years, special acts were passed for incorporating companies. The grants thus made displaying too much liberality, the leg. islative assemblies of many, if not all the states were required to provide by general law for incorporating companies, and were forbidden to pass special acts on the subject. The general laws enacted for carrying out this policy contain few limitations of any kind, and none whatever as to numbers. The same coterie of natural persons, "two or more," may make one hundred or more corporations, contemporaneously or successively, as may be desired.

The most astonishing feature of the business is the facility for changing names, thus offered to an enterprising promoter. The natural man at birth receives a name which he must abide by to the end of his days. In more than one-half of the states of the Union the Constitution forbids the legislature to change names of persons, except in some general way usually by judicial proceeding. Nevertheless, the man who suffers from an evil name, or who for any reason desires a change can get himself incorporated under a new name every day in the year. He can be Dr. Jekyl in one corporation, and Mr. Hyde in another, and both in a third corporation, and so on to the end of the catalogue. He can have more costumes, and masks, than any playwright of the stage, and when the character is offensive to him, he can employ some one to take it while he stands behind the scenes, and receives the profit.

The story has not been fully told. Nothing has been said of the making of paper titles to property which has no existence; of the lying which goes on continually in that behalf; of the gambling in the stock market to which it leads; and other baneful results of the pernicious policy. But enough has been said to show that strong men of truth and probity of character, cannot be produced in such a school of economics.

The man described by the Psalmist can not live in such environment. "He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart." "In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." "He that putteth not out his money to usury nor taketh reward against the innocent."

True manhood is a tub on his own bottom; he paddles his own canoe; he needs no disguise; he has no false colors; he fights in open daylight, and he claims always and only the

victory of truth and honesty. He asks only to be put on an equal footing with priest and potentate, and mould of common clay, and leaves results to his good right arm. All hail the day when the state shall cease to make artificial men to override and. oppress the natural man whom God made in His own image.

REPORT

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON GRIEVANCES.

Denver, July 3, 1899.

The Colorado Bar Association: Your Committee on Grievances begs to report that since the organization of the association complaints have been made against twenty members of the bar, concerning alleged violation of their duty as attorneys. The offenses charged have been various in kind, but seem principally to have had relation to the use of moneys belonging to their clients, which it is fair to assume in many instances, was induced by the general financial distress from which the country was suffering. Nevertheless, no excuse is sufficient to justify any breach of obligations due from an attorney to his client. All complaints have been given careful attention, and in eight instances proceedings have been instituted in the Supreme Court looking to disbarment; of these, two have resulted in judgments disbarring the attorneys complained of; six are still pending, awaiting further action. The committee has authorized three prosecutions for removal, which have not yet been brought. In two instances the committee did not feel that the evidence offered justified action. There are still pending before the committee, charges against five attorneys, which remain to be investigated and disposed of.

Of course the direct result of the action of the committee has been the removal of certain attorneys, and the institution of proceedings against others, but the most important result has been the betterment of the profession, and the creation of confidence in the association and its efforts to improve the standing of the bar. We think we can say with confidence that

the association has been very largely weighed by the attention given to those members of the profession who have violated their obligations to their clients. The profession is, as a whole, judged by the action of its individual members, and the determination of this organization to weed out those who are unworthy has vastly increased the general public respect for the profession to which we belong.

The committee acknowledges its indebtedness to those members of the bar who have prosecuted the proceedings so far instituted, which has been done without compensation, and in many cases, with a burden almost out of proportion to the specific result to be accomplished.

In closing this report, we think it proper to say that the Bar Association of Colorado can not establish a greater claim to public approval than in carrying forward the work of this committee, and we trust that the present meeting will direct our successors to bring all cases of infraction of professional ethics to the attention of the Supreme Court, so that the bar of Colorado may achieve the highest standard of moral and intellectual excellence.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

PLATT ROGERS,

Chairman.

REPORT

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON LAW REFORM.

Mr. President: Your annual address, which you delivered yesterday, covered very fully much of the ground which might seem to belong to this committee, but for the language of our Constitution which apparently regards it as part of your province. Your enumeration and study of the enactments of our legislature at its session last winter is so entirely satisfactory and exhaustive that this committee will confine its report to a brief mention of two topics not touched in your address and which are of interest to the bar.

The miners' convention, which met last year in Salt Lake, and is to meet again this summer, in August, in Milwaukee, has under consideration a proposed change in the federal. law relating to the location of mining claims by which a lode claim would be bounded, like a placer claim, or a homestead claim, in its descent below the surface by planes drawn perpendicular to the plane of the horizon. The proposed change has met with the approval of many mine owners, prospectors, mining engineers and lawyers. It is in its nature radical and fundamental, and still it is only relatively an innovation; since in other countries where mining has been pursued for ages it has been and is the law. The advantages of such a change are so obvious that one is at first thought inclined to wonder that we did not long ago adopt it. First impressions, however, on such a subject are proverbially misleading, and where a system, plainly open to such grave objections, has nevertheless remained in force so long, the prudent critic will withhold his judgment until he has heard from those who know experimentally how it