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The Green Bag
The twenty-first annual banquet of the Kansas City Bar Association was held Febru ary 22. Toasts were responded to as follows, Mr. J. J. Vineyard, toastmaster: "The Out look for the Young Lawyer," Mr. Samuel Sawyer. "The Law and the Lady," Mr. W. S. Gilbert. "Damages," Hon. W. S. Cowherd. "The Democracy of Justice: The Jury," Hon. D. M. Delmas The eighth edition of the Directory of the legal fraternity of Phi Delta Phi has just been completed and is now ready for distribution by the secretary, George A. Katzenberger of Greenville, O. Besides the information re garding the 9,000 members, there are several hundred half-tone portraits, including those of the founders of the Fraternity, Convention and Chapter groups; fratres Roosevelt, Taft, Fuller, Harlan, Brown, Brewer, Holmes, Gar field, Hitchcock, Winthrop, and other mem bers. Two New England Chief Justices, Lucilius A. Emery of Maine and Simeon E. Baldwin of Connecticut, with Supreme Court Justice Francis J. Swayze of New Jersey, were guests of honor of the law alumni of New York Uni versity at a dinner Mar. 25 at the Hotel Astor, New York. The law alumni struck silver medals in honor of the New England jurists, replicas of which, depending from purple ribbons, decorated the shirt fronts of the older members of the alumni associa tion. Justice Victor J. Dowling of the Su preme Court of New York, retiring president of the association, presided. The salient features of the new charter re ported for New York City by the Charter Commission are: the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, consisting of eight members to control finances, with seven bureaus under it; the Board of Aldermen to be abolished and in its place a Council of thirty-nine without pay; executive responsibility centred more in the mayor, who is to have $25,000 salary, instead of $15,000, as at present; a uniformed chief of police under a commissioner; Board of Education to cease to be a separate cor poration and reduced to fifteen members; coroners to be abolished and inquests to be held by magistrates, autopsies by Health Department; and a uniform system of ac counts.
Chief Justice Simeon E. Baldwin of Con necticut retired from the Supreme Bench of that state February 5, having reached the age limit of seventy years. Justice Baldwin was president of the American Bar Associa tion in 1890. In a letter Governor Lilley gracefully expressed the state's appreciation of his long and distinguished career in her service. Governor Lilley has nominated Jus tice Frederick B. Hall of Bridgeport to be Chief Justice succeeding Judge Baldwin. Washington F. Willcox, twice a member of Congress from Connecticut died in Chester, Conn., Mar. 8. Born in Killingworth.Conn., in 1854, he was graduated from the Yale Law School, and opened his first law office at Deep River. After serving in the lower house of the Connecticut Legislature and in the State Senate Mr. Willcox was, in 1893, elected to Congress. At the conclusion of his second term Mr. Willcox declined a renomination, resuming the practice of law. At the time of his death he was a member of the Connecticut Public Service Commission. TheTsecond trial of the famous rebating case against the Standard Oil Company, involving the $29,240,000 fine, was termi nated in the United States District Court at Chicago Mar. 10 by Judge Albert B. Ander son's direction to the jury causing it to bring in a verdict of not guilty. Judge Anderson concluded his charge by saying that he felt that the government had failed to sustain the allegations in the indictment, and if the jury should find the defendant guilty he would set aside such verdict instantly, as he knew the United States Court of Appeals would. This ruling was based upon the ground that as the defendant was to be pre sumed innocent until proved guilty, the jury would have to be satisfied beyond all reason able doubt that there was a definitely fixed 18 cent rate, properly published and filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission. If the Court of Appeals, considering the evi dence in all its relations, could not tell that the railroad tariff sheet and the Illinois classification really fixed any 18 cent rate, and it was a matter about which reasonable men could disagree, the evidence of the two documents, said the Court, would not be sufficient to warrant the jury in finding such a rate to be established beyond a reasonable doubt.
