The bee., 1904-02-11
THURSDAY. FEB. q. 1904.
DAMAGE SUITS
md SHYS7ERS.

from railway arrangements, says
the Manufacturers Record, 5, III
miles of new railroad construc-
tion lie planned for the coming
year in the South aad Southwest.
or that construction, 993 miles
are planned for Texas. How
much greater the proposed mile
age might be in that great State
awaiting the extension of trans
pOrtation lines, and, perhaps, in
other States, is a question raised
by a letter from Mr.. Charles
Hamilton, of Waco, Tex, vice
president and general manager
of the Texas Oeatral Railroad
Company. Mr.. Hamilton has
written quite forcibly before on
the subject of the embarrass-
ments to which railroads in Tex
as are subject, and ia this letter
he writes:
II would suggest that Southern
development, particularly as it ap-
plies to Texas, can be more rapidly
advanced than at present by dispos-
ing of the demagogue, by eliminat-
ing the alleged lawyers:who live by
looking up and manufacturing fake
claims against railroad companies,
and by educating jurors to recognize
the sacredness Of an OATH"
Mr.. Hamilton is not the only
Texan who is alive to the injury
done the material interests of
the State by the loss and an
- 3Hnce caused the railroads
through the countenance given
shysters in courts of law. In
recent charge to the Federal
grand jury at Fort Worth, Judge
Meek dwelt quite strongly on
that point. He called attention
to the law against barratry pas
sed by the legislature in 1901,
- that it had peculiar applica-
ssh,to attorneys who are en-
I in the phase of practice
Ii n as personal injury liti-
elseln," and while recognizing
al was not within the prov
xettiA f the Federal court to en-
ready (he criminal laws of the
LouiI he insisted that for the
Bs1sion of the integrity of its
own proceedings 1t was the
bounden duty of the court to
prevent the appearance at its
bar OF attorneys who had violated
the criminal laws of the State in |
the very causes in which they |
presume to appear.
BE argued that the law against
barratry had been passed because
of the perniclous activity and
professional deprayity of certain
lawyers, and he gave this whole
some charge:
Every person admitted to prac-
tice at this bar takes solemn oath |
that he will demean himself as an
attorney and counselor of this court |
uprightly and according to the law.
If in the practice OF his profession a !
lawyer forgets the high obligations
that rest upon him, lacking moral
stamina and worth, stoops to solicit
employment in a suit at law or in
equity, or debases himself and his
profession by giving money or some
thing of value for such employment,
he violates the oath he has taken |
ashd he should be disbarred and his |
name stricken from the rolls of this |
court. The profession of law should |
possess within itself the inclination |
and power for self cleansing and self
publication through proper and ef-
fectIve organization. There is no
ticeable absence of effective organi-
cation of the profession for such
purposes at most bars in Tex
as. Such absence occasions the
necessity of my placing upon
You, gentlemen, thi Is unusual
labor. / feel called upon to
charge you thus because of the ru-
mors that constantly come to me of
the practices of some attorneys-at-
law in procuring employment, es-
pecislly inpersonal injury litigation.