REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT LIENS ON To the American Bar Association: Your Special Committee on Government Liens on Real Estate begs leave to submit the following report: At the last meeting of this Association your committee reported that a bill had been introduced in the national House of Representatives to amend Section 3186 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. Said section of the statutes as then in force created a secret lien in favor of the United States upon the property of any person liable for the payment of any revenue tax from the time when the assessment list came into the hands of the collector, even as against innocent purchasers or encumbrancers in good faith for value without knowledge or notice of the existence of such lien, and the purpose of the said amendment was to protect such bona fide purchasers or encumbrancers in good faith for value without notice of the existence of such lien. Your committee further reports that immediately upon the convening of Congress in December, 1912, your committee, through its Chairman, again took up the subject of the desired legislation with Congressman John A. Sterling, of Illinois, and the bill, with some modifications, has finally become a law, having passed both houses of Congress and on March 4, 1913, the same was duly approved by the President. The bill as passed is Public No. 451 and is entitled, "An Act to amend section thirty-one hundred and eighty-six of the Revised Statutes of the United States," and is as follows: "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, That section thirty-one hundred and eighty-six of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows: "SEC. 3186. If any person liable to pay any tax neglects or refuses to pay the same after demand, the amount shall be a lien in favor of the United States from the time when the assessment list was received by the collector, except when otherwise provided, until paid, with the interest, penalties, and costs that may accrue in addition thereto upon all property and rights to property belonging to such person: Provided, however, That such lien shall not be valid as against any mortgagee, purchaser, or judgment creditor until notice of such lien shall be filed by the collector in the office of the clerk of the district court of the district within which the property subject to such lien is situated: Provided further, Whenever any state by appropriate legislation authorizes the filing of such notice in the office of the registrar or recorder of deeds of the counties of that state, or in the State of Louisiana in the parishes thereof, then such lien shall not be valid in that state as against any mortgagee, purchaser, or judgment creditor, until such notice shall be filed in the office of the registrar or recorder of deeds of the county or counties, or parish or parishes in the State of Louisiana, within which the property subject to the lien is situated." Your committee having performed the duty for which it was created respectfully asks that this report be approved and the committee discharged. Respectfully submitted, JOHN T. RICHARDS, Chairman, GEO. T. BUCKINGHAM. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMPENSATION TO FEDERAL JUDICIARY. To the American Bar Association: Your Committee on Compensation to our Federal Judiciary submits herewith its report as follows: It has not seemed wise to your committee to undertake to introduce any legislation into the present Congress up to the present, as this body has been burdened with the many problems of the new administration, including such matters as the tariff and money reform legislation. Until these matters were disposed of it seemed to your committee most unlikely that the subject matter we have in hand would be likely to find any place for consideration. The moment opportunity serves we shall urge upon this Congress for consideration the reasonable increase of the compensation of our Federal Judges all along the line. Your Chairman has made a careful investigation with a view to ascertaining the sentiment of this Congress upon this question and is glad to be able to report there is every evidence that favorable legislation may be carried through ere long, and that at the next Annual Congress of our American Bar Association the efforts of all the champions of this cause may be crowned with success upon our federal statute books. Since the re-appointment of your committee by President Kellogg at the last Annual Congress a number of distinguished practitioners before the Supreme Court of the United States have been gathering contributions from all members of the Bar of the United States in aid of the support of the family of that most distinguished jurist, recently deceased, Mr. Justice Harlan of the Supreme Court of the United States, who was unable to save enough out of his small salary to provide for his family after his death. Recently Mr. Justice Noyes, one of the very ablest men who ever sat upon the Bench of the United States District Court, in and for the Southern District of New York, embracing this portion of New York City, was compelled to and did resign from the Bench with a statement that he did so because his salary was utterly insufficient for his support. These two instances speak more eloquently than your committee possibly could of the crying need that this great and rich and powerful Republic should no longer tolerate this disgrace of an underpaid judiciary, but should now see to it that they have enough compensation to let them live decently and well, and to make reasonable provision for their family after they shall have closed their labors and passed away. Meantime I am pleased to report extraordinary progress in our work with the Bar Associations of every state in the Union. The responses continue to be most gratifying. These gentlemen are all rendering splendid aid in the discussion of this question in their various localities and in aid of creating a healthy public sentiment in our favor. The Chairman of your committee will consider it a great favor if every President of every Bar Association of every state in the Union will make it his business to immediately correspond with him with such suggestions as he may deem wise and proper in the premises. This fight is going to be fought to a finish, and to a successful one, and we propose to continue to make it nation wide. Your committee asks to be continued with leave to report at the next Annual Congress of our American Bar Association. Yours very sincerely, For the committee: EDWARD A. SUMNER, Chairman, New York. J. M. DICKINSON, Tennessee. CHAPIN BROWN, District of Columbia. CHARLES E. SHEPARD, Washington. JOHN W. GRIGGS, New Jersey. REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING. Your committee was appointed (1) "To consider whether some efficient agency cannot be devised to provide the several state legislatures with scientific and expert assistance in the framing of legislation" and (2) report on "the existing methods of furnishing such assistance in the preparation of legislative enactments, together with a recommendation as to the part, if any, which this Association should take in the matter. The most important existing permanent public agencies for furnishing information and rendering expert assistance in the preparation of legislative enactments are the state legislative Reference Bureaus and Drafting Departments. In order to be able to report on the organization, methods of work and possibilities of these agencies, your committee secured the services of Mr. J. David Thompson, formerly Chief of the Division of Documents in the Library of Congress and later Law Librarian of Columbia University. They also secured the cooperation of the Legislative Drafting Association of New York, an organization established for the purpose of encouraging scientific legislation in the United States, which has already furnished valuable assistance to many private and public agencies charged with the preparation of legislation. Mr. H. Goddard, of the Drafting Association, prepared for the committee a summary of existing state laws and rules relating to agencies of this character, together with an analysis of measures designed to establish similar agencies in other states and in Washington. Mr. Thompson visited the Bureaus and Drafting Departments of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, also the Municipal Reference Bureau of Baltimore, Maryland, which, to some extent, renders assistance to members of the Maryland Legislature. The reports of Messrs. |