Page:Address as the ABA president.pdf/23

 Prior to this amendment the appellate court gave no opinions in cases of affirmance [sic], and only made public their reasons for their reversal of the decision in the court below. It may be stated in this connection, as the opinion of the Illinois Bar, that the establishment of the appellate courts has admirably accomplished its object in relieving the hitherto overcrowded dockets of the Supreme Court.

It is confidently believed by some of our best and most distinguished men that legislative requirements upon state courts of last resort to write and report their opinions and decisions in every case, as is now done in the Supreme Court of the United States, would prove a wonderful stimulant to able, accurate, and correct judgments.

Important changes have been made in the election laws, with the view of additional safeguards around the purity and safety of the ballot and ballot-box.

One act, general in its operation through the state, provides for small election precincts, not to contain more than four hundred voters; for convenient, reputable, and public polling places, and the appointment by the judges of the election and the clerks from different opposing political parties.

Another act seeks to regulate the primary elections held by the political parties. The committee of any political party calling a primary election can take advantage of this salutary law by passing a resolution that the primary shall be conducted under its provisions. The most elaborate act however in relation to the subject of elections by the last legislature of Illinois, is one that seeks especially to check the prevalent increasing and unblushing corruption in the conducting of the elections in our large cities. The provision of this enactment will only be operative in those cities which voluntarily adopt it by vote. In such case, it is uncertain whether it will be ever carried into practical effect, and therefore it becomes unnecessary to give a synopsis of its elaborate and complicated details.