Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-28
CoIIege-Trained Ones Will
Solve Great Problems.
so SAYS Mr.. WICKERSHAM
Contentment With Mediocrity Dan.
ger Confronting Democracy.
ADDRESS MADE AT HARVARD
Attorney General Reviews Develop
Utilities in Last Few Years.

CAMBRIDGE. Mass. June 2S.-The col
lege-trained lawyer will solve the great
legal and economic questions Of govern
ment in this and the next generation.
That is the opinion of Attorney General
Wickersham.
He will not be the man whose only &C
quaintance with the principles Of law and
government has been derived from text
books and lectures. Such a man would
not be equipped to cope with them. He
must be the man who has found the "liv-
ing law as 1t has been developed In the
real transactions of men. Except with
possible rare exceptions. the day of the
plodding student who read his Blackstone
in a desultory, unmethodical. interrupted
fashion from the musty shelves of some
practicing counselor is over
The colege-trained lawyer of this and
the coming generations who will solve the
problems Of government Is the man who
has mastered the principles and doctrines
of law as science through the selection.
classification and analysis OF adjudged
cases involving their application.
Qualifications Needed.
The Attorney General. speaking here to-
day before the Harvard Law School AS
ISOLATION on The Relation of Legal Edu-
cation to Governmental Problems" pre-
dicted that the lawyer who obtained those
qualifications would be the man who
could successfully cope with the great
questions which will be presented for So
luton with the growth and expansion of
this country.
ut is only by the Iabors, the thought
and the criticism of men who have found
the living law as it has been actually
0nfin ~
men that our government may be govern
ed and guided on safe and progressive
lines and our Jurisprudence developed
along paths Of natural, sound and whole
General The wise solutions of such
questions as these can only be reached by
men who are able to deal with facts and
principles as compared with Information
acquired and memory.
Mr.. WickerSham made an able address,
In opening he declared he had been able
to obtain scant leisure from the duties
of official life and referred to himself as
IAN overwhelmed public official whose
mind was necessarily crowded with the
prosaic and exacting details of govern
ment.'
"Contentment with mediocrity." Mr..
Wickersham continued lis. in my opin-
ion, one of the greatest dangers which
where. The hope of averting it rests
largely with men of sound legal edu-
cation.
Excellence Is Belittled.
For this same contentment with
mediocrity breeds an impotence with any
sort of superiority. desire to beiittle all
excellence. a readiness to impute wrong
motives to anything not easily under
stood. TO accept calumny as truth, with
out inquiry. and a gradual lessening for
advancement, as it is perceived that
peace. which is often mistaken for hap
piness, is alone to be found by accepting
contentedly place in the undistinguish
ed multitude
Here the Attorney General quoted from
the report of a committee some time
sciences of Harvard, which expressed the
opinion that in awarding high rank or
distinction in college emphasis should be
laid more largely than it Is upon ability
to deal with facts and principles as COM
pared with information acquired or
memory.
1T is precisely that ability which is
the ideal of the legal profession. said
Mr.. Wickersham. land the achievement is
characteristic Of its most honored lead
ers and is utterly inconsistent with
contentment with mediocre things.
Exceptions to Rule.
THAT clear thought. sound learning
and a consummate ability to deal with
facts may be attained without a law
school training is abundantly attested by
many illustrious examples. Many exam
pies may be cited to sustain the theory.
But as early as BlackstOne's day
thoughtful lawyers realized that only oc-
casiOnal and exceptional men accomplish
ed good results by this haphazard sort of
education.
But the tendency Of all collective in
struction is undoubtedly to discourage
the free development Of individual char
acteristics. to induce conformity with
conventional standards and to furnish
the mind with a certain excellent equip
ment admirably adapted to the ordinary
exigencies of life, but not always fitted
to attack and master exceptional diff
culties. The genius of Langdell rescued
the Harvard Law School from that tend
ency.
The rapid growth of our population, the
marvelously developed facilities of inter
course and communication by land and
water and air have given rise to prob
lens Of increasing complexity concerning
the relation of individual effort to the
general public, which, by reason of the
obvious inability of any single state Of
the Union to deal with them, have been
pressed upon the national government for
solution"