Nomination of candidates to fill the respective offices may be made at the time of election by any member, and as many candidates may be nominated for each office as members may wish to name, but all elections, whether to office or membership must be by ballot. A majority of the votes cast shall be sufficient to elect to office; but five negative votes shall be sufficient to defeat an election to membership.

Mr. W. C. Fitts: In order to get matters straight from a parliamentary stand point, Judge Almon moves, first, that we take this matter of suspending the regular order up, then follow that, we take up when we get to it, in the regular way, the election.

Hon. E. B. Almon:

The purpose of my motion is

to suspend the rules of procedure

Mr. W. C. Fitts: It does not conflict with any rule

now.

Hon. E. B. Almon: Whether we are going to do it by a nominating committee, or open ballot by the whole Association.

The President: From a parliamentary stand point, there was a motion by Capt. White to recess, which was seconded. Capt. White deferred to Mr. Bromberg to make a personal explanation. Following that, there were various motions made. The question recurs on the motion of Capt. White to recess, unless he gives way.

Mr. F. S. White: I yielded to Mr. Bromberg.

The President: The motion is to suspend the regular order of business.

Hon. E. B. Almon: To suspend the rules of proced

ure.

The President: The question before the Association is on the motion of Judge Almon to suspend the rules of procedure, and to now take up the question as to how the officers of the Association shall be elected.

Motion to suspend the rules adopted.

Hon. E. B. Almon: I now move that when the time comes for the election of officers of this Association, that nominations be made for all the offices by members of the Association, on the floor of the Association.

Mr. W. C. Fitts: I second the motion.

Hon. E. B. Almon: It is to get an expression; it has been the law, but not enforced. Some of its members are in favor of continuing the nominations by committee in open violation of the By-Laws, and the resolution is to say whether we shall go by the By-Laws, or the old method.

Mr. Dixon: The rules were suspended for that very purpose; we have already passed on it.

The President: The point of order is not well taken, as the motion by Mr. Almon is for an expression of opinion.

Motion adopted.

Hon. W. H. Thomas: Along the line suggested by Judge deGraffenreid, I move that the chair appoint a committee to nominate standing committees.

Mr. Fitts:

table.

I move that resolution be laid upon the

Motion to table adopted.

Mr. Brickell: I move that the Association do now recess until 3 o'clock this afternoon.

Motion adopted.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

The meeting was called to order at 3 P. M. by the President.

The President:

The next item on the order of business is the report of the Committee on Jurisprudence and Law Reform, by the Chairman, Horace Stringfellow, Esq.

The Secretary:

I know, as a fact, that Mr. Stringfellow is absent from the State. No report has been furnished me.

The President:

The next order of business is a paper by Mr. Clement R. Wood of Birmingham.

Mr. Wood then read his paper.

The President:

(Appendix.)

The paper by Mr. Wood is before the Association for discussion under the Constitution and By-Laws of the Association.

Mr. D. H. Riddle:

I believe the young man, in his paper, has come just about as near representing my ideas as I could myself. Our Bar Association could do no better than endorse what he says. I have heard the statement that our government consists of three departments -the legislative, judicial and executive. I think if the man who coined that phrase lived in 1912 he would have said that we had no legislative nor executive departments of government,that they were extinct, but he would place considerable emphasis on the judicial. You are as liable to get a bad chief justice of the United States as a good chief justice, they are made along the same lines, and I submit that this country is coming to it, the sentiment expressed by Jefferson in the document read by the gentleman. I am not so particular about recalling the little town officials who have an office, we get a chance to get them out every few days, any how, but I am interested and I believe you will see that the American people are interested in recalling the man that they have no voice in putting in; the man who when he gets in, can stay in until he dies, and who can decide what his own power is, when he gets in. You know who

that fits. It is human nature, and I think I know human nature well enough, including my own, to know that it is not a sound principle of government, and as time goes on it will be demonstrated. To say that the mass of this people have nothing to say as to who gets into this important position, and when he gets in he stays until he dies of old age-and they usually live a long time in a good, soft place like that, and he can say what his own power is in this country. I say that as human nature is constituted that is not a sound proposition. It is a fact that in the making of the Constitution, as you doubtless know, some of the wise men that framed that great document were of the opinion that the judiciary would be the rock upon which this great government would split, if at all. They doubted the wisdom of the constitutional provision with reference to the Federal Judiciary, and time has demonstrated their wisdom. When that Constitution was brand new, when the supreme court justices of the United States were appointed, a number of them, as you remember, resigned that great office, when they understood the power intended to be conferred upon the court, the very men who made it resigned because the office did not carry any power. If a member of that court resigned now he would have the decency not to put it on the ground that he has not any power, and yet the Constitution has not been changed on that subject. And yet it is a fact, as argued by the young man, we want an independent judiciary. He ought to have it to his heart's content. They ought to be more independent than any other officer. The great judge would not only be independent, but would feel his responsibility to the God who made him, and the people who permitted him to stay in office. But that condition don't exist in this country so far as the Federal Judiciary is concerned. While I am not wedded to the recall of judges, I am to the idea that it is not advisable, as history has demonstrated, it is not

advisable, to let him get in without being responsible to the people; to stay in without being responsible to the people, and construe what his own power is. I have no particular objection to recalling any of them—State, Federal or any other kind of judges, if he is a judge of a court in this country, that are the people courts and there can be no objection. I have listened to the objections, and they all seem to be technical. There is no good reason why the people should not get rid of him when they want to. If I were in an office and knew that the people did not want me, I would not want to stay in it.

Mr. Huddleston:

I congratulate Mr. Wood, particularly on the way in which he has approached his subject. The way

to get at the truth is for a man to divest himself of awe and fear. Evidently Mr. Wood has these qualifications for getting at the truth. I congratulate him upon the courage, upon the spirit which has enabled him to approach this subject in all its details with the candor and courage—and in this presence-with the candor and courage that he has shown. There is a great deal in his paper eminently worth discussion. It involves all of the principles of government. Naturally, we have not time at this time to refer to many of them. I would, however, beg the indulgence of the Association for a moment, to refer to and perhaps to emphasize a little what Mr. Wood had to say upon the subject of suffrage. I would like to call the attention of the lawyers here, who represent the progressive and leading element of society, to the fact that the voters of Alabama compose, in. round numbers, five per cent of the population; that the vote in more enlightened and more progressive States-and I say that with all deliberation-ranges from fifteen to twenty per cent. Our suffrage laws-whether so designed or otherwise-operate to suppress the common and the ignorant man.