The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1902-03-29
The Crowded Professions.
From philadelnhia Ledger.


The New York Tribune, commenting
upon the increase in the number of legal
and medical practitioners in the United
States, observes
I'm American towns and villages the office
signs of physicians are overplentiful already,
and attorneys are so multitudinous that the
prospect of their securing clients enough TO
keep them occupied is anything but encourag-
ing. The outlook for considerable percent
age of the graduates of our schools of medicine
and of law cannot be looked upon as radiant.
Many of them must inevitably pass through
years of hardship before they attain success.
There is much truth in this. The nu-
merical strength of the professions of law
and medicine has been increasing rapidly
in recent years, and there is good ground
for the belief that this growth is outrun-
ming professional opportunities. The as
cent TO professional success has always
seemed to be hedged with difficulty to the
young practitioners TO them the profes-
sions have always been ''overcrowded.
This belief is extending to wider and more
experienced professional circles. Judge
Finch, formerly Associate Judge of the
New York Court Of Appeals, in an address
as President of the New York State Bar
Association, this year declared that the
Bar was overcrowded and that the rush
is an evil. both to the old and to the new
practitioners y His remedy was shigher
preparation and longer lines OF study.
From 1875 to 1899 the increase of law
students in the law schools Of the country
was 343 per cent. Students entering the
profession directly from lawyers offices
would greatly increase the percentage. In
the section on professional Schools in
the last report of the Federal Commissioner
of Education the statement is made that
the number Of students in law Gin profess
sional schools was always less than the
number in theology until the year 1894 4-95;
but since that time the number of law stu
dents has increased rapidly. The law stu
dents in said schools in 1870, as reported
by the Commissioner, numbered 1858.
In 1899 they numbered IL 874, and the
law graduates numbered 3140 The fig
ures show the tendency of the profession
to increase at rate much more rapid than
that of the general population, and prob
ably Of its business.
The grouping of many business establish
ments under single administration, as in
the operations of the trusts, the marked
tendency to concentration of business enter
prises in fewer hands, it is said, are mater
tally diminishing opportunities for lawyers.
The bearing which this tendency has upon
the business of the legal profession is thus
noted by the Tribune
"When competition in business is at fever
heat the rivalries of trade are frequently pro-
life of litigation, which keeps lawyers busy
aud affords them generous fees. The combi
nations, consultations and mergers so char
acterstic of this period of vast undertakings
lessen the list of legal controversies and of
cases in the courts. When scores of mills are
brought together under single control, when
railroad lines abandon contention and are OPP
Grated in harmony, when number of corpor-
atons of any kind are amalgamated or man-
aged by one Board. there is less work for the
LAWYERS ~