The daily Alaskan., 1909-03-26
LAWYERS WHO THINK
 BACKWARD

President Taft is lawyer. Of his cabinet seven out of nine are lawyers The legal profession numbers about l3O.OOO. or only .oOOI5 per cent of the {, tal population.
 In no other country of the world C courts possess and exercise the powers which the courts do in the United States. They set aside stat utes enacted by congress and the state legislatures. They enioin exc cutiye action. The writ of injunction and proceedings for contempt have been so enlarged that few. if any, phases of government are exempt f:om their enormous reach.
 The courts may not only take away the property, but also the liberty of the citizen if his acts, although in strict accord with statutes duly enact ed. are in conflict with the decree Of the court. And in practice the opin. ion of one judge may be more effect i've than the combined wisdom of con. gress and the president or Of the legislature and governor. Witness Jue federal income tax law, the Penn sylyauia 2.ceuttare law and labor laws iuuumerable.
 And in congress and state legis laures the proportion of lawyers is very great Take any legislative bod with which you are familiar and coun Tor yourself.
 Thus We find the lawyer possessing the reins of government in every di rrcJion. Does this situation make for progress? Is the lawyer better fitted than all others in the community to make laws and administer them? " think not.
 The lawyers vision is backward not forward. His education and pro fessional life have dealt chiefly in pr,. cedents. His criterion is not. wha, Is right? but, What is established?
 While ail other departments of lift have made enormous progress. the aQ minis,raJion of the law lags far be hind. Contrast the advances in chen. istryeugtueeriug,surgery and the pra, uce of medicine and dentistry, tn, methods of news gathering. printing. and publishing, transportation by lanl aud water,wiJn the laws delays and the consequent expense and injustice visited upon every community. W, have purposely omitted those things by which time and space have bee. chiefly aunihilated. the telegraph anu telephone.
 II in his chosen field the lawyer has made such a miserable botch or it, is it wise to turn over to him tn, whole business Of government? Le, the lawyers first put their own hous, in order Let them show that justic, aud not precedent are their chief con. eern. Let them deyelope a higaa standard of ethics. uRtl duty to the state is paramount to duty to client, and they cease under the pretenS, of serving clients to become traitors to the commonwealth.
 When these things have been dono, then lawyers may fairly ask for larS CT opportunities of usefulness.
 In our judgement the failure of the government in this country to be pro sressiye, its failure to meet the reas enable expectations of the common people, and the undesirable fact that it has been the handmaid of vested wrong, are due to the undue influenc of lawyers in government. And We think President Taft has been unfOr. tuuate in that he has ignored our leaders in the other learned profes- sions. in business and labor, and has given such undue prominence to the law-the least progressive of the pro- fessions.-Seattle Star.