Arizona republican., 1904-05-17
Faulty Advice From College Pro-
 lessor.

It must be encouraging to a student to be told, after he has put in four years at a university preparing for one of the professions. that he made mis- take in choosing the calling for when he has been fitting himself. It is not wonderful that, as the dispatches re- late "consternation" was caused among the students of the law school of the university of Minnesota, when the dean of the school told them the other day that they would do well to take up something else.
 II wish to advise you to keep out of the law" said William $. Pattee, dean of the law school. Lawyers need not necessarily be dishonest, but frequently a great elasticity or con- science is required. Many of you are too honest to be good lawyers. l am speaking to you from the experience of years" he continued, "and I can only say: Keep out of the law as long as you can. There will be time enough for you to consider it when necessity compels you to think of it as means of livelihood There are many profes> sions in which the demands are not exacting. and in which the lines be- tween what we would wish to do ana what we are compelled to do are not so finely drawn"
 It will occur to most people that the time to offer such advice as this would be before a student took up the study of law. and not at the time of his graduation. Dean Pattee was speak ing to the law students after they had taken their final examination. His statement of facts comprised nothing new. It is an age-old allegation that lawyers must be something less than honest in order to make a great suc- cess, and the contention has been in- dignantly denied by many honest and successful lawyers. Leaving that con- tRaVersE as we find it, there can be no aaRht that the conclusion which Dean Pattee draws from his assumed facts is s1uf and nonsense. It sounds little ahoFt of idiotic tC hear a college profes- snF say to the graduating student, "k0ap out of the profession for which yeR have prepared yourself-that is. keep pQt of it as long as you can. Theys G'ill be time enough for you to censid4f N S'hen necessity compels you to think of it as a means of livelihood" Were the law graduate to follow this advice he would make a monumental failure of his life. Leaving college at 26, G.. let it be supposed that he fol- lows Dean Pattee's injunction and keeps out of the law until starvation drives him to it; during the best de- cades of his earning powers, from 26 to 46, he works for a salary, or for himself, and finally turns to the law! What a mess he would make of it then! To succeed at the law or at anything else, a man must be "diligent in his business" and he cannot scatter his attentions.
 With advice that the young man stay out of the law altogether nobody could find fault. But advice of this kind should be given before a young man begins his college course, not after he has finished it. With the unqualified counsel: Keep out of the law" the judgment of nearly all successful law yers is in harmony. What the unsuc- cessful ones think about it need not be questioned. From one end of the country to the other lawyers complain of a lack of business. Except the for tunate few who represent great cor porations or ether business interests, few lawyers today are getting the in- come they received ten years ago; and before that the law business was even better. Whether the volume of litiga- 1ion is falling off, or whether the num- Der of lawyers increases cut of propor- tion to the business, the fact remains that the legal profession is each year becoming less and less inviting to the young man who is about to decide what his life work shall be.
 But if a young man intends to be a lawyer and has fitted himself for the profession, the time to begin is now not at some indefinite time in the fu- ture when necessity compels him to think of it as a means of Livelihood