votes, was approved on May 4, 1897, and is commonly called the Torrens Law. The adoption of the system in Cook county was at once again submitted to the voters in June, 1897, and again received their practically unanimous approval. The constitutionality of the law was again tested, and the Supreme Court of Illinois, in the People vs. Simon, 176 Ill., 165, in an exhaustive opinion, held the act valid and constitutional. That opinion by Judge Wilkin is learned and exhaustive, and any lawyer or layman will be well repaid by its careful perusal. The decision answers many questions that you will all feel like asking concerning the adaptability of the system to the Constitution and Laws of Colorado, when you bear in mind, it may be mentioned in passing, that Article III of the Illinois Constitution, and most of the other provisions involved, are the originals from which our Colorado provisions on the subject were almost literally copied. The chief ground of objection to this law urged upon the court was that it vested judicial power in the Registrar in the performance of his duties as to subsequent registration after the initial registration. Upon that point the court, after having examined the authorities, says: "From these authorities it is apparent that the mere fact that the Registrar is required by this act to inquire into the existence of certain facts and to apply the law thereto in order to determine what his official conduct shall be, and that his action may affect private rights, does not constitute the exercise of judicial power, strictly speaking. The primary purpose is the issuing of the certificate, and the exercise of the judgment of the Registrar is incidental. The prohibition in question has never been held to apply to those cases where judgment is exercised as incident to the execution of a ministerial power. The powers exercised by the Registrar under this law are analogous to those exercised by the Commissioner of Patents. To the objection that the owner may be deprived of his property without due process of law, the court says: "In the consideration of this point it must be remembered that the right to alienate or inherit property is always dependent upon the law. So long as vested rights are not disturbed the law may at any time change the terms upon which land is held, and may alter the conditions under which it may be alienated, and modify the rules of evidence by which the title is to be determined. The true theory of this act, as we understand it, is that all holders of vested rights shall be subject to an adjudication in a court of competent jurisdiction, upon due notice, in order that the true state of the title may be ascertained and declared, and that thereafter the tenure of the owner, the right of transfer and incumbrance, and all rights subsequently accruing, shall be determined in accordance with the rules now prescribed." The Registrar's office in Cook county was opened for business March 1, 1899, and ever since that date the business of bringing land titles under this law has been active and increasing. In his most excellent work, entitled "Land Registration in Illinois" (1900), Judge Theodore Sheldon, the Examiner of Titles for Cook county (to whom I am under many obligations for much valuable information), says: "The new law is found to work easily and well. The cost of an initial registration is $24, to which is added one-tenth of one per centum of the value of the property, the latter being payable to the County Treasurer towards creating an indemnity fund to make good any losses arising from the operation of the system. On all subsequent dealings with a registered title the expense is nominal. The entire expense of a transfer or mortgage is $3. Dealings with registered titles are completed with rapidity. Saies are frequently completed, the purchase price paid over and the new certificate of title issued to the buyer the same day upon which the verbal contract is made. This rapidity of transfer obviates in most cases the need of a preliminary written contract. Mortgage transactions require but the added time needed for the preparation of the notes and mortgages, and a number of loans have been completed and the money in the borrower's hands the same day of his application to the lender. In fact, any ordinary dealing with a registered title can be fully completed within an hour after the parties present to the Registrar the outstanding certificate of title and the deed, mortgage or other instrument authorizing the transaction." The distinguishing features of the Illinois act are principally that it shall not be in force in any county until it is adopted by a majority vote of the people of that county at a regular county election. The system has only thus far been adopted in Cook county. In a very interesting article on land title registration in the MayJune, 1902, number of the American Law Review, Judge Leonard A. Jones, the well known author, says: "Applications for registration are made to any court having chancery jurisdiction in the county where the land is situated. Two or more attorneys are appointed examiners of titles and legal advisors of the Registrar in each county; they are appointed by the Registrar and are required to take an oath and give a bond. Applications are referred to one of the examiners, who reports in writing to the court. He has power to administer oaths and examine witnesses. He is not required to report the evidence submitted to him, except upon the request of some party. His report is in some respects like the report of a master in chancery, and the hearing before him is, in general, governed by the rules applicable to a hearing before a master in chancery. An abstract of title is submitted by the applicant with the petition. If the abstract is not complete it is continued by the recorder to the date of the filing of the application. The court is not bound by the report of the examiner, but may require further proof. The decree is conclusive upon all persons; but a writ of error may be sued out of the Supreme Court within two years thereafter by the person not actually having notice nor information of the application for registration." Judge Jones and nearly all other eminent writers on this subject severely condemn this feature of the Illinois law, which virtually holds the decree open for the period of two years. They insist that the limitation ought not to be longer than thirty or sixty days, for the reason that the two years' limitation prevents the decree from becoming available as giving a conclusive title for an immediate transaction. You cannot be otherwise than deeply interested in and instructed by the individual expressions to the writer of some of the public officials who are living under and actually administering this law in its practical, every-day operation. Such first-hand information will irresistibly make this presentation of the subject much more forcible and authentic. For that reason literal quotations will be given, notwithstanding this address will be considerably lengthened thereby. Pursuing that course, the reference to this State will be closed by a few extracts from a letter received this morning from that splendid example of young American manhood, Governor Richard Yates of Illinois: "The Illinois act, by its terms, becomes operative in such counties as shall so elect by a popular vote. It was adopted in Cook county on June 5, 1897, by a practically unanimous vote. "The Registrar's office in Chicago, the county seat of Cook county, was opened March 1, 1899, since which time a large number of titles have been registered. There has been a steady and rapid increase in the number of applications for registration, and the Registrar's office is now much overcrowded with its work. "The new law is very popular in Cook county. It has always had the hearty endorsement of the Chicago Real Estate Board, the chief organization of real estate brokers in that county, and an influential body in municipal and county affairs. The certificates of title issued by the Registrar are accepted generally by buyers and lenders, and by their use a large amount of time and expense in transfers and mortgage transactions is avoided. "The Registrar of that county advises me that, up to June 1, 1902, land valued at upwards of $6,000,000 has been brought under the act, the value in each application ranging from $250 to $150,000. Every character of property is registered, down-town, wholesale, apartment buildings, churches, hotels, residences, subdivisions and acres. Existing mortgages upon land now registered aggregate about $500,000. Sales and mortgages of registered lands are readily closed within a few hours, and each at a total expense of $3. No abstract of title or lawyer's services are required in the ordinary transaction. The Registrar adds that the new method is steadily gaining in public favor, and that as the system and its advantages become more widely known, the land in that county will come under the act with greater rapidity. "You will observe from the foregoing that a registered title in Cook county may be sold or mortgaged as readily and cheaply as stocks and bonds. "Five States Illinois, Massachusetts, California, Minnesota and Oregon-have enacted similar laws, and I see no reason why the advantages of a registered title should not be granted to the land owners of Colorado." MASSACHUSETTS. The system of land transfer authorized by the registration act commonly called the "Torrens System" was first dealt with officially in Massachusetts in 1891, in the inaugural address of the late Governor William E. Russell. The address contains so many valuable suggestions and is so succinct and conclusive in the presentation of the subject that you will undoubtedly pardon the insertion of quite a lengthy quotation: "I believe that the Australian system of land registration and transfer, more commonly referred to, from the name of its originator, as the Torrens system, is the longest step that has yet been taken anywhere towards that freedom, security and cheapness of land transfer which is conceded to be so desirable in the interest of the people. Our citizens demand the enactment of the best legislation that can be devised, whether originated here or elsewhere, and while another country, whose conditions are similar to our own, has gained the credit of first adopting the admirable and simple plan of land transfer which I now call to your attention, we can yet be the first among the States of the Union to place this legislation upon our statute book and to lead the way in its adoption by the American people, as we have already done in the case |