of it a mass of contradictions
or overlaying amendments, the first important part of it which came
under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court only escaped being held
unconstitutional by being emasculated. Its other clauses have yet to
face that dreaded scrutiny. Its basic principle has yet to be declared
constitutional, while the only principle which has proved of any value
was law already. This wonderful product of compromise starts off by
saying "Be it enacted, etc., Section I as amended June 29, 1906." It
begins with an amendment to itself. It does not tell you how much of
the prior law was repealed, except upon a careful scrutiny which only
paid lawyers were willing to give. Upon the old Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887, after quoting it substantially in full, it adds a mass of
other provisions, some of which are _in pari materia_, some not; some
contradictory and some mere repetitions. It amends acts by later
acts and, before they have gone into effect, wipes them out by
substitutions. It hitches on extraneous matters and it amends past
legislation by mere inference. Like a hornet it stings in the end,
where revolutionary changes are introduced by altering or adding a
word or two in sections a page long, and it ends with the cheerful but
too usual statement that "all laws and parts of laws in conflict with
provisions of this act are hereby repealed." As a result no one can
honestly say he is sure he understands it, any more than any serious
lawyer can be certain that its important provisions are any one of
them constitutional. And that huge statute with sections numbered 1,
2, 5, 16, 16_a_, etc., with amendments added and substituted, amended
and unamended, is contained in twenty-seven closely printed pages. I
venture to assert boldly that any competent lawyer who is also a
good parliamentary draftsman could put those twenty-seven pages of
obscurity into four pages, at most, of lucidity, with two days' honest
work. By how little wisdom the world is governed! And how little the
representatives of the people care for the litigation or trouble
or expense that their own slovenliness causes the people! For the
necessity of political compromise is no excuse for this.

I therefore urged before the National Association of State Libraries,
at their annual meeting of 1909, that they should use their influence
with the various State governments at least--"1, that all revisions
be authenticated, authorized, and published by the S