Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-26

cheering men, women and children to the
Albert Pike Consistory, where the lunch
con was given at 2 o'clock. One hundred
representative men Of the state sat at
the tables and several hundred others oc-
cupied balcony seats overlooking the
scene.
Judge o. NJ Rose, formerly president Of
the American Bar Association was pre-
sented by the POSTMASTER, President Rog-
ers of the board of trade, and delivered
the opening address. Judge Rose said
that President Roosevelt had proved him
self the President of no political party.
but the President of every man, woman
and child under the protection of the
American flag. The President joined in
the applause which greeted the remark.
The Presidents Response.
The President was wildly cheered as he
responded. He said
I want to say just one word, suggested
by the fact that Judge Rosew was president
Of the American Bar Association and
stands today as one of that group of emf
nent American citizens, eminent for their
services to the whole country whom we
know the leaders of the American bar.
I want to speak as a layman again about
certain services that the learned profess
sion, of which Judge Rose is so eminent a
gree than they now render to the American
people. I know that there is good deal Of
distrust rightly, of the layman who
speaks of law or of theology. But 1 am
going to say just few words a matter
that concerns good citizenship in which
the layman has right to expect leadership
both from lawyer and from theologian.
We have a right to expect from the great
profession of the law a peculiar quantity
and quality Of service to the public. There
are certain abuses In connection with our
whole system of law today which the lay
man cannot remedy, but which l earnestly
hnyn no he V11np nH 10 ~ a
selves remedy. Now here | have got to
speak merely to my fellow-laymen, and
shall have to invite correction.
Our law comes down from time when
the state, the government, was all power
full as compared to the individual; when
the government acted as a plaintiff. and 1T
was necessary that every possible safe
guard should be thrown around TIE defend
ant that he should be given every chance.
and the fear of injustice was a synonym
for fear of injustice to the private citizen
against whom the state proceeded.
The Origin Of Our Laws.
ut came from a time if my memory Of
history is right when about per cent q
am speaking now of the common law) of
any given number of children born in Eng
land were punished by hanging-when
people were hanged for most trivial Of
lenses and when all the machinery of the
law was in the hands of the government
and directed against the INDIVIDUAL, 81
that the one thing that had to be done was
to protect the individual.
circumstances in the past three or four
centuries have wholly changed; but the In
depreciation of the law has not changed
nearly as rapidly. AT present there is not
the slightest question as to the individual
rights being preserved. OF course, there
is the possibility of error in every human
affair; but, speaking generally, the man
accused of criminal wrong, especially the
man accused of criminal wrong against the
public, has every possible chance secured
him, but the public has not got every
chance secured to 1t.
NO greater service is being rendered the
public today than by those members of the
great profession whose good fortune 1t has
been to stand forth prominently identi-
fed with the prosecution of crimes against
the state. When l say crimes against the
state, L not only refer to crimes like those
of bribery and corruption but l mean such
a crime as murder or any similar hideous
msdeed, where the offense IS not merely
against the individual, but against the
entire community Ii is right to remember
the interests of the individual, but it is right
also to remember the interests of the great
mass of individuals embodied in the public,
Ii,