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The Green Bag

instructing the jury by the combined

advice and counsel of the attomeyson both sides. It is believed that these proposed

amendments

would

greatly

James H. Cartwright. The meeting closed with a banquet at the St. Nicho las Hotel at night, which was attended by about three hundred members of

reduce the number of retrials and also

the bar.

greatly diminish the number of appeals taken on account of erroneous instruc tions. If the judge who reads the instructions

as follows: Toastmaster, President Villiam R. Curran, Pekin; “The State," James A.

The speakers and toasts were

to the jury and the lawyer who wrote

Connolly, Springﬁeld; “The Law," George T. Buckingham, Chicago; “The

the instructions, as well as the attorney for the other side, are not misled by

Court," Frank]. Loesch, Chicago; "The Bar," Adlai E. Stevenson, Bloomington.

them and believe them to be the law when read to the jury, the laymen who compose the jury certainly will not be misled by them. The principle involved in both these proposed amendments is the correct one, viz: That the lawyers

on both sides shall help the court in correctly applying the law to the case on trial and if they do not do so, they shall not be permitted to take advan tage of their own negligence. These amendments are now pending before the Legislature and are incor porated in House Bill 418 and Senate Bill 327, together with the other amend ments proposed by the Illinois Confer ence on the Reform of the Law. The ceremonies attending the un veiling of the portraits of the former Justices of the Supreme Court were held in the Supreme Court building. The Supreme Court room was crowded with judges and lawyers representing all sections of the state.

Chief Justice

Alonzo K. Vickers opened the exercises. Edward C. Kramer of East St. Louis spoke on the Supreme Court under the Constitution of 1818. Stephen S. Greg ory of Chicago had for his subject the

Supreme Court under the Constitution of 1848, while President William R.

Curran of Pekin delivered an address upon the Supreme Court under the Con stitution of 1870. The response on behalf of the Court was made by Justice

Miscellaneous

The new United States Commerce Court had its ﬁrst meeting Feb. 6 at Washington, D. C., in the oﬂioe of

Judge Martin A. Knapp, former chief of sion.the The Interstate four other Commerce members C0rnmis~ of the Court are William H. Hunt of Montana, Robert Wodrow Archbald of Pennsyl vania, Julian W. Mack of Illinois and John Emmet Garland of South Dakota. An order has been entered designating April 3, 1911, for the first hearing.

The draftsmen of the Arizona con stitution followed the advice of Presi dent Taft as regards the length of that document, the President having, in the

course of a speech in Arizona, held up the Oklahoma constitution as a “horri

ble example" and advised the state to make its constitution as brief as possible and free from legislative details. The constitution goes the entire length of the “progressive" program, incorporat

dum ing not butonly a radical the initiative provision and referen~ for the recall of the judiciary. By a vote of more than 76.12 per cent the constitu

tion was ratiﬁed at the recent election. The oﬂ‘icial canvass was completed Feb. 27. Out of 16,009 votes cast, 12,187 were in favor of the constitution and 3,822 against it.