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with the co-operation it has had the right to expect in ferreting out the crimi nals. Some signs of an awakening of the labor-unions from their moral lethaargy would have been only normal developments, but the results of the month have disappointed expectations. The Richeson murder case has happily been disposed of in Massachusetts with out the unsavory experience of a public trial, by the prisoner's confession and plea of guilty. At the same time, this case furnished an illustration of the unsat isfactory state of our criminal law and procedure, for there can be little doubt that if it had gone to trial it would have been a long and expensive litigation, in which the defense of insanity would probably have been employed in the clumsy and unscientific manner char acteristic of our present-day proce dure, and a shocking mass of salacious testimony would have been spread broadcast throughout the land. Our criminal procedure still lacks the deli cacy and precision which should insure swift and certain justice in such cases. Personal
Edgar Allan Poe qualified as AttorneyGeneral of Maryland Dec. 19, just twenty years after his father, the late John P. Poe, took the oath for the same office. Judge John M. Kennedy of Common Pleas Court No. 3, at Pittsburgh, re tired from the bench Dec. 30, after a service of twenty years. A meeting was held by the Allegheny county bar at which an appropriate testimonial was presented to Judge Kennedy. Judge Edward C. O'Rear, for the past eleven years a Judge of the Ken tucky Court of Appeals, and during the
last campaign the Republican nominee for Governor of Kentucky, handed in his resignation Dec. 19, thenceforth to practise law as a private citizen in Frankfort, Ky. Chief Justice Arthur P. Rugg of the Massachusetts Supreme Court was given a hearty and enthusiastic .welcome by over two hundred members of the Mass achusetts Bar Association at a banquet given in his honor in Boston, Dec. 28. Chief Justice Rugg gave a eulogy offormer Chief Justice Knowlton and then proceeded to give a history of the judi ciary of Massachusetts. Judge Joseph W. Donovan of Detroit, Mich., retired from the bench Dec. 31, to devote himself to the private prac tice of law. Judge Donovan was elected to the Wayne circuit bench in 1893 and had served continuously ever since. In the past eighteen years he has heard 15,330 cases and contested matters. Judge Donovan is the author of several widely read legal books, including "Tact in Court," "Speeches and Speechmaking" and "Modern Jury Trials." Exercises in memory of the late Fran cis Cabot Lowell, for thirteen years a Judge of the Uuited States Circuit Court, were held on Jan. 3 under the auspices of the Bar Association of Bos ton, Moorfield Story presiding. Joseph B. Warner gave the story of Judge Lowell's life and work. Other speakers were Samuel J. Elder, John Lowell, James D. Colt, son of Judge Colt; Thomas Nelson Perkins, Dean Thayer of the Harvard Law School, and H. S. Jelalian. Afterward the five members of the Circuit Court — Judges Colt, Putnam, Hale, Aldrich and Brown — to gether with Judge Dodge of the District
