1929 COMMITTEES

The selection of committees for the work of the Association during the coming year has been perfected by President James W. Persons and announcement thereof is how made. The committee on Uniformity of Practice, under the chairmanship of past president Referee Paul H. King, of Detroit, is actively at work. In addition to the standing committees authorized by the constitution of his Association the appointment of associate editors of he Journal was authorized by the directors and these have Deen named.

Current committees are as follows:

UNIFORMITY OF PRACTICE: Paul H. King, Detroit, hairman, Herbert M. Bierce, Winona, Minn., Watson 3. Adair, Pittsburgh, Cameron L. Baldwin, La Crosse, Visc., Daniel W. Lincoln, Worcester, Mass., Rollin W. now, Dunkirk, N. Y., Forest G. Moorhead, Beaver, Pa., H. N. Edmunds, Columbia, S. C., E. Monroe Baker, Dallas, Tex., John M. Thornburg, Knoxville, Tenn., Walter . Grant, Danville, Ill., Peter G. Honegger, Sioux Falls, .D., William M. Baumert, Aberdeen, Wash., and Ralph D. Quinter, Washington, D. C.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS OF THE JOURNAL: Stephen N. Blewtt, Stockton, Cal., Charles J. Moynihan, Montrose, Colo., Charles A. Burnett, Lafayette, Ind., G. G. Pope, Texarkana, Ark., Theodore Stitt, Brooklyn, N. Y., Edward J. Thilorger, New Orleans, La., John H. Lewis, Minot, N. D., and Mary L. Trescott, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

LEGISLATION: Carl D. Friebolin, Cleveland, chairman, Charles T. Greve, Cincinnati, Fred C. Mullinix, Jonesoro, Ark., Ralph E. Mason, Ellsworth, Me., Nelson P. anford, Rochester, N. Y., George W. W. Porter, Newark, uncan Curry, Staunton, Va., Edmund H. Dryer, Biringham, Ala., Fred H. Kruse, Toledo, O., Carl Wilde, dianapolis, Fred S. Hudson, Kansas City, Mo., and harles Umbach, Lakeview, Ore.

ETHICS: John T. Olmsted, Harrisburg, Pa., chairman, ussell G. Nesbitt, Wheeling, W. Va., Arthur Black, Bosn, John L. Lyttle, New York, George E. Deppen, Sunury, Pa., George W. Craig, Asheville, N. C., Ira Webster, rownsville, Tex., Paul E. Carson, Youngstown, O., Louis Burrell, Freeport, Ill., I. D. Taylor, Oklahoma City, kla., and Earl E. Moss, Los Angeles.

NOMINATIONS: Fred S. Hudson, Kansas City, Mo., airman, A. H. Gray, Great Falls, Mont., Charles P. yan, Fall River, Mass., Henry K. Davis, New York, hn B. Greer, Butler, Pa., Thomas B. Snead, Richmond, a., S. P. Clayton, Tupelo, Miss., George A. Marston, Depit, Leland W. Walker, Somerset, Pa., Donald S. Lamm, dalia, Mo., and Evan J. Hughes, Sacremento, Cal. RESOLUTIONS: Oscar W. Ehrhorn, New York, chairman, omas F. Clifford, Franklin, N. H., Charles C. Cabot, oston, John Keogh, Bridgeport, Conn., L. LeRoy Deinin1, Philadelphia, J. LeRoy Hopkins, Baltimore, James N. alley, Macon, Ga., S. Monroe Nickell, Lexington, Ky., eorge K. Foster, Bloomington, Ill., Frank McLaughlin, enver and T. R. Thomson, Fresno, Calif.

The Credit Monthly, official publication of the National sociation of Credit Men, is received by the Secretary gularly in exchange for this Journal.

LAW REVIEWS

Among more recent additions to law literature are the law reviews published by the law colleges throughout the country. Year by year there has been an increase in the number of such reviews published and in their value to the bar at large. Many of these journals are exceedingly well edited and contain much of interest to the active practicing attorney. Although the number of articles concerning bankruptcy practice and procedure is small, attention frequently has been given to interesting decided cases. These have been considered in case comments. Many lawyers are adding these reviews to their libraries.

In this connection is an editorial in the November, 1928, issue of the Kentucky Law Journal published by the College of Law for the University of Kentucky. It says:

The law review in recent years has succeeded in making for itself a place of importance in the practicing lawyer's library. Leading lawyers of the country subscribe for one or more law reviews, and find that many of the knotty legal problems that confront them have been carefully worked out by experts in the particular field of law concerned, and that their labors in brief making are greatly lessened. Recognizing the great value of these law reviews to the members of the bar, one of the leading service bureaus has, during the past year, extended its field of usefulness by offering to the legal profession abstracts of all the material published in these legal magazines. Through this service a practitioner can easily locate articles that will throw light upon his particular problem.

The editor knows of two cases where the losing lawyer would have profited if he read the law journal. One arose in Nebraska and the article referred to appears in the Michigan Law Review. The only cases and the only arguments supporting the losing side were found in that article, but the article was not seen by the attorney. The other case arose in New Jersey. The problem which the losing lawyer in New Jersey had to face was completely covered in an article in the Harvard Law Review and nowhere else, but he never saw it, and incidentally lost his case.

There are today two well recognized types of law review, the national and the local. The former class makes a nation wide appeal. The problems of AngloAmerican law, as they arise in every state, are dealt with. The latter type deals more particularly with the decisions and questions arising in a single state. Such a review makes its appeal to the bar of its state, and offers an instrumentality through which the ideals and standards of the association may be advanced. It is generally recognized that there is room for one such law review in every state of the union.

Arrangements have been perfected with the publishers of several of these reviews whereby the issues are available to the editor of this Journal with permission to quote from articles and case notes incident to bankruptcy subjects.

Exchanges have been agreed to between this Association and the following publications, Michigan Law Review published by the Law School of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich; Wisconsin Law Review, published by the Law School of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisc.; Boston University Law Review, of Boston, Mass.; Kentucky Law Journal, of the College of Law, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky.; the Iowa Law Review of the College of Law, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Georgetown Law Journal of the Georgetown University

School of Law, Washington, D. C.; California Law Review, of the School of Jurisprudence, University of California, Berkeley, Calif.; and the Oregon Law Review, of the Law School, University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore. In addition thereto several of the law reviews are sending to the editor those issues containing items incident to bankruptcy. Included in these are the Indiana Law Journal published by the School of Law of Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.; the Marquette Law Review, of the Marquette Law School, Milwaukee, Wisc.; the Virginia Law Review, of the Department of Law of the University of Virginia, University, Va.; the Cornell Law Quarterly, of the Cornell University Law School, Ithaca, N. Y., and the Yale Law Review, of the School of Law, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Through the courtesy of the Law Library of Harvard University the Harvard Law Review is also received.

From time to time items of bankruptcy interest as published in these law journals will be reproduced in this Journal.

JOINS ATTORNEY GENERAL'S STAFF

The announcement of the appointment of Referee Charles F. Werner, of Evansville, Indiana, as first Assistant Attorney General of the State of Indiana has been made by Hon. James M. Ogden, the incoming Attorney General of that State. Mr. Werner took office January 1st, resigning as a Referee in Bankruptcy, and will move to Indianapolis.

Mr. Werner came to Evansville in 1907, engaging in the general practice of law and since 1910 practicing for himself. From 1920 to 1924 he served as deputy county prosecutor. He was born December 7, 1878, at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, graduated from high school at the age of seventeen, attended the Wisconsin State Normal College in Stevens Point, of that state, graduating in 1900 and was principal of the high school at Eau Claire until 1905 when he entered the Law School of the University of Michigan. He was appointed Referee in Bankruptcy by United States District Judge Robert C. Baltzell in September, 1925, his territory comprising ten counties in southwestern Indiana. Mr. Werner has attended all conferences of this Association.

STATISTICAL DATA OF BANKRUPTCIES FOR THE

FISCAL YEAR WHICH ENDED JUNE 30, 1928 From the annual report of the Attorney General of the United States for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1928, submitted to the present Congress under date of December 3, 1928, there is published on this page the statistical data as to bankruptcy proceedings. This is from the annual computation made by the Department of Justice is based on the reports of Referees to the clerks of the several Judicial Districts at the conclusion of the individual cases.

From this report it will be observed that 53,064 cases were filed during the year, of which 47,136 were voluntary and 5,928 involuntary. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1927, the number of cases filed was 48,758 so that the year just closed shows a slight increase in the number of cases filed.

The remainder of the report is based upon the number of cases concluded during the year of which reports are made by the Referees to the clerks and no data is secured by the Department of Justice as to the cases filed or are otherwise pending. All this information is gathered wholly from the cases concluded without regard to the time when they arose. In the current report, then, it will be noted that 53,592 cases were concluded as compared with 48,269 for the previous year. Of this number 21,632 are classified as wage earners, 5,681 as farmers, 13,871 as merchants, 1,375 as manufacturers and 1,352 as professional and 9,681 otherwise. This proportion is quite similar to that of the year previous.

The total liabilities as listed amounts to $830,788,611.47 which is somewhat below that of the previous year which was $885,557,335.03. Of this amount slightly over $200,000,000.00 was represented by priority, secured and lien claims, nearly $346,000,000.00 by unsecured creditors who proved their claims which were allowed, and over $275.000,000.00 is listed as indebtedness to creditors who did not prove their claims.

The total amount realized by trustees, receivers and any other officer authorized to reduce bankruptcy assets to cash was $103,692,285.34 which is below that of the previous year which was $112,455,547.53. After deducting the amount disbursed in the conduct of business as shown on the table, the net amount realized for the current year was $90,540,062.03 or about $6,000,000.00 less than the previous year.

Of this amount ($90,540,052.03) $39,172,655.29 was paid as dividends to general creditors, $27,520,750.04 was paid to priority, secured and lien creditors, and $21,512,341.86 represents the costs of administration. For the year previous $43,609,750.80 was paid to general creditors, $28,484,578.92 was disbursed to priority, secured and lien creditors and the costs of administration were reported at $21,342.066.64. It will be observed that the expense of administering 53,592 cases for the past year was almost identica! with the expense of administering 48,269 cases the year previous.

During the past year Referees in Bankruptcy received as commissions and as filing fees for claims $804,341.56 and $790,618.70 as the fee deposited with the clerk at the time of filing. And as special masters, $80,455.71 and other fees reported amount to $58,982.63. This makes a total compensation to over five hundred Referees of $1,734,398.60. For the previous year the compensation to Referees on commissions and filing fees on claims was $774,342.03 and on the filing fee paid to the clerk $659,626.79, as Special Masters $100,283.50 and other fees $52,825.18 or a total of $1,587,077.50. Although the last report shows an increased compensation to Referees, the amounts received as fees as Special Masters is less and this will very likely continue to be reduced in view of the holding of several of the Circuit Courts of Appeal that Referees in Bankruptcy are not entitled to receive fees as Special Masters in any bankruptcy proceeding.

The report further shows the amount expended by Referees on account of their expenses, including that paid for printing and advertising, travel expenses and office, clerical and other expenses.

Receivers and trustees, including marshals, received as commissions, exclusive of the filing fee of $5.00, during the past year a total of $2,733,113.72. The previous year they received $2,698,541.93. Attorneys received for fees the past year $7,680,251.09 which is a slight increase over the previous year which amounted to $7,306,335.43. Other expenses of administration despite the increased number of cases returned was less than the previous year. Last year this amounted to $8,890,302.25, as against $9,237,655.14 the year previous.

It will be observed also that the report specifies the appraised value of exemptions set off to bankrupts in kind which amounted to seventeen and one-third million dollars which is a slight increase over the previous year. The appraised value of the property securing debts of the bankrupts which was not administered in the bankruptcy court which includes property abandoned or not taken into the possession of trustees is reported as worth nearly $25,000,000,00 this past year as against slightly more than $22,000,000.00 the year previous.

Of the cases closed and returned during the past fiscal year 30,405 were no-asset cases. The previous year this number was 28,062.

Of the cases filed during the year several Judicial Districts show a large number. The list is headed by the District of Massachusetts, 2,317, and in order, the other Districts showing at least 1,000 or more new cases are: Northern District of Ohio, 2,270; Northern District of Alabama, 2,161; Southern District of New York, 2,057; Northern District of Illinois, 2,018; Southern District of California, 1,945; District of Minnesota, 1,708; Northern District of California, 1,428; District of Oregon, 1,206; Eastern District of Tennessee, 1,192; Northern District of Georgia, 1,173; Eastern District of New York, 1,135; Eastern District of Virginia, 1,127; and the Western District of Missouri, 1,079.

Inasmuch as the several Judicial Districts vary in size probably a better method of designation is to report the total number by states. In this particular, New York with four Judicial Districts, heads the list with 5,027; and is followed by California, two Districts, 3,373; Illinois, three Districts, 3,324; Ohio two Districts, 3,269; Tennessee, three Districts, 2,608; Alabama, three Districts, 2,687; Massachusetts, 2,317; Georgia, three Districts, 2,243; Virginia, two Districts, 1,959; Pennsylvania, three Districts, 1,841; Minnesota, 1,708; Missouri, two Districts, 1,709; Wisconsin, two Districts, 1,543; Kentucky, two Districts, 1,518; Iowa, two Districts, 1,234; Washington, two Districts, 1,225; Oregon 1,206; Michigan, two Districts, 1,170; and Texas, four Districts, 1,106.

The Judicial District showing the fewest number of Referees during the year is Nevada with 14. The other Districts reporting less than 100 filings are the Northern District of Florida, 36; District of Delaware, 37; District of Arizona, 59; Middle District of North Carolina and Western District of North Carolina, 74 each; District of Wyoming, 84; and the Southern District of South Carolina, 89.

Thus will be readily visualized the extent of bankruptcy references during the fiscal year which has just closed.