A JUDICIAL REFORM REFERENDUM.
The National Economic League, whose membership includes distinguished jurists, university presidents, industrial leaders and other representative citizens, announces the result of a referendum to ascertain what steps are considered most necessary to improve the administration of justice in the United States. The replies, which reflect representative opinion in each of the forty-eight States, indicate that four reforms are considered to be most urgently needed. The first is that judges should be given greater power in instructing juries. As to this, State judges are almost unanimous, and they have the support of the American Bar Association. State judges, at present, in criminal trials are not permitted to guide the jury as to the weight or value of evidence. The power to do so is particularly sought. Federal judges have it, with effective results. Three other reforms asked for are better methods of selecting judges, higher requirements for admission to the Bar, and giving power to less than twelve jurors to return verdicts in both civil and criminal cases. Reduction in the size of juries has widespread support on the ground that it would tend to remedy flagrant miscarriages of justice resulting from failures of large juries to agree.
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