farewell. It is a sentiment, in part, with the sweet subtle influence of a mere emotion, but its truest basis is the mandate of the law. The highest patriotism has ever been obedience to the commands of legitimate authority, for authority is legitimate until it has passed the bounds of reason and endurance, and then revolution stalks to the front. When the things that are Cæsar's crowd too hard upon the things that are God's, the tribute must go to the higher power. But progress, enlightenment and freedom, of which we talk so much, move slowly, taking their time in a calm and self-contained way as sane ideas always have since the world began. Did you ever consider the fact that most of the great struggles of history, and particularly of Anglo-Saxon history, have been over ancient rights and privileges instead of new demands? Such was Magna Charta; such was the great Bill of Rights; and such was the lofty enumeration of principles in our own Declaration of Independence. Gentlemen, our danger is not that we may fail to secure guaranties for newly discovered liberties: The real problem is, how shall we best hold those we have believed to be ours by the prescriptive tenure and birthright of American citizens? Before all other men, the lawyer should stand for the orderly movement of events; the even flow of that great current in which history moves, to consummations better than were dreamed of when the race was in its dawn. There was once a deadly struggle in a narrow pass, between a little band of Greeks and a horde of Asiatic invaders. On the monument to those who died at Thermopylæ, the poet Simonides wrote those lines which will be classic forever: "Go, traveller, and tell in Lacedæmon that we who lie here died in obedience to her laws." And so, Americans died for the laws of the United States at Gettysburg and followed the flag of the Republic through weary hours to the crowning mercy of Appomattox. It was not a wild unregulated impulse that took our volunteers to San Juan and Santiago. They had heard the deliberate pronouncement of a great nation, and they were there,-Spartans of this late day-in obedience to the laws. It is our mission as lawyers, to do something more than try cases. The highest fee we can ever receive, is the reward that is not measured in money, but which must always appear in the account that conscience keeps with itself. We are citizens, and better citizens I hope, than we are lawyers or judges, for the duties of citizenship are greater than any other that can come to us. I believe implicitly in a strong virile patriotism that overrides every distinction of class or profession, and makes us all bow to the majesty of the United States. Kansas, patriotic as she always is, gave her brave sons to the cause, and is now following them with loving solicitude to the uttermost parts of the earth. Some of us are doubtful as to the policy called expansion, but who in the light of existing conditions, will declare for contraction? True statesmanship does not wring its hands over what might have been, but resolutely grapples the problem that is imminent. We might well hesitate before hoisting the flag, but the solemn question is, in the language of our President: "Who will haul it down?" The future must be content; but if I were William McKinley I should keep what the army and navy have won, until the time comes, as it will, to take the deliberate judgment of the American people. The question is theirs, and does not belong to any man or to any party. But while great policies of government are being decided, we shall be going on with our law-suits, vindicating rights and redressing wrongs. Damages, injunctions and foreclosures will have their day, and as individuals, we, too, shall have our day, but The Judge, the Lawyer and the Citizen will be needed-always. The Kansas Courts of Appeals. BY T. F. GARVER. It is now nearly four years that the Kansas Courts of Appeals have been at work. They were created to meet an emergency which called for immediate and decided relief from the accumulation of cases, and consequent long delays of hearings, in the Supreme Court. The law creating these new courts gave to them only a short span of life. They were given to the people of the State as a makeshift, or mere temporary necessity, with express notice that if endured for six years, the second Monday of January, 1901, should entomb them. When, therefore, the Executive Council, selected this as one of the subjects for consideration at this meeting, and requested me to prepare a paper on it, a live, practical subject was furnished to me; one in which every lawyer is deeply interested, and which, at this time, demands attention serious enough to lead to fruitful action. Let us then, briefly, look at what these courts have done, how their work has been received, and what will be the probable situation when the term for which they were created shall have expired. Such an examination will probably disclose the fact that mere temporary expedients of this kind do not meet the wants of the State, and may impress upon our minds the importance and present necessity for further provision by the legislature, now in session, for such a revision and change in our judicial system as will give to the people of the State one that shall be permanent and sufficient for their needs. When the Courts of Appeals were created, in February, 1895, there were pending in the Supreme Court over 2,200 cases; as many as could have been heard in six years. For years, the judges of that court had been doing an amount of work that was an unreasonable tax upon human capacity and endurance. More cases were decided, and more opinions written, in a year than should be required of a Supreme Court of five judges. But the bar is to be congratulated upon the fact, that this superabundance of work was not done at the sacrifice of careful consideration of cases. The high standard of the opinions of the Court was maintained during all those years. Of the 2,200 and more cases so pending in the Supreme Court in February, 1895, 1,586 were certified to the several divisions of the Courts of Appeals, leaving nearly 700 cases still pending in the former court. Since then, over 1,100 new cases have been filed in the Supreme Court. In the same time, there have been nearly 1,600 cases disposed of. There are now about 200 cases remaining for hearing on the dockets of that court, 232 new cases were filed in 1898, and, in addition, 79 cases, on petitions for orders to certify from the Courts of Appeals, which were denied. Of the cases certified from the Supreme Court to the Courts of Appeals, 634 went to the Northern Department and 952 to the Southern. In the Northern Department, 580 new cases have been filed since March 1, 1895, as follows: Eastern Division, 360; Central Division, 160; Western Division, 60; making the total number of cases certified to, and originally filed in, the Northern Department, about 1,214. Of these, 1,021 have been disposed of, leaving now pending in the three divisions of that department about 193 cases, and new cases being filed at the rate of about 175 per year, distributed in this way: Eastern Division, 113. Western Division, 15. In the Southern Department, 775 original cases have been filed since March 1, 1895, as follows: Eastern Division, 240. Western Division, 125. The whole number certified to, and filed as original cases in, the Southern Department is 1,727. The total number of cases disposed of in that Department since the organization of the court is 1,081, there remaining undisposed of about 589 cases, and new cases being filed at the rate of about 200 per year. In 1898 there were filed: In Eastern Division, 68. In Central Division, 94. In Western Division, 26. The figures I have given may not be exact, but they do not vary materially from the actual facts on January 1, 1899, as ascertained from the several clerks of these courts, and show with sufficient accuracy for our purposes, the work of these courts during the past four years, and the present situation. It will thus be seen that the Supreme Court and the two Courts of Appeals have, in the last four years, disposed of over 3,600 cases, out of a total of nearly 4,700 pending therein during that time, leaving still pending upwards of 1,000 cases. Over 600 cases are being filed per year in the Supreme Court and in the Courts of Appeals. At the present rate of disposing of them, by 1901, when the inferior appellate courts have run their time, there will remain on the dockets at least 500 cases, which would necessarily all have to be heard by the Supreme Court. That court would, therefore, at once find an accumulation of work before it which would leave it, in January, 1901, nearly two years in arrears of what it should be, with over 600 new cases each year to swell the dockets. It is evident, therefore, that the existing provisions for the future are not adequate. Something must be done, or we will very soon be in the same unfortunate situation we were in in 1895. What shall it be? The Courts of Appeals have done and are doing a good work. The judges are industrious and painstaking, so far as their opportunities permit. But, I believe I voice the views of nine-tenths of the lawyers of the State who practice in the higher courts, when I say this is not what we want as a permanent judicial system. When it was proposed to devise a legislative scheme for the relief of the Supreme Court, personal and local influences at once thrust themselves to the front, securing the passage of an act which was not, in some respects, what it should have been. To get support for the bill, localities had to be placated by requiring the courts to sit in three different places in each department, making three divisions with a judge for each division. It would have been much better, in my judgment, to have provided for the sitting of the court at but one place in each; such place to be selected with reference to its accessibility and the advantages it could furnish the judges and lawyers. The judges of these courts are required to hold three terms of court a year in each division, travelling from one end of the state to the other, without any provision for expenses, on the meager annual salary of $2,500. As a consequence, each term lasts from two to five days, in the hurried hearing of oral arguments, and then, as a rule, the judges return to their several homes, each one to consider specially the cases assigned to him, and perhaps to make some general examination of other cases submitted. However much the individual judges may realize the importance of frequent consultations and a constant intermingling of work until a final decision in each case is arrived at and the opinions are to be prepared, the necessities of their situation deprive them of it. As a consequence, it is too often the case-for it never should be so--that a decision really represents the study and intelligent judgment of only one man. I am glad to say that I believe the present judges are earnestly trying to avoid this, and that to a considerable degree they succeed. They do this in spite of the conditions surrounding them, and |