PROCEEDINGS. PRESIDENT CAPEN: You have heard the report of the Committee, gentlemen. What shall be done with it? MR. RICHBERG: I move that the report be adopted. The motion was carried. PRESIDENT CAPEN: Is the report of the Committee on Judicial Administration ready? MR. MATHENY: Mr. Hunter has presented the report of that Committee, and for some reason has asked that I read it, which I will do. It is as follows: To the President and Members of the Illinois State Bar Association: GENTLEMEN: In the name of God, amen. I, W. R. Hunter, of Kankakee, being sole survivor of the Committee on Judicial Administration, of which Judge Puterbaugh of Peoria, is chairman, sober but somewhat weak in my knees, beg leave to report as follows: As such sole survivor I have made diligent search for our chairman, who, not being from Chicago, has never "called" us. I inquired at the Bowling Alley, the Police Station, the Police Courts and the Merry-Go-Round, but no trace or remembrance of him could be found. He was not at the banquet last night, so we all know he is dead; if he should be resurrected before your survivor concludes this report we will duly notify-him. As to the other members of the committee -a Moses has gone to Egypt, Horace Clark was killed while looking at the explosion on the Lake Front, Helmer got chewed up in a slot machine, and Kremer has gone to Hel-mer's-assistance. Your survivor admired the spirit in which the selection of this committee was made by the President, but is of the opinion that such selection is evidence of spirit or spirits only. Your survivor begs leave to submit that if the next President appoints any lawyer from Peoria on any committee, he should select either John S. Stevens or George T. Page because neither of these gentlemen could stay away from a Barmeeting-if they tried. Our President insists that Moses is not dead, but is visiting King Faro in Egypt, but your survivor is from Kankakee and "you will have to show me." Your survivor would further recommend that laws should be passed by the next legislature to the effect, first, that when a lawyer goes home from a bar banquet, he should not be obliged to tell his wife whether he sat up all night with Benson Wood of Effingham or John Barton Payne of Chicago. Second, that no lawyer should be compelled to accept a case on a contingent fee-unless the fee is advanced. Third-That the "tavern" to which defeated lawyers are prone to PROCEEDINGS. resort should be insured, and lastly, that the next meeting of this Association should be held at Kankakee. In conclusion, your survivor would report that your committee has had a very pleasant, profitable, instructive, dignified and unanimous meeting, by itself; no dead ones, no dead locks, no aspersions were cast upon those present, but everything was as pleasant and harmonious as a morning in May or an afternoon session of the D. A. R. convention at St. Louis. Unanimously submitted, W. R. HUNTER, Survivor. (Laughter and applause.) MR. CHURCH: I move the report be received, and as to the recommendation for the next place of meeting, that it be concurred in by this Association. PRESIDENT CAPEN: The Chair would suggest it is somewhat alarming that the members of this Association should all find themselves sentenced to Kankakee. You have heard the motion just made. The recommendation in this report should receive full discussion. All in favor of the motion please say aye. MR. PAGE: I think this last will and testament ought to lie the usual twenty days, and the survivor ought to be required to give security for costs. (Laughter). MR. CHURCH: I accept the amendment. PRESIDENT CAPEN: All opposed to the motion say no. PRESIDENT CAPEN: The motion is carried. (Laughter and applause.) PRESIDENT CAPEN: We ought to feel, gentlemen, under very great obligations to the learned gentleman whose reputation is so well known to all lawyers of the country who has kindly consented to come here to deliver the Annual Address. The great University of Iowa has had this gentleman as its PROCEEDINGS. Chancellor; the Supreme Court of Iowa enjoys this gentleman as one of its members; his legal writings have been the delight and profit of all lawyers of the country. It is with peculiar pleasure, gentlemen, I now introduce to the Association Hon. Emlin McClain, who will give the Annual Address upon "Citizenship of the United States as a Legal Status." (Applause.) JUDGE MCCLAIN: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Illinois State Bar Association-It gives me peculiar pleasure to be able to speak to the members of the Association this morning, and I want to take occasion to express my regrets at not being able to be present last evening. I was detained at Joliet (laughter), but I might have been detained at Peoria, and as between the two evils I hardly know which should be considered the greater. (The address will be found in Part II.) PRESIDENT CAPEN: The next in order is the Report of the Committee on Procedure in the Supreme Court of Illinois. MR. CHURCH: Before proceeding, I think it is in order that this Association extend its thanks to the speaker for the very able and interesting address which has just been delivered, and I move that it be spread upon the records of this Association. PRESIDENT CAPEN: It goes in the printed records as a matter of course under our rule. The motion to extend the thanks of the Association to the distinguished speaker for his able address is before you. Any remarks? The motion was carried. PRESIDENT CAPEN: The report of the Committee on Procedure in the Supreme Court of Illinois, Mr. Stevens, of Peoria, Chairman. MR. STEVENS: Mr. Chairman, at the last session of the Association a report was adopted and the Committee was instructed to present that report to the Supreme Court. Your PROCEEDINGS. Committee has complied with the directions of the Association and has caused that report to be presented. It was presented to the Presiding Justice with the request that he lay the subject matter before the members of the Court, and the Presiding Justice has informed the Committee that he has complied with the request and that the report is before the members of the Supreme Court. The Committee has not been able to produce any apparent result in the Supreme Court, and deems itself incapable of doing so. It has complied with the directions of this Association and desires to be discharged from any further services in connection with that matter. MR. BALDWIN: Might it not be well to defer action upon the report until the discussion following it has terminated? PRESIDENT CAPEN: If there is no objection that will be done. The next thing in order is the general discussion upon the procedure in the Supreme Court of Illinois, to be opened by Mr. Bassett, of Aledo. MR. BASSETT: There is one thing that I would like now to say before I proceed to discuss this subject, because of what was said last evening at the banquet by Justice Scott, my fellow citizen and neighbor. It seems to me that there is undue sensitiveness on the part of the members of the Supreme Court in regard to any criticisms which this Association make, or any suggestions of a change in their method of procedure, and I want to say here that I appreciate the arduous labors of that body of Justices, and I think that the whole Association does. And I appreciate the necessity of their dispatching the business as speedily as possible, and I hope that no member of that Court will feel offended or think that we do not appreciate their labors in trying to dispose of their business, or that we suppose that they do not have a disposition to adopt the best methods to dispose of their business. The present method of procedure in the Supreme Court PROCEEDINGS. of Illinois is to commence the call of the docket on the tenth day of each Term, and continue the call until the close of the docket. There is no consultation or consideration of the cases during the session of the Court. When the call of the docket is concluded the cases called during the Term are assigned to the several Justices and the Term is adjourned. Each Justice takes the cases assigned to him, returns to his home and decides them; prepares opinions, which are printed and distributed to the other Justices. The opinions, thus prepared, are the decisions only of one Justice-there is no consultation or consideration given to them by any of the other Justices before the opinions are prepared. I suggest, first-Statutory changes in regard to the practice and methods of procedure in the Appellate and Supreme Courts. The following are the statutory changes suggested: First-Repeal all laws granting appeals from the Circuit, County and Probate Courts to the Supreme Court, except “In all criminal cases and cases in which a franchise, or freehold, or the validity of a statute" is involved. Second-A provision that appeals and writs of error, from the Appellate to the Supreme Court, shall be allowed only "In all cases determined in the Appellate Courts in actions er contractu (including actions involving a penalty), when the amount involved is more than Three Thousand Dollars, exclusive of costs; and in all cases sounding in damages wherein the judgment of the Court below is more than Three Thousand Dollars, exclusive of costs." Third-A provision for one Term annually of the Supreme Court, to commence in October and to continue until the cases are disposed of; and that the Justices of the Supreme Court shall temporarily reside in Springfield during the Term of the Court. Fourth-A provision that in all appeals, the hearing in the Appellate and Supreme Courts shall be upon abstracts, |