The Legal World 13-15, at Sacramento, President Lynn Helm of Los Angeles, speaking on the subject of "Our Progressive Judiciary," devoted most of his time to the recall measure recently adopted by the people of the state. So menacing will the new privilege become, he declared, that the people will repent of their acceptance of it and find relief in going "back to the Constitution." The Committee on Criminal Law and Procedure recommended that the con stitutional amendment providing for a three-fourths jury verdict in criminal cases, which was killed by the last session of the Legislature, and the other amendment providing for prosecuting attorneys being granted the right to comment on the refusal of an accused to testify, also killed in the last Legis lature, be resubmitted to the legis lators for adoption. The committee was instructed to report to the executive committee for further action at the next annual convention, which will be in time for the next regular session of the Legislature. The delay in proceeding with the McNamara trial in Los Angeles was criticized in an address on "The Rela tion of Bench and Bar to Each Other," delivered by Justice Albert G. Burnett of the Appellate Court. "There is something radically wrong with our administration of the law," he said, "when it takes several months to im panel a jury, and especially with the prospect that after this mental and physical contest is concluded the guilt or innocence of the defendants will receive considerably less attention than many other wholly extraneous matters." An address by John Currey, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court from 1864 to 1868, and now aged ninetyseven years, which was read for him by James A. Gibson of Los Angeles, made
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a brief argument against the constitu tionality of the judicial recall amendment. A resolution urging amendment of the primary law so as to take the judicial candidates out of reach of partisan indorsement was carried after consider able discussion. A striking feature of the meeting was a defense of the recall of judges by Gov ernor Johnson, in reply to President Lynn Helm and other speakers. He showed plainly that he did not like the stand taken by members of the associa tion. Governor Johnson also outlined his policies with regard to simplification of the statutes for the government of municipalities, changes in the Australian ballot laws, amendments of the direct primary, the referendum and initiative, the eight-hour law for women, and changes in criminal procedure. Kansas. — At the annual meeting of the Kansas State Bar Association to be held Jan. 30, 1912, President Harry B. Hutchins of the University of Michigan is to deliver the annual address. Oregon. — Declaring that it was not to the credit of the legal profession to be so far behind the times in reform of its methods of judicial procedure in an age when there is a general awakening in many fields to the need of reform, Judge Charles H. Carey, in a speech before the Oregon State Bar Association, attacked the delays and shortcomings in the administration of criminal and civil law. "I would have the court aim at ultimate justice, irrespective of anything in the pleadings, or anything omitted from the pleadings," he said. "I would have the court take the evidence offered by the parties, but not be confined to this source of information." The annual meeting of the associa tion was held at Portland Nov. 21 22.
