keeping it up to date. Recently an order was placed for the Annotated Reprints of the English Reports. Up to this time about 125 volumes have been issued. This set is a verbatim re print of all the English law reports, from the early cases in Parliament to 1865, and will consist of about 150 volumes when completed and cost practically $750. Each case is thoroughly annotated, and citations are made to other cases when cited, followed, distinguished or referred to. If the legal fraternity will bear this set in mind when having references to early English Cases, they may be materially helped by using the annotated edition. The Chitty, Halsbury, and Butterworth editions of the English Statutes, besides encyclopedias, digests, etc., are also being received as issued. Scores of other valuable sets of like importance, though not so extensive, may be found in the Law Department, and will prove helpful to the frequenter of the library in search of material. Our range of subjects consists of everything conceivable that has been put in print. There are text books upon all leading subjects from nearly all the English-speaking world. It is the purpose of the Library Board to procure all general text books upon all subjects, and purchases are being made of many of the local State publications, principally those upon questions of practice, probate, real property, land title, taxation, and other important topics, especially so from the middle western States. Upon our shelves are statutes and digests from every State in the Union with subsequent session laws, and it might here be mentioned that the State Law Library has statute laws of the several States from the beginning to those of recent date, some of the States being practically complete. Nor is this feature confined to the States alone, for we have nearly complete statute laws of Canada since the English acquisition, and all the provinces; likewise, England with all her possessions over the seas, and not long since we received from South Australia, session laws commencing with 1840 to the present time. The same may be said of Tasmania, New South Wales, Transvaal, Cape Colony, and New Zealand; also all the provinces of India, Straits Colony, Isle of Man, and Barbadoes. We have a splendid lot of the laws of Spain and Cuba; also translations of the civil laws of Germany, France, Mexico, Japan, the Gentoo laws, and Code of Hammurabi, together with an original copy of the laws of Hindustan, and Code Napoleon. Of Hawaii, we have the old "Blue Laws" of 1840, practically all the laws promulgated during the monarchial reign, and all since it became a territory of the United States. We have the Philippine laws since the administration of our Government in those islands. There is also an interesting lot of old Irish and Scotch statutes, dating back to the twelfth century and on down to the loss of independence, together with fine collections of Roman, Civil, International, and Constitutional Law and History. Our legal periodical section is extensive, containing most of the leading publications in the English language, as well as some in other tongues. We have all the West series, the L. R. A., besides the Trinity, and original law reports from all the States and England; also nearly all of Canada and other British possessions, including Transvaal and India. Of the Collected Cases, we have the American and English Annotated, American Bankruptcy, American and English Corporation, Federal, American Negligence, and American and English Railway Cases; in fact, all that are published in that form. On the fourth floor of the library will be found an interesting and extremely valuable collection of Constitutional Convention Journals and Debates. These are very helpful in arriving at a true construction of a statute. In the northwest corner of the second floor is located what is termed the "Literature of the Law", consisting of valuable treatises on the history and development of the law. Among these are Bentham's works of eleven volumes, Von Holst's Constitutional History, Selden Society publications, Newgate Calendars, various editions of the Magna Charta, the old "Blue Laws" of the New England States, Erskine's Speeches, Savigny's Roman Law during the Middle Ages, the Modern Legal Philosophic Series, and many other historical and literary productions. In this same alcove may be found one of the best collections of State Bar Association proceedings in existence. Neither time nor trouble has been spared in collecting these proceedings. They contain some of the best legal literature that can be had. Also, there is here a splendid collection of legal biographies from the days of Bracton to the present time. Before concluding this list, I would call your attention to the abstracts and arguments of our own Supreme Court Reports. It may not generally be known that the Law Library has a file of these abstracts dating back to 1870. These volumes are becoming more and more appreciated, proving helpful and of great service in determining and explaining decisions. The classification used for the law text books is by subject arrangement. For instance: all works under Corporations are placed alphabetically under that subject heading; likewise, Contracts, Evidence, Insurance, Real Property, Wills, etc. The State Law Reports are arranged by States, as are also the statute laws and digests. The original English reports are arranged in order as they are cited; i. e., "Coke", "Common Bench", "Vernon", etc. All public documents are arranged by States except certain special subjects which are classified and grouped. The rules adopted for the government of the Law Department of the State Library are broad and liberal. We have no specialties or pet theories. The general policy is to run the library "wide open". This term is used advisedly and in its broadest sense. There was a time in the history of the Iowa State Library when one was not permitted to take a book from the shelves nor to enter the galleries without permission. A reader was compelled to take a seat at a table, tap a call bell, wait his turn, and not speak "above a whisper". The term "wide open" as here used means that all readers are welcome and that they have free access to the books, whether on the first floor or in the galleries. Courtesy is always extended, and a helping hand is at the disposal of all. Politics, religion or color are not considered, nor are they taken into account. All that is required is honesty and decorum. It was thought wise to couple the Legislative Reference Work with that of the Law Department, as by nature they are coordinate and one is indispensable to the other. The trend of modern research has so enlarged its scope that, starting with the fundamental principles gathered from the realm of social conditions or economic reasoning, one would naturally follow them through the enacted laws to their interpretation by the courts of justice. To successfully administer and for convenience, the Board of Trustees has advised and directed the correlation under the Law Department, of all legal works, sociological, economic, and general documents. So far as direct law is concerned, the Legislative Reference Bureau has no legal existence, although the act of the last Legislature designates the appropriation for the use of the Law Department and Legislative Reference Bureau. It has been an outgrowth rather than a creation. The Legislature gives us an assistant for general and legislative work, but no other provision has been made. It is our hope that the members of the next General Assembly may appreciate the work we are trying to do in this direction and give us additional assistants, enabling us to enlarge the work we are now attempting to do in this Bureau, which is not only helpful to the legislator, but also to you as citizens, lawyers, and jurists. Our aim is to be prepared and to have every conceivable general subject worked out, analyzed, digested, and put in convenient shape for quick and ready reference. We ask the cooperation of this Association in making the Law and Legislative Reference Department what it should be. All new law books purchased by the library are in buckram binding when they can be had in that form. It is becoming the general rule among law book publishers to keep both the sheep and the buckram bindings in stock. The selling price is usually the same, though a slight difference is sometimes made in favor of buckram by the booksellers. We make it a practice to rebind worn and broken volumes in buckram. A good grade of buckram is more desirable than the poor quality of sheep generally used in modern bookmaking. The present tanning process is highly injurious to the leather, causing it to either become hard like paste-board or to decay and crumble. The destructive gases too prevalent in the atmosphere of the West are hard on all book bindings; but, as they seem to have the least injurious effect upon buckram, we have no hesitancy in recommending it as the universal law binding. Too many colors should be avoided, but this is a matter of taste and is easily obviated. It has been my purpose to outline to you some of the salient features of the State Law Library. Great as it may appear to you and great as it really is, yet there are many things we should have and there is much we must do before we shall make it worthy of the good people of our State. If this paper has been in any way helpful or suggestive, I shall be gratified and count it a pleasure to have had the honor and privilege of presenting it to you. In closing, I wish to assure you of my continued best efforts as a public servant, and my desire for even greater accomplishments in the advancement and the opportunities of the legal profession in the commonwealth of Iowa. THE PRESIDENT: Senator William Berry, Chairman of the Board of Parole, has a paper upon "The Administration of the Indeterminate Sentence and Reformatory Law", which is on the program for this afternoon. I have requested him to read that paper this morning, so that we may expedite the work of the session and be out in time this afternoon. As the author, and I say this in no sense of self-pride, I have taken a great deal of interest in the indeterminate sentence and reformatory law and its administration. I am satisfied, from conversations I have had with various members of the bar over the State, that there is a great deal of misinformation running at large in reference to this law, and the administration of the law by the Board of Parole, and so, by virtue of the authority vested in me, I have taken the liberty to ask Senator Berry to prepare a paper upon this subject, which he will read to you. THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PAROLE LAW: Mr. President and Members of the Iowa State Bar Association: For more than sixty years Iowa had been administering punishment to those convicted of crime without any material change of plan or statute save only in prison methods and an unauthorized parole which had in recent years been adopted by the Chief Executives. The Thirtieth General Assembly appointed a Commission consisting of one from the Senate and two from the House, authorizing it to investigate the workings of the in |