50 PER CENT new matter has been added, but through a new typographical arrangement the bulk of the book has not been materially increased. Mr. Black has made a complete revision of the text and also added many new terms which have come into use through new developments of the law-notably in medical jurisprudence. Citations of cases in which terms have been defined have been liberally added. The price remains the same $6.00 delivered West Publishing Co. St. Paul, Minn. The Bar VOL. XVIII THE BAR Official Journal of the FEBRUARY, 1911 AN OPEN FORUM No. 2 This journal is intended to furnish an open forum to every lawyer for the discussion of any polIcy or proposition of interest to the Profession. It invites a free Interchange of views upon all such topics whether they agree with the views of THE BAR or not. THE BAR goes to every court house in the state, and is read by, probably, three-fourths of the lawyers of the state, and thus furnishes not only a ready medium of communication between members of the Profession, but of unification of the Profession on all matters of common concern, which is its prime mission. Every clerk of a circuit court is the authorized agent of THE BAR in his county, and has the subscription bills in his possession, and will receive and receipt for all money due on that account, or for new subscriptions, and his receipt will always be a good acquittance for money due THE BAR. THE BAR is furnished at the nominal rate of $1.00 a year, which is less than the cost of publication, and we would like to have the name of every lawyer in the state on our subscription list. "Erst Das Vaterland, Dann Die Partie" The situation which arose at Charleston over the organization of the Legislature at the current session, ought to be an impossible thing under our system. It was never contemplated-we may say it was never conceived, and certainly never discovered until now-that if the people chose to send delegates to their Legislature who were equally divided in number, in either branch, between the adherents of the two leading political parties, that that would block the organization, block legislation and paralyze the legislative branch of the government. On the contrary that would be an ideal Legislature. It would effectually prevent improvident and inconsiderate legislation from purely partisan motives and for a partisan advan tage rather than for the general good of the state. It is inconceivable, therefore, that the inability of fifteen Republicans and fifteen Democrats to come together and legislate should be referred to any defect in the constitution and laws of the state. Somebody must defend the situation, if any defense is to be made, on the assumption, as a major premise, that when the constitution and laws which regulate the organization and con duct of the legislative branch of the government come in contact with the purpose and policies of one of the partisan divisions of either branch, the constitution and laws must yield and give way to the higher interests and purposes of the party! That is the only explanation that will explain the situation, and that is the only defense that can be espoused. Over the hall of the Imperial Diet, of the empire of Germany, where imperial Germany's laws are made, is this inscrip tion: "Erst das Vaterland, dann die Partic."—(First the Fatherland, then the party.) If the West Virginia Legislature will, by a unanimous vote, place that motto over the entrance to the capitol, it will go far toward purging that body of the most discreditable incident in the history of the state. The Picknickers About the first bill that was introduced this session of the Legislature was an act to do away with "road engineers." Road engineers marked the only advance this state has made in the last hundred years toward scientific road making. It was and is the chief provision in the new road law that promised a substantial improvement in the public roads. For the last hundred years or more our public roads have been made by picnic parties composed of the assembled inhabitants of any locality, who hold a jamboree on the banks of the highways, ate lunches, swapped jokes, exchanged the gossip of the neighborhood, spent a pleasant holiday, and by way of occasional diversion threw dirt, stone and debris at or on the road as it happened, by way of exonerating themselves from any road tax. The roads made under this picnic policy never looked differerent, nor were they an essential improvement on the Indian trails after which they were fashioned. Every intelligent in habitant of this state, who has taken an intelligent interest in the improvement of our roads, has been raising his voice in season and out of season in behalf of a scientific system as a substitute for the picnic system. Their hope has been based on having a practical engineer as supervisor in lieu of a picnicker and loafer; of having the money-the immense amount of moneythat has annually been buried in the mud and chuck holes of the state applied wisely, judiciously, intelligently, economically and scientifically to shaping up the public roads so that a dollar's expenditure would show a dollar's improvement. This was a long, hard fight, and when we got the engineers as supervisors we thought we had won the whole battle; that the improvements in the roads would win over even the picnickers, and that everybody would be happy. It is a commentary on the situation that the first bill in the first session of the Legislature after the engineers were installed was a bill to abolish them-to cut the heart and the hope out of the new road law. Evidently the picnickers are still on deck. Maybe they will contend that the roads haven't improved under the engineers. If they haven't improved, it is not because of engineers but for the want of them. Let the Legislature vote the reactionaries down, and instead of restoring the picnickers give us more and better engineers, and all the rest will follow. An Interesting Coincidence in the U. S. Supreme Court It is a suggestive coincidence that the first opinion handed down by Chief Justice White, since his appointment to that position by President Taft, was in the case instituted by ex-Presi dent Roosevelt against the New York World, for criminal libel. It was equally suggestive that the decision was adverse to Mr. Roosevelt's contention. But if Mr. Roosevelt had been president Chief Justice White would doubtless never have occupied that position. Pres ident Taft unintentionally and unwittingly "packed" the court against him; for he made that appointment, as he made all the others, in disregard of every consideration of personal and po litical advantage. If Mr. Roosevelt had been president when almost a majority of the seats on the Supreme Bench were to be filled by new men, we are justified in saying that, with Mr. Roosevelt's ideas of the functions of a judge, it would be a very different court today than it is, and its character and standing for all future time, |