Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-09-05
A Better EDUCATION

A BITTER EDUCATION
Fha Great Need of the Lawyer of the
Society. and That Will Ultimately De-
eide tho Worlds Controversies, Needs
to be Educated Up to the highest At
t.inable Standard.
DETROIT, Mich, Aug 3O.-Justice
Brewer. of the supreme court of the
United States, addressed the American
Bar association on "a Better Educa-
tion the Great Need of the Profession. !"
Justice Brewer showed how the lawyer was
lifted to his proper and accustomed place, and
became the recognized leader Of society This
leadership Of the lawyer Is not accidental nor
enforced, but natural and resulting from his
relations to human society. No one can look
at American society as 1t is to-day, and has
been during the century OF national existence,
without perceivinR that the recognized. per-
sistent and universal leader In social and
political affairs has been the germ Of the green
bag. It was the brain Of the lawyer which
fashioned constitutions and his brain that ap-
plies and makes them useful There was no
physical force to compel his supremacy, and
the lawyer Of the future.to continue the leader.
must be wiser man than the lawyer Of the
past or present
He deprecated technical pleading and ex-
claimed: s'God speed the day when . victory
won by trick snall ruin the lawyer who wins
1t"
dispatch of litigation; he thought a slow pro-
cedure with free right Of appeal from court to
court barely tolerable. when life itself
moved slowly. Now, when all life moves in the
hot haste of a Kansas cyclone. something must
be done to bring the movements of the courts
into harmony with the speed of other things
He said important questions are not rightly
decided unless fully considered. but greater
expedition can be obtained without de-
tracing from fullest examination and
consideration. He would shorten the
time of the process and curtan the right of
continuances. When once a case has been COM
menced he would deny to every other court the
right to Interfere or take jurisdiction of any
matter that could be brought by either party
into the pending litigation He would also
limit the right to review and terminate all re-
view in one appellate court He explained q
method which would make reversals difficult
to obtain, and they should be difficult, he said.
The end of litigation should be Almost always
in the trial court AS at present .practiced We
gre putting too heavy burdens on our clients
as well as exhauSting the patience of the
public.
In criminal cases there should be no appeal
He said it with reluctance, but the truth is
that YOU can trust Jury to do justice to the
accused with more safety than you can an ap-
pelate court to secure protection to the public
by the speedy punishment of a criminal. Bet
ter the occasional blunder on the part OF the
jury or justice of the peace. he thought. than
the habit OF protracted litigation Are We not
in danger of undermining the jury by the free
dom of appeals, he asked: The sense of re-
sponsibility should not be taken away from the
judge and jury. We ought to adjust our
system of Jurisprudence that each juror shall
come to feel that the responsibility for the ad-
min1stration OF justice rests mainly upon him.
The suggested reforms are simply matter
OF machinery The power must be In the man.
The lawyer must be fitted to lead and for that
thorough education Is necessary. If the
profession Is to maintain its prominence; If it
Is going to continue the great profession, a
longer course of preparatory study must be re-
CURED A better education is the great need
and the most important reform. The door OF
admission to the bar must swing on reluctant
hinges. and oaly he be permitted to pass
through who has by continued and patient
study fitted himself for the work of a safe
counselor and the place OF a leader. The high
er education to-day was the special need OF the
profession because the law Is a more intricate
and difficult science than heretofore; because
the confidence of the community in the profess
sion should be preserved, and because a law
yerS mistakes are freighted with the greater
possibilities OF injury.
Society each day Of its advancing civiliza-
tion needs and demands a wiser leadership. If
we would have a steady advance in social or
der, We must have an equally constant advance
in the character and accomplishments of the
lawyers. The power of our profession lies not
In the mere number of its members, but in
their learning ald capability. Many ought to
be deferred from the bar. A growing multitude
Is crowdlng who are not ft TO be lawyers. who
disgrace the profession after they are In it. It
would be blessing to the profession. and to
the community as well. IL some Noachian
deluge would enguIf half those who have a
license to practice. He believed the country
lawyer should be fully as well educated in the
law as his city brother.
In closing Justice Brewer said:
1T Is proof of growing confidence In man.
In his capacity for self control that now look
with the full assurance of faith to this dawning
of a day when some great International court
shall come into being whose judgments,
touching no questions fbetween indi-
viduais. shall determine all controversies
between nations and such determinations will
bid the worlds farewell to the soldier.
Out OF the rich brain of our profession shall
be wrought the form and structure of that
court. its fashions and its glory, and the law
vers shall be the Judges thereof