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tentiary stares him in the face-or rather alleged facts. He will stake his case on that answer and he will argue two or three days on the sufficiency of the answer till that is over ruled and final judgment goes against him on pleadings.

MR. ANDREWS: What actions?

MR. HIRSHL: Any action, that is any kind of an action. Of course there are cases which ultimately must be solved by the jury. I don't mean to say every action is that way, but where they wrangle over the pleadings, you can take my word for it, a ruling on those pleadings settles the law of that case either in that court or the court of review. But you have not the patience, nor is this the opportunity to go into details further.

Mr. President and Gentlemen:

MR. ADKINSON: I do not believe I would say a word on this occasion if it were not for the fact that I think the records of this meeting will look better if a new name appears on the page; that is the reason I am here now. I want to say this, Mr. Chairman, that it does seem to me, every time I hear this talk about code and common law, that we either do not know what we are talking about or else we have a good deal of time to waste. If you will just put at the beginning of your statutes one section you will have a code, and that is to say that all actions shall be either civil or criminal, and you have a code right here in Illinois, and just as good a code as any state in this Union. The code is just simply a liberal opportunity to amend, and if you will find any state that has a more liberal opportunity to amend than Illinois I will move to that state. Another thing I want to say, and if this Commission has the authority so to do I think it ought to provide that no Judge shall exercise the functions of common law and a chancellor. That is what I want to see. If there has anything ever occurred in the practice of the law that disgusts people, lawyers and litigants, with the two kinds of actions, it has been the conduct of the Circuit bench for the last ten months (applause), and the conduct of one of

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the Judges alone, if correctly reported, about twenty months ago who refused to act as a common law judge though elected one of the Circuit bench. The judges are responsible for the degradation of the jurisprudence if it is ever degraded. The lawyers will rank up as high as the bench every time; you need not be afraid of the lawyers if the judges are dignified and able to expeditiously dispatch the public business. I brought two suits-and my recent experience leads me to think that it is a marvelous thing to say, but that was some two or three years ago. One of them I had to call assumpsit, the other one I had to label complaint, suing in chancery it went on the chancery side. Now I took those two papers over to the clerk of our court, he placed one of my causes on one docket, he placed the other cause upon another docket, one had a general number and the other had the next serial number. Those two cases were on one docket before one judge and upon the common law docket before the same judge, I mean common law and chancery docket before the same judge. Now what is the result? The judge happened to want to try chancery cases and I got that case disposed of. He did not happen to want to try common law cases, and the other has been hanging up. Why should not my clients be treated alike? And I say to you, if this Commission can distinguish between the character of a chancellor and the character of a common law judge and strip the same man of one or the other of his robes, we will get along pretty well, even in Cook county. I congratulate you, Mr. President, in living down south where you have no trouble; we have a vast deal of it in Cook county, and it is because of this confusion between the trial of cases. We have twenty-five judges, if you take in all the benches, and each of them apparently grasping after a particular kind of business, and instead of doing as we once did, when three of the judges were assigned as chancellors and the rest of them tried common law cases now they are all taking anything that comes along.

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VICE PRESIDENT WOOD: If there is no gentleman who de sires to be heard further the Chair will call for the report of the Committee on Grievances. Is the Chairman of that com

mittee ready? The Chair will recognize and introduce to the Association Hon. E. P. Williams.

MR. WILLIAMS:

The committee's report is very brief.

Report read as follows:

CHICAGO, JULY 6, 1899.

To the President of the Illinois State Bar Association:

Your committee would report that no charges have been presented to our worthy Secretary during the current year alleging unprofessional conduct on the part of any member of our Association nor against any member of the bar. The Cook County Bar Association has wisely taken charge of this matter so far as Cook county is concerned. Your committee has seeming good reason to believe that the membership of our Association is composed of honorable reputable attorneys. By them will the high character of our profession, and this Association, be maintained.

E. P. WILLIAMS.

JOHN J. BROWN.

WM. P. EARLY.

MARY M. BARTELME.

MR. WILLIAMS: if the conduct of the members of the profession throughout the State has not been free from blame, there has been laxity in the presentation of charges. It has been suggested to the committee by some members of the Cook county bar and members of this Association that it were well if the Cook County Bar Association could throw off some of their burdens on to the committee of this Association, but so far there have been no charges preferred from Cook county. Your Chairman of this committee is very willing to be relieved from further responsibility in the future.

It is due to say to the Association that

VICE PRESIDENT WOOD: The report of the committee will be received and I suppose, unless the Association desires some further order, that it will be filed with the Secretary and will appear in the record.

་

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MR. TAYLOR: I understand that the State Bar of Colorado, which is now only two years old,-commenced the second session to-day at 2 o'clock, and as I understand that in Colorado they think a good deal of Illinois, and they think a good deal of our reports, that as we had reached our majority before they began holding meetings, perhaps it will be well for us this afternoon to send our greetings to them, and I would move you, sir, that the Secretary of this Association be directed to send the following telegram:

The Illinois State Bar Association, in twenty-third annual meeting assembled, at the Chicago Beach Hotel, sends greeting to the Colorado State Bar Association in session at Denver, Colorado.

Which motion was seconded and adopted.

MR. MOSES: While we have a little time, I want to call the attention of the Executive Committee to the following: You have carried the name of Judge Woods, of the United States Circuit Court, under the name of "William A. Wood" for about ten years, it ought to be corrected, it is "William A. Woods," not William A. Wood. I also wish to point out bylaw number 7, which reads, "Justices of the Supreme Court of this State in commission; past Justices of the same Court not in practice; Justices of the United States courts resident or assigned in this State; and the ex-Presidents of the Association shall be enrolled as honorary members; and distinguished members of the profession may by vote be enrolled." Now we have had, as a matter of fact, the Hon. Henry B. Brown, of the United States Supreme Court assigned to this district for the last five years, and his name has never appeared as an honorary member, although he is entitled to it under the bylaws. Thus, since the establishment of the Appellate Court there have been assigned for service within the language and meaning of this by-law, Judges Seaman, of Wisconsin; Judge Bunn, Judge Baker, of Indiana, sitting in the Appellate Court, and the recent appointment of Judge Kohlsaat entitles him also to be mentioned as an honorary member of the Bar Asso

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ciation. I desire to point out these facts to the Executive Committee so they may instruct the Secretary to make proper minutes in that regard.

that?

VICE PRESIDENT WOOD: Will the Secretary please see to

VICE PRESIDENT WOOD: The program laid down by the Executive Committee for to-day is now exhausted, what is the further pleasure of the Association?

MR. RAE: I should be pleased, among others, if some little time could be assigned during the progress of our meetings to have some expression on the part of the members of the Association on the practice of the Supreme Court in granting or refusing re-hearings. That is all I desire to say.

MR. BOND: As the program is exhausted, I move we adjourn to 10 o'clock to-morrow morning.

Which motion was seconded and carried and an adjournment was taken to Friday, July 7, 1899, at 10 o'clock a. M.

FRIDAY, JULY 7TH.

The Association was called to order at 10 o'clock, Vice President Wood in the chair.

VICE PRESIDENT WOOD: On the program of yesterday there was still left the report of the Committee on Judicial Administration; is that committee ready to report?

MR. MOSES: Mr. President, I understand that such a report will come in during the day.

VICE PRESIDENT WOOD: The report of the Committee on Admissions; is that committee ready to report? If not, the next will be an address on Pardons and Paroles by Mr. E. A. Snively. I have pleasure in introducing to the Association Mr. Snively, who will now address you.

(The address will be found in Part II.)