The Anaconda Standard

Next week commissioners appointed
by the governors of thirty states will
meet in Saratoga, N. Y., to discuss
measures for bringing about a greater
uniformity of laws in the country.
The movement originated in New York
five years ago and is growing to respectable
proportions. It has been
taken up by the bar generally. According
to an observant critic we are
living to-day in America under a four-
fold system of law—first, the laws of
the United States; second, the statutes
of the several states; third, the common
law as interpreted by the federal
courts; fourth, the common law in
each state as interpreted by its own
courts. As this observer remarks, the
result is a diversity of laws and of legal
decisions which is embarrassing to
business transactions between citizens
of different states, and in such social
questions as arise out of marriage and
divorce, the making of wills and the
inheritance and transfer of property,
work not only confusion but wrong.
The diversity of our laws has been responsible
for no end of vexation and
trouble, and often has worked grievous
hardships. Uniform laws, so far as it
may be practicable, is something greatly
to be desired.