Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-06-29
COLLEGE TRAINED LAWYER
Will Solve Great Problems Of Govern
r,ent Says Wiekersham.

Cambridge, Mass, June 28.-The coHese
trained lawyer will solve the great legal
and economic questions of government IN
,h,s and the next generation. That IS
tho oninion of Attorney General Wicker
sham.
He will not be the man whose only ac-
auaintance with the principles OF law ana
government has been derived from text
books and lectures such man Would
not be equipped to cope with them. lie
must be the man who has found the Nv
Ing law as it has been developed in the
real transactions of men. Except with
pessible rare exceptions. the day OF the
plodding student who read his Black
stone in a desultory. unmethodical, in
terrupted fashion from the musty shelves
of some practicing counsellor, is over.
The college trained lawyer of this and
the coming generations who will solve
the problems of government Is the man
who has mastered the principles and doc
trines of law as a science through the Sc
lection, classification and analysis of ad-
Judged cases involving their application.
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 obtains those
Qualifications. will be the man who can
successfully cope with the great ques-
tons which will be presented for solu-
tion with the growth and expansion of
this country.
.It is only by the labors, the thought
and the criticism of men who have found
hau hapn aptnally
developed by the real transactions OF
men--that our government may be gov
erned and guided on safe and progressive
lines and our Jurisprudence developed
along paths of natural, sound and whole
some growth" declared the Attorney
General. The wise solutions of such
questions as these can only be reached
nv men who are able to deal with facts
and principles as compared with infor-
nation acquired and memory
Mr. Wfckersham made an able address,
In his opening words he declared he had
been able to obtain scant leisure from
the duties of official life and referred to
himself as IAN overburdened public Off
cial whose mind was necessarily crowd
ed with the prosaic, and exacting details
OF government
'Contentment with medfocrity," Mr..
wickersham continued. lis in my opinion
one Of tie greatest dangers which con-
fronts successful democracy everywhere.
The hope of averting it rests largely with
men Of sound legal education.
For this same contentment with med
iocrity breeds an impatience with any
sort of superiority. desire to belittle all
excellence. 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 1t Is perceived that
peace which Is often mistaken for happi
ness, Is alone to he found by accepting
cGntentedly a place in the undistingnisked
multitude"
Here the attorney general quoted from
theereport of committee some time ago
appointed by the faculty of arts and sci
cnees 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
10 deaf 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.
Wichersham, land the achievement is
characteristic of its most honored leaders
and is utterly inconsistent with con-
tentment with mediocre things.
That clear thought. sound learning
andA consumate ability to deal with facts
may be attained without a law school
training Is abundantly attested by many
iiustratrious examples. Many examples
may be cited to sustain the theory But
as early as Blackstones day. thoughtful
lawyers realized that only occasional and
exceptional men accomplished good re-
suits by this haphazard sort of educa-
ton.
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
3ment, admirably adapted to the ordinary
exigencies of life hut not always fitted to
attack and master exceptional difficulties
TIE genius of Langdell rescued the Har-
ward Law School from that tendency.