108
The Green Bag
[Dr. Lyman Atbott—-Continued.] advantage both from the scientific and the practical point of view. I agree very heartily with the opinions expressed on this subject by the Hon. Alton B. Parker. [See page 92, supra] I agree, too, that such a work could not probably be successfully published upon a purely commercial basis. Welter George Smith, Esq., of the Phila delphia Bar, State Commissioner of Penn sylvania on Uniform State Laws and Presi dent of the National Conference of Commis sioners on Uniform State Laws:— Herewith I return the Memorandum in re Corpus juris which you were kind enough to send me. I read it through with great care and with increasing appreciation of the scheme you and your associates are seeking to bring to perfection. Certainly it would be to the great advantage of our American civilization if it were possible to present in a reasonable compass a statement of the law on each of the vital subjects affecting the relations of men to men. Even if this were only approx imately successful, the results would well compensate for the toil necessary to accomplish them. I like very much the plan you outline for the practical‘carrying out of the work, as it will unite the best trained intellects in the profession in producing an accurate, lucid and condensed statement of the vital principles of our jurisprudence. I wish it were possible for you to enlist the patronage of some modern lover of his kind, who would be willing to take the risk involved in financing your plan. From my limited knowledge of the subject I think with you that the risk would be only nominal.
If,
however, this cannot be accomplished I think that even under a commercial direction the work would be most desirable. Of course I realize that there is a great difference between the academic outlining of the plan of action and its being carried into successful practice. The limitations of our common nature must be heeded; but dis counting all of these considerations I congratu late you upon your thoughtful and admirable scheme. If it does not come to fruition under the direction of yourself and your associates
Hon. Frederick R. Judson, President of the Missouri State Bar Association: The thoughtful men of our profession are realizing more and more that the doctrine of judicial precedent must be profoundly affected in the not distant future by the enor mous increase of case law, as set forth in the published reports of the forty-six states and the federal reports. Is this multiplication of cases with these intolerable long judicial opinions to have any limit? The great problem of the future is to determine how to use the adjudged cases in this enormous increasing volume, so that the
law may still be enriched by new appli cations, while its fundamental principles are expressed with certainty, convenience and accessibility. Under our federal government it is obvious that the remedy of codification, that is, of statutory codification, is impracticable. The increasing distrust of our legislative bodies indicated by the popular demand for so-called direct legislation is another complication, and manyare led to prefer judge-made law,however imperfect and uncertain, to statute law. The plan suggested in your Memorandum impresses me as eminently practical and indeed the only remedy for the chaotic condition into which we are drifting. The very magnitude of the enterprise and the large expense in volved in its successful prosecution make it clear that it cannot depend on the ordinary incidents and hazards of a strictly commercial enterprise. David '1'. Watson, £511., of the Pittsburgh Bar:— I am much impressed‘ with your scheme, and I do not doubt that, with the labor and ability that you will give to it, very favorable results will follow. Hon. William U. Hensel, Attorney-General of Pennsylvania under Governor Pattison and President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association 1897-98: My attention has been arrested by your project of a great and much needed work, the American Corpus juris. To foreigners the jurisprudence of the United States, with
it is none the less sure to come in some form,
its confusion of courts and labyrinth of law,
for our vast business interests, and the con stantly increasing complexities and delays under our present system of jurisprudence, will not be borne by a progressive community.
must seem a most complex system. The most profound lawyer of our own country in the pres ence of the most guileless student, is over whelmed in its entire contemplation.
