Thus it will be seen that this government derives no fund whatever from these imports during the time they are collected and the whole amount is used for the benefit of the local government. In addition to this the sum of $2,095,455.88, being the amount of customs revenue collected by the United States on importations from Porto Rico since its evacuation by the Spanish forces, October 18th, 1898, to January 1st, 1900, and all sums collected since that date, were placed at the disposal of the President to be used in Porto Rico for the aid and relief of its people, for public education, public works and other governmental purposes.

PUBLIC LANDS.-Where an unmarried woman has settled on public lands under the homestead law and has married, or shall marry, she shall not on account of her marriage lose her right to entry and patent for the land, provided her husband is not claiming another tract of land under the homestead law.

Another act opens all agricultural public lands, whether acquired by treaty or agreement with Indian tribes, to settlement and confirms the title of those who have settled thereon in good faith.

Heretofore settlers on lands acquired from Indians paid the price that the government had agreed to pay the Indians. Now they will acquire title under the homestead act simply by paying office fees. It is estimated that this will open twentynine million acres of land partially arid.

RED CROSS.-The American National Red Cross Society is incorporated.

TREATIES.-The following Conventions have ripened into treaties by the ratification of the Senate:

Between the United States, Germany, and Great Britain, to adjust amicably the questions between the three Governments in respect to the Samoan group of Islands. It annuls all former tripartite treaties in regard to Samoa. The United States obtains Tutuila, a fertile island with about four thousand people, having the splendid harbor of Pago Pago, capable of affording safe anchorage for our Navy. The government has purchased

and is now building the needed wharves and docks to make a naval and coaling station.

Between the same powers a treaty has been made for the settlement of the claims of American citizens for losses alleged to have been sustained by reason of unwarranted military action, the King of Sweden and Norway being arbitrator.

Also a convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes and a declaration to prohibit, for the term of five years, the launching of projectiles and explosives from balloons and other new methods of destructive warfare of a similar nature, the same having been signed at the Conference at the Hague by the plenipotentiaries of the United States and other countries on July 29th, 1899.

Also a convention of powers, represented at the Hague Peace Conference, for the adaption to maritime warfare of the principles of the Geneva Convention of August 22nd, 1864. Also treaties with Peru and with the Argentine Republic for the extradition of criminals.

LEGISLATION OF STATES.

The evil of over legislation, of the passion for law making, continues with unabated force, bringing in its train the ills of paternalism, dead letter statutes, with disregard and even contempt for law. Last year your President called attention to some of the absurd enactments, many of which "are more honored in the breach than in the observance," that fill space in session laws.

Luckily there are some constitutional limitations upon legislative power, and those who have framed organic acts have sought in some degree to check the avaricious appetites of the annual and biennial legislators.

That in the minds of the people there is a growing distrust of legislative bodies, and fear of the course of their leaders, is shown by the action of the later Constitutional Conventions in curtailing the length of sessions, the substitution of biennial for annual meetings, the prohibition of special laws, the for

bidding of the grant of exclusive privileges to any corporation or association, the requirement that the subject of every act shall be clearly expressed in its title, that there shall be a separate act for each subject and that the several readings of bills shall be upon different days.

In the forty-five states and the three territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, only eleven permit their legislative assemblies to sit without limit as to time. The remaining thirty-seven fix forty days as the shortest and ninety days as the longest period that the infliction may exist.

The following six states hold annual sessions, and four of these without time limit: Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and South Carolina. There is effort under way in several of these states to bring about biennial sessions. Of the remaining forty-two States and Territories seven hold biennial sessions in even numbered and thirty-five in odd numbered years.

Unhappy he, who in the preparation of the annual address finds the burden upon him to communicate to the Association "the most noteworthy changes in statute law on points of general interest" in the odd numbered years. On the last occasion it required the examination of forty-two volumes of session laws, many of them covering from 500 to 1,000 pages. The most voluminous sinner this year is the State of Maryland that issues, it is hoped to an admiring and grateful people, a book of 1372 pages, at the modest "price of $5.40, express prepaid."

I comment to day on the laws passed, within the year, by thirteen states that have held regular sessions, and the states of California, Michigan and Texas, whose legislatures have been in extra session under the call of their governors.

I will not weary you by reading all the report on the state enactments of 1900 and will simply call attention to some of the most notable. I hope, however, that when published they will command your attention and that some method may be devised to correct the evil of over-legislation and guard the

body politic from the mischiefs to be apprehended from indiscriminate, reckless, experimental and sometimes corrupt legislation.

The evil is a growing one and repeated warnings seem to have had but little effect. Nearly twenty years ago our honored President Phelps spoke, in emphatic tones, words that I must quote. He said, speaking of the material of which legislatures are composed and their capacity to regulate the delicate machinery by which the details of local government are carried on,—“We know that such bodies do not command public confidence; that their sessions are viewed with apprehension and their adjournments with a feeling of relief. Even in those legislatures whose integrity is unquestioned, the perusal of their labors is rarely calculated to inspire confidence in their wisdom. In the majority of them-happily not in all-the session laws exhibit hasty, inconsiderate, ill-advised legislation, framed to meet the real or supposed hardship of some particular case, to further some private end or to reflect some temporary gust of popular feeling; they are characterized by a tendency to extend legislation to all manner of subjects, as well without as within the domain of municipal law, making a new statute the remedy for all ills and all inconveniences; by a looseness and ambiguity of expression that leads to endless uncertainty and litigation and last and worst, by a fluctuation of purpose that deprives statute law of all stability and alters, amends, reconstructs and repeals its enactments from year to year more rapidly than the courts can grope their way to a construction of the language in which they are couched."

A terrific charge, truly, but the Grand Jury of public opinion would declare it a true bill.

I commend to your careful thought the forcible address upon "The American Legislature" delivered by Honorable Moorfield Storey before our Association in 1894. It deserves a place in every Legislative Manual and if its suggestions were adopted there would be a new reign of law and increased respect for its rules.

A very able article appeared within the year in the North American Review from the pointed pen of Honorable David B. Hill, entitled "We are too much governed." It deserves your studious attention as a calm, dispassionate presentation of a great evil and affording wise suggestions of fair remedies, such as the creation of an intelligent public sentiment which shall insist that the volume of legislation shall be reduced within reasonable limits; that lobbyists, promoters, strikers and corruptionists shall be kept away from legislative halls; that general rather than special laws shall pass; that biennial sessions shall be substituted for annual ones; that constitutional amendments should be secured further restricting the power of legislation; to which might be added a fuller realization of the duties devolving upon the intelligent citizenship of the country, by which the best material in legislative districts shall be willing to make the personal sacrifice incident to the filling of minor positions in the public service.

Few realize that there were enacted in 1899, 4,834 general and 9,325 local, special, or private laws, making a total (hardly entitled to be called a grand total) of 14,159 laws in the states alone. The proportion is as large in 1900, the only relief being that fewer states held legislative sessions.

Governor Hill well says: "It is a serious mistake to teach the doctrine that the state must support its citizens, must provide them with work, must regulate what they shall eat, drink and wear, and otherwise control their customs, recreations and privileges through and by means of the authority of legislative enactments."

The evil is no new one. In days of old, Tacitus declared: "When the state is most corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied." "The tendency to deal with every evil that appears in society, by coercive legislation" says Lecky, that thoughtful philosopher, "weakens the robust, self-reliant, resourceful habits on which the happiness of society so largely depends and at the same time, by multiplying the functions and therefore increasing the expenses of government, throws new and