Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-06-07
STUDY
OF LEGAL
SCIENCE
Greater Need of Honest Men
In the Profession

yers had frequently to be easy of
conscience; that he advised them
against the profession of law.
Promptly the same papers that cred
tied the dean with this utterance took
it back and said the dean had said
to an evening class of students, who
were employed in regular lines OF in
dustry. something like this: Il advise
you not to leave your present employ.
ment to enter the law without making
careful examination of your chances
in the profession
This is a partial denial at best. But
even If the dean of law school eau
tions his students against springing
unadvisedly into the profession he is
but doing orally that which he does
formally in his quizzes. No student is
passed to a diploma without proving
himself versed in the law. His fitness
is tested. His very years of study are
part of the process of selection. If
this be right, then it was right for the
dean to say that all men are not good
lawyers; that no man should tackle
the law as a profession without due
consideration.
Besides, the dean is not the only
lawyer to make light of the purely pro
fessional law conscience. No gather
ing of lawyers ever takes place with
out the joke going around about the
man who wins the case over the evi.
dent Justice of the other side. The
very fact that strong corporations
pay big money for strong lawyers
shows that there is something in the
personality of the practitioner that
counts.
Many corporations, many million.
aires, employ lawyers who not only
scheme to show their principals how
to evade certain laws, but go so far
as to get certain laws spread on the
books of state and nation, through
lobbies and what not Litigation is
expensive, and the end of a law suit
is often to the strong without refer
ence to the justice of the cause at
stake. Even the supreme court of the
United States is referred to by the
official guides of the capitol building
as "the court of ultimate guessing"
Law is to the business man merely
an obstacle to be overcome. The laws
of trade are natural, The successful
merchant is the man who best over.
comes them. Law may not be violated
without a penalty; it may be overcome
by either meeting it and making use
of its general application to every
one else, as well as to ones self, or
by thinking up clever way to avoid
it. A man who attempts to carry
ton of freight thousand miles has to
overcome the laws Of nature. He
cannot break any of them.
But If he raises crop of wheat. or
writes an essay for money, or sells a
cow, and with the proceeds of these
enterprises pays a railroad to carry
that freight mile he has overcome
those laws Another man may har
ness himself to a cart and draw a
part of the load over the road by his
own muscle, returning again and again
for the balance. He overcomes the
law also. But which of the men is the
successful business man?
SO in all business. Law is the die.
tate of the people of certain forms to
be observed A lawyer who shows
his client the best way to observe the
law and yet go on in his chosen bust
ness is the successful lawyer-and
that's all there is to the legal profes.
sion today, and all there ever has
been.
In the Worlds Work for June there
is an article on the lawyer of today.
Several facts are shown. The lawyer
OF today is the highest paid brainworlS-
er in the worlds history. Not every
lawyer, of course, but the best of the
lawyers. The growing of the popu-
lation of this country, the growth of
business, the age of corporations has
made a wonderful demand for law
yers. Many times the lawyer of today
is found on the payroll of a business
house, trust company, an insurance
company, a real estate company
title guaranty company, and what
not.
He is not the general practitioner;
he Is specialist. But he had to read