The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-06-26

tive Of the situation in all the states:
Connecticut, total membership 276;
lawyers, %, per cent. of total s. Michi-
gan, total membership 1872; lawyers, 2S,
per cent. of total, 21.2. Minnesota, to-
tai membership, 1872; lawyers, 46; per
cent. Of total 25.S. New Jersey, total
membership, SO; lawyers, 80; per cent.
of total, 41.9. Ohio, total membership
$50; lawyers, 40; per cent. of total,
PIT. Pennsylvania, total membership,
254; lawyers, 46; per cent. of total, 1871.
Rhode Island, total membership 10S;
lawyers, 10; per cent. of total H. Yer
mont, total membership, 275; lawyers,
23; per cent Of total, "a wisconsin, to-
tai membership 1888; lawyers, %; per
cent. Of total, 81, showing a decided
fiuctuation in the proportion of lawyers
in different states. 1t may safely be
claimed that the states would be the
gamers if the legal profession were
more fully represented in the legisla-
lures, The first result of such change
would be decrease in the volume of
legislation.
The function of the lawyer in the
state legislatures is to formulate the
phraseology of these laws, to eliminate
those which conflict with each other, to
point out those which are redundant
and trivial, to prevent rather than to
increase the number, and, above all, to
bring the codes of laws of all the states
into something like harmony and con-
sistency. Uniform laws on the great
subject of legislation is the
goal towards which all the states of the
Union must steadily and persistently
aim if we are to expect like conditions
of civil liberty, of personal rights and
responsibilities, and of social progress
in all parts of the Union. 1t is In this
great field of co-ordinating the civil
and penal codes Of all the American
states that the lawyer can render hts
greatest public service and he finds his
best professional opportunity I esteem
lit the duty of the young lawyer to well
come opportunity to serve his state in
| it's legislative bodies. There is no
training open to him which, better fits
him to construe the law and to serve
his clients 1t is also a service he owes
to the state.
| But there is another service, even
more important, from which the lawyer
is too apt to shrink and where his spe-
cial training is always needed and too
often missing. | refer to the minor leg
islative and local bodies and boards,
which SO largely determine for every
community whether its government is
good or bad, the aldermanic boards, the
common councils, the selectmen, the
supervisors, not to speak of the admin
Iistrative and executive offices.
Here, in my judgment, is the lawyer
greatest field of usefulness; here he
ought to be willing to serve the public
even at sacrifice, as his contribution
to the public veal. Service in these
capacities is often eagerly sought by
iothers, not always from the best mo-
tives, and is generally stunned by the
lawyer. Not that he is Indifferent tc
his duties as a citizen, nut rather be
cause he fails to realize that this form
of public service, relatively humble as
lit is, is the place where the community
stands most in need Of the trained and
educated man with true conception
of the proper functions of the public
officer and the limitations upon his
power.
In the earlier days and down to the
settlement of the problems growing out
Iof the ciVal war the great questions
that engrossed the time Of congress
were of a character political or consti-
Itutional in their nature. The lawyer
was peculiarly fitted, by training and
habit Of mind, to deal with these ques.
tons, and he did deal with them II
masterful manner. A striking change
has come in the nature Of the problems
that now demand legislation. All the
great constitutional issues are deter
mined, great economic issues are taking
their place and are increasing the sub
jects of national legislation.
Such matters as the regulation of rail-
way rates, the relations of corporate
capital to public rights and private en-
terprise, the extension Of our foreign
markets, the organization Of labor
questions which have to do with bust
ness. with commerce, with national de
Ivelopment with material growth, Wit
social welfare and progress, are press
ing persistently to the front.
In all these matters the strietly-lege
training is still helpful and, in fact, in
dispensable. But the query may prop
erly be suggested, and more properly 1
this presence than anywhere elst
whether the conventional training give
to the American lawyer is sufficient
broad to equip him for the best dis
charge of the public duties which wi
, continue to fall upon him. 1t is still
course confined exclusively to the tech
nique of law. May not the questio
properly be raised whether, in the mu
/, tjform development of modern civiliza
! ton and the intimate relationship tn
+ lawyer must always bear to it, the spt
IciaI training the law schools give hil
should not be somewhat broadened-
whether he should not be trained in tn
: school of modern economic thought an
along the line of modern business eS
perience, as well as in book and cas-
, law?
No people on the face Of the gloh
: can present such wonderful reoor
of commercial and industrial growt
and prosperity as the people of tn
United States. We have increase
enormously in population, but our In
crease in wealth has more than keI
; pace with our increase in population
Business methods have changed, an
the education and training Of the law