The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-07-10
President Busbee to the
State Bar.
Continued from First Page.)

ought to seek and if possible obtain it.
i recommend that this association ask
the General Assembly to enact law Gre
ating some authority as l have indicated
which shall have the power to disbar any
member of the Bar in North Carolina who
is proven TO be unworthy to hold IL
cense from the State. Why should not
this association take an advanced posi-
ton in this matter? Is not the honor and
good repute of the Bar close to the
hearts of all of us? Is not the reputation
OF the Bar among the people vital
matter? Do the lawyers of North Caro-
lima possess it in that full measure in
which they ought to hold it? Do the law
yers of North Carolina stand today as
they did hundred years ago, holding
position of eminence and superiority in
the community in which they live, simply
because they are members of the Bar?
We can regain that enviable position if
we deserve it. Lawyers are always in
the eye of the public. The very nature
of their lives and duties renders this I'M
avoidable. The public are quick to dis
Germ and usually fair in their judgment.
If this association shall stand in truth
and fact for the maintenance of the
highest standard of integrity, for the
punishment of every unworthy man, pun
lshment promptly and justly admins
tered, If it shall make it's constitutional
provision a living and virile rule of con-
duct, 1t will restore the Bar of the State
and the individual lawyer to that position
of eminence and influence among the
people which he held in what we are
pleased to call the good old days If we
condemn every act that tends to the i'm
Iairment Of the highest standard of hon
or and integrity of conduct, we shall
have proven ourselves the faithful custO-
dians of the honor and the virtue of the
lawyers of North Carolina. Can we fail
TO do so and preserve our strength in
the state? Must we retain unworthy
members because it is an unpleasant and
laDorlous task to bring them to judg
ment? L heard 4 distinguished lawyer
say the other day, that from the begin
hing, he doubted the wisdom of the ere
alton of this association. That, while
bar associations might be wise and use
ful in denSely populated communities
and States where personal ties between
members of the Bar were rarely found,
ana where frequently lawyer will not
know lawyer occupying an adjoining
office, Yet in sparsely settled States and
in small cities and towns an association
OF this character was a doubtful expert
mept; that where almost universally we
know each other instead Of reporting
breaches of professional ethics or graver
offences committed by our neighbOrs we
could not resist the natural temptation
arising out of our personal relations to
conceal them; that members of the Bar
in such cases. ana this association which
is but the aggregate of them, lacked in
dependence, and that an association of
this character which failed to speak or
act when action is demanded was worse
than useless l listened to him in Won
der and under protest, but was there not
much substantial truth in what he said ?
tt surely deepened my conviction as to
the necessity for the existence of this |
body and for the faithful discharge of
the duties it has undertaken under it's
constitution and bylaws. There is as
great necessity for the maintenance of
the highest standard of professional in
tegrity in communities like ours as there
is in more densely populated States, and
it is duty devolving upon each one of
us to subordinate personal disinclinations
to the common task of maintaining and
defending the character and the good re-
rute of Us all
Il have spoken of the reputation of the
Bar among the people and it's failure to
exercise the influence which it ought to
possess. When we come to analyze the
conditions we find sundry barriers that
stand in the way. 1t goes without ying
that in the evolution of the Bar during
the past fifty years it has not maintained
that standard of professional ethics that
originally separated it as a profession
from all other occupations We have i'm
bibed to too great an extent the COM
mercial and the speculative spirit of the
age. The fact is to be deplored that in
many sections of our country the prac-
tice of the law is daily more and more
ocasing to be the practice of high pro-
fession and more and more becoming the
mere following of business avocation.
1t is to be lamented that in the great
centres of trade and finance the purely
commercial spirit largely dominates the
practice of the law. 1t has entered as a
cancer into the profession and is rapidly
eating out what was once considered the
very ethical life of the profession. We
seem to have largely forgotten the old
ways when lawyer was simply a man
practicing a profession. For now we find
lawyers subordinating their profession to
tho eXigencies of trade and business. We
find them partners in great financial
firms, scheming devious ways to evade the
law for the purpose of doubtful and
speculative schemes. We find them the
servants of illegal combinations, to the
furtherance of whose interests they are
required to shape their personal and
sometimes their moral convictions; serv-
ing without question as to the right or
wrong of the service; so advising as to
enable. their employers to successfully
effect doubtful enterprises, promoting
plans of pelf by skilful evasion of penal
statutes, becoming mere business ma
chimes and serving without question or
protest.
This is not overdrawn. Sometimes in
this good old State, in many respects
removed from the vicious centres of ag-
grcssive greed. we come in touch with it,
II is an impeachment to the good character
OF the Bar. The people who create and
maintain public sentiment are not blind
They see and remember They know as