new section, to be section seven hundred and forty-one, to read as follows:

§ 741. Written interrogations and answers thereto. At any time after joinder of an issue of fact and before the same is reached for call on the general calendar, any party may, by notice in writing filed with the clerk and served in the manner provided for the service of notices, require an adverse party to answer such questions material to the issue as are set forth in such notice; and such adverse party shall within ten days thereafter file with the clerk and serve on the party so requiring them, answers to the questions. The answers shall be as direct as the nature of the questions permit; and the court may on motion in advance of the trial, pass upon the admissibility of the questions and the sufficiency of the answers, and direct further answers and permit other questions. Such questions and answers may be given in evidence by each party at the trial of the issue, subject to objections as to the materiality or relevancy of the same, provided, however, that if the questions and answers affect the interests of any other party to the issue, they shall not be used as evidence against such other party except upon proof of a service upon him of a copy of the notice.

§ 2.

This act shall take effect September first, nineteen hundred and nineteen.

EXPLANATION - Matter in italics is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted.

EXHIBIT C.

AN ACT to Amend the Judiciary Law, in Relation to the Appointment and Powers of a Commissioner of Conciliation in the First Department.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1.

Chapter thirty-five of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine, entitled "An act in relation to the administration of justice, constituting chapter thirty of the consolidated laws," is hereby amended by inserting therein a new section, to be section one hundred and seven-a, to read as follows:

§ 107-a. Appointment of commissioner of conciliation in first department. The appellate division of the supreme court in the first department in its discretion may appoint a commissioner of conciliation to serve for one year thereafter and to continue him in such service from year to year, or to appoint another commissioner in his place, as it may deem expedient. Such commissioner shall make inquiry from time to time and in such manner as the court may prescribe by rule as to whether the parties to an action pending in the supreme court in the county of New York can be conciliated upon terms which will render a trial of such action unnecessary. Such appellate Division may appoint such clerk, stenographer and other attendant upon such commissioner, and otherwise provide for the administration of his office, as it may deem proper. The compensation of such commissioner, clerk, stenographer and attendant shall be fixed by such appellate division, and all expenses shall be chargeable as part of the expenses for the administration of justice in the county of

New York, and be payable in the same monrer as that of other officials of the same court

§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

EXPLANATION Matter in italics is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted.

The Chairman:

We will now take up the report of the War Committee, of which Mr. Taft is chairman.

Henry W. Taft, of New York:

Mr. Chairman and Members of the New York State Bar Association. Our report has been prepared and printed and is available to all the members of the Association, and I will therefore take the liberty of simply calling the attention of the Association to some of the vital parts of it without reading the report in extenso.

At the last meeting of the Association, I made a report of lawyers' work up to that time. This report continues outlining the work of lawyers during the past year. The number of registrants in this city was about 2,500,000, and in the city of New York alone the greater city-1,400,000. Accordingly, more than half of the work in relation to the Selective Service Law was concentrated in this city. It, therefore, is proper that the work of lawyers in this city should be particularly referred to.

The work was generally attended to under the direction of a War Committee constituted for the city of New York, and being an amalgamation of the War Committees appointed by the various bar associations in the city of New York, and those were all of the associations in the several boroughs of the city. The committees, being seven in number, were united, and they formed one large committee, which engaged very

actively in war work of all kinds. I have appended to this report as a schedule a report made by the executive committee of that War Committee of the city of New York. Naturally the work of that committee has been more comprehensive and more intensive than the work of other similar bodies in less thickly populated portions of the State. I will call your attention to certain features of the report of the City Committee. The bar of the Greater City of New York numbers about 15,000 members, and the associations of the bar in the Greater City have a membership of a little less than 5,000. There are therefore nine or ten thousand lawyers in the City of New York who are not members of any association. Recognizing that fact the Committee first attempted to organize all of the lawyers of the Greater City by circularizing the entire 15,000 members of the bar and inviting their co-operation in the war work which was to be directed by the Committee itself. To a circular letter which was sent out there were received 4,000 replies from lawyers tendering their services as they might be required by the Committee. The responses from those lawyers were placed upon a card catalogue and classified in such manner as to enable the Committee, when occasion should arise, to call upon them for such services as might be wanted. The Committee attempted to do every kind of work for which the training of lawyers especially fitted them. They had not received any express charter of powers, and, accordingly, they tried to make themselves busy and to help out in every possible way. They attempted to assist the national, state and city government, and to extend aid to the legal profession serving in the army and navy and their dependents.

Now, since the return of the soldiers we find that there is a very considerable need for the activity of this local committee for the purpose of placing returning soldiers in offices, and I am glad to take this opportunity to say that we have been

acting as a sort of clearing house or employment agency for the purpose of placing returning soldiers in offices where their services may be desired. We have endeavored to make ourselves useful by advertising in the Law Journal that fact. If any offices in the State anywhere need returning lawyers to aid in their work, if they will communicate with the local committee we will be very glad to give them a wide choice from our list of applicants for employment.

We have been doing all sorts of things in this local committee We called to our assistance 40 or 50 lawyers, who devoted their time gratuitously to the work. Our offices have been constantly filled with women and children and men, relatives of soldiers, asking advice and asking us to do all sorts of things. We have drawn wills and deeds and attended to real estate matters- - all of an exigent character that is to say, we have not attempted to take anything which was of a permanent character or anything where a man was engaged in a complicated legal situation, but we have taken only matters which had to be attended to at once and which the enlisted men had to have done by some one on short notice.

There has been an enormous volume of that kind of work, and it has been done by that Committee through these volunteer lawyers who have aided in the work, and, of course, without compensation. That work has been recognized among the camps and in the government departments and in the army and in the navy; and, accordingly, all of those agencies have sent to the Committee enlisted men and their dependents, and there has been a constant stream which the committee has been dealing with.

We have had to deal with the War Risk Insurance, and with the civil rights act constantly, and see to it that the enlisted men have been protected in their rights which have been created by those acts.