A NEW CODE OF LAWS
Dru selected another board of five lawyers, and to them he gave the task
of reforming legal procedure and of pruning down the existing laws, both
State and National, cutting out the obsolete and useless ones and
rewriting those recommended to be retained, in plain and direct language
free from useless legal verbiage and understandable to the ordinary lay
citizen.
He then created another board, of even greater ability, to read, digest
and criticise the work of the other two boards and report their findings
directly to him, giving a brief summary of their reasons and
recommendations. To assist in this work he engaged in an advisory
capacity three eminent lawyers from England, Germany and France
respectively.
The three boards were urged to proceed with as much despatch as
possible, for Dru knew that it would take at least several years to do
it properly, and afterwards he would want to place the new code of laws
in working order under the reformed judiciary before he would be content
to retire. The other changes he had in mind he thought could be
accomplished much more quickly.
Among other things, Dru directed that the States should have a
simplification of land titles, so that transfers of real estate could be
made as easy as the transfer of stocks, and with as little expense, no
attorneys' fees for examination of titles, and no recording fees being
necessary. The title could not be contested after being once registered
in a name, therefore no litigation over real property could be possible.
It was estimated by Dru's statisticians that in some States this would
save the people annually a sum equal to the cost of running their
governments.
A uniform divorce law was also to be drawn and put into operation, so
that the scandals arising from the old conditions might no longer be
possible.
It was arranged that when laws affecting the States had been written,
before they went into effect they were to be submitted to a body of
lawyers made up of one representative from each State. This body could
make suggestions for such additions or eliminations as might seem to
them pertinent, and conforming with conditions existing in their
respective commonwealths, but the board was to use its judgment in the
matter of incorporating the suggestions in the final draft of the law.
It was not the Administrator's purpose to rewrite at that time the
Federal and State Constitutions, but to do so at a later date when the
laws had been rewritten and decided upon; he wished to first satisfy
himself as to them and their adaptability to the existing conditions,
and then make a constitution conforming with them. This would seem to be
going at things backward, but it recommended itself to Dru as the sane
and practical way to have the constitutions and laws in complete
harmony.
The formation of the three boards created much disturbance among judges,
lawyers and corporations, but when the murmur began to assume the
proportions of a loud-voiced protest, General Dru took the matter in
hand. He let it be known that it would be well for them to cease to
foment trouble. He pointed out that heretofore the laws had been made
for the judges, for the lawyers and for those whose financial or
political influence enabled them to obtain special privileges, but that
hereafter the whole legal machinery was to be run absolutely in the
interest of the people. The decisive and courageous manner in which he
handled this situation, brought him the warm and generous approval of
the people and they felt that at last their day had come.