Statement on Signing Bill Giving the Supreme Court Regulatory Power in the Federal Courts.

The enactment by the Congress of this measure, which gives to the Supreme Court of the United States the power to prescribe uniform rules of practice and procedure for the Federal Courts in actions at law, represents one of the most important steps ever taken in the improvement of our judicial system. Its significance at once will be recognized in informed legal circles.

The procedure which has heretofore been followed is based upon a complicated patchwork of disconnected statutes and judicial decisions, superimposed upon the varying practice in the several States. The confusion resulting from such an unscientific system has, of necessity, been productive of uncertainty, expense and delay.

For the complicated procedure of the past, we now propose to substitute a simplified, flexible, scientific, correlated system of procedural rules prescribed by the Supreme Court. The members of that great tribunal are preeminently qualified to discharge the duty which has been entrusted to them.

All of us who are seriously concerned with the problem of · legal reform and the speeding up of the administration of justice regard the passage of this bill as a distinct achievement.