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to request the Executive Committee to print the papers for a wide distribution among the membership. While one of the newer agencies of the Association, this Section, in view of the widespread interest naturally attendant upon all utility enterprises and the legal questions affecting them at the present time, has been very active and very interesting.

The various interests and activities of the Association are such that we, in this Section like those of the others, find that the demands so overlap as to prevent the fullest realization of all you would like; notwithstanding this, however, we have been gratified by the attendance and the interest shown in our activities.

National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws:

Henry Stockbridge, of Baltimore, Md.:

I am not going to consume your time in reading this report. The Conference of Commissioners has just finished its 30th. regular conference. During its history it has reported very many bills and of those 295 have received favorable action in the various states. Within the past 12 months, the number of bills adopted by the various states is 24.

The Conference recognized one outstanding fact, namely, that it serves no good end to formulate a uniform act unless it can be adopted by state legislatures and placed upon the statute books. For that reason the Conference this year has directed its efforts toward securing action by the legislatures in the various states upon the acts which have already been passed upon and which have received the approval of this Association.

We now have under consideration a uniform law relating to the duties, rights and obligations of fiduciaries; a law on declaratory judgments; proposed amendments, so-called, to uniform commercial acts; and an act relating to the proper provision for illegitimate children, and also an act to regulate the subject of the operation of aeroplanes in the science known as aviation.

All of these acts are important and relate to subjects upon which interest is increasing, but in view of the policy of the Commissioners they have referred the measure reported-after a debate lasting seven days and not held down to union rules as to time to the committees where those acts originated for further consideration in order to have their work perfected, and a further report next year when it is probable a more full and detailed report can be given.

I beg leave now to present the following preamble and resolution and move its adoption:

WHEREAS, Your Committee on Uniform State Laws has received report from the Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws that it has had under consideration during the last week the various measures prominently known as, first, uniform laws covering duties, rights and obligations of fiduciaries; second, uniform act relating to declaratory judgments; third, proposed amendments to the so-called uniform commercial acts, to wit, negotiable instruments law, uniform warehouse receipts act and uniform sales of goods act; fourth, an act relating to illegitimate children; fifth, an act to make uniform the law of incorporation, and sixth, an act to make uniform the laws relating to aviation; and

WHEREAS, The Conference has, after debating these various acts, seen fit in its judgment, after approving or disapproving various of their provisions and giving clear instructions to its committees in respect to them, to re-commit them to the respective committees for the preparation of further drafts for presentation at its sessions next year; and

WHEREAS, Your Committee approves and heartily seconds the action of the Conference thus taken, your committee now offers the following resolution, to wit:

Resolved, That the American Bar Association approves the recommendation of your committee that the action of the National Conference of Commissioners in these respects is in accordance with good practice and wisdom and is in accord with the views of the Association; and Further resolved, That your committee be continued for further service in the premises.

The resolution was adopted.

Conference of Bar Association Delegates:

Stiles W. Burr, of Minnesota:

The Conference of Bar Association Delegates met here on Tuesday and had a very largely attended and enthusiastic meeting. Delegates were present from 43 state associations, and there were delegates present representing 87 local bar associations, and, in addition, some 20 odd delegates who were not classified at the time these figures were compiled. I think there must have been fully 500 in attendance at the meeting during the day.

No action was taken which requires action by this meeting of the American Bar Association. The resolutions that were adopted were simply recommendations to the constituent associations, and, under the by-laws and constitution, do not require your action.

It may be interesting for you to know that one feature of the program was a conference on professional ethics under the auspices

of the Committee on Professional Ethics and Grievances of this Association, and the discussions were very interesting. Action was also taken, upon the request of the Treasury Department, that will appear in the form of a resolution which will be published.

Amendments to Constitution and By-Laws:

The Secretary:

I desire to say with respect to the proposed amendments to the constitution that were published in the June issue of the JOURNAL that the second and third proposals have been withdrawn. The first amendment-a merely formal one-adding a Committee on Legal Aid Work to the list of standing committees, instead of retaining it a special committee, is now offered for action by this Association. No debate is required on this amendment; it simply changes a special committee to a standing committee of the Association.

The Chairman:.

All in favor of adopting this proposed amendment will signify by saying aye; opposed no. The ayes have it, and it is so ordered. We now come to the reports of committees.

Committee on Professional Ethics and Grievances:

Edward A. Harriman, of Washington, D. C.:

The report of your committee has been printed and I will not delay the meeting by reading it, but will simply state the recommendations that it makes, as follows:

1. That for the purpose of preserving information which this committee may collect from year to year, the Chairman of the committee be instructed to transmit to the Secretary of the Association any letters or documents which may be of permanent value.

2. That the Representatives of the American Bar Association to the Conference of Association Delegates be requested to take up with the Conference the subject of providing for the uniform interpretation and administration of the Association's Canons of Ethics throughout the United States and to report to this Association upon the matter.

3. That this committee be authorized to cooperate with the Committee on Commerce, Trade and Commercial Law in the preparation of rules governing the subject of Professional Ethics in Relation to Trade Associations.

I move the adoption of these recommendations of the committee.

The motion was seconded and carried.

(For Report, see Appendix, page 302.)

Committee on Commerce, Trade and Commercial Law:

Francis B. James, of Washington, D. C. :

The report of your committee and its recommendations are set forth in the report, which is in print. I will simply state that the report shows a dissent by one member of the committee. That member has since reconsidered the two points that he dwelt upon and thinks his dissent not well taken, and he now assents to the report. So, today, it is a unanimous report of the committee.

The committee has adopted the policy of keeping "open house" all the year round. Certain subjects originated by the committee and certain subjects suggested to the committee by the public outside, have been considered from time to time. We have sought to deal with some of those subjects from the aspect only of their commercial side. As a result there have been some subjects touched by the committee, one of which is in part covered by the activity of the committee of which Mr. Wheeler is Chairman, and three of the subjects are those which have embraced the activities of the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws-as a result of which, in a conference had with Mr. Wheeler upon one of the subjects, and a conference with the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws on the other subjects, the committee desires to amend four of its recommendations, viz:

The paragraph entitled "Ninth" on page 18 of the printed pamphlet of reports, Mr. Wheeler reports that a bill in regular form should be drawn, and our committee deems it proper that the subject should not come up until Mr. Wheeler's Committee makes its report.

Then the paragraphs headed "Twelfth," "Thirteenth" and "Fourteenth." The twelfth pertains to the curing of the defect of Section 20 of the Warehouse Act. The Commissioners on Uniform State Laws believed they have made the law uniform on the question of the liability of a warehouse-man for the nonreceipt of goods. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts in 1914, pointed out that the commissioners had not used the proper language to bring about that result. The commissioners have

been busy ever since on the uniform act, and appointed a committee to confer with our committee about it. We ask that the subject be referred back to the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.

The same thing is likewise requested as to declaratory judgments in the state courts, and also as to arbitration. On the subject of arbitration, I want to say that this Association last year specifically instructed the committee to report on arbitration-a subject which had not been taken up by the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws-and the committee at a public meeting perfected a state act upon arbitration, and recommended that it be adopted by this Association.

We ask that the subject of state laws on declaratory judgments and state laws on amending the Warehouse Act and the Sales Act go to the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, and we accompany this request with the suggestion that that body give us prompt action.

The committee believes that the administration of justice can be advanced first by having Federal Statutes and Uniform State Statutes on the subject of arbitration enacted. Likewise they believe the federal judges should be increased by creating a flying squadron of eighteen district judges, as I might term it, that may be directed to move from one part of the country to the other.

There is another subject, namely, some method for the rapid disposition of commercial cases. That subject caused the committee to turn to England to see what they were doing in the matter of the rapid disposition of commercial cases, and we found that the High Court of Justice of England, under the Judicature Act, had by rules provided that they would sit as a commercial court. Our suggestion is that the District Judges, just as they now sit as Bankruptcy Court shall sit as a Commercial Court for the disposition of commercial cases. We have not yet worked out the details of the bill, and we ask for further time. One idea suggested is that if a litigant wants a trial by jury, he must ask for it at the time he files his petition, and that the defendant, when he comes in to file his answer must demand a jury trial if he wishes a jury. If he does not do it, then he is

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