Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1903 — CODIFYING STATE LAWS. [ARTICLE]

CODIFYING STATE LAWS.

Yaat Amount of Preliminary Work Found to Bo Nacoooarv* The Codification Commission, since its organisation April 10, 1903, haa been laboriously engaged in trying to cany out the purpose of,its creation. Much time, in the beginning, was given to the adoption of ft plan of work. The work to be done was indicated by the Legislature, but the plan by which it was to be carried out had to be determined by the commission and was not easy. The law of Indiana as flow on the statute books is the work of the revisers of 1881, Judge Frazer, Senator Turpie and Mr. Stotsenberg and of the twelve Legislatures that have sat in the State capital since that date. But aside from this the courts have over and over again construed, distinguished and declared void very much of this legislative work. The result, the commission found, was. a mass of statutes from which it was not. easy to draw out a clear, consecutive statement of Indiana's statutes of 1881 nnd all the laws since enneted have l>een carefully examined by the commission, compared and the annotations entered on the margins of the several volumes. It has been found that notwithstanding the care taken by the able men who constituted the revision commission of 1881 many laws held by the court* to be still in force were omitted on purpose or else overlooked by that learned body. That the present commission might, if possible, not overlook any enactment by the Legislature since 1881 a variety of expedients has been resorted to. A list Las been drawn of the titles of all the session laws .nnd a typewritten copy of this list placed in the hands of each of the commissioners. From this list an alphabetical index of subjects has been made up, referring by volume and pago to every amendment or change on each subject of legislation since 1881 and a copy of this index is also given to each commissioner. The different duplications and repetitions, as well as modifications and amendments of the statutes may therefore be readily * examined and it ia the intention of the commission that no legislative measure, however minute, shall be overlooked. The revisers have been of opinion that not only the laws of this State, but also those of sister States should be examined and th« most important provisions carefully collated so that whatever should be thought most valuable in the legislation of other States might be adopted in Indiana. Extensive abstracts have accordingly been made from the statutes of other States. All the work is preliminary in its nature, nnd the actual work expected of the commission is to follow. The lines of labor have been marked, and the materials in some measure prepared, but the work itself is to build up along those lines and out of this material. However, much of the real work Itself is under wny. The first draft of the several statutes must be subject to revision before the finished product is made ready for the eye of the next Legislature.