urged that the position of clerk of bills be made permanent, and that the best available draftsmen should be procured for the position, but the legislature has not yet taken such action.

Massachusetts. Assistance in the drafting of bills to members and others is provided for by the Committee on Rules of each branch of the General Court. In the Senate, rules 20 and 21 provide that the committee shall examine all bills, etc., intended for introduction for the purpose of ascertaining: (1) whether the legislation proposed is plainly and specifically stated or already provided for; (2) whether such bills, etc., are in proper form; and (3) that compliance has been had with the rules of the Senate and the joint rules of the two branches. But the committee "shall make no change in the substance or form of any matter referred to them without the consent of the member depositing the same." Rule 33 provides that "bills and resolves when ordered to a third reading, shall be referred to the Committee on Bills in the Third Reading, whose duty it shall be to examine and correct them, for the purpose of avoiding repetitions and unconstitutional provisions, and of insuring accuracy in the text and references and consistency with the language of existing statutes; but in any change in the sense or legal effect, or any material change in construction, shall be reported to the Senate as an amendment." At the beginning of each session an order is adopted: "That the Committee on Rules be authorized to employ clerical assistance." A similar arrangement exists in the House of Representatives with the difference that the duties assigned to the Committee on Rules are specified in the order adopted at the beginning of each session and not in the rules of the House.

New York. The bill-drafting service in New York State is in the hands of the Legislative Bill Drafting Commission consisting of three commissioners appointed by the temporary President of the Senate and the Speaker of the General Assembly. The office of the commission is at the State Capitol and is required to be open from September 1 to the close of the session. The duties prescribed in the legislative act of

February 17, 1909,1 as amended by acts approved December 12, 1913,2 and March 9, 1916,3 are: "1. To maintain an office in the state capitol. . which shall be open from Sep

tember I to the close of the annual legislative session, and for such further time as the temporary president of the Senate and the speaker of the assembly shall direct. 2. Draft or aid in drafting legislative bills and resolutions and amendments thereto upon the request of a member or committee of the legislature or of a state department, commission, board or officer. 3. Advise as to constitutionality, consistency or effect of proposed legislation, upon request of a member or committee of the legislature. 4. Make researches and examinations as to any subjects or proposed legislation upon request of either house or of a committee of the legislature. 5. Examine the general laws and report to the legislature such amendments to the consolidated laws as the commission deems advisable for the purpose of including therein independent general statutes."

An act approved May 3, 1917, provides for the preparation, by the Bill Drafting Commission, of an index of statutes and makes appropriation therefor.

Account has already been given of the legislative reference libraries maintained by New York State."

New York: Columbia University: Legislative Drafting Bureau. The Legislative Drafting Research Fund was organized at Columbia University in the spring of 1911 following the acceptance by the board of trustees of the university of a proposal to donate not less than $15,000 annually for five years for research work in legislation and public adminis

2

4

New York, Consolidated Laws, 1909, Ch. 37, Sec. 24.

New York, Acts, 1913, Ch. 812, p. 2273.

New York, Acts, 1916, Ch. 32, p. 55.

New York, Acts, 1917, Ch. 332, p. 1114.

See p. 361.

This is a reproduction of an article published in Columbia Alumni News, November 26, 1915, by Dr. Thomas I. Parkinson, Director of the Legislative Drafting Bureau. Since this article was written the fund has continued the preparation for the American Bar Association of its annual review of legislation and has been active in aiding public and private organizations in the preparation and drafting of legislation.

tration.1 Seven men, all law school graduates, are devoting their entire time to the work, which is conducted under the supervision of an administrative board consisting of John Bassett Moore, chairman; Harlan F. Stone, Dean of the Law School, and Joseph P. Chamberlain.

The primary purpose of the fund is research in legislation and administration. This involves the study of technical legal problems such as constitutional limitations on legislative power, the rules for construction of statutes and the force and effect of the existing statute or common law which it is proposed to limit or extend by new legislation. It involves also the study of administrative organization and procedure as a basis for determining the best means of providing for the enforcement of a proposed statute and the extent to which provision for its enforcement should be written into the statute rather than left to the discretion of administrative officials. In order that its research work might be kept close to practical problems, the officers of the fund have been glad of opportunities to render technical assistance in the preparation of legislative bills for legislators, other public agencies, or private organizations seeking reforms through legislation.

The determination of the wisdom of the policies underlying proposed legislation and propaganda for its enactment are left entirely to its proponents. The particular work of the fund consists solely in trying to translate propositions of legislation into effective statutes. This is not so narrow a field as one might assume. The drafting of legislation involves much more than matters of form, such as style, arrangement and choice of words. It involves appreciation of the conditions which it is desired to regulate, the means by which the purpose of the regulation can be best accomplished, the administrative organization, powers, duties and procedures which are best suited to the effective enforcement of the proposed regulation, and the adjustment of the proposed legislative and administrative scheme to existing constitutions, statutes and administrative organizations.

In

'When the five years expired, the donation was extended for another period of five years. In the summer of 1917 a chair of legislation was created and the income of the fund, was reduced by the amount of the endowment of the chair.

addition to the legal research which this work naturally suggests, there is also involved the hardly less important research in administration to discover processes and devices likely to result in economical and efficient enforcement of proposed statutory provisions, and the investigation of economic and social conditions to discover the essential characteristics and scope of the evil requiring legislative remedy, and the precise nature and extent of the remedy needed.

A few examples will indicate the general nature of the work being done and the way in which its results have been utilized by public officials and semi-public organizations.

A complete revision of the substantive and enforcement provisions of the New York labor laws was prepared at the request of a legislative investigating commission. This revision was published with annotations explaining in minute detail proposed changes and the reasons therefor.

An index digest of the provisions of all the state constitutions as in force January 1, 1915, was prepared at the request of the commission to prepare for the recent constitutional convention. The work was done under great pressure in order to have it ready for the use of the convention. A limited number of copies were printed by the state, which, after the needs of the delegates had been supplied, were distributed to libraries and educational institutions. It is copyrighted in the name of Columbia University.

In coöperation with committees of the American Bar Association members of the staff have prepared (1) a review of all general legislation enacted by Congress and the several state legislatures at the 1915 sessions, and (2) memoranda for the guidance of draftsmen of legislation which will ultimately form part of a proposed manual of instructions to draftsmen and model clauses for the solution of constantly recurring legislative problems. They have coöperated similarly with the committees of the conference of commissioners on uniform state laws with the result that these bodies have had the advantage of more detailed legal work than they could otherwise have secured, and the fund's staff has had the benefit of the experience involved in this work.

Among the bills dealing with particular problems which the

fund has been called upon to draft or revise are (1) bills to carry out the recommendations of the Senate committee which investigated the Titanic disaster, (2) the workmen's compensation bill recommended to Congress by the Sutherland Commission, President Taft's executive order putting into force a workman's compensation system for government employees on the Isthmus of Panama, and the existing New York constitutional amendment authorizing workmen's compensation laws, (3) the bill reorganizing the New York State tax department adopted this year, (4) the bill creating a New York industrial commission and merging in it the administration of the labor laws and the workmen's compensation laws.

In numerous instances it has rendered technical assistance on legal and administrative problems involved in the program of various semi-public organizations engaged in reform work requiring remedial legislation. In this work the effort is not to secure the desired reform, but to see that the legislation providing for it accomplishes its purpose effectively without necessarily disturbing related principles of law or administrative organizations. Drafting work has not been limited either to New York legislation or to Congressional legislation. Not only have bills been drafted for other states, but the fund is constantly coöperating with public drafting agencies throughout the country in an effort to increase the effectiveness of their work for the improvement of the statute law. A plan is now being considered under which the material and experience of the fund may be put at the service of members or committees of the Congress of the United States.

In conducting their research work, as well as in dealing with practical problems, the members of the staff have not only gained valuable experience, but have also gathered a store of material dealing with problems of political science which should in future be useful to the university. Much is being said and written about university training for the public service. The first requisite of more practical training in political science, so far as a university can give such training, is accurate and detailed data on the organization, powers and procedure of public agencies entrusted with the administration of public functions, whether federal, state or municipal.