as that recently received from Mr. Hugh Frayne, the general organizer of the American Federation of Labor, indicates that exchange of views might lead to desirable results. However irksome and laborious the task may be, it would be a great service to the country at large if some joint committee appointed by the New York State Bar Association and the other bar associations of the state would undertake to investigate all cases affecting labor or social legislation and publish a report showing the true facts and the principles of law involved in each case. The pity is that many of the critics of our courts are lamentably ignorant of the subjects about which they write or declaim, and--unconsciously and unintentionally in some instances--misrepresent and distort the facts. It will be practicable at the present time to review only a few of the points suggested by the investigations of your sub-committee. The subject of just compensation to employees for injuries received in the course of their work is one of the most important and far-reaching of those discussed by our correspondents, and its increasing difficulties and complexities call for much more study than we have been able to give it. The revolution wrought by machinery, the inevitable dangers attending its use, the crowding of men, women and children into factories and workshops require modifications in the rules of law governing the duties and responsibilities of employers. The rules of the common law, which are now condemned by so many and sought to be cast aside, were originally dictated by the soundest considerations of public policy, of practical affairs and government, and of justice as between man and man. The duties of the master toward the servant, as regulated by these rules, were humane and commensurate with the needs of the times that evolved them, and the rules themselves are still proper and just in the great majority of cases. Under them, the master is required to exercise the same degree of care for his servant that he should for his own safety, and he is bound to furnish a reasonably safe place in which his servant is to work, supply reasonably safe implements and machinery, select fellow-servants reasonably competent and prudent, and, where the nature of the business requires an overseer or superintendent, appoint one who is reasonably competent and prudent. The application of these rules regulating the conduct and duties of the master, in conjunction with the rules regulating the conduct and duties of the servant--such as the assumption of the ordinary risks of the employment, the fellow-servant doctrine, and the rule as to contributory negligence--unavoidably creates extremely difficult and complex questions. These rules are still proper and just in their application to such cases as involve the domestic relation between the farmer and his farm hands, the small contractor and his workmen, the householder and his house servants,