The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1910-06-28
THE CASE LAWYER
IN GOVERNMENT
Attorney General Wickersham
Believes This Method Of
Education is Best.

Camorldge, MASS, June 28.-The
college trained lawyer will solve the
great legal and economic questions
Of government in this and the next
generation. That is the opinion of
Attorney General Wickersham.
He willsn ,be the man whose only
acquaintance 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 living law as It has
been developed In the real transac-
tions of men. Except with possible
rare exceptions, the day of the plod-
ding student who read his Blackstone
In desultory, unmethodical, inter-
rupted 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 prin-
ciples and doctrines Of law as sci
ence through the selection, classiflca-
ton and analysis of adjudged cases
Involving their application.
The attorney general speaking here
today before the Harvard law school
association on "The Relation of Legal
Education to Governmental Prob
lems," predicted that the lawyer who
obtains those qualifications, will be
the man who can successfully cope
with the great questions which will
be presented for solution with the
growth and expansion Of this country.
1T is only by the labors the
thought and the criticism Of men who
have found the living law, as 1t has
been actually developed by the real
transactions Of men-that our gov
ernment may be governed and guided
on safe and progressive lines and our
Jurisprudence developed along paths
Of natural, sound and wholesome
growth" declared the attorney gen.
eral. "The wise solutions Of such
questions as these can only be rech-
ed by men who are able to deal with
facts and principles as compared with
Information acquired and memory"
Mr.. Wickersham made an able ad-
dress. In his opening words he de-
clared he had been able to obtain
scant leisure from the duties of Of
fetal life and referred to himself as
ian overburdened public official
whose mind was necessarily crowded
with the prosaic and exacting details
Of government"
"Contentment with mediocrity," {"
Mr.. Wickersham continued" is In my
opinion, one Of the greatest dangers
which confronts successful democra-
cy everywhere. The hope Of averttng
It rests largely with men Of sound
legal education.
For, this same contentment with
mediocrity breeds an impatience with
any sort of superiority. a desire to be-
little all excellence, a readiness to i'm
pute wrong motives to anything not
easily understood, to accept calumny
as truth, without inquiry and a grad
ual lessening for advancement. as It
10 perceived that peace, which is often
mistaken for happiness, is alone to be
found by accepting contentedly a
place In the undistinguished multi
tude."
Here the attorney general quoted
from the report of committee some
time ago appointed by the faculty Of
arts and sciences of Harvard, which
expressed the opinion that in award
ing high rank or distinction In col
lege, emphasis should be laid more
largely than 1t Is upon ability to deal
with facts and principles as COM
pared with information acquired or
memory.
1T is precisely that ability which
% the ideal of the legal profession"