under our general direction and ask him to change them again and again until we are satisfied? Is this not the right thing to do in order that the plans may be passed upon by the building inspector and that the building may rise fair, noble, fitted for our use and so constructed that it may stand for all time?
The courts have acted for a long time as building inspectors. They have been forced to destroy too many structures which were not properly built in the first place. There should be a body of experts to gather information about the laws, to obtain statistics, to draft and redraft through the guidance of the representative of the people, laws which deeply affect the people. There should be some such system whereby the products of democracy may be good and the courts may not be compelled to leave the sphere which the fathers intended they should occupy and go into the untried fields of judicial legislation.
This is the central main concept of the legislative reference department. The legislative reference department of the Wisconsin library commission was established in a small way in 1901. It became apparent at once that the demands of this library were of a peculiar nature which could not be readily met by the ordinary library material or methods.
A plan was devised which has been since carried out as far as the resources given by the legislature would
