the proposed code, when it is completed by the committee, to the Association and to the Senate and House Committees on the District of Columbia. ARTHUR I. VORYS, ASHLEY COCKRILL, CHARLES W. FARNHAM, RODNEY A. MERCUR. June 14, 1915. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON UNIFORM STATE LAWS. To the American Bar Association: Your Committee on Uniform State Laws has the honor to report its activities for the year last passed as follows: First: The members of your committee availing themselves of the continued and painstaking efforts of the Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, with which they are closely affiliated, and some of whose commissioners are members of this committee, have grasped all the opportunities which presented themselves to bring about uniformity of statutory laws throughout the country, and with corresponding zeal have put forth increased endeavors to bring to the attention of the courts of record throughout the various states, the purposes which the Conference of Commissioners and this Committee on Uniform State Laws are serving, to the end that the courts having in mind their accomplishment, might apply in the rendition of their decisions, such rules of interpretation and take such cognizance of the decisions of other states, than their own, under the various provisions of the uniform acts, as will be most calculated to carry forward the general principle of uniformity. Second: The fact that the committee has presented for your consideration four new uniform acts, is due to the gratifying consummation of the work of the Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, and of your committee, extending over periods ranging from two years in the case of the Uniform Cold. Storage Act to 12 years in the case of the Uniform Partnership Act. In the consideration, study and discussion of the Uniform Partnership Act, Uniform Workmen's Compensation Act, Uniform Cold Storage Act, Uniform Act Relating to the Acknowledgment of Deeds and other Instruments taken Outside the United States, with substantial continuity during the periods above defined, your committee and the Conference have enjoyed the benefit of the services not only of the specially appointed official representatives of the various states, but of many business men of affairs and other lawyers especially interested in, and conversant with, the various subjects dealt with in the respective acts. Pursuant to regular and usual procedure, invitations have been extended by the various committees of the Conference of Commissioners to all those who might by certainty, or by any chance, have a special knowledge or experience to impart to the sub-committee having these matters in charge. The caution and painstaking thoroughness with which the work of the Conference of Commissioners and of your committee has been prosecuted, is, as it would seem, amply disclosed by a reference to the fact that your committee has not given its final approval to any of the four acts in question, until years of study, investigation and discussion had been employed upon each and every one of them. Your committee extends to you, therefore, the assurance that the acts as now presented to you, represent the mature judgment, best experience, conscientious effort and ripe conclusions, seasoned by the time which had been allowed to lapse since their initiation. In order that the results of these efforts may be presented to you in concrete form, copies of the said four uniform acts are annexed hereto, and marked, respectively, "Exhibit A," "Exhibit B," "Exhibit C" and "Exhibit D." Third: It may be of interest to this Association to note that the first uniform act approved by this body has now been adopted in 47 states, territories, federal districts and possessions. Fourth: There has been adopted the Uniform Warehouse Receipts Act in 31 states, territories, federal districts and possessions, and since the last meeting of this Association, one additional state has adopted the Uniform Sales Act, making the number of states, territories, federal districts and possessions which have put this act upon their statute books 12. Fifth Similar and commensurate progress has been made in the adoption by the various states of the Stock Transfer Act, Bills of Lading Act and Child Labor Act. Sixth: As was to be expected, the apparent progress of the work of your committee has been much more rapid in the last four or five years, than in the whole of its preceding history of about 20 years. It was to be expected that much patience and apparently unrewarded endeavor would have to be expended in preparing the ground. It was a long, tedious, and oftentimes discouraging work to induce the various legislatures throughout the country to recognize the importance of the movement for uniformity, and thereafter to avail themselves of the drafts of acts produced as a result of the labors of your committee in this behalf. It may now, however, with confidence, be said that the movement has met with general and thoroughgoing approval throughout the country, an approval which is manifested in many ways, and not least by the cordial commendation given to the uniform acts by judges throughout the country in their opinions on cases which have been before them in the last three or four years for their determination. Seventh: Much has been done, but much remains to be accomplished, and your committee very earnestly bespeaks continued co-operation of every member of this Association, wherever he may be practising his chosen profession, in the effort which we are making to bring about uniformity, both by statutory enactment and judicial decision. Eighth Your committee, therefore, recommends the adoption of the following resolution: Resolved, That the Uniform Partnership Act, the Uniform Workmen's Compensation Act, the Uniform Cold Storage Act, and the Uniform Act Relating to the Acknowledgment of Deeds and other Instruments taken Outside the United States, having been heretofore approved and recommended by the Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, be, and the same are hereby approved by this body, and recommended to the legislatures of the various states for enactment into law. All of which is respectfully submitted. CHARLES THADDEUS TERRY, Chairman, New York, N. Y., DAVID L. WITHINGTON, Honolulu, Hawaii, ERNST FREUND, Chicago, Ill., HENRY STOCKBRIDGE, Baltimore, Md., C. B. NOLAN, Helena, Mont., MANUEL RODRIGUEZ-SERRA, San Juan, P. R., P. L. WILLIAMS, Salt Lake City, Utah, CHARLES N. POTTER, Cheyenne, Wyo. |
