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 The Green Bag Volume XXIV

October, 1912

Number 10

The Progress of Uniform Legislation, 1911-12 BY WALTER GEORGE SMITH ELEVEN legislatures have held regular sessions during the past year,1 another will meet in October,2 and one legislature has held an extra session.3 Uniform acts were passed in Mary land, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Missis sippi and Rhode Island. As will appear from the report of the Executive Committee, the reports of the Commissioners show that in all or nearly all of the states in which sessions were held efforts were made by them to secure uniform legislation, and inonly one did they fail by reason of the Governor's veto. In New York the Uniform Stock Transfer Act was passed for a second time, and for a second time it was vetoed by the Governor for undisclosed reasons without according a hearing to the Com missioners. Committees of the Conference, charged with the responsibility for pending busi ness, have held meetings from time to time, some of which have been attended by the President as an ex officio member. An undiminished zeal and steady prog* President's addrtss delivered at twenty-second annual meeting of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, Milwaukee, August 21, 1912. 1 Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missis sippi, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, S. Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia. 2 Vermont. 3 Michigan.

ress in solving the problems before them distinguished all of these meetings. It is gratifying to know that in the com paratively few states that have not yet passed any of the Uniform Acts, espe cially Vermont, Indiana and Georgia, there is evidence of an aroused senti ment that will doubtless bring about satisfactory results. In his report to the Governor of one of the states that has persistently ig nored the work of the Conference, a Commissioner expresses his mortification because his state has made no appropria tion for the general expenses of the Con ference. While sympathizing strongly with his feeling, most of us will realize that some of the states that have availed themselves of the work of the Con ference by adopting its measures are much less consistent than those which have not yet recognized their value. We have all been embarrassed because of the inadequate financial support we have received. Had it not been for the generous devotion of very many of the Commissioners who have paid their own travelling, hotel and other expenses, our work could hardly have made as much progress as it has. The recent appropriations by the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota have been most timely, and it seems reasonably certain that