Connecticut western news., 1884-01-23
Too Many Lawyers and Doctors.

The Albany EUentng Journal, in the course of an article upon the overcrowd- ing of the legal profession, presents some figures which are fairly startling, 1t afflrms that there are 10000 lawyers in the State of New York alone, while in all Great Britain and Ireland, with population of nearly 37,000,00 there are only about 12,000 lawyers. In the United States, with q population in round numbers of 0,000. 900, there arc 65,000 lawyers, and the number steadily increases every year. To sum 1t up, there is one lawyer to every ,000 people Tn Great Britain and one to every 500 in the United States
 That there is work enough of legit- innate kind for all these lawyers it is absurd to claim. It is impossible for them all to make an honest living. There are some wealthy lawyers, and these are the most eminent, but they are few. The larger class make a fair living, and there are numerous others whose only hope of success is in stirring up litigation out of which they may get stealings Every city is flooded with hordes of seedy, shiftless shysters, who hang around court.rooms to pick up cases md make small fees out of poor and foolish clients by various tricks and devices. They are notoriously dishon- est. They may not have been so at first, but they are forced into it be- cause there is not honest work enough for them to do. They are sharp, shrewd men, and their poverty makes them still sharper in manufacturing Q busi- ness which does not legitimately exist. They do it by exciting the cupid ity or revenge of clients, and when once they have inveigled them into litigation they keep them in by every trick and technicality known to their canning invention that will prolong their cases The result is that large pro. portion of the law business of the coun. try is fictitious and artificial, and would never appear upon the doekets of courts if it had not been dragged there neck and heels by these cunning shysters. If one-half of the lawyers were com. pelled to take down their shingles and go into some other business it would be a blessing to the public and would save thousands of dollars to poor men who are now urged into litigation by these conscienceless mischief.makcrs upon promises of large profit Every lawyer of prominence knows that his profes, sion is crowded with these fellows, and he knows equally we'll that their efforts tend to bring the profession into dis. grace. He also knows that they can not make living honestly.
 The law is not the only profession that is overcrowded. Medicine is equally disgraced Its ranks are filled with quaeks. For every honest, learned physician, there are half a dozen dis. honest and ignorant ones. They dc not make so much money perhaps as the legal shysters, but they are 0 more dangerous class, as they have the lives of their patients in their hands, and it is no matter to them whether they are sacrificed or not, provided they get theil fees. The clerical profession is too full but it is not overcrowded, for ignoranc, in the pulpit invites certain poverty anC there are no tricks by which poor, ig norant clergyman can ever hope Co on rich himself- Chicago Tribune.