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The Green Bag

The Virginia State Bar Association will meet at Hot Springs August 10-12. Hon. James M. Beck of New York, former AttorneyGeneral of the United States, will deliver the annual address. Papers will be read and speeches made by several prominent men. Many matters of importance will be discussed and acted upon by the association, notably the reports of the special committees on amendment of practice and on revision of criminal law and procedure. The Erie County Bar Association at the meeting at Buffalo June 18 rejected the rem edies proposed by the committee which had been investigating the subject of ambulance chasing and releases by corporation claim agents, and decided not to approve the sug gestion that the courts be empowered to re view any contract so made, and that injured persons have the right to break such a contract within thirty days after the accident. These recommendations were opposed on the grounds that the Association had the names of ambu lance chasers and could act if it so desired. The annual meeting of the New Jersey Bar Association was held at Atlantic City June 11. An exciting fight waged around the appointment of a committee to conduct a political campaign for the adoption of the judicial amendment to the state constitution at the special election on September 14. The discussion was started by the proposal to empower the president to appoint a commit tee to aid in the passage of the amendment. William N. Johnston, chairman of the com mittee on the judicial amendment, proposed the resolution. John J. Crandall led the opposition. The wording of the resolution was changed so that it should call for the ap pointment of a committee to "enlighten the public on the nature of the judicial amend ment." The amendment to the resolution allowing the committee to add to the mem bership at its own discretion and make return of the expense incurred was accepted. In the evening two hundred members attended the annual dinner at the Marlborough-Blenheim. Governor Fort and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court David J. Brewer were the guests of honor. After welcoming the association's guests Clarence L. Cole, re tiring president of the Association, introduced the Governor. Justice Brewer spoke on the relations of the United States Supreme Court to our foreign affairs and the functions of that body. Other speakers were Whitehead Kluttz, Francis J. Swayze and James B. Dill. The officers elected included : president, Samuel Kalish, Newark; vice presidents, former Judge Howard Carrow, Camden, William M. John ston, Hackensack, Judge William I. Lewis, Paterson; treasurer, Judge Lewis Starr, Woodbury; secretary, William J. Kraft. Former Justice Henry B. Brown of the United States Supreme Court expressed dis sent from views of Cardinal Gibbons regarding divorce at the annual meeting of the Mary

land State Bar Association, at Old Point Comfort, Va., July 8. "The head of the Roman Church in America," he said, "a man for whom I have profound respect, has painted divorce as 'a monster, licensed by the laws of Christian States to break hearts, wreck homes, and ruin souls.' This is certainly a gruesome picture. That separation of Church and State which is a cardinal principle of American jurisprudence is nowhere more applicable than in that which concerns the marriage relation. By the Greek and Roman Churches marriage is regarded as a sacrament, an impressive word of somewhat indefinite meaning, standing generally for something exempt from the control of the civil author ity. It is not perceived why the partnership created by marriage should so far differ from a commercial partnership that one may be dissolved at pleasure while the. other is abso lutely indissoluable. A proper regard for the interests of the State as well as the preserva tion of domestic happiness would seem to require that when the whole object of the mat rimonial compact had been defeated by the habitual, persistent, and uncontrollable con duct of either party, and that relation, which should represent the acme of human happi ness, is made to stand for all that is most re pugnant to our desires and anticipations, a severance of the ties should be permitted. I cannot recall a divorce fairly obtained, without fraud, and upon due and personal notice to the other side, that did not apparently redound to the welfare of the parties and prove a real blessing." At the annual meeting of the Kentucky State Bar Association at Paducah, Ky., Attorney-General George W. Wickersham of President Taft's cabinet made an address July 7, in which he suggested that Congress should enact a law providing for nationally created corporations to carry on interstate commerce. Mr. Wickersham sketched the ways by which states may regulate business of foreign corporations within their boundaries and advocated that the license of any foreign corporation be vacated if fifty per cent of its stock be owned by any company, domestic or foreign, or if that amount become later so owned. He said such a law would logically follow the excise on corporations. Dealing with the citizenship and standing of corpora tions, he quoted decisions to show that they were not citizens in the meaning of the federal constitutional requirement that citizens of each state should be entitled to all the priv ileges and immunities of citizens of the United States. "The unlimited extent of the power of the States recognized by the Su preme Court," said Mr. Wickersham, "is strikingly illustrated by the decision in the case of Security Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Prewitt, where the constitutionality of a statute of Kentucky was upheld. [Cf. article by F. R. Lacy referred to in Review of Periodicals, pp. 403-4 in this issue of the Green Bag.— Ed.] The result of this decision is to enable a state to compel a for