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The Green Bag

non-suits should be taken and cases nolle-prossed only with the consent of the court. The speaker recommended the abolition of the grand jury system, holding that many criminals guilty of felonies are liberated because of failure of the grand jury to return indictments. He recommended immediate trial of criminal cases on information filed. The practice of escaping punishment on the part of convicted criminals by appeal ing was criticised. He said one way to remedy this in Cook county was to have the court of appeals in continuous ses sion. The indiscriminate release of prisoners on parole was also criticised. The practice of releasing professional criminals on habeas corpus was deplored by the speaker, who stated that in Cook county last year 152 prisoners convicted, were thus released, and of this number 69 were professional crooks. Miss Lucy Page Gaston, anti-cigar ette worker, called attention to the Lyon-Magill anti -cigarette bill pending in the legislature, and discussed the cigar ette as a vice and crime breeder. Judge Gemmill referred to prosecutions in the Municipal Court of Chicago and said: "There is no more demoralizing agency than the cigarette. In 25,000 people I have had before me on criminal charges 75 per cent have been cigarette smokers." Dr. William Healy, director of the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute of Winnetka, delivered the principal address on the second day. By studying the indi vidual you can predict his career, was his opinion. The speaker quoted an able professional criminal as saying, "The first step towards understanding or the scientific handling of at least professional criminality in America lies in the establishment of a central bureau of identification, and a natural facing of several aspects of the problem." "Through a summarized estimation of

certain factors," said the speaker, "we may best give, not only the general diagnosis of the individual make-up, but also the eminently practical out look or prognosis under various possible environmental conditions." "A Working Program for an Ade quate System of Collecting Criminal Statistics in Illinois" was discussed by several speakers. A large number of other papers and reports were received. The officers who served during the past year were re-elected. They are: president, Justice William N. Gemmill, of the Municipal Court, Chicago; vicepresident, E. A. Shively of Springfield; secretary, C. G. Vernier, University of Illinois; treasurer, W. W. Cook, Uni versity of Chicago. Henry A. Wise, 'Personal recently United States Attorney for the southern district of New York, whose term expired on April 8, has formed a law partnership with Ernest A. Bigelow, and they will prac tise at 15 William street, New York City, as the firm of Bigelow & Wise. Professor Bruce Wyman, whose at tainments as an expert in the powers and obligations of public service cor porations have of late years brought him a consultative practice, has been ap pointed consulting counsel of the New England Railroad Lines in matters affecting interstate commerce. Richard E. Sloan, formerly Associate Justice of the Arizona territorial Supreme Court and lately United States District Judge for Arizona, William M. Seabury, for over ten years a member of the New York City bar as well as of the Califor nia and Arizona bars, and James Westervelt of the New York and New Jersey bars, have formed the firm of Sloan,