666
The Green Bag
At the fall meeting of the Patent Law Association of Washington, held October 12 at the New Willard Hotel, the following officers were elected for the ensuingyear: William H. Finckel, president; W. W. Dodge, first vice-president; Walter F. Rodgers, second vice-president; E. G. Mason, secretary, and Charles E. Davis, treasurer. In the hatters' trial at Hartford, Conn., October 28, the counsel for the plaintiffs, referring to President Eliot's characterization in 1901 of the scab as "a good type of modern hero," moved to strike out the words "fore most university," referring to Harvard, and to substitute "prominent." Thereupon a second amendment was made to characterize it as "degenerate," but this was lost. While these records were being read the attorneys for the defendants smiled. They were all Yale men. The Massachusetts bar examination board has passed a new rule that after the first of August, 1910, no candidate shall be examined for the bar who has not studied three full years or its equivalent. The board interprets this rule to signify "three years' study in any law school having a three years' course and holding regular day sessions; or four years' study in any evening law school having a four years' course; or three years' study in the office of an attorney-at-law or else where under proper direction, with not more than eight weeks vacation in each year." Harvard Law School will sustain a great loss in consequence of the resignation of one of the most valued members of its faculty, Professor Jeremiah Smith, to take effect September 1, 1910. Professor Smith was graduated from Harvard College in 1856 and received his master's degree in 1859. In 1883 he was given the honorary degree of LL.D. by Dartmouth College. He was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire from 1867 to 1874 and has been Story Professor in the Harvard Law School since 1890. At the last meeting of the corporation he was appointed Story Professor of Law emeritus. The method of treating juvenile criminals in England has been greatly changed recently, . the so-called Borstal system of management having been introduced. This resembles in a good many respects the system employed in the Elmira Reformatory and other Ameri can institutions. The principle of the Borstal system is to remove the individual at the critical time from evil environment and to place him under wholesome influences. The system teaches him to use his brains in regular and interesting work; it provides him with a suitable diet, and it steadies his unstable nervous system by physical exercise. It is claimed for these methods that instead of
really manufacturing criminals, as under a system of indiscriminate deterrent punish ment, they at least tend to reform youths predisposed to bad habits and to help them to become respectable members of the com munity. It was announced at Washington Nov. 19 that Judge Horace H. Lurton of Nashville, Tennessee, had been selected by President Taft to take the place in the Supreme Court made vacant by the death of Associate Jus tice Peckham. Judge Lurton, of the United States Circuit Court for the sixth circuit, has held office in his present capacity for sixteen years, having previously been chief justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. He is sixty-five years of age, having been born in Kentucky in 1844. He is a Democrat in poli tics. Judge Lurton formerly had President Taft for an associate on the federal bench, and when Mr. Taft was Secretary of War he recommended to President Roosevelt the appointment of Judge Lurton to the seat since filled by the choice of Mr. Justice Moody. It was thought by many observers that the President, while not particularly 'seeking a Democrat, might be disposed to give preference to one, and several Democrats from the South had been mentioned, in cluding General Luke E. Wright and Secretary of War Jacob B. Dickinson. Others said that the appointment would probably go to a citizen of New York State, Justice Peckham's state and mentioned Gov ernor Hughes, Judge Alton B. Parker, Senator Efihu Root, United States District Judge Holt of New York City, and AttorneyGeneral Wickersham. The last named, be cause he is much in President Taft's good graces personally, was said to be a not un likely candidate. In the South, the bar of St. Louis was strongly in favor of Judge Elmer B. Adams, Frederick W. Lehmann or F. N. Judson of St. Louis. Judge Adams is a member of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the eighth circuit. The Richmond (Va.) Bar Association indorsed Judge Erskine Mayo Ross of Los Angeles, Cal., of the Umted States Circuit Court of Appeals for the ninth circuit, for the honor. Judge Ross, before he went West in 1869 and rose to the Supreme bench of California, was a young attorney in Richmond. In West Virginia there was popular support of Judge Alston Gordon Dayton of the United States District Court in that state. Secretary of State Knox, having already once declined appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court, was not seriously mentioned. Solicitor-General Lloyd W. Bowers was prominently mentioned. Others proposed were: Chief Justice Simeon E. Baldwin of Connecticut, Governor Fort of New Jersey, Henry M. Hoyt, counselor for the State Department, Interstate Com merce Commissioners James S. Harlan and Charles A. Prouty, and Justice S. L. Mestrezat of Pittsburgh, Pa.
