Attorney-general's Report

Washington, lec. 11.- Attomey-Oen' eral Haimon iu his nnnual report to eongress expresses his satlsfaction at the results so far as obtalned of tüe uew salar; system wfaich displaced the oíd fee sysSom 3ny 1 of the present year. The attorney-general points out two ; detecta in Uip criminal laws to which the aUentiou oí eongress is invitetl. The firat," he says, "is the unnecessary and unfortunate confusión of onr criminal legislation. Cases arlse whi:-'-. ought to be covered hy the laiv. bUi are not, and the same offensc s iilel wlth varioiiK degrees of puní ihment, not determiued by any êjffereacc ' ' criminality, but merely by tlv? fact t"u the varióos statutes í-elating to sp ii ■ Instances of the offenses v.re i'ríf edj by different men and at different t'mes. J "I thlnk that a new crim.-? act a I i j be passed as speedily as possible. whí.li I should contain provisio:i3 simple, c-asily understood and general in thoir scope; ; that a uniform aystem of punishrnent ' should thus b? provlded and that as to cases arising in the future present laws relating to these crimes should be repealed. The woik i-ould be easily and quickly performed by a commia fion. "The second defect is the unfortunate remita of the present law governlng writs of error to the supreme court in criminal cases. Defendants in criminal cases are generally poor. lt is har(f for them to obtain counsel to defend them at home, but ;t is generally bevond their power to obtato counsel to argue their casevs before the supreme court. 1 ihinl; that a transfer of the criminal appeals to ite circuit court ar appe-als, wliii the present sVstem of permltting Important (!uoitions to be presented to the eupreme court hy cellflcation, is higlily desirable." Ou ihe subject of the Pacific railways, the auurney-general says that the report of the Hon. George Hoadley, special counsel for the United States. shows that there is no substantial change in the state of the litigation about the Cnion Paeifio railway and lts branch. On the subject of the apti-trust law the attorney-general says: "The restricted scope of the provi'eions of this law, as they have been cpnstrued by the courts, especially iu the case of United States versus E. tü. Knight company, makes aniendmeuts necessary if any effective action is expected from ihis department."