tion the fact that he is disabled, but later he will file a report with the Secretary.

(See Appendix, page 378.)

PRESIDENT GAST: Incidentally, the Chair understands that the biographies of all members of the Association who have died the past year, with possibly one exception, have already been prepared. The work of the Committee has not been neglected. We all share in regret that Mr. Holme has been ill, and cannot be here personally to present his report. I understand, happily, he is recovering.

EDWARD RING: Yes, he is well on the way.

PRESIDENT GAST: Mr. Denious, as Chairman of the Com mittee on Local Bar Associations, will now present his report. (See Appendix, page 330.)

W. F. DENIOUS: I move that the report be received and placed on file, and that the recommendations be adopted.

This motion was seconded, and prevailed unanimously.

PRESIDENT GAST: Apropos the report, the Chair trusts that you will permit him to say that the Pueblo association was thoroughly revivified at a meeting which Mr. Denious, Mr. Wallbank, Mr. Hugh McLean, and Mr. Robert Stearns, all of Denver, were good enough to attend. The meeting was an exceedingly large one. Perhaps I can best, and most briefly, describe it by telling you that it ended in a song recital!

If you will permit the Chair to depart from the established order for just a moment, we will hear the report of the Auditing Committee, which I understand is ready.

GEORGE P. STEELE: The Auditing Committee reports that it carefully went over the report of the Treasurer and audited the same, and finds certificate for a large sum of money on deposit to the credit of the Association. We find that the accounts are in good order and correct, and have approved the Treasurer's report.

PRESIDENT GAST: The Committee reports recommending that the Treasurer's report be approved. Is there a second to that motion?

There was a second.

B. C. HILLIARD: I would like to inquire as of what date this deposit was found to be?

GEORGE P. STEELE: That is not a proper subject of inquiry, and we decline to answer!

liard?

PRESIDENT GAST: Is that a satisfactory answer, Mr. Hil

B. C. HILLIARD: Yes-it is just what I expected! (Laughter.)
The motion was carried unanimously.

PRESIDENT GAST: Is the Committee on Judicial Procedure ready to report? Let me say, I was distressed to receive this morning a letter from Judge Butler, the Chairman of that Committee, who is ill with a rather serious cold, and under the doctor's orders was prevented from being here. I think Judge Campbell is the only member of that Committee in the room this afternoon. Will Judge Campbell present the report of the Committee on Judicial Procedure?

JOHN CAMPBELL: The report is printed in the program, and I think that will be sufficient. As a matter of fact I had very little to do with the preparation of the report; in fact I do not know that I ever saw it, but I authorized Judge Butler to sign my name to it. (Laughter.) This report requires action in one respect.

(See Appendix, page 339.)

GEORGE W. ALLEN: I would like to inquire if the subject of judicial procedure can now be opened up for discussion before this Association? I would like to make some comments with reference to it, and I can see no better opportunity than this time.

PRESIDENT GAST: The report of the Committee is of course open to discussion. Any remarks pertinent to the report are of course in order at this time.

HENRY J. HERSEY: I move that the report of the Committee be received, adopted and placed on file.

This motion was seconded.

PRESIDENT GAST: The motion that has been made and seconded is that the report of the Committee be received and filed and the recommendations of the Committee, which include an amendment to the by-laws, of which notice has been given, be adopted. The matter is open to discussion on that motion.

S. H. KINSLEY: Of course you mean the majority report.

PRESIDENT GAST: The majority report was Judge Hersey's motion. Judge Allen has the floor.

GEORGE W. ALLEN: I want to know if I would be in order in making some suggestions to this Association at this time with reference to judicial procedure.

PRESIDENT GAST: For the present, at least, Judge Allen, the Chair will assume that anything you have to say will be in order. The Chair, however, reserves leave to withdraw that assumption should it become necessary! (Laughter.)

GEORGE W. ALLEN: I will endeavor to make some suggestions; I hope new ones. I do not believe they will be such as have been considered by this Association, but I wish to make them as a humble member of this Association, not in any official capacity, with reference to judicial procedure.

This Association ought to have for its purpose and object primarily the doing of all the good it can in all the ways it can, with reference to the practice of law, with reference to establishing confidence in the public mind, with reference to the legal pro

fession, and with reference to the courts, for the good of society. There is no other topic, to my mind, that might be made so interesting as this question of judicial procedure.

There have been evolutions in everything in this day and age except in the procedure, in the practice, of the law. It is a nice idea, it is always approved of, by both court and counsel, that we should follow the old landmarks, that we should be very careful in departing from the regular established rules of procedure in courts. That sentiment is good; it is valuable. We at all times endeavor to follow the rules of procedure, but if we are too slow, if we are behind the times, if we need some modification or improvement in the rules of procedure, it is the proper thing for this Bar Association to take it up, look into it, discuss it, and perhaps there will come something that will better the conditions with reference to procedure, that will have a tendency to create the desired confidence in the profession, in the courts, and which is required and demanded today.

Excuse me if I say too much; lawyers are in the habit of talking too much. I am aware of that. Sometimes the subjects are such that it is difficult to limit ourselves. These remarks are an impromptu affair with me; they came to my mind since I came into this room.

I read with interest the discussion that Elihu Root made at the American Bar Association meeting a few years ago with reference to judicial procedure. He undertook to show to the association that it was of the utmost importance that procedure should be simplified. He delivered a splendid discourse on that subject, but I looked for and did not find any substitute methods which he presented. I read the speech that the present Chief Justice of the United States made a few years ago down in Virginia at the dedication of a court house. He dwelt at length upon the question of procedure, and said to the assembly how important it was that lawyers should make an effort to adopt such a procedure as would re-establish the confidence of the people of the country in the courts of the land and the judiciary. He said it took too long

to get cases at issue. He said too much time was consumed in the nisi prius courts in the preparation and trial of cases. He said there was too much time expended in the appellate courts. But the present Chief Justice at that time did not suggest any practicable remedy for the lawyers to take into consideration.

The Supreme Court of this state-and please excuse me for the reference-undertook a few years ago to adopt some new rules of practice in the Supreme Court. The docket was three years behind. That was a denial of justice. Whenever the docket of a court is behind, let it be the appellate court or the nisi prius court, the delays virtually, in the minds of the laymen, in the minds of the public, are regarded as a delay of justice to the extent that it is no justice at all. Sometimes cases are filed in court and before they are finally determined the parties have outlived their usefulness, have departed from this world, or for other reasons when the judgments are rendered they are of no avail to anybody.

As I say, our Supreme Court undertook to adopt some new rules of practice. Whether they were agreeable to the lawyers at that time or not I am unable to say. Whether or not at that time they would have been approved in all details by the lawyers, I am unable to say. I only know what the practical results were.

From that three years' delinquency, from that three years' delay of justice, which had maintained in this state from the time it became a state, by the adoption of the new rules and by the vigilance and energy-may I be permitted to say?—of the judges of that court, I have now to announce to you, what perhaps some of you know, that the docket is up to date; and whenever you get your cases into the Supreme Court now, they are gathered up and examined and determined as speedily as possible, and for the past three years the lawyers of this state have been receiving their de cisions, opinions, within from thirty to sixty days from the time their cases have been submitted, whether they have been submitted without oral argument or on oral argument. And when this court retired for its vacation this summer, I was informed by the Clerk