Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1914 — Multiplicity of Laws a Present Day Evil [ARTICLE]

Multiplicity of Laws a Present Day Evil

By ELIHU ROOT, United plates Senator From New York

AMERICAN procedure ought to follow as closely .as possible the methods of thought and action of American farmers and business men and workmen. THE LAW IS MADE NOT FOR LAWYERS, BUT FOR THEIR CLIENTS, and it ought to he administered, st> far as possible, along the lines of laymen’s understanding ail'd mental processes. There is one special field in which I think we can greatly reform ourselves. That is in the application of our rules of evidence. There is no country in the world in which rules fur the exclusion of evidence arc applied with the rigidity and techniealitv obtaining iit tlit* I■ nited States. OUR TRIAL PRACTICE !N THE ADMISSION AND EXCLUSION OF EVIDENCE DOES NOT AGREE WITH THE COMMON SENSE, THE EXPERIENCE OR THE INSTINCTS OF ANY INTELLIGENT LAYMAN IN THE COUNTRY. And as a consequence, while we are aiming to exclude matters which our rules declare to lie incompetent or irrelevant or immaterial, we are frequently also excluding the truth.