The Legal World USELESS BUT ENTERTAINING Speaker (warming to his subject) — "What we want is men with convictions, and where shall we find them?" Voice —- "In jail, guv'nor!"
— Penny Paper.
"In a Jacksonville court," said a Florida Con
gressman, "a lawyer quoted Shakspere— ‘Who steals my purse steals trash‘ — to a deaf judge. "‘What's that?’ the judge demanded. "' "Who steals my purse steals trash," ' the lawyer repeated. ' “ ‘Twas something, nothing; 'twas mine, 'tis his and has been slave" ' — "lLouder! I can't hear you!I said the judge
A West Virginia darky, a blacksmith, recently
announced a change in his business as follows: “Notice —- De co-pardnership heretofore resisting between me and Mose Skinner is hereby resolved. Dem what owe de firm will settle wid me, and
dem what do firm owes will settle wid Mose." — National Corporation Reporter.
irritably. At this point the crier thought it time to inter fere. He bent over the judge and shouted in his ear: "‘He just says, sir, that anybody what steals his pocketbook won't get nothing.’"
The Legal World The Governors’ Conference The third annual conference of Gov ernors of the States of the Union, held
Sept. 12-15, at Spring Lake, N. J., was notable chiefly for the unprecedented action taken, in the appointment of a committee to protest against any inva sio ‘. of state rights by the Supreme Court
of the United States in its decisions bear ing upon the regulation of railway rates.
Judge Sanborn's decision in the Minne sota rate cases excited the warm disap proval of several of the speakers, and the object of this step was to prevent, if possible, the Supreme Court from decid ing this case, and others involving the
same question which will come up at the next term of the Court in a manner ad verse to the alleged rights of the states. Governor Woodrow Wilson, in his address of welcome, dwelt with satis'ac
tion on the fact that the Governor’s Conference was now an independent body, released from federal guidance. Governor Edwin L. Norris of Montana, addressing the delegates on the subject
of “Strengthening the Power of the Ex ecutive," urged that the power be be
stowed on Governors to remove ineflici nt state ofiicers charged with the enforce ment of the criminal and remedial laws. He also advocated granting the execu
tive the right to initiate and refer legis lation to the voters for their approval or rejection. Governor Augustus E. Willson of Kentucky del vered an ad dress on “Possibilities of the Governors‘ Conference," and Governor Emmett O’Neal of Alabama spoke on the same subject as Governor Norris. In the course of his remarks Governor O’Neal took occasion to denounce the initiative and referendum as “an insidi
ous popular vagary." Governor Wil son replied in defense of the measures, declaring: "I have known of instances of the caprice of the mob, but I have never known of any ins ance where the vote of the population was spoken of as acaprice. I have read of gentlemen speak ing recently in distrust of the people and using that old, erroneous phrase,
‘Mob rule.’ What is a mob? A mob is a body of people immediately associated with each other acting under the impulse
of passion, but that does not apply to a
