ferentiating between the negligence, the slight negligence of the employe and the gross negligence of the employer. The Supreme Court wrestled with that for about twenty years and they got into an absolute tangle. There was not on the Supreme bench of the State of Illinois enough brains to disentangle that, and there never will be. The Federal law, however, sought to create a forum in which that difficulty may be solved, and they let the jury solve it. Well now, there never was anything that is more reliable, as we all know, than the verdict of a jury, especially where the employer and the employe are concerned. You take a corporation on one side and a brakeman on the other, and if there can be found a jury on top of earth which will say that the negligence of the employe is not slight as compared with the negligence of the employer I have never faced that kind of a jury, and I have faced hundreds of them.

And this law has another provision in it that nobody but a Congressman ever voted for, because I do not believe there are nineteen Congressmen in the whole lot that ever tried a law suit, really tried it, if they ever had they would not be in Congress, they would be in some other business. (Laughter.) They say this, that the jury shall decide just how much shall be taken off the damages of the fellow who has lost his leg on account of his injury. Now can you imagine anything that could measure those damages? I tell you gentlemen, next to the Congress of the United States the Legislature of the State of Illinois beats everything on top of earth. (Laughter.) But the Congress of the United States takes the cake when they undertake to legislate generally for the people of this country. So they passed that sort of a law, and it is the most foolish law, in my judgment, that ever was passed by a legislative body. The jury shall decide how much reduction there shall be in the damages sustained because of the contributory negligence of the employe. You know and I know what they will decide, and that is, nothing. Nothing to come off. The leg is off and that is enough and that is all that has to come off. (Laughter.)

So, on principle, Mr. Chairman, without taking the time of this assembly further, I say I am opposed to these laws.

I am opposed to them on principle, and really, a law that is bad in principle is bad in fact. Now there are a great many laws that might be passed that would help a great many people, but in the passage of laws this thing is always to be considered, whether the ultimate result of that law and the ultimate result of the principle established by the law will be good or whether it will be ill to the body politic. And I believe that the law now, as it is established and has been established by a long line of judicial decisions that the master shall be liable for his neglect to do his duty, to furnish his employe a safe place to work, and safe appliances, etc., shall still be the law and that if the employe is guilty of contributory negligence that he shall be barred from recovery, is the best law to govern the relationship of employe and employer that has ever been devised by human ingenuity. (Applause.)

THE CHAIRMAN: Mr. Horton is not here, is he? Mr. Daugherty?

MR. DAUGHERTY: I want just simply to say that I concur in all that has been said, and take my seat and give the next one a chance.

THE CHAIRMAN: Now gentlemen, we will proceed with the reports. The first committee from which we have not heard is the Committee on Grievances, the report by Mr. Powers.

Illinois State Bar Association:

CHICAGO, June, 4, 1909.

GENTLEMEN: Your Committee on Grievances makes the following

report:

The committee was required to act in but one matter during the past year, viz.: that of charges against W. N. Cronkite, Freeport, Illinois. The report of the committee in that case was filed with the Secretary of the Association on April 8, 1909; and we do not think it necessary to restate, in this report, the issue or our recommendation, but would ask that such action be taken upon that report as the Association considers proper.

MILLARD R. POWERS,
SUMNER S. ANDERSON,
CAIRO A. TRIMBLE.

THE CHAIRMAN: The next is the report of the Committee on Legal History and Biography, by Fred H. Hand.

The Committee on Legal History and Biography respectfully makes the following report:

During the past nine years the personnel of the Supreme Bench has greatly changed. But two of its present justices were members of that court at the meeting of this association held nine years ago, and the junior member then, is now second in seniority. It seems to your committee to be appropriate that more than the mention contained in the report of the necrologist be made by this Association of the passing of these men, who have given the best years of their life to the service of the State.

Five years ago Justice Guy C. Scott of Aledo, in Mercer County, as the junior member of the Supreme Court, spoke for that court, in accordance with the custom of this Association, at its annual meeting. He was then but forty years of age, in the full vigor of young manhood, and considerably the youngest member of the court. It was prophesied by his friends and those acquainted with his ability that Judge Scott would prove to be a worthy addition to that court, which prophecy he soon demonstrated to be the fact. The bar and his associates found that he was entirely worthy of the confidence reposed in him by the people of his district.

Judge Scott's youth made it seem entirely probable that he would adorn the jurisprudence of this State for many years, and his sudden and untimely death, on May 24, 1909, was a great shock to his friends and acquaintances, and an inestimable loss to the State of Illinois.

Judge Scott entered upon his duties as Supreme judge on June 16, 1903. His first opinion appearing in the Illinois Reports is that of David v. People, volume 204, page 479. His last opinions have not yet been published in permanent form.

At his funeral, held in Aledo May 28, 1909, a biographical sketch prepared by his friend and former partner in the practice of the law, Hon. George A. Cooke, was read, and Chief Justice Cartwright on behalf of the Supreme Court, paid an eloquent tribute to the memory of its departed member, at his grave.

In the opinion of your committee these words of the friend and of the associate of Judge Scott should be permanently preserved as a part of the records of this Association, and therefore your committee recommends that they be made a part of the record of this Association.

FRED H. HAND,

ETHELBERT CALLAHAN,

BESSIE BRADWELL HELMER,

CLINTON L. CONKLING,

HENRY B. SAFFORD,

Committee on Legal History and Biography.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY MR. COOKE.

Guy Charles Scott died at Galesburg, Illinois, Monday, May 24, 1909. Of his immediate family there survive him his wife and daughter, his father and mother, a sister and three brothers.

Justice Scott was born in Henderson County, Illinois, August 14, 1863. In his early childhood he removed with his parents to Mercer County and has since made this county his home. He received his early education in the common schools of Mercer County, and later attended Knox College, at Galesburg, Illinois, for one year. He pursued his study of the law in Aledo, Illinois, and in 1886 was admitted to the bar by the court of which he was afterward to become a member. He practiced his profession in the city of Aledo from that time until the month of June, 1903. During this time, by hard and faithful labor and by the proper application of his great natural ability, he succeeded in building up a large clientage and won for himself a place among the able, eminent lawyers of the State. He has served as county clerk of Mercer County and was four times elected mayor of Aledo. In June, 1903, in the fortieth year of his age, he was elected one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois for a term which would have expired in 1912.

As a man and a lawyer Justice Scott has made for himself a name in this community and in the State at large that will ever be remembered and revered. He was a kind and devoted son, husband and father; a man of the highest ideals, and a broad-minded, public-spirited and exemplary citizen. As a lawyer he was ever true to the ethics and the purest ideals of his profession, and having been gifted by nature with unusual ability, he was permitted to attain a degree of success and to achieve for himself a place among the members of his profession which it is permitted to but few to enjoy. His service as a member of the Supreme Court of this State has been of such character that it will not only give to him a permanent place in the history of his State, but has brought honor and renown to the community which produced him and which now mourns so sincerely the death of its most distinguished son.

Mercer County knew Guy C. Scott for the man of sterling worth which he was, and was ever ready to do him honor. The greatest tribute that can be paid to his memory is to recount the fact that, whenever opportunity offered, those who had lived beside him and had known him always, regardless of any faction or affiliation, with good will and unanimity assisted him in attaining his laudable ambitions and rejoiced with him in his successes.

"His life was gentle, and the elements

So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, 'This was a man.'

Chief Justice Cartwright said:

To those who sat with Judge Scott and acted with him in the discharge of solemn obligations to the public and to individuals there comes on this occasion a flood of thoughts that could not be given brief expression; and yet the studied words and lengthened statement that come with reflection and preparation would add nothing of real worth to the spontaneous expressions of the heart.

In the nearest and most sacred relation of life Judge Scott belonged to his family, to the wife and child whom he has left and to whom all human words would seem idle and inadequate. Their consolation must come alone from the words of that One who spoke as never man spake. In the next wider relation Judge Scott belonged to us, as a member of the Supreme Court. It is in that relation that men come to know each other best. It was there that the supreme test was applied and we learned what true worth dwelt in the honest mind and heart.

Whatever his beliefs may have been, and I never knew what they were unless from some things he said at a memorial of a deceased associate, the best evidence that they were true is the fact that his daily walk was in the light of eternal truth, which sheds its radiance on the pathway of every human being who looks upward for guidance.

In his character as a neighbor and citizen he belonged to you, his fellow-citizens of Aledo, and to the people of his district. You selected him as the one to whom you would entrust the decision of questions affecting the public welfare and your own rights; and the highest honor that can be conferred upon any man is to be chosen by a free, intelligent, independent and liberty-loving people, regardless of all other questions, as the one to pass upon their dearest interests.

I have been reminded to-day how great a thing it is that a man should live during all the years of his activities and usefulness in a community like this known by everyone, his life an open book to all, and, when the end comes, to receive such a tribute as this, when the places of trade and business are closed and all the people come to do him honor. In the broadest sense Judge Scott belonged to the State of Illinois, and the State can ill afford to lose such a man as he was.

True friend, faithful fellow-worker, and, above all, exemplar of the truest and best manhood, farewell!

THE CHAIRMAN: Gentlemen, you have heard the report of the Committee, what will you do with it?

MR. BROWN: I move it be accepted and the recommendations adopted.

The motion was seconded and carried.

THE CHAIRMAN: The next report will be the one on ad