The Legal World declared, of individual initiative, makes him an automaton and sends him out on fyis release unable to become the guider of his destinies. Among the faults of the system he mentioned the like treatment of all convicts, regard less of difference in offenses, and differ ences in personal characteristics, also the needlessly cruel and severe rules, such as those which restrict a convict to the writing of but one letter a month and deprive him of the right to use his senses of sight and speech. In summing up the result of his experiment, Mr. Osborne said : "I hope to translate this experience into something of great value to the convicts, to myself, and to every citizen of the State of New York. I have gained a new knowledge of human nature, a new faith in human nature, a new altruism, because I have seen so much in Auburn prison that was gracious and brave and splendid in every way." The New York State Prison Com mission, of which Thomas Mott Osborne is chairman, recommended on October 24 to the State Superintendent of Prisons a number of reforms in the management of the Auburn penitentiary. The recom mendations are to allow convicts to read newspapers and, magazines and to send and receive letters oftener than once a month. They furthermore provide for abolition of the policy of enforced silence, for better food, for a system of punish ment graded according to offense instead of the same punishment for all offenses, for better sanitary rules and for more humane treatment generally. The Law's Delays in New York At a meeting of the New York County Lawyers Association at the Hotel Astor Oct. 9, Franklin Pierce, a member of the association, attributed the law's
537
delays in New York to the indolence of judges, and said that if they would conduct their courts as business men would conduct them, half of the law cases of the United States could be tried in New York City with the number of judges now sitting. He recommended that the judges sit from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, instead of a few hours a day. Supreme Court Justice Giegerich, commenting on this statement in an interview furnished the New York Sun, said that any one interested in finding out the truth could do so by sitting in court during the calling of the calendar. "It is amazing to listen to the variety of excuses the lawyers interpose to have the trial of the cases in which they ap pear delayed," said Justice Giegerich. "Often it is not advisable to force these dilatory attorneys to trial when it is ap parent that they are not prepared, if for no other reason than that the interests of their clients would suffer. The result is that judges are forced constantly to adjourn their courts in the middle of the day because no cases are ready for them. I had to adjourn my court earlier than I wanted to today for that very reason. "Even after the cases have been heard the attorneys often delay final action and judgment through failure to file briefs, findings or other necessary papers. A year ago I caused to be published a series of memoranda in cases tried before me in which I called the attention of the lawyers to the fact that in-some instances briefs had not been filed although the time had expired, and in other cases where I had rendered decisions they had failed to submit findings and proposed judgments." A somewhat different view was ex pressed by Justice Seabury, who was also interviewed by the Sun. "The judicial force of the state," he said, "is not economically distributed. In some
