The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1901-01-17
THEFUTURELAWYER
The 10th Century Production as
Seen by o. N. Downs.

Az bu6 mandSKa COuuIy OAR Dhu-
quet held Friday evening, January
IL, o. N. Downs responding to the
toast "The Lawyer of the goth Gen.
tury," said:
Mr.. Toast Master and Gentlemen of
the Bar:
Possibilities are so broad and the
scope so wide and grand, one scarcely
knows where to begin or where to leave
off.
THE lawyer of the present and the
future will, no doubt, continue to fill the
same sphere that he has SO far filled !;
the maker and enforcer of the law; con-
| tinue to be the balance wheel of all civ
ilized governments. The man at the
helm of all social and economic affairs
of men.
THE yeast in the dough that creates
all the commotion in the flour mass but
| makes possible, in the end, the perfect
loaf The creator of all just precedents
in the life rules of men and business.
"The history of whoselife' works will
be recorded as the life history of all the
learned and efficient lawyers of the past
| has been written in the numberless vol
| umes, presidents epitomized in all the
law books since the adoption of Justin
| ian code. Yours and mine may be few
because opportunity will limit the num-
| Der of all. Be it but one if it furnishes
life, business or social rule, it will go
down to all time, as monument to
| the one whose brain conceived it, and
whose energy has made it to be writ
ten on the page of the Supreme Court
Report. 49,.
THE Twentieth Century lawyer will
be different from the present one, IN
this, that the lawyer who is admitted to
the bar from this date on will be the
graduate of some law school or univer-
sity, and as the country developes en-
trance into a recognized law school viii
require more and more of college edit
cation. Not that the college-bred law
yer of today is better practitioner than
the offiSe student lawyer, but that the
above is the tendency OF the times and
| legislation.
The profession gives great oppor-
tunity for specialists. the same as medi-
cine or art, or any of life's great trades
and the lawyer of the Twentieth century
| will particularize his occupation. AS the
centers of society grow more populous
you will find the corporation lawyer, the
this you will find all the while, the
criminal lawyer He is born not made.
| The successful one usually is a man
whose magnetic powers are cast around
| those within the sound of his voice, the
| influence of his eye or presence, who
| has the remarkable ability to hypnotic
| the jury the court and the prosecut-
ing witness and his friends whose cum
ming tongue recalls only the incidents of
| the accuSed's good deeds, wise sayings,
pure character and unimpeached bust
| ness integrity and out of the befogged
| condition of the whole case wiring 4
verdict of not guilty from twelve men,
tried and true, whose sworn duty at
the insistance of the public prosecutor
was to convict. Such lawyer does not
| grow, but just happens.
The lawyer of the Twentieth century
| will be as the lawyer of the century
| just past, whose history has now been
| made and is mostly written. A man
without great wealth. Because great
wealth carries with it too many bur
dens of its own, and its possessor has
little time in which to develop the law
yer. So most lawyers of the coming
century will be comparatively poor as
in the past. The lawyer usually relying
upon the stored granaries of his mind,
which is, by patient study and re-
search and OF which no one can rob
| him, gives little heed to the accumu-
lation of great wealth. The profession OF
| the law is not however, bar sinister
to the obtaining of wealth, because there
are those in the profession of law who
| by virtue of circumstances are thrown
into places of great trust and response
| bllities, and thus obtain vast wealth.
But with the wealth obtained, the great
lawyer vanishes and the millionaire APP
| pears, and the bar has thus lost a po-
tent factor and the business world gain
| ed master member.
There is not known in all the other
avocations of men a profession whose
possibilities are so vast as that of the
law. The lawyer who attempts to take
general practice must have positive in,
formation of all avocations Of men ant
the determined rules governing the same
That is to say, he must have knowledge
OF the farm, the mine, the store, medi.
sine, surgery, politics, all the rules oil
society, business and economics. And the
tendency will be to educate the Tween.
tleth century lawyer along all of these
lines before he takes up the active work
OF the practice of the law.
The laymen must be brought to know
and understand that of the lawyer he
obtains expert opinions and advice and
that as such it is valuable thing and
worth tull compensation. And the rule
should obtain that the party advised ex-
poets to pay, rather than that the ad-
| visor expects to get pay.
| The lawyer who has spent the whole
OF strenuous life in obtaining prohc-
iency and library, cant afford to deal
very generously in gifts of advice to the
casual acquaintance and it should never
be expected of him
| The Twentieth century lawyer will
have grasped and solved the great prob
lem of International Law and Jurispru-
dence, and there will, no doubt, be in
ternational legal afiliation and interna-
tional courts embodying all civilized
bodies polite where the differences be-
tween the nations of the world will re-
ceive final review and adjudication.
| "ArbitrationS precede actions in courts
and the nations of the world are arbi-
trating national disputes and grievances
| And the lawyers of the century will for
mulate international courts and judiciar-
les by virtue of which and to which
the nation must perforce appeal as fun
damental law, for the final settlement
of all international disputes and ques-
tons, 1t is the tendency of the times
| and the broadening spirit of modern
civilization, and to the lawyer is the
task and for him it is destiny. Get from
under the driveling silly sentiment OF
self into the broad sunlight of Gods
edict; Mans universal brotherhood to
men, and the way is open and the paths
are straight for the Inauguration and
maintenance of the higher and final tri-