Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-10-12
LAWYERS AND LABORERs.
A Logical Discussion of the Relation Of this
Lawyer 20 Other Clnsses OF Labor.

Lawyer 20 Other Glasses OF Labor.
FORT WORTH, TEX, oct. II, 1856.
To the Editor OF the Gashkfo.
In the discussion Of political questions
upon the hastings and elsewhere, we hear
frequent charges made against lawyers,
as to the part they play iu the creation
and furthersnce of governmental schemes
and among these charges are the follow
ing specifications, viz;
| /. That lawyers are all the tools and
agents of monopoly In some form or
another.
2. That lawyers are Ia opposition to the
rights Of the laboring and industrial
classes, and TO any system OF legislation
for the protection thereof.
8. That lawyers are morally and politi-
cslly unworthy of trust in positions Of a
public nature.
4. That lawyers are chronically In
clined to seek said positions, and have to
great extent monopolized them.
| 8. That lawyers, by trickery, manipu-
late conventions in the interest Of their
| friends and themselves.
affirm that these charges are false in
theory and in fact, even to the slightest
shade thereof, and that reason and expe-
rience prove them to be so, while on the
other hand l affirm, to wit:
J. That lawyers are not the tools nor
agents Of monopoly, and that they are,
both in the theory and practice OF their
| lives, opposed to the exercise OF special
powers and privileges by Incorporated
capital In such q manner as to interfere
with the rights of the laboring and in
dustrial class, or any other Of their fellow
countrymen.
| 3. That lawyers are in favor Of legisla-
tlon looking to the protection Of labor
ers, handicraftsmen and every other class
of American citizens who are being
wronged by monopoly in virtue of its
special powers granted by the govern
ment, and while they would not
cripple capital. they are most
truly and assuredly opposed to capital
GRIPPING labor; and while they would not
cripple labor, they would ask labor not to
cripple capital by an interference with
the rights of property; but to seek,
rather, to inaugurate legislation among a
sovereign people for the prevention, by
legislation, of monopolistic oppression.
| 3. That lawyers have proven, as a
class, to be more faithful in positions of
public trust than any other, and that
egislationiemanatlng from them has been
OF the greatest benefit to mankind.
4. That they are more sought after for
positions Of trust than they seek the same,
from the fact that they are constantly OBJ
serving the effects of law upon the COM
monwealth, and are thereby rendered
efficient in expunging incipient causes
from law which may be detrimental to
the interest of the people, and by their
habits OF terseness ID expression, give
certainty to- statutes emanatlng from
them, and that they have been sought by
the people until these same people now
call them a quasi political profession.
8. That In conventions lawyers simply
exercise the privilege of free American
citizens, and as they take an interest in
their country they always attend them,
which the grumbler never does; and that
lawyers being few, the people could keep
them out of conventions If they desired TO
do so.
/. In what respect are lawyers tools OF
monopoly or the agents thereof? An
agent, either general or special, is
the hired servant Of his prin-
cipal. The servant Of master,
for other things than.defense, will natu-
rally defend the master in other things
outside his special service. The agent is
inclined, as natural rule, to defend tho
general character and rights Of his princi-
pal, although said defense does not fall
within the line of his employment. With
out friction, then, between principal and
agent, this is PROFESSIONALLY the general
rule. or course, then, the rule becomes
intensified when the act of employment is
for nothing else but to defend in the
courts of justice the rights of the prinoi-
pal. Are not lawyers, then, more the
agents of those whose interests are
jeopardized, and whose rights are violated
by monopolistic and Incorporated powers,
than they are the tools OF these powers,
since lawyers for the most part represent
the laboring and industrial classes In the
courts as against aggregated wealth? Thus
they become, both by employment and by
habit, in sympathy with their clients, to-
wit the laboring and industrial classes
Go to the dockets Of our courts and see
how many lawyers out Of eighty-five In
Fort Worth are the hired attorneys of
corporations. Not more than Ten at the
least, and all OF these represent vast
number of clients from among the com
mon people. Lawyers learn to love the
science Of law, and would see all evils In
government corrected by law, Their life,
their labor, their profession lead them to
I desire legal government, with the laws
out of a monarch Cat least in this coun-
try, nor yet out Of the uncontrolled de.
sires and passions of anarchy. They
would see all men have the liberty to do
right; but would see no man have the
liberty to do wrong. Laws to secure
protection to the life, liberty
and property is the ultimate end
Of all governments, Right princi-
pies are embodied in these laws,
and said laws, accumulated from ages of
wise and Just decisions of good men, are
constantly before the lawyer and develop
in him the disposition to relegate all
Lquestions OF difference between man and
man to the halls Of legislation and the
courts of justice. And he, therefore, be-
comes pacific and prudent man in office.
The absence Of law is not liberty, for the
idea of liberty involves the idea of law
and this absence Of law IS nothing but
anarchy, socialism, confusion, where