Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-03-22
Iowa Newspapers

WHAT OF THE LAW ?
TDayenport Times.1

davenport TlmeS.l
Is the lawyer as he has been known
turnout the history of this country
to become thing of the past? Are
there influences at work in the social
development of this country that in
time will make the law as profession
unattractive to the men of the type
who made the profession of the law
synonymous with leadership, social
position, integrity and craftsmanship
in the past?
The ideal of the lawyer has been
to protect the citizen in his rights;
his right to life, unfettered by perse-
cution his liberty, unlimited except
by like liberty on the part OF 9TH
ers: his happiness, unalloyed by APP
prehension of evil or powerful pro-
duce. And having studied thus to be
able to serve his fellow citizens, the
many opportunities to become a lead
err, not only in home affairs, but in the
enactment of general laws, for 1t has
been held that he whose business it is
to protect people by pointing out the
law, is also the more competent to
take part in the deliberation of legis-
lative bodies. Positions of trust and
honor have been given to the lawyer
everywhere.
But the organization of gigantic
corporations, while not fessening the
work the lawyer has to do, has made
him a sort of seamstress to patch up
the torn places in corporate affairs
Many exceptionally brilliant lawyers,
men who have been leaders in their
profession, have become fellow serv-
ants of the head bookkeeper and the
sales agent. They take their orders
from the powerful director, who, be-
cause of his wealth, supercedes the
lawyer in the place of power in society.
The corporation magnate regards his
lawyers as a part of the organization
of his business concern. In the great
commercial and financial centers the
lawyer who is only a lawyer, however
talented he may be, is not so highly
regarded as lawyers were regarded in
the past and are regarded now in COM
munities where there is less. contrast
in the wealth of citizens
And yet so long as there are cor
poration lawyers there must also be
men. of ability, integrity and high
ideals to oppose them. If the rights
of the citizens are to be protected
against the arrogance of mere riches.
against the abuses of power, and
against the perversion of the functions
of government, there must be men of
the law who can and will depend the
weak and the oppressed.
The danger is that some lawyers will
succumb to the influence of the men
of wealth with whom they come in
contact in corporations. Corporations
have rights that must be protected as
honestly as the rights Of individual
citizens, but 1t is we'll known that COR
porations also seek to gain advantages
by technically observing while grossly
the spirit and intent Of the
law. Lawyers who devote their genius
to evade what is the intent of the leg
islatures, state and national, are de-
generates. Mergers and holding cor
porations; private terminals; mid
night schedules, and many other
schemes and devices for producing
conditions favorable to one corporation
as against another and the general
public are the result of the ingenuity
of corporation lawyers. The head OF
a great corporation desires to do a
certain thing and calls in his lawyer
to devise way of doing it in what
appears to be a legal way, and it is
done.
Fortunately only a small percentage
of the lawyers of the country have
thus come under the degenerating in
fluence Of the grasping corporations
The majority yet adhere to the old
ideals, and it is to be hoped that the
ideals of the profession will SO persist
that the truly great men of the law
will not be tempted by great fees to
lower the dignity of their calling, but
will serve both corporations and indi-
viduals only when their rights-their
just and unquestionably legal rights
have to be protected.