Their duty is not to determine what the law shall be, but to determine what the law
is. Their independence, their sense of dignity and of freedom, is of the first consequence to the stability of the state."
An act has been passed in Massachu setts allowing amendments of pleadings "changing an action at law into a suit
in equity, or a suit in equity into an action at law, if it is necessary to enable
the plaintiff to sustain the action or President A. Lawrence Lowell of Har vard University, speaking at the Founders’ Day exercises at Carnegie Institute in Pittsburg April 27, con sidered problems of public administra
suit for the cause for which it was
tion, saying in part:——
after being denounced by leaders of the state bar. The bill provides that in cases of contempt of court arising from
"The habit of frequent changes in public ofhce means administration by persons unskilled in their duties, government by amateurs. We need in the public service both the expert and the lay elements, and the latter may very well take the form of non-professional heads to departments, provided they have under them
intended to be brought." The so-called anti-injunction bill be came law in Massachusetts, April 26,
the issuance of injunctions where the
alleged act of contempt is also a crime the facts of the alleged violation of the injunction shall be determined by a jury.
